Understanding a Real Estate Market Report, Term by Term

 

Days on Market

Most reports show days on market four different ways. The four versions come from two choices.

• Days on market (DOM) or cumulative days on market (CDOM). DOM counts only the days on the current listing. CDOM counts from the day the home was first listed, even if it came off the market and was listed again. MLSs typically only restart the count after a home has been off the market for a set amount of time, so taking a listing down and putting it back up a week later doesn’t wipe the slate clean.
• Average or median. The average adds up the days for every home, then divides by the number of homes. The median is the home in the middle when you line them all up from quickest to slowest.

A Simple Example

Picture five homes that sold this month. Four of them sold in a normal amount of time, at 20, 30, 45, and 60 days. The fifth sat for 150 days, came off the market, was relisted, and sold 95 days after that.

The median didn’t move, because it only looks at the home in the middle. The average jumped from 50 to 80 because a single slow home dragged it up. And because of the relisting, those first 150 days never showed up in the regular DOM count.

What Each One Tells You

The Real Numbers

Here’s what single family homes in St. Lucie County looked like in September 2026.

The typical seller waited 56 days from the first listing to a contract or sale. The 9-day difference between median DOM and median CDOM shows that some homes were taken down and relisted. Both averages sit well above the medians, which tells you a group of slow-selling homes pushed them higher. When you’re pricing a home, the goal is to land near the median, not among the homes pulling the average up.

Price Trends

A price trends chart can carry as many as ten lines. That looks like a lot, but it’s really five groups of homes, each shown as both an average and a median. The median is nearly always the better one to follow, for the same reason it is with days on market. A handful of very expensive homes can push the average up sharply.

The Five Groups

The Real Numbers

Here are the medians for single family homes in St. Lucie County in September 2026.

 

Price Trends

A price trends chart can carry as many as ten lines. That looks like a lot, but it’s really five groups of homes, each shown as both an average and a median. The median is nearly always the better one to follow, for the same reason it is with days on market. A handful of very expensive homes can push the average up sharply.

The Five Groups

Group	Which homes	Which price	What it tells you
Active list	Every home for sale during the month	Current asking price	What sellers are asking right now, including homes that have been sitting because they’re overpriced
New list	Homes that came on the market that month	Starting asking price	What sellers think their homes are worth today. The freshest read on seller expectations
Pending list	Homes that went under contract that month	Asking price when the contract was signed	What buyers are agreeing to. The sale price isn’t known until closing
Sold list	Homes that closed that month	Final asking price before the sale	Where sellers ended up after any price reductions
Sold sale	Homes that closed that month	Actual sale price	What buyers really paid. This is the number that matters most for value

The Real Numbers

These are the medians for single family homes in St. Lucie County for September 2026.

Single family, St. Lucie County	Median
Active list price	$441,220
New list price	$429,000
Pending list price	$410,000
Sold list price	$415,000
Sold sale price	$400,000

Reading down the table, you can follow a home’s path from asking price to sale price. Homes on the market had a median asking price of about $441,000. The homes that sold had a median final asking price of $415,000 and a median sale price of $400,000.

So why is the active price so far above the sold price? A big part of it is that overpriced homes stay on the market longer and build up in the active count month after month, while well-priced homes sell and disappear from it. The active list price will always tilt toward the homes priced too high.

That’s the reason I never use active list prices to tell anyone what their home is worth. Sold sale prices show what buyers actually paid. New list prices show whether sellers’ expectations are climbing or slipping. And the distance between new list prices and sold sale prices shows how far apart buyers and sellers are.

Average vs. Median in Price Trends

The averages for these same homes ran much higher. The average active list price was $584,065, against a median of $441,220. A fairly small number of high-priced listings, such as waterfront and luxury homes, lift the average. When the average jumps in a month and the median holds still, it usually means a few expensive homes were listed or sold, not that prices went up across the board.

Sale to List Price Ratios

These percentages show how close homes came to their asking price. There are two versions, and comparing them is one of the most revealing things you can do with any report.

• Sale to list price ratio measures the sale price against the final list price, which is the asking price when the home went under contract.
• Sale to original list price ratio measures the sale price against the price the home was first listed at, before any reductions.

At 100%, homes sold right at asking. Under 100%, buyers paid less than asking. Over 100%, buyers paid more, which generally only happens in very competitive markets.

The Real Numbers

For a single family home first listed at $400,000, 94.3% works out to about $377,000. For a condo first listed at $300,000, 88.8% is about $266,000.

What the Gap Tells You

The difference between the two numbers is mostly price reductions. Single family homes in St. Lucie County sold within about 2.5% of their final price but about 5.7% below their starting price. In other words, much of the negotiating happened before any offer arrived, as sellers cut prices while their homes waited.

If you’re selling, watch the original list price ratio. It shows what starting too high tends to cost. If you’re buying, the final list ratio gives you a feel for how much room there usually is to negotiate on a home that’s already had a reduction.

Supply

Months of Supply and Absorption Rate

The difference between the two numbers is mostly price reductions. Single family homes in St. Lucie County sold within about 2.5% of their final price but about 5.7% below their starting price. In other words, much of the negotiating happened before any offer arrived, as sellers cut prices while their homes waited.

If you’re selling, watch the original list price ratio. It shows what starting too high tends to cost. If you’re buying, the final list ratio gives you a feel for how much room there usually is to negotiate on a home that’s already had a reduction.

Supply

Months of Supply and Absorption Rate

Months of supply answers a single question. If no new homes came on the market, how many months would it take to sell everything currently for sale? About six months is usually considered balanced. Below that, the market leans toward sellers. Above it, the market leans toward buyers.

You’ll find this number under two different names, and they aren’t always figured the same way.

The two can produce different numbers for the same month, which makes it easy to be misled when someone quotes one without saying which. The absorption rate is based on a full year of sales, so a single slow month won’t throw it off. That’s the figure I rely on when I tell you how much supply there is. If someone quotes you months of supply, it’s perfectly fair to ask how they calculated it.

Listing Counts

Two patterns deserve your attention. When pending sales go up while closed sales go down, buyers are still active and more closings are probably on the way. When active listings drop while sales stay steady, as they did across the Treasure Coast this year, it means fewer owners are listing, not that buyers are flooding in.

Volume

Volume is the combined dollar value of a group of homes. Active volume totals the asking prices of every home for sale. New volume totals the asking prices of new listings. Sold volume appears two ways, as the total of final list prices and as the total of actual sale prices.

Volume tells you how much money is flowing through a market. For most buyers and sellers, frankly, it’s one you can skip, since a few large sales can swing it a lot. The one thing it shows clearly is the total discount buyers negotiated in a month, which is the difference between sold volume at list price and sold volume at sale price.

Listing Statuses

Every home in the MLS carries a status. You’ll run into these in reports and on listing websites.

Keep an eye on Withdrawn, Cancelled, and Expired homes. These are homes that didn’t sell, frequently because they were priced above what buyers were willing to pay. If you notice a lot of them in your neighborhood, buyers are pushing back on price. And if a home you love shows Active Under Contract, don’t assume it’s gone. Ask me what it means for your chances before you move on.

Property Types

The MLS divides residential property into subtypes. My monthly reports generally split them into two groups, because the two tend to behave differently.

• Single family homes. Detached houses on their own lots.
• Condos, townhomes, villas, and manufactured homes. Condominiums, townhouses, villas, and manufactured and mobile homes, grouped the way the MLS trend reports allow. These frequently come with HOA or association fees, their own insurance questions, and a different pool of buyers.

If a report says “all residential,” it includes every residential subtype combined.

Report Labels

Putting the Numbers Together

No one number can tell you what a market is doing. This is how I combine them.

When You’re Selling

1. Begin with months of supply in your price range. Below six months, you’re in a reasonable position. Above six, expect more competition.
2. Check median cumulative days on market. That’s a realistic timeline to plan your move around.
3. Compare sale to original list with sale to final list. A wide gap means sellers who started high ended up cutting their price. Pricing correctly at the start usually costs you less.
4. Rely on sold sale prices, not active list prices. What buyers paid for homes like yours is what yours is worth today.

When You’re Buying

1. Look at months of supply in your price range. More supply gives you more options and more room to negotiate.
2. Keep an eye on pending sales. When they’re climbing, competition for good homes is heating up.
3. Lean on the sale to final list ratio. It gives you a realistic sense of how far below asking homes are selling.
4. Watch for homes well beyond the median days on market. Those sellers are often the most willing to hear an offer.

Mistakes to Avoid

• Assuming the average is typical. When the average and the median are far apart, go with the median.
• Treating one month as a trend. Monthly figures jump around. Check year to date or several months in a row before you draw conclusions.
• Applying county numbers to your street. A county report mixes very different neighborhoods and price ranges. For a decision about a particular home, you need neighborhood sales.
• Mixing numbers from different reports. Two reports can define the same term in different ways, like absorption rate and months of inventory. Always compare like with like.
• Accepting a number on faith. Any time someone gives you a market statistic, me included, you have every right to know which number it is and where it came from. A good agent will answer without hesitating.

Want Help With Your Neighborhood’s Numbers?

I’d be glad to pull the numbers for your area and walk through them with you. Let me know where you live, and I’ll send you what’s for sale nearby, what’s under contract, and what has sold recently.

[Request your neighborhood report]

Michele Scherger, Pinnacle Real Estate Group

Examples use Beaches MLS data for St. Lucie County, September 2026. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.