The Difference Between Days on Market & Cumulative Days on Market

The What: DOM measures the number of days from the last time a listing is listed to the last pending status before the listing is sold. CDOM measures the number of days from when a property is first listed to when a property goes into the last pending status before being sold. For a visual explanation of this, see below.

DOMvCDOM

The How: There are variations, but the gist is to identify the number of days a home spends on the market as active. DOM and CDOM are calculated for each listing and then averaged with all other pending sales.

DOM indicates how long it takes for a listing to sell once it is priced and shown appropriately. CDOM shows how long it takes a listing to sell, including all the cumulative time the home was actively marketed.

So if a home goes on the market in January, receives no offers or showings, is removed from the market in March and then put back on the market in May before being sold in June, CDOM captures those first three months of listing, whereas DOM only counts from May to June.

The Oops: Neither DOM nor CDOM are better than the other. Each exposes different things about a market and are most powerful when used together.  Other metrics such as months supply of inventory (or MSI) can add more color to the picture of the market but should not be seen as directly correlated.

The Beauty: DOM is good at showing the length of time it takes to sell a typical home, given current market conditions. CDOM shows how long it takes to sell a home from listing to pending, on average. Comparing DOM to CDOM is a nice way for agents to manage seller expectations.


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