The fact that they didn't go with more straightforward metrics like transaction volume or avg price tells me there's nothing really there, and this is just content marketing built on confirmation bias.
30+ days on market and not under contract? Your asking price is too high. Up 60% YoY with the Fed having raised the benchmark rate at the fastest pace in history? The signal shows sellers have not made peace with an asset price level that no longer exists, and the market has exhausted price insensitive buyers.
Everyone who has no intention of selling their home (in a Georgist manner) could list their house for 5x the going market rate (youd probably sell if and then this metric would be effectively 100% and yet many houses would still sell.
This number is therefore mostly a reflection of a strong selling market since it's encouraging people to list who otherwise might not bother.
Exactly - if days on market had told a compelling story they would have led with that. This is content marketing first and foremost, not a scientific study. The process of writing one of these starts with choosing a narrative that will get attention, and metrics are chosen to fit that narrative.