Ocala Real Estate Talk

February in Ocala is the last month of our winter. By the first of March things will start warming up, the grass will start to green up and the azaleas will bloom.

Temperatures in February should be in the low 70’s during the days and the mid 40’s at night. Of course January should have been like that too.

Hopefully February will be a more normal winter month than January. The first 10 days of the new year were extremely cold. Every night was at or below freezing which is unheard of here in Ocala. Now we do get frosts and freezes in Ocala but only 3 or 4 times a winter. Never 10 days in a row. A life long resident told me that he has never seen such a cold stretch in his 45 years living in Marion County. In addition to the cold weather it has been really rainy too. This is supposed to be the dry season where it doesn’t rain for weeks on end. It has rained so much I’ve had to lower the water in my pool several times.

Visit the Ocala weather page on my web site to see average highs, lows and precipitation by the month here in Marion County.

No it’s not a crazy come on or infomercial. Fannie Mae the huge federal agency is offering incentives to buy Fannie Mae owned foreclosures.

Here is how it goes.

You must buy and close on a Fannie Mae foreclosure between Jan 28 and April 30, 2010.

Fannie Mae is offering 3.5% of the sold price that can be used for closing costs or to buy Whirlpool appliances through Fannie Mae or the buyer can do a combination of closing costs and appliances. Buyers must be owner occupants.

According to the Fannie Mae web site. Lenders may impose their own limitations on the use of the 3.5% incentive, so buyers should consult their lenders for guidance.

Many foreclosures in the Ocala area are either homes that never had all the appliances or the homes were burglarized and the appliances were stolen.

If you are interested in foreclosures in Ocala and surrounding Marion County email me or use the Dream Home Finder in the left column of my blog.

Palm cay Ocala FL

Palm Cay is a 55 plus retirement community in the SW corridor area off SR 200 in Ocala Florida. Palm Cay is a great and very affordable Ocala retirement community. Homes here range in size from around 700 sq ft of living area to over 16oo sq ft. All homes are of frame construction with either aluminum or vinyl siding. Prices are as low as $50,000- up to the low $100’s. The houses in Palm Cay are single family style on 1/4 acre lots. Palm Cay is gated with a guard house and has a large clubhouse with a fitness center, craft rooms and full kitchen. Outside there is a  swimming pool, tennis courts, shuffleboard, horseshoes and a lounge area. HOA fees are currently a very low $85- per month. HOA fees include 24 hour guard at the gate, common area maintenance, clubhouse and pool, trash pickup and basic cable TV.

If you would like a list of homes for sale in Palm Cay fill out my Dream Home Finder located in the column on the left hand side of this page or send me an email.

Read the rest of this entry »

Oak Run is a large 55 plus community with 2 golf courses. Oak Run is located just off SR200 in the SW corridor area of Ocala. Construction began in 1985 and although Oak Run is almost built out you can still buy a new house from the builder. Oak Run is divided into neighborhoods. These neighborhoods have evolved over a 25 year period and each one has a unique character. The older homes are  frame with aluminum siding. A little later the homes were frame with vinyl siding. The newer homes are concrete block and stucco. As time went by the size of the houses grew as buyers expectations increased over that 25 year period. You will find older homes as small as 700 sq ft of living area and newer homes well over 3,000 sq ft. Prices as you might expect vary tremendously. At the time of this writing prices are as low as $62,000- up to almost $500,000-. Most homes are in the $100,000- to $200,000- range. HOA fees vary by the neighborhood. In a few areas the homes include lawn care which adds to the fee. In general HOA fees at this time range from $105- to about $150- with homes that have lawn care being even higher. Amenities at Oak Run are extensive. They include 3 gates with a guard house, basic cable TV, curbside trash pickup and common area maintenance. There are 2 golf courses, several pools including an indoor pool, multiple clubhouses, a restaurant and numerous clubs. Golf is not included in the HOA fee. Read the rest of this entry »

Sales in December were 374 homes here in Marion County. If you remember my November report I thought sales were oddly low that month with only 266 sales. Apparently it was just a statistical fluctuation. Probably just a result of the time that offers were accepted or the time required to close the transactions.

Just as in previous months, the vast majority of sales are below $200,000- and over half are below $100,000.00. Once again foreclosures and to a lesser extent short sales account for over 50% of all sales.

The total number of listings seem to be pretty constant at around 5,500. As I’ve said many times, our market won’t recover until the number of active listings goes down. If you take 5534 active listings and divide it by the sales in December you get 14.8 months of inventory.

In general 2009 was a huge improvement over the past 2 years.  Prices are down but volume is way up. There were 3224 sales of residential homes in Marion County in 2009 as compared to 2008 with 2453 and 2007 at 3169.

Statistics used for this blog post are from the Ocala Marion County MLS and are deemed to be accurate at the time this blog was written but are not guaranteed. All information is time sensitive and subject to change without notice. Home sales are for Marion County only and do not include FSBO, homes sold by builders not listed on the MLS, commercial properties or vacant land.

Selling a home in Ocala is pretty tough these days. We are in an extreme buyers market with constant competition from short sales and foreclosures driving down prices.

The subject of this blog post is about the images or lack of them as found on the MLS by buyers. I get a lot more buyers than sellers because of my Ocala Real Estate web site and this blog. That’s just how it works. Most internet leads are buyers and not sellers. I’m not complaining because I sell a lot more houses than the average Realtor in Ocala as a result on my internet efforts.

What I am complaining about is the images I see on MLs listings. I will send listings to my buyers through my Ocala Dream Home Finder and they almost never want to see the ones in person that either have only 1 picture or really bad out of focus pictures. That’s unless the house is a foreclosure or priced like one.

Thinking of selling your house in Ocala or anywhere in Marion County? See my Ocala Home Sellers Advice or email me or call me. I would love to list your house and my advice is free.

January 2010 weather has started off the new year with freezing temperatures. It’s not unusual here in Ocala to get a hard freeze. In fact we can get 4 or 5 a year. However this year we have had an entire week of temperatures where the days stay in the low 50’s and the night time temps hover around freezing. From what I’ve seen on the TV weather there is a high over Texas and a low south of New England that combined is some how funneling cold air down to Florida that belongs much further to the north.

Any way January temps should be around 70 with night time temps down to around the mid 40’s. See my Ocala Weather guide on my web site for a chart of highs and lows for every month of the year.

Winter in Ocala only lasts about 8 weeks. By the first of March it’s spring here in Ocala.

This is my 5th winter here in Ocala. I moved here from Maine where it gets seriously cold. I was worried about the summer heat, which is now no problem. Now I don’t like it when the temperature gets much below 70. People are very adaptable.

Questions about Ocala? Use my blog’s comment feature or the contact info in the upper right of this page.

The median home price in Ocala has dropped to $87,800.00 edging out Ft Myers to become the cheapest place to buy a home in the state of Florida according to an article in the Ocala Star Banner.

Median home prices mean that half of all homes sold for more and half of all homes sold for less than $87,800.00 I think this is a little deceptive especially to those looking at this online from outside the area.

There are great deals in the Ocala area. I just think the median home price is a little misleading. It reflects what is selling more than what you get for your money. The Ocala area has a high unemployment rate and a low wage structure and local people are buying what they can afford.

In addition, I suspect investors are buying up really cheap houses looking to fix them up and rent them for positive cash flow. A huge percentage of below $50,000- foreclosed houses are selling for cash, which to me indicates an investor.

Most houses on the Ocala Marion County MLS sell for under $200,000-. In my opinion the real sweet spot in our market is in the $125-200,000- range. It is in this range that you can find a really nice house, in a nice area that needs very little or no work at all.

I specialize in helping people from outside the area find a home here in Ocala and surrounding Marion County. If you have a question email me or use the comment feature below. If you’d like to receive listings email me about what you’re looking for or use my Dream Home Finder in the right hand column.

The weather in Ocala Florida during the winter revolves around cold fronts. Most of the time the temperatures will be in the low to mid 70’s. Then along comes a cold front and the temps drop to the 60’s during the day. In the evenings after a cold front Ocala can get the occasional frost or even a lite freeze. We get several frosts a year which is why we have different plant material than you find further south in Florida.

If you have a question just ask using the comment feature or shoot me an email. My contact info is in the right side column.

Meyers Lemon Tree

Citrus trees fruit in the winter here in Ocala.  Above is my lemon tree.

Buyers seem to be looking for foreclosures in Ocala 55 plus communities. Just before starting this blog post I logged into the MLS and searched on foreclosures. I got 348 hits. When I added 55+ to the search that number went down to 12. As you can see most Ocala area foreclosures are not in the 55+ communities.

Buyers looking for a deal in a 55+ community should also consider estate sales. The unfortunate thing is that there are a lot of vacant homes in the 55+ communities simply because people get old and either pass away or need to go to an assisted living arrangement.  These vacant homes often need to be sold by out of state relatives and can be very good buys and an easier transaction than a foreclosure.

For a list of 55+ foreclosures or 55+ estate sales give me a call, send me an email or use my Dream Home Finder. All can be found in the green column to the right of this post.