"Days on Market" is the number of days that pass before a property is under contract.  Thus, if a home is on the market for 10 days before a contract is signed, the "days on market" will be 10 for that property.

The "Median Days On Market" for any given time frame gives us a good sense of how quickly homes are selling.  For example, the median of 28 days for the first five months of 2018 means that half of the homes that sold in the first five months of 2018 were under contract less than 28 days after they hit the market -- and half took more than 28 days to go under contract.

It is important to note that this does NOT mean that half of homes that are LISTED are under contract within 28 days -- just that half of those that actually SOLD were under contract within 28 days.

The trend line here is rather remarkable.  Just six years ago (2012) the median days on market was right around 3.5 months -- and now the median is just under one month!