I had a client ask me the other day, what is DOM?  And just as he asked me, he figured it out….  DOM is an acronym for Days on the Market, which is a very important indicator in the world of residential real estate.  It stands to reason that the more the DOM add up, it has an effect – and more times than not, a negative one – on the sale and price of the property on the market.  Just for reference, the average market time (also known as days on the market) for the 106 active single-family homes on the market in Weston right now, at this very minute, is 160 days (technically it’s 159.64 days) or more than 5 months.  And for the 162 active single-family homes on the market in Wellesley this very minute, the average market time is 138 days (technically it’s 138.10 days) or more than 4 1/2 months. But these homes have still not sold.  Which then begs the question – what about the solds?

So I decided to share with you some year-to-date sold data on Weston, Wellesley and a few of the other surrounding towns:

• Weston – for the 27 properties that have sold, the average DOM  is 171 days and the median price is $1,075,000.
• Wellesley – for the 75 properties that have sold, the average DOM is 188 days and the median price is $925,000.
• Wayland – for the 28 properties that have sold, the average DOM is 191 days and the median price is $454,900.
• Needham – for the 68 properties that have sold, the average DOM is 104 days and the median price is $649,700.
• Lincoln – for the 11 properties that have sold, the average DOM is 209 days and the median price is $1,079,000.
• Dover – for the 9 properties that have sold, the average DOM is 214 days and the median price is $1,025,000.

Pretty interesting information although you can’t necessarily draw a conclusion about the effect of the number of properties sold or the median price of the town/market on the days on the market.  When you look at Dover and Lincoln, which have the lowest amount of properties sold and the highest days on the market respectively, and then you look at the Weston market, which has the next lowest amount of properties sold, that trend does not continue as the days on the market is 171 days, which is the second lowest number.  And then you look at Needham, which has the lowest number of days on the market, but its median price is higher than that of Wayland, which also has the third highest number of days on the market.

Keep in mind that this data reflects an overall perspective.  When you start to look at various price points within a town/market, you see large fluctuations in the DOM depending on the “bread and butter” buyer and price point in that particular market.  And honestly, to accurately analyze and summarize the trends of DOM at various price points within specific towns/markets, I think another blog post is in order – so stay tuned for that in the future.  The bottom line is that DOM is an analytical tool, which should be taken into account, and yet from a general market perspective, it doesn’t necessarily correlate to size or median price of the market.  But interestingly, it can adversely affect the price of the home the higher it is.

Phew….  Anyway, it’s important to know that there can often be more to DOM than just its face value, so sometimes you need to look more closely.  For example, the days on the market will reset to zero if a slightly different property address is used (i.e., if a road with a two-word name such as “Knob Hill Road” becomes a single word name – “Knobhill Road”).  In addition, if a property is canceled or expires and sits off the market for 90 days, the DOM resets on the 91st day.  Often you will see sellers take their homes off the market for the slower holiday months and into the New Year, and then put them back on the market for the Spring months, which makes a lot of sense and has an added benefit of resetting the DOM to zero.  So just keep this in the back of your mind, though your savvy real estate agent will be on the lookout for this too.

And one last thing for sellers to think about…. When you are selling home, and you accept an offer on it, the property can be red flagged designating an Accepted Offer or it can go Under Agreement (UAG) in MLS.   If you choose to red flag your property, the DOM will continue to accrue, and buyers can still see your property (though this is highly unlikely as buyers prefer to see homes that are “available”).   Most times the red-flagged designation will remain this way through the home inspection process and until the purchase and sale agreement is signed – usually an additional 14 days.  Alternatively, if you choose to have your property go UAG, it no longer accrues DOM but buyers no longer see the property as an active listing.  So depending on which designation you prefer, it has a different effect on the DOM and whether your property is “active” or not.  Finally, if the offer falls apart, and you have red flagged your property, the red flag just disappears.  Whereas if your property is UAG, it will come appear as BOM (back on the market), which is much more of a signal to potential buyers and other agents about the change of your property’s status.

I think that’s just about everything on DOM, and I’m guessing you never knew there was so much information about and subtleties to this subject?  Do you have any stories about hidden DOM and/or how the DOM influenced the sale or purchase of your home?  I can’t wait to hear….

This question is especially fascinating to me…. I have worked with many buyers over the years, and off the top of my head, I would say that most buyers look at 10 – 20 homes before they find, “The One,” or in other words, their dream house.  But as I think about this, I realize that the number of homes viewed really varies depending on the profile of the buyer. For example, if you are relocating to the area and looking in several towns, that number could be 40 – 50 houses.  On the other hand, if you already live in a town and a house that you know well and love happens to come on the market, that number could be one.  In fact, that’s the way we bought our current house in Weston almost 10 years ago.

According to the 2010 National Association of Realtors Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, active buyers looked at 15 homes (that was the median number) and searched for 12 weeks (median number).  So my number of between 10 and 20 was fairly accurate.  In terms of the length of time of the search, I would argue that this varies greatly and can depend on the activity and size of the particular market.  In a slower, smaller market with less inventory coming onto the market (hint – Weston), the number of weeks that buyers search could reach 52 or more, especially if their need to move is not high; for example if they are happy where they are but are looking for a home that is a bit bigger.  Whereas in a market that is constantly active with the inventory changing almost daily (hint – Wellesley or Needham), the length of time to search for the dream home can be much less.

And so I am curious to learn about your home search process.  How many properties did you see before you found “The One”?  And was your home-buying process a quick or never-ending one?  I can’t wait to hear….

For those of you who love market stats….click here -March 1-15 2011 Solds in Weston MA – to see information on the single-family homes that sold/closed in the last two weeks in Weston, MA.  The good news is that we almost tripled our market volume from this time last year – $14,690,000 for this two-week period in 2011 vs. $5,473,000 for the same time period in 2010.  This is in large part due to the sale of 15 Dogwood Road for $8,350,000, which is Weston’s second-highest selling property in the last 10 years per MLS Property Information Network (note that there have been some higher private property sales in the last 10 years in Weston which were therefore not reflected by MLS).  Stay tuned for more of this high-end sale information as 75 Doublet Hill Road, which was listed for $19,995,000, is expected to sell at the end of the month.

I hope you enjoy this information….  As always, if you have an interest in learning more about other market stats, please let me know so I can provide this additional data for you.