Most home buyers prefer to shop on weekday mornings

Most house hunters prefer to do their searching online during workdays, according to a new survey by real estate brokerage Redfin.

The survey found that the peak time for shoppers to search for online listings is between 8 am to 5 pm on weekdays. The most popular time overall is 10 am on Friday, the report found.

“Searching for a new home is like a job,” Redfin said. “Maybe that’s why people most often do it while they work.”

Almost 64 percent more home shoppers are browsing Redfin’s website at 10am on Friday than at any other time, the study found. The second most popular window for searching for a home is at 11 am on Mondays, the report said.

On the flip side, researchers found that weekday evenings are unpopular times to search for homes. Weekends also failed to come close to the weekday mid-morning rush of browsers, researchers note.

Redfin can only speculate on why this is the case, but says the fact people are stuck at work could be a factor.

“One possible explanation is the popularity of weekends for hitting the pavement and touring homes in person rather than through a computer or smartphone screen,” the report authors suggest.

“Another reason could be the rise in real estate technology tools,” Redfin said. These include notifications that are sent when new homes meeting the person’s preferences hit the market or there’s a price change. The temptation to take a peek at the new listings may be too great when a consumer receives a notification while they’re sitting at work in front of their computer or phone at work.