- Kimberly S.

Good question. Unfortunately, data for average days on the market, or DOM, for houses in many US markets is often skewed these days because so many homes are getting re-listed with different MLS numbers, sometimes repeatedly. When that happens, the DOM clock restarts at day one with a reset "original list price" that may closer reflect market realities. That may account for the seeming disparity you mention.

This kind of tactic is fine for sellers and agents in this soft market but not so great for buyers, who are likely basing their negotiation and buying strategies on bogus or deceptive information. At best, those DOM reports you see in agent newsletters and elsewhere are unreliable. At worst, they are overtly deceitful and could cost some buyers thousands of dollars in negotiating clout.

It's true that some of these houses have been renovated and refreshed before they were re-introduced and that there may be little wrong with them other than a paltry buying universe and an unfair "stale-fish" stigma wrought by unrealistic expectations from the boom days. But information is still being withheld, in my opinion, whether the homeowner re-listed with another agency or was simply taken off the market for a short term.

At present, there is no serious legislative or regulatory call for cumulative, or combined, days-on-the-market, or CDOM, disclosure. However, some MLS systems will fine agents who are caught using certain re-listing tactics.For the most part, the push for full transparency in consumer purchases of securities in recent years hasn't translated to full transparency in purchases of a much bigger ticket item -- the home. And there are few, if any, publicly accessible databases that disclose cumulative days, although some MLS systems have added that feature for their agent-only versions.

Your only reliable ticket to reality as a buyer, apart from exhaustive research on your own, is with a buyer's agent who has access to CDOM data or worked the market for year and has witnessed repeat listings first-hand. This topic has been a subject of media scrutiny of late, including a recent segment on "Nightline." Lo, instances of houses supposedly selling "in 90 days" that have actually been languishing on the market for a couple years aren't uncommon.