Spring Is Here. Time on Market Costs You Money.

March brought 152 closed sales, 161 pending contracts, and 182 active listings to the Tuscaloosa residential market. The pipeline is building. But the transaction-level data tells a more precise story than the headline numbers: how long a home sits determines how much of its list price the seller ultimately keeps. Homes that sold in under 14 days averaged 100.8% of original list price. Homes that took 120 days or more averaged 92.7%. Every month on market is coming directly out of the seller’s net proceeds.

Transaction Analysis

The Longer It Sits, the Less You Get

Analysis of March’s 152 closed sales reveals a clear and consistent pattern across every price band: days on market directly determines how much of your list price you keep at close.

Homes that sold in 0-14 days averaged 100.8% of their original list price, meaning sellers got asking price or above. The 40 homes in that bucket closed with a median of just over two weeks on market and walked away with essentially what they asked for.

Move to the 61-120 day range and the average drops to 95.7%. At 120+ days, the average is 92.7%. On a $275,000 home, the difference between selling in the first two weeks and selling after four months is approximately $22,000 in net proceeds, not counting for the additional carrying costs, taxes, insurance, and opportunity cost accumulated over those months.

This is not buyers negotiating harder on stale listings. It is the compounding result of a listing that entered the market above where comps supported it, accumulated days, and ultimately sold at a discount that the seller could have avoided entirely with correct initial pricing.

The median closed sale in March came in just $4,900 below original list price, a 98.7% ratio. The 43.5% of homes that sold at or above list price pulled that median up. The lesson: correctly priced homes are not negotiating. They are closing. The negotiation happens on homes that sat too long, and by then the seller has already given up more than they would have in the original ask.

Market Intelligence

The $52,500 Gap Is Not What You Think

The median active list price in March was $329,950. The median sold price was $277,450. That is a spread of $52,500, and it is consistently misread by both buyers and sellers.

This gap does not mean buyers will negotiate $52,500 off any given listing. The typical closed transaction came in $4,900 below original list. The $52,500 spread reflects two entirely different populations of homes: the 152 that sold, and the 182 that are still active. These are not the same homes at different price points. They are different homes with different pricing strategies and different outcomes.

The active median is where sellers currently hope the market is. The sold median is where buyers are actually transacting. The gap between them is the distance between aspiration and reality in this market, and it is occupied almost entirely by listings that are sitting, accumulating DOM, and heading toward the withdrawn and expired categories.

In March, 40 listings withdrew after a median of 97 days at a median list price of $303,620. Four listings expired after a median of 181 days. These sellers spent between three and six months on market and received nothing. Their median list prices of $303,620 and $299,950 were both above the $277,450 sold median, not dramatically, but enough that the market rejected them consistently for months.

The $52,500 gap between active and sold median is not buyer leverage on any individual home. It is the market’s aggregate signal about which listings belong in the sold column and which belong in the withdrawn column. The question for any seller is not how much the buyer will negotiate. It is which column your listing ends up in.

Pricing Analysis

What the Withdrawn and Expired Data Tells You

The withdrawn and expired categories are the most instructive part of the March data because they show what happens when the market’s answer to a listing is no: repeatedly, over months.

The 40 withdrawn listings carried a median list price of $303,620, a median square footage of 1,788, and spent a median of 97 days on market before pulling off. Their median profile is a 3-bedroom, 3-bathroom home, not an unusual or difficult-to-sell property type. These are standard Tuscaloosa homes that were priced approximately $26,000 above where the market was closing and spent three months finding that out.

The 4 expired listings tell the same story at greater length: a median of 181 days on market at a median list price of $299,950. Six months. No close. The market gave each of these listings its answer in the first two weeks of exposure. It took 181 days for the listing period to expire.

There is a pattern across both categories: their median list prices sit between the active median ($329,950) and the sold median ($277,450). They were not dramatically overpriced. They were marginally overpriced by $20,000 to $30,000 in most cases, and that margin was enough to push them out of the buyer’s consideration set and into the DOM accumulation cycle.

A listing that withdraws after 97 days did not have bad market timing. It had a pricing strategy the market rejected for three months before the seller acknowledged it. The cost of that three months is not recoverable. When this seller relists, they will carry the history of a listing buyers have already evaluated and passed on. They will need to price below where they could have listed in the first place to overcome that perception.

Seasonal Timing

161 Pending Contracts. The Spring Pipeline Is Real.

161 pending contracts heading into April is meaningful context. Those deals will close in April and May, which historically represent the highest closing volume months for Tuscaloosa residential real estate. The demand is not abstract. It is committed buyers under contract waiting to close.

The question for sellers entering the market now is whether they are entering into that buyer pipeline or competing against its aftermath. Buyers who went under contract in March are no longer in the active buyer pool. New spring buyers are entering the market, but so are new listings. The competitive dynamic is shifting week by week.

Active listings currently sit at a 13-day median DOM. That number tells you how quickly correctly priced homes are generating offers and going under contract. Half of all currently active listings went pending within two weeks of hitting the market. The other half are building days. There is no middle ground in a market with a 13-day active median DOM. A listing either gets traction in the first two weeks or it does not.

Sellers who listed in late February and early March entered ahead of peak supply. Those listing now are entering as inventory continues to build. Units that miss the spring window and re-enter in summer typically do so with accumulated DOM working against them and against a buyer pool that has already seen and passed on the listing.

Spring inventory and spring buyer demand are both building simultaneously. The advantage goes to sellers who enter the market while the buyer pool is still growing and before listing competition peaks. That window exists now. It will not exist in the same form by June.

Buyer Takeaways

If You Are Buying

Benchmark off recently closed sales, not active list prices. The gap between the two reflects homes that are not selling, not what sellers will negotiate to.

Listings with significant time on market are your best leverage. A seller on month two or three is far more flexible than one who listed last week.

Well-priced homes are going at or above asking. When something is priced correctly and checks your boxes, move on it with pre-approval ready.

Spring buyer competition builds as the season progresses. The window to buy with less competition is narrowing, not widening.

Seller Takeaways

If You Are Selling

Every additional month on market costs you money out of net proceeds. The data shows this clearly across every price band.

The first two weeks are the only window at full price. After that, buyers have already evaluated your listing and moved on.

Price to what the market is closing at, not to the active median. Homes going under contract in 13 days entered at the right number.

List while the buyer pool is fresh and listing competition is still building. That window exists now and it narrows every week.

Full Numbers

Every status, side by side

Key Numbers

March 2026 recap

Data sourced from WAMLS. Information deemed reliable but not guaranteed.