What is days on market
and why does a high number matter?

Days on market, shortened to DOM, is the number of days a listing has been active on the MLS. It is not days since you decided to sell, and it is not days since the first showing. Sellers meet the number twice: once when pricing, because the average DOM for comparable homes nearby is part of that conversation, and again a few weeks in, when their own count starts getting compared to it.

Say comparable homes near you are averaging around 25 days on market, and yours has been active for 45. Buyers touring it can see that gap, and a common reaction is to read it as something being wrong with the house or with the price. It is usually the price, because a home priced to the market gets its activity early. The longer figure also softens what buyers are willing to open with, which is how a listing that sits ends up selling for less than a correction would have cost.

Those two numbers are an illustration and not a figure for any county or town. What matters is the gap between your own count and what comparable homes near you are actually doing, and that changes by market, by price band and by season.

What to ask, and who answers it: your agent is the one who can pull the average DOM for homes comparable to yours in your own market, show you where your listing sits against it, and tell you what the showing feedback is saying. That combination is what a price conversation is built on.