What is days on market?

Days on market measures how long a rental listing took to lease after it was placed on the market. It is a measure of leasing speed.

In simple terms, lower days on market usually means rentals are leasing faster. Higher days on market usually means they are taking longer to lease.

What does it measure?

Days on market measures the marketing period of a listing. It captures the time between when a rental is put on the market and when it is leased.

That means it is a listing metric, not a physical occupancy metric.

What is the difference between days on market and vacancy time?

These two metrics are related, but they are not the same.

Days on market measures how long it took to lease the listing once it was marketed.

Vacancy time measures how long the unit was actually sitting empty and not producing rent.

A unit can have days on market while still occupied if it is marketed before move-out. A unit can also have vacancy time for reasons that have little to do with market demand, such as repairs, cleaning, or delays in getting the unit ready.

Why this metric matters

Days on market helps show how quickly rentals have been leasing. It is useful because it gives investors and owners a way to track whether leasing conditions have been getting stronger or weaker over time.

Why it is a lagging indicator

Days on market is a lagging indicator because it only looks at units that have already leased.

That means it is always looking backward. If a unit took 75 days to lease, that number reflects the market conditions during that leasing period. It does not necessarily tell you what the market feels like today.

A market can cool off, heat up, or shift quickly. Days on market helps explain what has been happening, but it is not the best real-time measure of current market temperature.

How Otter Property Management reports it

Otter Property Management reports days on market as the median of the last 30 units leased.

That means OPM looks at the 30 most recent rentals it leased, takes each unit’s days-on-market figure, orders them from lowest to highest, and identifies the middle value.

That middle value is the median.

Why use the median?

The median gives a cleaner picture of a typical recent lease-up.

A simple average can be distorted by one unusually slow listing. The median reduces the effect of those outliers and makes the number more stable and more useful.

Why use the last 30 leased units?

Using the last 30 leased units keeps the metric recent while also smoothing out noise.

Sometimes those 30 units were all leased in a short stretch. Other times they were leased over a longer period. Either way, the point is to base the metric on recent completed lease-ups rather than a single listing or a narrow snapshot.

How to interpret the number

If days on market is falling, rentals have generally been leasing faster.

If days on market is rising, rentals have generally been taking longer to lease.

If the number is flat, leasing conditions may be relatively stable.

The best way to use this metric is to watch the trend over time, not to overreact to one isolated reading.

What this metric is and is not

Days on market is a measure of recent leasing speed.

It is a backward-looking trend metric.

It is not the same thing as vacancy time.

It is not a live reading of what the market feels like today.

Bottom line

Days on market tells you how long rentals have been taking to lease once they hit the market.

At Otter Property Management, it is best understood as a recent, smoothed measure of leasing speed. It is most useful when tracked over time, because it helps show the direction of the market, even though it does not give a perfect real-time reading of the market today.