Listing sites to resume days-on-market counters as if the shutdown happened yesterday

When real estate listing sites resume their days-on-market counters, it will be like the shutdown almost never happened.

The Real Estate Board of New York announced that its RLS network, which includes realtor.com and renthop, will count the past three months as one day on its listings.

John Canniffe, head of REBNY’s Residential Listing Service (RLS) says the move will “allow brokers to get back to business in a seamless, safe and productive way while providing home sellers and buyers with information they can trust.” 

StreetEasy will follow the same guidelines. "Given many real estate activities will be permitted as part of NYC’s second phase of reopening, we are resuming our days-on-market counter. However, the period from March 22nd until the day NYC enters Phase 2 will be counted as one single day," a StreetEasy spokesperson tells Brick.

In March, when New York City was shutting down and face-to-face showings were banned, sellers and owners with apartments on the market faced the prospect of their listings becoming very stale. In an effort to support agents, buyers and renters, StreetEasy removed open house information and halted days on market counting, "given these are no longer accurate tools or representations of a listing during this pandemic," a spokesperson said at the time.

A statement from REBNY said its members were taking similar action "to support the residential brokerage community during this difficult time.” 

But that also meant buyers and renters lost a valuable data point. Not showing how long an apartment has been sitting on the market takes away a potential warning sign. Listings can linger on the market because they are over-priced or because something is wrong with the apartment.

Jonathan Miller, president and CEO of appraisal firm Miller Samuel, was adamantly opposed to stopping the clock and doesn't appear to be a fan of the new move, either.

Miller tweeted: “Making this about helping the sellers isn’t the reason. And what about the buyers? It just embeds more uncertainty into nervous consumers, which hurts all. Manipulating data is never justified.”