Why “Days on Market” Doesn’t Tell the Full Story Anymore

Updated January 2026

Days on Market can be useful, but in today’s housing market, especially in New York City, it often tells only part of the story.

The number can restart on consumer-facing websites, even though agent-facing platforms may still show the full listing history. That difference can mask important context, including what actually happened to the property before you discovered it.

Here’s how Days on Market works today, why a listing’s history never truly disappears, and how buyers and sellers should use this information to make smarter decisions.

What Days on Market Is Really Measuring

Days on Market is meant to answer a simple question:

How long has this home been actively offered to the market?

The complication is that various platforms track this differently.

A consumer website may restart the visible count after a listing has been off the site for a period of time. An agent-facing listing system may treat that same property as a continuation of an earlier marketing effort. And in New York City, where listings move through the Real Estate Board of New York (REBNY) Residential Listing Service (RLS), what agents see inside professional tools may differ from what buyers see online.

So when someone says, “It’s only been on for three days,” the real follow-up question is: three days where?

StreetEasy in New York City: The Clock Can Restart, but the History Remains

In New York City, StreetEasy, owned by Zillow, is often the first stop for renters and buyers.

StreetEasy treats a listing as “new” if it has been off the market for about 30 days. When that happens, the visible Days on Market timeline may restart.

What’s often misunderstood is this:

the listing’s prior history does not disappear.

Even after a reset, StreetEasy can still show:

Prior listing dates
Price changes
Status updates
Earlier attempts to sell or rent

That history matters because it answers the questions buyers actually care about:

Was the home overpriced and later reduced
Did a deal fall apart
Did it relaunch with new photos or staging
Did the marketing approach change
Has it cycled on and off the market multiple times

A low Days on Market number does not always mean a fresh opportunity.

How Listings Actually Appear on StreetEasy and Zillow in NYC

In New York City, listings do not automatically appear everywhere at the same time.

Here’s how it actually works:

Residential Listing Service (RLS) is the official listing system operated by the Real Estate Board of New York. RLS is used by REBNY’s roughly 14,000 individual members and their affiliated brokerage firms, encompassing a broad cross-section of licensed real estate professionals across New York City. It is not a public website. Instead, it functions behind the scenes as the professional marketplace where exclusive listings are first entered, shared among brokers, and governed by formal industry rules and contracts.
StreetEasy is a consumer website where listings must be manually published by the agent or brokerage
Zillow receives most NYC listings from StreetEasy, not directly from RLS

Because of this structure, a listing can:

Exist inside RLS
Be shown privately or marketed off-market
Later be posted publicly on StreetEasy
And only afterward appear on Zillow

When Zillow first receives a listing, it starts tracking its own timeline. That means a home can have prior market history before Zillow’s “Days on Zillow” even begins.

This does not mean one platform is wrong. Each is measuring visibility from a different starting point.

Where OneKey® MLS Fits In

OneKey MLS operates differently from the RLS system. When a home or property is listed in OneKey® MLS, which covers much of New York City, particularly Manhattan, the Bronx and Queens as well as Westchester County, Long Island, and the Hudson Valley, that listing can syndicate directly to Zillow through MLS data feeds without first being posted to StreetEasy.

That means:

A listing entered into OneKey® MLS may appear on Zillow without ever being posted to StreetEasy
Zillow may begin tracking “Days on Zillow” as soon as it receives the MLS feed
StreetEasy may not display the listing at all, depending on location and marketing strategy

As a result, Zillow’s visible timeline may start earlier or later depending on whether the listing originated from:

A StreetEasy posting
A OneKey® MLS feed
Or a combination of both at different points in time

REBNY RLS in New York City: Professional Rules Are Not Portal Rules

In New York City, residential listings flow through the REBNY Residential Listing Service, commonly known as REBNY RLS.

This is the professional system agents and brokerages use to manage exclusive listings, track contractual status, and record official marketing activity.

Under REBNY RLS rules, Days on Market is governed by specific professional standards:

Listings in Participant Only Network or Coming Soon status do not accrue Days on Market. These listings are visible only to REBNY member agents or are being prepared for launch and are not yet publicly marketed. Days on Market begins only when the listing’s status or permissions change to allow full public exposure.
Days on Market resets to zero only after defined contractual events, including:
- A property being sold or rented
- A listing being withdrawn for at least 30 consecutive days
- A listing being cancelled for at least 30 consecutive days

These rules are designed to reflect contractual reality and listing status, not consumer browsing behavior.

Consumer websites such as StreetEasy and Zillow operate differently. They use their own display logic to make searches feel current and intuitive. A visible timeline may restart after inactivity or reposting, even though the property’s full public history remains accessible elsewhere.

Both systems are accurate within their own frameworks, but they answer different questions: one tracks contractual marketing status, the other tracks consumer-facing exposure.

Why Buyers and Agents See Different Numbers

Most consumers rely on StreetEasy and Zillow to gauge how long a home has been on the market.

Agents, however, often work inside professional systems that draw data from REBNY’s Residential Listing Service (RLS) and add internal tracking used by brokerages.

These tools can include brokerage CRMs, transaction management platforms, listing input and syndication systems, New York City–focused platforms such as Perchwell, and company-specific systems like RealPlus.

Because these systems track listings differently, agents may see information such as cumulative exposure across multiple listing cycles, days since the most recent relaunch, time since the original exclusive agreement, or days since the last status change.

That’s why two people can look at the same home and walk away with very different impressions of how long it has really been on the market.

What “The Listing History Hasn’t Gone Away” Really Means

When a Days on Market counter resets, it can create the impression that a property is being introduced to the market for the first time.

In reality, the underlying listing history still reflects how the market previously responded.

That history can reveal:

Pricing missteps
Failed negotiations or deals that fell apart
Extended exposure across multiple listing attempts
Changes in strategy such as new photos, staging, or repositioning

For buyers, reviewing this history helps avoid overreacting to a “new listing” label.

For sellers, it is a reminder that restarting the counter does not erase market memory or reset perception.

Why This Matters More in New York City

New York City already operates differently than most housing markets.

Co-ops, condos, rentals, multiple professional listing systems, consumer websites, and intense competition for visibility all collide here.

When Days on Market becomes easy to reset on consumer platforms, success shifts away from chasing a low number and toward getting the fundamentals right:

Strong positioning at launch
Accurate pricing from day one
Presentation that matches buyer expectations
Clear communication about prior activity and strategy

The goal is no longer to chase a low counter.

The goal is to make sure the listing history supports the story being told.

In New York City, perception is shaped by history, not just timing.

What Buyers and Sellers Should Do Instead

If you are buying or renting

Review the full listing history and price timeline, not just the current Days on Market
Ask what changed since the property was last marketed
Do not assume a “new” label means the home is seeing the market for the first time

If you are selling

Treat a relaunch as a full reset of strategy, not just a reset of the number
Learn from what the market rejected previously, whether pricing, presentation, or positioning
Assume serious buyers and their agents will review the history before making a decision

In New York City, informed decisions are made with context, not just timing.