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Real Estate Median Market Time

Updated: Jul 28, 2025



Image above courtesy REIN & Domus Analytics for Hampton Roads


The median market time is a measure of the housing market that helps you determine a number of factors. You should know the median market whether you're a buyer or seller.


Often, you might hear real estate "gurus" share how you should ask about an agent or broker's median or average market time, but if that's the only question you ask and you don't do any more digging, you could get a very misleading result. In isolation, a low market time might seem good, but if the reason for a low market time is due to the listing agent intentionally undercutting the value for quick sales without even informing the sellers nor asking if they'd prefer a quick sale or selling for top dollar, that's not very seller-friendly.

How Median Market Time Impacts Sellers

It's important to consider median market time when thinking about the speed with which you should think about dropping the price, making changes to your home, etc. If you've already passed the median market time for your area, and haven't done a substantive price reduction or any substantive changes to your home, it's typically best to consider either or both.

How Median Market Time Impacts Buyers

The faster the median market time, the quicker on the draw you should be for expeditious showings. That said, don't rely exclusively on median market time and think that you have a pass until that time.

Hot Properties Tend to Go Faster than Median

Hot properties can go under contract in less than 24 hours at times. The properties that look the best, are the best priced, etc. will tend to go faster than median market time. If you're a buyer, be sure to jump on properties whether the median market time is high or low, but especially if it's low.

Where to See Median Market Time for Market Sale Data

There are public options where you can check the median market time of a city, county, or area. Local real estate agents with access to REIN MLS have access to things in Hampton Roads like Domus Analytics, but there's also publicly available options to check on median market time for certain real estate types.


Redfin has some fantastic data on local markets here.

For instance, here's the market time for:

All Redfin Metros

Hampton Roads

Greater Richmond

See other locations in SE VA in the additional sections below.


Rental Data:

Redfin has rental market data, but only for median asking rent. They also have investor market share data.


Commercial Data:

Altus Group has a number of good pieces of information on commercial real estate, including their downloadable quarterly reports & their economic indicators for commercial real estate, but I didn't notice US or MSA-specific median market time in their analyses.

Tips to See Median Market Time in Counties: 4 Week v 12 Week Duration

If looking at market time within a county with a low population, it can make sense to see things from a 12 week duration rather than a 4 week duration so that the lines aren't too statistically variant & easier to interpret. Below I'll be sharing median days on market based on 4 week time periods regardless of county population size.


You can change that once on the page for the median days on market for a county near the top right here where it says "Duration".

SE VA Cities/Counties Median Market Time:



Related:


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