Why days on market are important to you
Lots of people are interested in real estate prices, whether they are thinking about buying, selling, or just curious. To determine current values, Realtors® search for comparable sales, “comps,” in any given neighborhood.
In a buyer’s market, such as we have today, one of the key variables is the CDOM, cumulative days on the market. This tells us how long it took, or is taking, the property to sell. More days generally equates to a softer selling price.
The tricky part is that the same property may come on and off the market a number of times before selling. Looking at only the last time on will not give the true picture.
For example, I told my buyers about a house listed at $1,300,000. According to the Multiple Listing Service (MLS), it has been on the market for almost three months. The real story is that it was built in 2003 and has actually been on and off the market since then, with a much higher price five years ago.
This kind of information is invaluable when determining, as a seller, how much to ask for your house, or, as a buyer, the amount to offer. What you decide could vary greatly depending on the quality of data you receive. Make sure, among everything else, your agent is checking the CDOMs.