Average Days on Market: What to Expect

What 'days on market' actually counts

DOM is the number of days between when a home is listed for sale on the MLS and when it goes under contract — also called pending — with a buyer. It does not include the additional 30 to 45 days between accepted offer and closing. A common point of confusion: a listing that has been on the MLS for 7 days and is already pending shows DOM = 7, even though the deal won't close for another month.

You'll also see two related metrics:

• Cumulative DOM (CDOM): Total days across all recent MLS listings of the same property, even if the seller took it off and relisted. Buyers' agents pull this number to spot stale listings dressed up as new ones.
• Days to close: A different metric measuring contract-to-close. Usually 30-45 days for financed buyers and 14-21 days for cash.

Typical ranges right now

National DOM medians have moved meaningfully over the past few years as the market has shifted from frenzy to balance. A useful mental map of what each band signals:

• 0-14 days (median): Strong seller's market. Multiple-offer scenarios are common; final prices often above ask.
• 15-30 days: Healthy balanced market. Most well-priced, well-presented homes go pending in this window.
• 31-60 days: Buyer leverage is increasing. Sellers often face one price reduction; concessions become more common.
• 60+ days: Either the price, the condition, or the marketing is off-market. Listings here usually require re-pricing or re-presentation, not just patience.

These bands are national. Your local market may sit a full tier higher or lower — a Phoenix listing at 25 days may be underperforming while a Buffalo listing at 25 days is doing great. Always benchmark against same-neighborhood, same-property-type comps from the last 90 days.

What makes a listing sell fast (or slow)

Price relative to comps

The dominant factor by a wide margin. A home priced 3% above market often takes 3x as long to sell as the same home priced at market. Buyers in the search results filter, sort, and compare instantly; mispricing shows up immediately.

Photos and the first 24 hours

The bulk of buyer interest hits in the first 7-10 days, and 90%+ of buyers look at photos first. Listings with professional photography consistently see more showings in the first week. Dim, vertical, or smartphone photos correlate with longer DOM.

Condition and staging

Move-in-ready beats fixer-upper at almost every price point in most markets. Staged homes — or at least decluttered, deep-cleaned, and neutrally painted ones — go pending faster.

Seasonality

Spring (March-May) and early summer have the shortest DOM in most markets. November-January is the slowest. A January listing isn't doomed, but expect the DOM number to run 30-50% higher than the same listing in April.

Showing friction

Restrictive showing windows ("by appointment only, 24 hours notice, weekdays only after 6 PM") cost listings real days. The easier the home is to see, the more offers it gets and the faster it sells.

The DOM penalty for stale listings

Buyers and agents both treat high DOM as a signal that something is wrong with the home — even when the only thing wrong is the original asking price. Once a listing crosses about 30 days in a normal market, two things happen:

• Buyer offers start coming in well below ask.
• Agents searching comps for their own listings use your home's eventual sale price (which is often lower than your list price) as a comparable, dragging neighborhood numbers down with it.

This is why experienced agents recommend one decisive price reduction at day 21-28 rather than a series of small ones — a small drop signals desperation without resetting the listing in the search results.

What to do if your DOM is climbing

• Recheck pricing against the last 30 days of comps, not the last 6 months. Markets shift faster than that.
• Re-shoot the photos if the originals are weak or the home has been improved since listing.
• Loosen showing restrictions as much as possible.
• Consider one meaningful price reduction (typically 3-5%) rather than several small ones.
• Ask your agent for the showing-to-offer ratio. Lots of showings, no offers → price or condition issue. Few showings → marketing, photos, or price-above-search-threshold issue.

How DOM affects your bottom line

Each extra month on market costs you carrying expenses — mortgage interest, property tax, insurance, utilities, HOA — and increases the odds of accepting a lower offer or larger concessions. For a $400,000 home with a $300,000 mortgage at 7%, an extra month typically costs $2,500 to $3,500 in carrying costs alone, before any price effect. Our home seller net proceeds calculator can help you model how a price reduction or larger concession package would change your final net — useful when deciding whether to hold firm or move the price. Try the Texas calculator or your own state from the homepage.

The bottom line

Days on market is a price-and-presentation report card more than a clock. A short DOM almost always reflects realistic pricing and strong presentation; a long DOM almost always reflects one of those being off. Watch the local median, benchmark against same-neighborhood comps, and react decisively if your listing crosses the 30-day mark in a normal market — small adjustments early beat large ones late.