In the past 12 months -- properties in the City of Harrisonburg have sold with a median "days on market" of 18 days!?!  That is fast!!  Perhaps faster than the speeding train shown above -- which, if it does in fact travel through Harrisonburg, must do so at speeds so fast that none of us see it.  :-)

The "days on market" metric measures the number of days between when a property is listed for sale and when it is under contract.  Median indicates that half of all homes that sold were under contract in less than 18 days and half took more than 18 days.  So -- of the 415 home sales in the past year, more than 200 of them were under contract within 18 days.  Wow!

So, then, let's say you list your home for sale in the City of Harrisonburg.

And then Day 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 pass.

It is now Day 19.  Hmmm.  How do you feel?  How should you feel?

Is your price too high?  Has the market cooled?  Will your home ever sell?

Maybe. Probably not. Probably.

A few thoughts...

• It is possible that your price is too high - but we cannot conclude that based on the lack of a contract within 18 days.
   
• The size of the buyer pool that would consider your property (based on price, size, location, etc.) will greatly affect whether your home sells above or below that median of 18 days.
   
• When we're just 18 days in, don't look at the lack of a sale as the best indicator of whether your price is appropriate -- look at recent sales and competing listings.
   
• What time of year is it?  The pace of buying activity certainly ebbs and flows through the year, so if it is the "off season" it might take longer for your home to sell.
   
• New buyers on Day 19+ won't consider your home to be a home that has been rejected by all other buyers.  Maybe after 90 or 180 days they might....

So, as Day 19 comes and goes, don't (necessarily) despair.  It is certainly a good idea to constantly evaluate how your home price fits into the market, but just because your home did not sell as quickly as half of the homes in the past year does not necessarily mean that the price is too high.