Listings
What is days on market (dom)?
Days on market counts how long a listing has been actively for sale since it was published. It is used both as a market-health indicator and, by buyers, as a signal of negotiating room.
Rising average DOM across a market indicates supply outpacing demand; falling DOM indicates the reverse. At the level of a single property, a high DOM is read by buyers as evidence that others have looked and declined, which weakens the seller's position regardless of why.
Because the number carries that weight, how it is calculated matters and is frequently gamed. Withdrawing and relisting can reset the counter in some markets, which is why many MLSs also publish a cumulative figure that survives relisting.
DOM says nothing about why a property has not sold. In practice it is almost always price relative to condition and location rather than exposure.
Related terms
Absorption rate measures how quickly available properties are selling in a market, usually expressed as the number of months it would take to sell all current inventory at the recent pace of sales.
A comparative market analysis is an agent's estimate of a property's likely selling price, built by comparing it against similar nearby properties that have recently sold, are currently listed, or failed to sell.
An expired listing is a property whose listing agreement ended without a sale. It becomes a prospecting target for other agents, since the owner has demonstrated intent to sell but has not achieved it.
A Multiple Listing Service is a regional database where member brokers publish their listings and agree in advance to compensate other members who bring a buyer, making cooperation between competing brokerages practical.