MLS adds “Days to Contract” metric

The Northern Nevada Regional MLS recently added a “Days to Contract” metric to its database. What is the Days to Contract metric? It is the number of days that a property was listed prior to going into contract. The value is calculated by computing the difference between the date a property was listed and the date that the property’s listing’s status changed to pending.

The MLS has always had a Days on Market (DOM) metric (the number of days between a property being listed and sold), but no Days to Contract (DTC) metric — until now.

This DTC field can now be added to search results to provide new insights into our local real estate market. For example, I pulled November sales for the Reno-Sparks market and found that the 419 houses sold last month exhibited a median DTC of 25 days. Day to Contract for November sales ranged from 0 days at the low end to a whopping 561 days at the high end — with more than half the homes going into contract in 25 days or less.

Comparing DTC to DOM: November sales exhibited a median Days on Market of 72 days. Subtracting the median DTC of 25 days from the 72 DOM yields 47 days. This 47-day difference represents the median length of time of the escrow period. In other words, 25 days listed + 47 days in escrow = 72 days total to closing.

Because the Days to Contract field is so new, there is not yet enough data to begin looking at trends. However, in the future we will be able to analyze DTC trend data to assess market velocity and direction.

We can also use the DTC data to compare various areas to one another. For example, the median DTC for November sales in the South Meadows area was 22 days. Compare that to the median DTC of 246 days for the Southwest Suburban area. Incidentally the median sales prices for these two areas were $340,000 and $610,000 respectively.

If you would like to learn what is the median Days to Contract for your area, send me an email at guyjohnson@hotmail.com, or give me a call at 775-722-4011.