How Long It Takes to Sell a House: October 2026
Last updated . All data pieces · Methodology
A seller usually asks how long a sale will take when something else is on a clock: a new job, a home they want to buy next, a lease that ends in the spring. The honest answer comes in pieces. Finding a buyer is one stage and getting from signed contract to closing is another, and both shift with the state, the season and the price. Financing adds its own steps. A single "days on market" number blurs all of that, and depending on who publishes it, it may count only homes that sold or every listing that came off the market.
In September 2026, the median home that went pending on Zillow had been shown for sale for 29 days, and NAR's Realtors Confidence Index put the median time from contract to closing at 30 days. Those are the two stages a seller lives through: time to an accepted offer, then time to close. They come from different sets of homes, so we report each stage separately and do not add them into one total. Realtor.com's 61-day figure measures something broader, the median time on market for listings active during the month whether or not they sold, and Redfin's seasonally adjusted count of days before homes went under contract came to 50.7 days.
We compiled nine sources, including public datasets from Zillow, Redfin and Realtor.com, NAR's monthly existing-home sales and survey reports, and ICE's mortgage data. Data periods run from September 2025 through September 2026, except for ICE, whose latest published closing-time figure is for March 2026 and is compared with March 2025. All figures are as published by each source; the state and trend tables were compiled from each publisher's downloadable files, and we did no calculations beyond rounding Redfin's figures to one decimal place.
How Long It Takes to Sell a House, by Stage: 2026
This table lists the latest national figure for each stage of a sale, with the same period a year earlier where the source publishes one.
| Stage of the sale | Measure | Source | Period | Days | Same period a year earlier |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Listing to accepted offer | Median days to pending | Zillow | Sept. 2026 | 29 | 27 |
| Listing to accepted offer | Median days on market for homes that went under contract (seasonally adjusted) | Redfin | Sept. 2026 | 50.7 | 49.4 |
| Time on market | Median days on market (estimated from survey and MLS data) | NAR | Sept. 2026 | 33 | 33 |
| Time on market, all listings | Median days on market for listings active during the month, sold or not | Realtor.com | Sept. 2026 | 61 | 62 |
| Accepted offer to closing | Median days to close (pending to sale date) | Zillow | Aug. 2026 | 30 | 30 |
| Accepted offer to closing | Median days to close | NAR | Sept. 2026 | 30 | 30 |
| Mortgage application to closing | Average closing time, purchase loans | ICE | March 2026 | 36.8 | 37.3 |
Sources: Zillow Research housing data (Median Days to Pending and Median Days to Close, raw, all homes, monthly); Redfin Data Center Housing Market Tracker, monthly; NAR Existing-Home Sales release and September 2026 Realtors Confidence Index; Realtor.com monthly housing inventory data; ICE May 2026 Mortgage Monitor. Each row uses its publisher's definition; rows are not additive.
The listing-to-offer figures differ, and so do the publishers' definitions. Zillow counts days until a listing changes to pending on Zillow.com, Redfin counts days before a home went under contract and seasonally adjusts its monthly series, and NAR's figure is estimated from a survey of Realtors combined with MLS data. ICE's figure covers financed purchases only and starts at the loan application rather than at the accepted offer. ICE reported that the typical purchase loan moved from application to rate lock in 11 days and from lock to closing in another 26. Sellers comparing residential brokerages and agent platforms can ask which of these measures an agent's local "days on market" figure uses.
Median Days on Market by State: September 2026
This table shows how long homes stayed on the market in each state and the District of Columbia in September 2026 and September 2025, from two publishers that measure the stage differently.
| State | Realtor.com median days on market, Sept. 2026 | Realtor.com, Sept. 2025 | Redfin median days to contract, Sept. 2026 | Redfin, Sept. 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| U.S. | 61 | 62 | 50.7 | 49.4 |
| Alabama | 71 | 68 | 66.0 | 63.3 |
| Alaska | 59 | 62 | 23.6 | 32.1 |
| Arizona | 65 | 67 | 66.7 | 68.8 |
| Arkansas | 68 | 66 | 61.2 | 54.3 |
| California | 55 | 58 | 40.9 | 43.1 |
| Colorado | 67 | 70 | 51.2 | 51.2 |
| Connecticut | 41 | 41 | 40.1 | 40.2 |
| Delaware | 60 | 58 | 53.0 | 50.1 |
| District of Columbia* | 58 | 52 | 62.5 | 64.8 |
| Florida | 81 | 88 | 74.6 | 75.7 |
| Georgia | 66 | 64 | 65.0 | 61.1 |
| Hawaii | 88 | 91 | 94.1 | 65.2 |
| Idaho | 61 | 65 | 45.2 | 55.6 |
| Illinois | 39 | 40 | 51.5 | 50.7 |
| Indiana | 52 | 47 | 36.9 | 34.9 |
| Iowa | 59 | 59 | 40.5 | 40.4 |
| Kansas | 54 | 53 | 25.7 | 27.2 |
| Kentucky | 55 | 52 | 50.3 | 46.1 |
| Louisiana | 78 | 71 | 61.0 | 60.1 |
| Maine | 61 | 61 | 55.6 | 57.5 |
| Maryland | 47 | 43 | 45.2 | 40.4 |
| Massachusetts | 45 | 40 | 29.1 | 26.1 |
| Michigan | 47 | 45 | 33.8 | 32.6 |
| Minnesota | 47 | 45 | 36.8 | 32.7 |
| Mississippi | 75 | 69 | 54.2 | 46.0 |
| Missouri | 57 | 56 | 34.3 | 34.0 |
| Montana | 75 | 79 | 83.0 | 82.5 |
| Nebraska | 47 | 47 | 29.3 | 30.8 |
| Nevada | 58 | 60 | 59.4 | 61.6 |
| New Hampshire | 59 | 47 | 45.9 | 40.5 |
| New Jersey | 45 | 43 | 43.9 | 48.9 |
| New Mexico | 80 | 75 | 55.7 | 54.6 |
| New York | 61 | 64 | 39.2 | 36.3 |
| North Carolina | 69 | 66 | 66.8 | 57.1 |
| North Dakota | 57 | 60 | 47.2 | 45.3 |
| Ohio | 45 | 43 | 43.8 | 42.5 |
| Oklahoma | 65 | 60 | 48.5 | 45.2 |
| Oregon | 72 | 73 | 44.1 | 43.8 |
| Pennsylvania | 51 | 50 | 36.6 | 36.2 |
| Rhode Island | 38 | 37 | 30.8 | 31.8 |
| South Carolina | 68 | 65 | 77.1 | 75.7 |
| South Dakota | 58 | 61 | 53.1 | 56.4 |
| Tennessee | 68 | 65 | 68.3 | 66.2 |
| Texas | 66 | 67 | 68.3 | 67.0 |
| Utah | 67 | 67 | 54.6 | 51.8 |
| Vermont | 74 | 66 | 68.7 | 61.5 |
| Virginia | 47 | 45 | 37.3 | 35.3 |
| Washington | 58 | 57 | 32.6 | 28.0 |
| West Virginia | 58 | 52 | 55.3 | 57.7 |
| Wisconsin | 45 | 44 | 51.2 | 50.2 |
| Wyoming | 66 | 69 | 48.5 | 46.0 |
Sources: Realtor.com Economic Research, monthly housing inventory data by state (historical file, data through September 2026, updated October 1, 2026); Redfin Data Center, Housing Market Tracker monthly file (data through September 2026). Realtor.com counts days between initial listing and closing or removal for listings active during the month, sold or not, and covers all homes (single-family and condo/townhome). Redfin counts days on market for homes that went under contract during the month, excludes homes on the market more than a year, and is seasonally adjusted; Redfin values rounded to one decimal place. *Realtor.com's quality flag is set on its September 2026 District of Columbia row; Realtor.com uses the flag when values are outside their typical range and should be reviewed before reporting.
Redfin seasonally adjusts its monthly figures and Realtor.com's figures carry no seasonal adjustment, so the year-over-year comparison within each column is the like-for-like one. Realtor.com notes that data for smaller geographies can be more volatile. Our guide to choosing a residential brokerage or agent covers what to ask about local listing performance.
National Time on Market and Time to Close by Month: September 2025–September 2026
This table tracks the national figures month by month over the past year, which shows how much of the movement in time on market is seasonal.
| Month | Zillow median days to pending | Zillow median days to close | Realtor.com median days on market | Redfin median days to contract (seasonally adjusted) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| September 2025 | 27 | 31 | 62 | 49.4 |
| October 2025 | 29 | 30 | 63 | 48.8 |
| November 2025 | 33 | 30 | 64 | 48.4 |
| December 2025 | 43 | 31 | 73 | 49.3 |
| January 2026 | 47 | 33 | 78 | 49.2 |
| February 2026 | 28 | 29 | 70 | 52.2 |
| March 2026 | 19 | 29 | 57 | 49.9 |
| April 2026 | 17 | 30 | 52 | 49.0 |
| May 2026 | 18 | 30 | 52 | 48.7 |
| June 2026 | 20 | 31 | 53 | 49.1 |
| July 2026 | 25 | 31 | 57 | 49.7 |
| August 2026 | 27 | 30 | 60 | 49.7 |
| September 2026 | 29 | Not yet published | 61 | 50.7 |
Sources: Zillow Research housing data (raw, all homes, monthly); Realtor.com monthly housing inventory data, national historical file; Redfin Data Center Housing Market Tracker, monthly. Zillow's August 2026 file was the latest days-to-close data available when we compiled this table. Redfin values rounded to one decimal place.
The Zillow and Realtor.com columns carry no seasonal adjustment, so they rise through the winter and fall in the spring. Redfin's seasonally adjusted series removes that pattern. Zillow's days-to-close series moved within a narrower band than its days-to-pending series over the same months.
Home Sale Contract Delays and Cancellations: September 2026
This table shows how often signed contracts were delayed or fell apart, two ways the contract-to-close stage can run longer than the medians above.
| Measure | Source | Sept. 2026 | Aug. 2026 | Sept. 2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Contracts terminated in the past three months | NAR Realtors Confidence Index | 7% | 7% | 6% |
| Contracts with a delayed settlement in the past three months | NAR Realtors Confidence Index | 16% | 14% | 14% |
| Contracts with a delayed settlement that had appraisal issues | NAR Realtors Confidence Index | 5% | 6% | 6% |
| Contract cancellations as a share of homes that went under contract (seasonally adjusted) | Redfin | 14.5% | 14.2% | 13.4% |
Sources: NAR, September 2026 Realtors Confidence Index Survey (1,701 respondents, 817 with a client in the last month; among those with a client, maximum margin of error of 3% at the 95% confidence level for proportion estimates); Redfin Data Center Housing Market Tracker, monthly, and Redfin's October 12, 2026 pending home sales report. Redfin counts a cancellation when a home with an accepted offer returns to the market for sale, and divides cancellations by the number of homes that went under contract in the same period; canceled homes did not necessarily go under contract in that period.
Redfin described September's 14.5% as the highest share on record outside March and April 2020. Inspection and appraisal findings are two of the points where a contract can stall; our guides to choosing a home inspector and choosing a mortgage lender and title company cover those steps.
What the Time-to-Sell Data Means for Sellers
A seller planning around a sale date needs two local numbers, the time to an accepted offer and the time from contract to closing, plus some room in the schedule for a delayed or canceled deal. Each publisher's October data will show whether the September pace held into the fall.
Sources
- Zillow Research. "Housing Data" (Days on market and price cuts: Median Days to Pending and Median Days to Close, raw, all homes, monthly). Accessed October 22, 2026. https://www.zillow.com/research/data/
- Redfin. "Housing Market Tracker: Weekly & Monthly" (monthly data through September 2026). Accessed October 22, 2026. https://www.redfin.com/news/data-center/housing-market/
- Redfin. "Methodology" (Data Center metric definitions and seasonal adjustment). Accessed October 22, 2026. https://www.redfin.com/news/data-center/methodology/
- Redfin. "U.S. Pending Home Sales Sink Near 12-Year Low." October 12, 2026. https://www.redfin.com/news/pending-home-sales-sink-rates/
- Realtor.com Economic Research. "Residential Real Estate Data Library" (monthly housing inventory data, updated October 1, 2026). https://www.realtor.com/research/data/
- Realtor.com Economic Research. "September 2026 Housing Trends: Rates Top 7%, Price Cuts Surge." September 30, 2026. https://www.realtor.com/research/september-2026-data/
- National Association of Realtors. "Existing-Home Sales Increased 1.5% in September, According to NAR Report." October 13, 2026. https://www.nar.realtor/newsroom/existing-home-sales-increased-1-5-in-september-according-to-nar-report
- National Association of Realtors. "September 2026 Realtors Confidence Index Survey." October 13, 2026. https://www.nar.realtor/sites/default/files/2026-10/2026-10-realtors-confidence-index-10-13-2026_1.pdf
- ICE. "May 2026 Mortgage Monitor." May 11, 2026. https://mortgagetech.ice.com/resources/data-reports/may-2026-mortgage-monitor
Figures are shown as published by the sources named under each table. How we source and correct: editorial and corrections policy. Spotted an error? Contact us.