One of the most difficult questions to answer in our current real estate market is how long it will take for a home to sell.  The data below will start to shed some light on what you might expect, but there are still many variables that could make your property sell very quickly or very slowly.

This chart analyzes all homes sold in Harrisonburg and Rockingham County in the past six months, and attempts to provide more meaning to the "Days on Market" metric than I typically provide in my market reports.  Many thanks to Liz (who suggested a histogram format) and Tisha (who suggested breaking it down by price range).



Several observations can be made based on this analysis...

1. The sole days on market indicator I had been using (average = 183 days on market) is woefully inadequate for describing how long it is taking homes to sell.
    
   
2. Price is a huge factor --- homes that sell below $200k take (on average) 5 months to sell.  Homes that sell above $400k take (on average) 10 months to sell!
    
   
3. Of the homes that sold in the past six months, 31% of the homes that sold above $400k took more than a year to sell.  In contrast, only 3% of homes that sold below $200k took more than a year to sell.
    
   
4. Amazingly, one-third of homes that sold below $200k closed within 90 days.  In contrast to that, only one-tenth of the homes that sold above $400k closed within 90 days.
   

Before listing your home for sale, it can be helpful to look at days on market data for homes in the geographic area and/or price range of your home.  It won't always provide clear-cut guidance for you, but it may help further refine your expectations.