Effective February 15, 2008, MRIS has changed the way that it calculates Days On Market Property (DOMP). Formerly, DOMP would not reset to zero until a property had been off the market for a total of 180 consecutive days. Effective since February 15, DOMP will reset to zero when a property has been off the market for 90 days.
Why did MRIS change this policy?
MRIS periodically reviews all of its policies. MRIS is led by a Board of Directors comprised of experienced brokers serving our region. The expertise of the Board is further bolstered by at the MRIS Compliance Committee as well as feedback from our customers via subscriber surveys.
In 1993, MRIS selected 180 days (a half year) as the inactivity period. It was an arbitrary number selected to represent what was then considered a complete market cycle.
Over the past few years, the entire flavor of the real estate market has changed dramatically. Consumers buy and sell with much more frequency, the economy has been extremely volatile and 90 days, or one quarter, seems to more appropriately represent a complete market cycle. Industry statistical reports are generated quarterly, economists form their judgments and predictions based on quarters, etc. And 90 days is more consumer-friendly; it allows a reasonable amount of time for a homeowner to repair or refresh a property and/or redesign a marketing plan.
Did you survey agents about Days On Market and did they select 90 days as the new benchmark?
MRIS and its Board of Directors constantly monitor feedback from the agents who are the first line of contact with today's sellers and buyers. Agent feedback is actively encouraged by MRIS and agents were surveyed about this issue. The majority of those surveyed favored a change in the way in which Days On Market is calculated. The Board of Directors took this under advisement and, in accordance with its own collective market insight, decided to make the change.
Won't some agents be upset that properties they have been keeping an eye on will now show different Days On Market results?
This should not be an issue. The calculation for all current Active listings will be changed first. We will then adjust all records so that comparables may be easily determined.
Will I lose the ability to see previous property history?
No. Agents will still have the ability to go into the system and check complete details on a given property through the Property History link available to them. This link contains complete information including every property's List Date(s), Contract Date(s), and Close Date(s). An agent can easily see exactly how many days a given property has been on the market, in total, through all market cycles.
Won't this change skew all of the monthly and yearly statistical reports that MRIS provides?
No, this won't be a problem.. MRIS will recalculate the Days On Market for all existing listings. In terms of appraisers accustomed to the old formula for assessing property value, the statistics that they have always relied on will still maintain value as the "market snapshots" they were intended to be. Those market snapshots are still valid.
Background on how Days On Market is displayed and calculated within MRIS:
Days On Market accrue only when a listing remains in Active status. If a listing is taken off the market due to a status change to Withdrawn, Expired or TempOff, the Days On Market will pause at that point. The Days On Market count will resume only when the listing returns to an Active status. Again, Days On Market never increases while a listing is off the market.
Days On Market is displayed in two ways within the system: Days On Market Property (DOMP) and Days On Market MLS (DOMM).
DOMP indicates the number of number of days a specific property has been on the market.
DOMM indicates the number of days a specific listing (with a specific MLS#) has been on the market.
Here's how the DOMM and DOMP count differ:
Each time a property is re-listed with a new MLS# the DOMM count resets to zero. However, the DOMP will only reset to zero if the property has been off the market for a set number of consecutive days. (This number had been set at 180 and is now being changed to 90.) DOMP will also reset to zero when a property has been sold or ownership has changed.
