Eureka! Median Days on Market more insightful than Average


Eureka! Median Days on Market more insightful than Average
By Scott Rogers • February 7, 2013
The health of our local housing market has improved over the past year, but the one metric that has continued to appear quite depressing has been "Average Days on Market" -- shown above in blue. This is the average number of days between the listing date and closing date of properties that have actually sold. I have always used AVERAGE days on market, as that seems to be used quite widely in the industry as the best metric, but based on the encouragement of several of my blog readers, I have (finally) looked at how the MEDIAN days on market trend differs. As shown above, the Median Days on Market trend (red) seems to be a much better indication of how long it takes for a house to sell in our market. As the mathematicians among you know, an AVERAGE can be greatly skewed by outliers, for example some houses that have finally (!!) been selling over the past year or two that had extremely high days on market. A MEDIAN value is a better indicator of "central tendencies" when there are a significant number of outliers. Thus, in 2012, half of the homes that sold did so in less than 144 days, and half did so in more than 144 days. I believe that is much more helpful data than an average of 218 days on the market! Receive Updates by Email Recent Articles: There Are Plenty Of Types Of Houses That Exist That Just Are Not Available To Purchase Home Sales By Price Range In The City Of Harrisonburg Are You Compromising On Aspects Of Your Next Home That You Can Or Cannot Change Later? How Much Slower Are The Winter Months In Our Local Housing Market? Rockingham County and New Home Sales Drive Surge in Area Housing Market Find The Balance Between Optimistic And Realistic Home Pricing Room Size Is Difficult To Understand Solely From Real Estate Photos How Much Would You Value Not Having To Prepare Your Home For Showings? One Out Of Four Homes Is Taking Longer Than A Month To Sell Consider The Cost Of Your Planned Renovations When Planning Your Offer
Have any questions? Contact Scott Rogers at 540-578-0102 or scott@funkhousergroup.com
Based on information from the Harrisonburg-Rockingham Association of REALTORS® or its MLS, for the period Jan 1, 2000 through Nov 22, 2024 (unless otherwise noted).
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