Yes, you are correct that most contingent sales acceptances have a 72 hour clause, and if there is a 72 hour clause, then it’s best to keep the listing as active (and just note the situation in the remarks). However, in this market, especially with rookie listing agents, some sellers end up accepting the offer without a 72 hour clause. These must be marked pending, and they cause some (albeit a smaller amount) of distortion. In addition, and it may be hard to believe, but I have seen it happen, some sellers WANT it marked pending even if it is contingent w/ 72 hour clause because they feel that they’ve got a deal and don’t want to deal with the house traffic. Anyway, my point being is that in a buyers market, this is also more prone to distortion than in a seller’s market where contingent offers are usually declined.
For many years I calculated that active/pending ratios as an indicator of market time. However, I have moved to using months of inventory because I think it really gives great figures for comparing different price brackets in teh same geo area, or same price bracket in different geo areas.
