How do I compare median days-on-market across different Houston-area counties?

What does days-on-market actually measure, and why does it differ by county?

Days-on-market, often shortened to DOM, counts the number of calendar days between the date a home is listed and the date a contract is accepted. It is one of the clearest signals of how quickly supply is being absorbed in a given area. A lower number generally means homes are moving faster relative to available buyers; a higher number means homes are sitting longer. Neither is automatically good or bad for you; it depends on whether you are buying or selling and what your timeline looks like.

The figure shifts county by county because each county has its own mix of price ranges, property types, new construction volume and local economic conditions. A county with a large share of higher-priced homes may show a longer DOM simply because those price ranges move more slowly, not because the overall market is weak. Conversely, a county with a concentration of homes in a mid-range price band may show a shorter DOM because that band draws the broadest pool of buyers.

In the Greater Houston area as of August 2026, single-family homes spent an average of 54 days on the market, up from 52 days a year earlier. That two-day increase reflects a market that is normalizing after the pandemic-era pace. But that figure covers the entire Houston area. When you break it down by county, the picture can look quite different, and that is exactly where a county-level comparison becomes useful.

Where does the county-level data come from, and what are its limits?

The two main sources for Houston-area DOM data are the Texas Real Estate Research Center at Texas A&M University and the Houston Association of Realtors. Both draw from listing data submitted through the area's listing service systems. The Texas Real Estate Research Center aggregates data from over 50 listing systems statewide and publishes statistics at the county level, among other geographies. The Houston Association of Realtors publishes monthly updates covering the Greater Houston area and breaks results out by property type and price segment.

There is an important timing difference to keep in mind. The Texas Real Estate Research Center releases Houston-area statistics on or near the 40th calendar day after month end, while statistics for geographies outside the Houston metro area come out on or near the 20th calendar day. That means if you are comparing Harris County to, say, Grimes or Waller County, the data may not be on the same release cycle, and you should confirm the publication dates before drawing conclusions.

Another limit worth understanding: new home sales negotiated directly between a builder and a buyer, outside of the listing system, are not included in these statistics. In counties where a significant share of sales happen that way, the published DOM figure understates how long some homes actually sit. Fort Bend and Montgomery counties both have active new-construction submarkets, so this gap can matter when you are comparing them to a county with fewer new subdivisions.

Our listing data covers Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery, Waller, Grimes and Austin counties, and I use that data alongside the published research center figures to give you a more complete picture of what is actually happening in each market.

How do price range and property type affect the comparison?

DOM is not uniform within a county. It shifts significantly by price band and by property type, and ignoring those layers can lead you to the wrong conclusion.

Look at what happened in the Greater Houston area in August 2026. The segment priced between one dollar and ninety-nine thousand dollars actually saw sales increase 11.1 percent year over year, with 110 transactions. The segment from two hundred fifty thousand to four hundred ninety-nine thousand dollars, which is the largest single band by volume at 3,949 transactions, declined 13.7 percent. The segment from five hundred thousand to nine hundred ninety-nine thousand dollars declined 16.5 percent, while the one-million-and-above segment declined only 2.1 percent. Each of those bands carries a different DOM profile. Homes that are harder to finance or that draw from a narrower pool of buyers tend to sit longer, and that pulls up the county average even if the mid-range is moving quickly.

Property type adds another layer. In August 2026, townhome and condominium inventory in the Houston area rose to 8.8 months, up from 8.1 months a year earlier. Single-family inventory held at 5.3 months. Those two property types are often concentrated in different counties and different parts of a county, so a county with a higher share of condominiums and townhomes will tend to show a longer DOM than one dominated by single-family homes, all else being equal.

When I pull county-level data for a client, I always separate single-family from attached properties and look at the price distribution within each county before drawing any comparison. A raw county-average DOM number without that context can be misleading.

What does a balanced market look like in this context, and how do you read the signals?

Months of inventory and DOM work together. Months of inventory tells you how long it would take to sell every active listing at the current pace of sales if no new listings came on the market. DOM tells you how long individual homes are actually sitting. When both are rising, the market is shifting toward buyers. When both are falling, it is shifting toward sellers.

As of August 2026, the Houston area had 5.3 months of inventory for single-family homes and 38,947 active listings, up 0.5 percent year over year. Nationally, inventory sat at 4.6 months at the same point in time. Houston's inventory is above the national figure, which is one reason DOM has edged up. A market is generally considered balanced when inventory sits in a range that gives neither buyers nor sellers a strong structural advantage, though that range can shift depending on local conditions.

For county comparisons, the relationship between DOM and inventory is more useful than either number alone. A county with lower inventory and a shorter DOM is a very different market from one with higher inventory and a longer DOM, even if both are within the Houston metro. The first tends to favor sellers; the second gives buyers more room to negotiate on price, inspection repairs and closing costs.

The Texas Real Estate Research Center publishes months-of-inventory data at the county level alongside DOM, and I use both together when advising a buyer or seller on how to position in a specific county. There is no guarantee that current conditions will persist, and conditions can shift within a single quarter.

How do you actually run the comparison across Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery and the surrounding counties?

The practical steps are straightforward, but the interpretation is where experience matters. Start by pulling the most recent month's DOM and months-of-inventory figures for each county from the Texas Real Estate Research Center's housing activity tool, which lets you filter by county. Confirm the publication date for each county so you are comparing data from the same time period, keeping in mind the different release schedules noted above.

Next, filter by property type. Single-family data and condominium or townhome data should be read separately. Then look at the price distribution within each county to understand whether the DOM figure is being pulled up by a concentration of slower-moving price bands or whether it reflects the full market evenly.

After that, look at the trend over several months rather than a single snapshot. A county where DOM has been rising steadily for several months is in a different position from one where DOM spiked one month and then returned to its prior level. The Texas Real Estate Research Center has published housing statistics since 1977, so there is enough history to put current figures in context.

Finally, layer in what the listing data shows at the neighborhood or zip code level within each county. County averages can mask wide variation. A zip code in northern Montgomery County may have a very different DOM from one near the Fort Bend County line, even though both roll up into the same county figure. The Texas Real Estate Research Center calculates detailed statistics for over 6,500 geographies in Texas, including zip codes, and that data is available through the Texas Realtors MarketViewer portal for licensed agents.

I pull all of those layers together when helping a buyer decide which county to focus on or when advising a seller on how to price relative to what the market is actually doing. The right county for your situation depends on your timeline, your price range and what you are trying to accomplish. Talk to us to find the right option for your circumstances.

Common follow-up questions

Sources

• Texas Real Estate Research Center (Texas A&M) - Housing Activity
• HAR - Monthly Housing Update and MLS Sales Activity

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