Days on Market (DOM) is the amount of time it takes a particular property to sell. The clock starts the moment the property hits the market and ends the moment it goes into “pending” status. Days on Market is a funny metric in our MLS system. We’ve discussed its shortcomings in previous posts and although we’d like to see some changes made to how it is measured, we still take a look at the trends on a regular basis.
We tracked DOM through April 26, 2009 (yesterday) and arrived at median and average figures. Next, we lined up this year’s performance thus far with the performance of years past. We isolated the time period from January 1 through April 26 during each year so we could have an apples to apples comparison.
Are homes taking longer to sell in 2009? Or is the market heating up? DOM should give us some insight into the current trend. When markets are hot, DOM is low because it takes less time to sell a property. When markets get cold, DOM creeps up. Let’s take a look at what’s going on here in San Francisco:
DOM Trends for Single Family Homes (click to enlarge)
This chart shows us DOM trends over the past 15 years. Clearly, 2009 has not shown any signs of heating up as compared to years past. Matter of fact, it has posted much weaker numbers than just a year ago. So where is the opportunistic info in this? Our take is that when sellers spend more time on the market, as they are now, they get a little nervous and are more willing to negotiate. This of course is a general statement – each home presents a unique set of circumstances. But the numbers here are glaringly obvious.
How about the same trend for Condominiums? Read the rest of this entry ?
