The U.S. housing market has undergone a dramatic reversal from the hyper-competitive spring of 2022. New data from Zillow shows the typical home listed for sale in May 2026 took roughly 18 days to go pending—triple the six-day median recorded just four years earlier.
This shift is captured by the “median days to pending” metric, which tracks how quickly listings go under contract before closing. Because homes typically go pending weeks before a sale closes, the measure is a leading indicator of supply-demand balance, often revealing market shifts sooner than closed-sales data.
During the spring of 2022, buyers rushed to lock in mortgages before rates climbed, homes frequently went pending within days of hitting the market. The current landscape, by contrast, signals a more balanced—or even buyer-friendly—environment, as inventory lingers longer and price pressures ease.
The slowdown is most pronounced in previously red-hot markets, but the national median time has now stretched to 18 days. This gives homebuyers more time to shop, negotiate, and conduct inspections, a stark departure from the bidding wars that defined the pandemic-era boom.
However, the trend may not be uniform. Some analysts caution that days-to-pending data can be skewed by seasonal factors or shifts in listing mix. The data also reflects only one dimension of market power—prices remain elevated in many regions, and affordability challenges persist despite the added leverage for buyers.