Average Time to Sell a Home in 2025

Time on Market: Real Estate's Canary in the Coal Mine

The real estate industry has long known that the more time a home spends on the market, the less of an advantage sellers will have. Homes take less time to sell in a seller's market, and can command higher prices. If the competition gets fierce enough, sellers may suddenly find themselves acting as impromptu auctioneers in full-blown bidding wars.

The extreme case of a seller's market just occurred in recent years, as can be observed in the merry month of May, when home sales routinely move their fastest. Since 2017, at least for real estate, May has been the hottest month of the year.

Median Days on Market for Residential Homes

In 2021 and 2022, nearly half of homes listed in May were gone within a month—around 30 days, versus the 50 or so days homes remained for sale during more "normal" housing markets.

However, the housing pendulum is swinging back in favor of buyers, albeit slowly, and is more pronounced in some localities than others. As of May 2025, homes have been lingering on the market longer for the third consecutive year, and have returned to the normal range of about 50 days.

You can perhaps anticipate what happens next: Motivated sellers, perhaps more motivated than in prior years, are instead lowering their asking price to entice more bids—or even a bid.

Expect Home Prices to Fall Before Mortgage Rates Do

Recent surveys of prospective homeowners expose that many are more uncertain than ever about buying a home. A recent Bank of America Survey finds that 60% of homeowners and those in the market cannot tell if now is a good time to buy a home. That's far more uncertainty than two years ago—perhaps because it was clear that it was not a good time to buy back then.

Months of Supply of Existing Homes for Sale

More concerning: Numerous surveys indicate that would-be homeowners, especially first-time buyers, are waiting for interest rates to fall before considering homeownership. Some are even insisting on mortgage rates of 3% before considering, which is no longer on most economists' bingo cards for 2025 and beyond.

Even most consumers aren't expecting mortgage rates to come down soon. A recent survey from ResiClub finds that the vast majority of consumers don't expect mortgage rates below 6% this year.

Some economists expect home prices to decline nationwide because there are more home sellers than buyers in the market. Homebuying demand is down: Pending sales of existing homes fell 2.5% year over year in May, which were already at rock bottom levels. On the selling side, total inventory rose by 20.8% in May versus the same time last year, and new listings rose 7.2%.

The supply of housing returns also continues to increase, as the 4.6 months' supply of homes is the most since 2020. And those buyer-anticipated price cuts? NAR notes that there have been price cuts in nearly 1 in 5 listings in May 2025, the most in a decade.