Whitby's Days-on-Market Figure Restarts When a Listing Does

In September 2026, a Whitby home that sold had spent an average of 24 days on the listing that finally sold. Counted from the first time it went up for sale, the same property had been on the market for an average of 47 days. Both figures come from the same row of the Toronto Regional Real Estate Board's September 2026 Market Watch, released October 6. The difference between them is the most useful number a Whitby seller can bring to a pricing conversation this fall.

The 24-day figure is the one that tends to travel. It turns up in market summaries and in casual talk about how fast things are moving. The 47-day figure is closer to what a seller who lists in October should plan around.

Two clocks, one sale

TRREB publishes two days-on-market measures, and its own notes spell out the difference:

Average Listing Days on Market (Avg. LDOM) refers to the average number of days sold listings were on the market. Average Property Days on Market (Avg. PDOM) refers to the average number of days a property was on the market before selling, irrespective of whether the property was listed more than once by the same combination of seller and brokerage during the original listing contract period.

Listing days count only the final listing. If a home is taken off the market and listed again, which often happens alongside a price change, the listing-day count starts over. Property days keep counting through those resets.

The definition also has a limit. PDOM links listings only when the seller and brokerage stay the same within the original contract. A home that is relisted with a different brokerage starts fresh on both clocks. So 47 days is a floor for the full time on market, not a ceiling.

Whitby has the widest gap among Durham's busiest markets

Across Durham Region's five busiest municipalities in September 2026, Whitby had the second-shortest listing-day average, one day behind Clarington, but the largest gap between the two clocks:

On listing days alone, Whitby looks about as quick as Clarington and Ajax. On property days, it sits with Pickering and Oshawa. Whitby's sold homes went through more resets on the way to a sale.

The gap has also been growing. In August 2026, Whitby's figures were 30 listing days and 42 property days, a 12-day gap. A year earlier, in September 2025, they were 26 and 44, an 18-day gap. The gap almost doubled from August to September 2026, even as the listing-day figure got shorter.

The tight-looking ratios include last spring

Two more headline numbers make Whitby look tight. Its September 2026 sales-to-new-listings ratio was 44.6%, and its months of inventory was 2.9, the lowest in Durham Region that month.

TRREB marks both columns "Trend" for a reason. The report's notes say each one is "calculated using a 12 month moving average." A September reading of 44.6% is partly a record of the spring.

Working from September's raw counts alone gives a different picture:

• Sales against new listings: 96 sales and 318 new listings in September 2026, so sales equaled about 30% of the month's new-listing count
• Inventory against sales: 428 active listings at month-end against 96 sales, about 4.5 months at September's pace

The two clocks and the one-month math point the same way. A home listed in Whitby this fall is competing in a market with roughly half again as much supply as the trend figures suggest.

August to September moved quickly

The change happened within a single month. In August 2026, Whitby recorded 129 sales against 274 new listings, with 400 active listings at month-end. That puts sales at about 47% of the month's new-listing count, and just over three months of inventory at that pace.

September brought 44 more new listings and 33 fewer sales. The median price held at $850,000 in both months. The average slipped from $905,123 in August to $882,772 in September.

A steady median alongside more resets suggests the homes that sold were still selling near the established price level. More of them took a second listing to get there.

Detached homes carry most of it

Whitby's detached segment shows this most clearly. In September 2026, there were 57 detached sales, 218 new detached listings and 278 active detached listings at month-end. The median detached price was $945,000, the average was $995,368 and the average was 22 listing days.

Detached homes made up 57 of Whitby's 96 sales but 218 of its 318 new listings. That works out to about 26 sales for every 100 new detached listings, with nearly five months of active detached supply at September's pace. TRREB's detached table reports listing days but not property days, so the gap can't be broken out by home type. Still, detached homes are where most of the new supply arrived.

Whitby's other home types in September had small enough samples that a single sale moves the average. There were three semi-detached sales and three condo townhouse sales, for example. Those monthly figures are too thin to read much into.

Compared with a year ago, this is mostly the season

Setting September 2026 against September 2025 keeps the picture calm:

Sales and new listings both fell by roughly a fifth. September 2025's one-month ratio was also about 30%, so the soft September reading is a seasonal pattern more than a new slowdown. Two things did change. Active listings fell less than sales did, so inventory now runs about 4.5 months at the monthly pace, up from roughly 3.8 a year ago. And the gap between the clocks grew from 18 days to 23. Fewer homes are coming to market, but the ones that do are more likely to need a second listing before they sell.

What this changes before a listing goes live

None of this sets a price. It changes the questions worth answering before one is set:

1. Which comparable sales took more than one listing? A comparable that shows 15 listing days may have been on the market for six weeks across two listings. The final sale price reflects the second asking price, not the first.
2. How long is the closing timeline, counted from first listing? If a purchase, a move to a condo or an estate timeline depends on the sale, 47 days is a more realistic planning figure than 24. Because PDOM doesn't track a change of brokerage, even that number can run short.
3. Which segment is the home competing in? A detached home in Whitby this fall is listing into the segment with the most new supply. The 22-day detached figure is a listing-day number, with the same reset built in.
4. What does the sale-to-list ratio measure? Whitby's September sale-to-list ratio was 99%. TRREB defines it as the average selling price divided by the average listing price for firm transactions. The definition doesn't say whether that listing price is the first ask or the one in place when the home sold.

A few direct answers

Is a 23-day gap a sign that Whitby prices are falling? Not on its own. The median held at $850,000 from August to September 2026, and it was $885,000 in September 2025. The gap shows how much extra time relisting added before sales closed. It doesn't measure the price direction.

Why does TRREB publish both numbers? They answer different questions. Listing days describe how a listing performed. Property days describe how long the home was for sale before it sold, which is usually the figure that matters for a moving date.

Will October look different? October figures won't appear until TRREB's next Market Watch. The 12-month trend numbers will keep blending in earlier months, so the one-month counts will show any change sooner.

If you're setting a fall timeline around a Whitby sale, Fraser & Co. can go through the comparables on your street and check which ones sold on their first listing, so your plan is based on the 47-day clock. Speak with a Human.