the new math; 96 + 27 = 27

DOM, days on market. It's a factor that is given serious consideration by all sides involved in the home selling and buying process.
If a home has been on the market for a long time, it's often considered less desirable -why's it been on the market so long -
and a prime target for a low-ball offer.
While homes that have been on the market for 30 days or less, are considered to be relatively new on the market, and usually approached more cautiously by buyers. Similarly, sellers who get an offer on their home in the first 30 days, are more likely to drive a harder bargain and to feel confident about holding closer to their asking price than those who've been on the market for a longer period of time. Do DOM really matter, do the facts bear out the assumptions about DOM made by Realtors®, buyers and sellers.
The graph below is based on the 515 single family homes that have sold
in the Tucson Foothills from 1/1/07 thru today.
The statistics, and the resulting graph are from the Tucson Association of Realtors MLS.
The graph shows the average % of sold price to list price based on the number of DOM for all 515 homes that have sold.




So a home listed for $500,000, and selling in the first 30 days, on average, reaped a $486,000 sold price. While the same home selling in 120 days or more reaped a $470,000 sold price.
Jump up to a $1,000,000 home, and the one selling in 30 days saw a $972,000 sale price, while the one selling in 120 days or more sold for $940,000, on average.
And these results are watered down some. If a home is on the market, let's say for 96 days, and doesn't sell, and it gets relisted, and then sells, the MLS only counts the number of days from when the home was relisted. It does not count the first 96 day listing in the total DOM figure.
But when an agent looks at that same home that's been relisted after 96 days on the market, they can readily see that it's been on the market for 96 days, then relisted for 27 days = 123 DOM.
And they advise their client about that. So it's not perceived like a home that's really been on the market for only 27 days.
And the offer price reflects that 123 DOM, and is very likely lower than it would be if the home were on the market for only 27 days.
My guess is that about 50% of these 515 homes that sold, are homes that were relisted. And that if we were able to look at only the homes that actually sold in the first 30 days - without being relisted -
we'd see an even higher % of sold price to list price.
Maybe 98 to 98.5%.
I'm getting a little off subject here, but I don't know why the MLS does not enable a more accurate accounting of DOM.
Yes, as an agent you can look at each home that your buyer client is considering and easily see how long it's actually been on the market, including relistings. No problem.
But when you pull up statistics like this, unless you go in and examine each of the 515 homes that sold, there's no way to know how many have been relisted, and therefore the average DOM figures are misleading. And isn't having accurate DOM stats a key component to a better understanding of what's going on in this market, for Realtors®, for buyers and for sellers.