Market data · Published
How long does it take to sell a house? Days on market in 31 U.S. metros
In May 2026, the typical home in the 31 large metros below went under contract in a median of 43 days, according to Redfin's metro market data. Kansas City (18 days), Indianapolis (19), Sacramento (20) and Denver (21) were fastest; Miami (86) and San Antonio (72) were slowest. Add roughly 30 to 45 days for a financed buyer to close, and a listing in most of these metros takes about two to four months from first showing to cash in hand—longer in winter.
Where the numbers come from: market figures are from the Redfin Data Center metro market tracker for May 2026, the latest month in Redfin's public file when we pulled it. HomeCashOffer is a cash home buyer, so we have a stake in this topic; we did not adjust or cherry-pick Redfin's figures, and the one number we add (the closing estimate) is labeled as ours.
The short version
- Fastest five: Kansas City 18 days, Indianapolis 19 days, Sacramento 20 days, Denver 21 days, Cleveland 21 days. St. Louis tied Cleveland and Denver at 21 days. All of them had under three months of supply.
- Slowest five: Miami 86 days, San Antonio 72 days, Nashville 62 days, Jacksonville 62 days, Phoenix 61 days. Miami also had 7.7 months of supply, the most of any metro here, and the lowest average sale-to-list ratio (95.7%).
- Above asking clusters in the Midwest: Milwaukee (101.7%), Chicago (101.1%), St. Louis (100.4%) were the only metros where the average home sold above its final list price.
- Texas and Florida trade speed for discounts: Houston, San Antonio, Austin, Tampa and Orlando all sold below 97.7% of list on average, and more than a third of Houston, San Antonio and Tampa listings had a price drop.
- Winter is slower everywhere: the median across these metros was 69 days in January 2026, against 43 in May.
Days on market and listing conditions by metro (May 2026)
Sorted fastest to slowest. Click a column header to re-sort. "List to closing" is our estimate: Redfin's median days on market plus 30 to 45 days for a financed buyer to close.
| Kansas City, MO | 18 days | 47 | 16 | n/a | n/a | 32% | 1.8 | $366K | 48–63 days |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indianapolis, IN | 19 days | 53 | 16 | 98.5% | 22% | 43% | 1.8 | $325K | 49–64 days |
| Sacramento, CA | 20 days | 56 | 20 | 100.0% | 40% | 32% | 2.7 | $608K | 50–65 days |
| Denver, CO | 21 days | 68 | 19 | 99.3% | 28% | 42% | 2.9 | $610K | 51–66 days |
| Cleveland, OH | 21 days | 46 | 22 | 99.8% | 44% | 29% | 2.0 | $251K | 51–66 days |
| St. Louis, MO | 21 days | 43 | 20 | 100.4% | 45% | 29% | 2.1 | $305K | 51–66 days |
| Detroit, MI | 22 days | 49 | 19 | 98.9% | 42% | 27% | 3.3 | $225K | 52–67 days |
| Tulsa, OK | 31 days | 54 | 28 | 98.3% | 21% | 33% | 2.4 | $290K | 61–76 days |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 33 days | 60 | 34 | 98.3% | 19% | 30% | 3.0 | $275K | 63–78 days |
| Raleigh, NC | 34 days | 72 | 35 | 99.0% | 19% | 38% | 3.0 | $446K | 64–79 days |
| Memphis, TN | 37 days | 57 | 33 | 97.6% | 17% | 31% | 4.0 | $314K | 67–82 days |
| Cincinnati, OH | 37 days | 59 | 38 | 99.4% | 34% | 26% | 2.4 | $325K | 67–82 days |
| Milwaukee, WI | 38 days | 61 | 38 | 101.7% | 55% | 16% | 2.1 | $365K | 68–83 days |
| Columbus, OH | 40 days | 69 | 38 | 99.9% | 37% | 25% | 2.5 | $365K | 70–85 days |
| Philadelphia, PA | 41 days | 61 | 36 | 99.3% | 35% | 31% | 3.7 | $316K | 71–86 days |
| Atlanta, GA | 43 days | 79 | 41 | 98.4% | 22% | 33% | 3.7 | $405K | 73–88 days |
| Fort Worth, TX | 45 days | 70 | 45 | 98.4% | 20% | 34% | 3.4 | $364K | 75–90 days |
| Orlando, FL | 46 days | 69 | 52 | 97.6% | 14% | 31% | 3.9 | $414K | 76–91 days |
| Chicago, IL | 46 days | 70 | 47 | 101.1% | 48% | 14% | 2.8 | $398K | 76–91 days |
| Dallas, TX | 47 days | 85 | 46 | 97.8% | 17% | 36% | 4.2 | $425K | 77–92 days |
| Tampa, FL | 48 days | 64 | 42 | 97.2% | 15% | 39% | 3.6 | $388K | 78–93 days |
| Houston, TX | 49 days | 79 | 42 | 96.6% | 14% | 37% | 4.2 | $345K | 79–94 days |
| Pittsburgh, PA | 50 days | 77 | 51 | 98.3% | 31% | 24% | 3.7 | $275K | 80–95 days |
| Charlotte, NC | 53 days | 85 | 50 | 98.6% | 20% | 32% | 3.7 | $423K | 83–98 days |
| Las Vegas, NV | 55 days | 78 | 47 | 98.4% | 19% | 28% | 4.0 | $455K | 85–100 days |
| Austin, TX | 58 days | 110 | 56 | 97.6% | 15% | 36% | 5.2 | $448K | 88–103 days |
| Phoenix, AZ | 61 days | 76 | 57 | 98.1% | 15% | 33% | 3.5 | $469K | 91–106 days |
| Jacksonville, FL | 62 days | 89 | 67 | 97.7% | 13% | 32% | 3.8 | $391K | 92–107 days |
| Nashville, TN | 62 days | 91 | 55 | 98.3% | 15% | 25% | 4.4 | $487K | 92–107 days |
| San Antonio, TX | 72 days | 105 | 60 | 97.4% | 14% | 38% | 5.4 | $310K | 102–117 days |
| Miami, FL | 86 days | 99 | 85 | 95.7% | 9% | 18% | 7.7 | $570K | 116–131 days |
Source: Redfin Data Center, metro market tracker, all residential, not seasonally adjusted, period ending May 31, 2026 (file updated June 2, 2026; pulled October 20, 2026). Metro names follow Redfin's boundaries: Dallas and Fort Worth are reported separately, and "Miami" is Redfin's Miami metro area rather than all of South Florida. Redfin did not report a sale-to-list or sold-above-list figure for Kansas City that month. The list-to-closing column is a HomeCashOffer estimate, not Redfin data.
Why the calendar matters more than most sellers expect
The January column is the one most people skip, and it is the one that catches sellers out. Every metro in the table was slower in January 2026 than in May 2026. The size of the swing is what differs. Austin's median fell from 110 days in January to 58 in May, a gap of 52 days. Denver's dropped from 68 to 21, and Raleigh's and Dallas's each shrank by 38 days.
Miami barely moved: 99 days in January, 86 in May. Phoenix and Tampa also had small swings (15 and 16 days). Those are markets with winter buyer traffic of their own, so the spring bump is smaller, but in Miami's case the baseline is simply slow all year.
The practical point: if a job start date, a lease ending or a probate court deadline is pushing you to sell between November and February, use the January number for your plan, not the spring figure you see in headlines.
Fast doesn't always mean easy: the price-cut column
Denver and Indianapolis sit near the top of the speed ranking at 21 and 19 days, yet they also had the highest shares of listings with a price drop in this group: 42% in Denver and 43% in Indianapolis. Read together, the numbers describe a market that rewards accurate pricing. Homes priced right go quickly, which pulls the median down; homes priced above what buyers will pay sit until the seller cuts.
Chicago and Milwaukee show the opposite pattern. Their medians are slower than Denver's or Indianapolis's (46 and 38 days), but only 14% and 16% of listings had a price drop, and the average home sold above list (101.1% and 101.7%). Fewer homes for sale (2.1 months of supply in Milwaukee) means sellers have more pricing power even when the calendar is longer.
So if you are using this table to decide how to sell, look at two columns together. A low days-on-market number with a high price-drop share means: list it right the first time, or expect to wait and cut.
Turning days on market into a move-out date
Days on market stops when a buyer signs. Your money arrives later. To get from Redfin's number to a realistic closing date, we add the 30 to 45 days a financed purchase commonly takes after an offer is accepted (appraisal, underwriting, title work). That is a general planning range, not a promise; a buyer's lender, a repair negotiation or a title issue can stretch it.
Three examples from the table:
- Kansas City: 18 days to contract plus closing puts a typical listing at about 48 to 63 days, or about seven to nine weeks.
- Phoenix: 61 days to contract means roughly 91 to 106 days from listing to closing, about three months.
- Miami: 86 days to contract stretches the estimate to 116 to 131 days, about four months, and that is in May.
Then add whatever comes before the listing: decluttering, repairs a buyer's lender may require, photos and, for an inherited home, getting authority to sell. For a house that needs real work, that prep time is often longer than the days on market.
When the timeline actually changes the decision
A median is a middle, not your house. These numbers describe homes that went on the open market, which skews toward homes in sellable shape. Here is an honest way to use them:
- Your home is updated and you're in a fast metro: listing is usually the better net. In a 20-day market with sale-to-list near 100%, the time cost of a listing is small.
- Your home needs work, or you're in a slow metro: every month adds mortgage interest, taxes, insurance and utilities. Price those months out, subtract commissions and repairs from the listing price, and compare that net to an as-is offer.
- You have a hard date: a relocation, a foreclosure sale date or a lease ending. If the estimated list-to-closing range in the table runs past your date, the listing route needs a buffer you may not have.
A direct cash sale removes the days on market and the buyer's loan approval, so it can often close in about a week when title is clear, or on a later date you pick. It also usually means a lower price than a fully marketed sale of a repaired home. Our cash offer vs. listing comparison and as-is vs. fixing up guide walk through the net-proceeds math.
How we built this table
We downloaded Redfin's public monthly metro market tracker and kept the "All Residential," non-seasonally-adjusted rows for the 31 metros where we publish local comparison pages. For each, we took the most recent month in the file (May 2026) plus the same metric for January 2026 and May 2025, so you can see the seasonal swing and the year-over-year change without mixing months. We report Redfin's figures as published, rounded to one decimal place for percentages and to the nearest thousand dollars for prices.
Limits worth knowing: a metro median hides big differences between neighborhoods and price points; monthly figures can jump in smaller metros; and Redfin's "price drop" share counts listings, not sold homes. We plan to refresh this page when Redfin's public file adds newer months.
Days on market FAQs
How long does it take to sell a house in 2026?
Across the 31 metros in this table, the median home went under contract in 43 days in May 2026 (Redfin data). That is only the time to an accepted offer. A financed buyer then commonly needs about 30 to 45 days to close, so a typical listing runs roughly 73 to 88 days from going live to closing, before counting any prep or repair time.
What does "days on market" mean in this table?
It is Redfin's median days on market for homes in the metro: the middle value of how long listings took to go under contract. Half of homes took less time and half took more. It does not include prep before listing or the escrow period after an offer is accepted.
Which metros sell homes the fastest right now?
In May 2026 the fastest metros here were Kansas City (18 days), Indianapolis (19 days), Sacramento (20 days), Denver (21 days), Cleveland (21 days). Speed and price strength do not always match, though: Denver and Indianapolis were among the fastest but also had the highest shares of listings with a price drop.
Does it take longer to sell a house in winter?
Usually, yes. In January 2026 the median across these metros was 69 days, versus 43 days in May 2026. Austin went from 110 days in January to 58 in May, and Denver from 68 to 21. If you need to move between November and February, plan for the slower number.
Is a cash sale faster than listing?
A direct cash sale skips the days on market and the buyer's loan approval, so it can often close in about a week when title is clear, or on a later date the seller picks. Whether that speed is worth a lower price depends on your carrying costs, the home's condition and how long your local market takes. In a 20-day market with a move-in-ready home, listing is often the better net.
Where does this data come from and how current is it?
Every market number on this page comes from the Redfin Data Center monthly metro market tracker (all residential property types, not seasonally adjusted). May 2026 was the latest month in Redfin's public download when we pulled it on October 20, 2026. The 30-to-45-day closing estimate is our own stated assumption, not a Redfin figure.
Want a number to compare against a listing?
HomeCashOffer buys houses as-is nationwide. Get a written, no-obligation cash offer, set it next to your agent's estimate and the timeline above, and pick whichever leaves you better off.
Related: Cash home buyers compared by city · Foreclosure timeline by state · Probate timeline by state