Ocala Real Estate Talk

Home sales in Ocala/Marion County were up over November. That’s not a surprise as we are going into Snowbird season. We don’t have an off season like winter in northern areas but we do have more business in the winter than the summer. The worse the winter is up north the better it is for selling homes here in Ocala.

IS THE WORST BEHIND US?

The following analysis is from Michael White and Ocala Valuation Services a local appraiser.

Based on the declining amount of inventory, Marion County may be near the bottom for real estate values. Values have continued to decline, although at the slowest rate since 2007. Meanwhile inventory levels have been reduced substantially. In 2011, the Marion County Multiple Listing Service (OMCAR) saw more than 4,300 single-family homes sold. This is the highest number since 2006, when more than 4,700 homes were sold. At the end of 2008, Marion County had a 26 month supply of single-family inventory, compared to an 18 month supply at the end of 2009, a 13 month supply at the end of 2010 and a 9 month supply at the end of last year. Absorption rates have increased from 215 per month in 2008, to 268 in 2009, 333 in 2010 and 361 last year.

Several areas are noted to be under-supplied at present, including Marion Oaks,Silver Springs Shores and the 34479 zip code in NE Ocala. Marion Oaks currently has less than a four month supply while Silver Springs Shores has slightly more than a three month supply. At the end of 2011, Silver Springs Shores and Marion Oaks accounted for 8% of the available inventory recorded in the OMCAR database. 21% of all residential properties sold in 2011 through OMCAR were located in these two subdivisions as well.

Of all of the data analyzed, the reduction in distress properties (foreclosure and short sales) seemed to stand out the most. Distress sales accounted for 39% of all sales countywide in 2009, 51% in 2010 and 47% in 2011. At the end of 2011, only 21% of all active listings were marketed as distress properties.

OK, this is where I tell you that now is the time to buy. Call me, email me or better yet use my Ocala Dream Home Finder.

I always have buyers looking for a retirement home and an item high on their wish list is a nice view.  Most retirement communities are laid out with parallel streets and the homes are back to back. This is especially true of newer communities. If you think about it this makes a lot of sense. The builder gets a maximum number of homes on his land.

There are options for what you’ll see in back of a 55+ home.

1. A house right behind you, which is by far the most common.

2. A house right behind you screened by a buffer of trees or shrubs. In this case you’ll still see you neighbor to some extent

3. A view of woods. You find this in a home located on the outside perimeter of a community.

4. A golf course view. This is a premium lot that adds a great deal to the price of a new home but you do find deals on resales.

Some of your best bets for finding a home with out another home directly in back of you are Oak Run and Ocala Palms. Oak Run isn’t laid out with parallel streets. It is divided into neighborhoods and a lot of homes face a buffer between these neighborhoods. Ocala Palms was set out to maximize the number of golf course lots. There are great prices on homes with golf course frontage in Ocala Palms.

If you’re interested in Ocala 55+ retirement homes then either call me, email me or better yet use my Ocala Dream Home Finder.

January is the only true full month of winter here in Ocala. December gets colder towards the end of the month and February begins to warm up by the end of the month. Winter in Ocala revolves around cold fronts. The normal high is around 70 but for a couple of days after a cold front comes through temperatures during the day can get down into the 60′s and even 50′s. Then things warm back up until the next time a front comes through. It’s hardly ever rains, there is no humidity and the sun shines every day. That’s winter in Ocala.

Looking back December 2011 was unusually warm this year. Most days were in the mid to high 70′s with no humidity.  Absolutely fantastic weather all month long.

If you’re sick of northern winters then why not move to Ocala.  With interest rates so low you can buy a house here for a mortgage payment not much different than a loan for a really nice car!! Call me, email me or use my Dream Home Finder.

In November there were 306 residential sales on the Ocala/Marion County MLS. That’s up from October but down from previous months this year. The most noticeable thing is the lack of foreclosure sales. I can’t remember when we had only 51 foreclosures sell in a month. If you look at the above link you’ll see a decline from around 150 foreclosure sales per month to this months low. There is supposed to be a shadow inventory. That is homes foreclosed on by banks that haven’t been put on the market. It will be interesting to see if foreclosure sales pick up in 2012.

The winter is the big home selling season here in Ocala. Unlike up north we don’t have an off season but we do have prime time and that’s winter. The worse the winter is up north the better my sales are here in Ocala. I’m expecting a great winter. I have 4 homes under contract and I’m making appointments for January and February.

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 or by auction that were not  listed on the MLS, commercial properties or vacant land.

Orange trees fruit in the winter

December is the beginning of winter here in Ocala. Temperatures will be in the low 70′s during the day and in the mid 40′s at night. Winter in Ocala revolves around cold fronts that come through every couple of weeks. Temperatures will be in the 70′s and then a front will arrive dropping temp’s down in the 60′s for 2 or 3 days. Then a warm up back to the 70′s until the next cold front and it’s like that all winter long. It’s the dry season from October until May. There is very little rain and it’s sunny almost every day.

I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. It was in the low 70′s here in SW Ocala. We were able to eat Thanksgiving dinner out on the Lanai.

If you’re sick of the winters where you live then stop complaining and move to Ocala. The hot humid summers are a small price to pay for no winter.

Ocala area home sales were down in October compared to last month. In September there were 360 sales which is 77 more than October. Almost all of the difference was in the sub $100,000- range. Foreclosures are way down from the spring of the year with only 73 sales this month. Inventory is holding steady after a huge drop in the first months of this year.

Have Ocala home prices bottomed out and will there be a big rebound as in this article in today’s Ocala Star Banner? I don’t see how prices can go much lower but I also think several things have to happen before prices will go up too.

1. Out of area buyers have to be able to sell their existing homes.

2. Ocala unemployment has to go way down from the current 12% so locals can buy a house. You can’t buy a house, no matter how cheap, without income.

3. Inventory has to go down considerably in order for prices to rise. More than 6 months inventory is a buyers market. Inventory would have to drop from todays 3700 units to around 2000.

4. The foreclosure inventory, especially newer foreclosures, need to be sold off. Unemployment has to go down to keep more homes from being foreclosed. Banks have to stop using foreclosures and short sales as comparables when doing appraisals. Never ending foreclosures killed the Ocala real estate market.

I do think there is a growing pent up demand for new homes, especially in the 55+ communities. However buyers don’t seem to understand that builders can’t compete on price with current resales.

We are entering Snow Bird season which is great for home selling in Ocala. Winter is an excellent time to sell and if you’re sick of northern winters it’s a great time to buy.

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 or by auction that were not  listed on the MLS, commercial properties or vacant land.

November weather is great here in Ocala. The month starts with highs approaching 80 and by the end of the month highs should be in the low 70′s. This is the dry season. We only get a couple of inches of rain during the entire month of November.  The humidity is gone and won’t be back until late May.

Although hurricane season technically doesn’t end until the end of November, I think the season is basically over by the end of October. Once again Florida escaped without a direct hit.

If you live up north and dread the winters then why not move to Ocala.  Winter is the best time of year here. It’s basically in the 70′s with no humidity from mid October until Memorial day. We have the lowest median home prices in Florida and our property taxes and home owners insurance are a lot less than south Florida.

Here in Ocala we have the lowest mediam home prices in Florida. We have foreclosures, estate sales and even great prices on traditional sales. I mostly work with buyers and I’ve seen 100′s of such homes.  I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s a big mistake to concentrate on just the price. Buyers don’t think enough about condition.

I think the big 4 are the age of the roof, the AC heat pump unit,  the flooring and the kitchen appliances. When looking at newer foreclosures I’d add landscaping to this list.

The roof. Standard shingles here last about 15 years. Some insurance companies won’t insure a house with a standard shingle roof over 15 years old. Architectural shingles are good for 20 years or so.  The heat of our summers give a roof a real beating.

The AC unit, which in most cases is a heat pump, is harder to judge. An AC guy told me that they can break in 5 years and I’ve seen them 20 years old.

Flooring is really taken for granted. To carpet an entire house, as can be the case in an estate sale or even a newer foreclosure, can cost as much as a roof. For some reason buyers who would walk away from a house with a bad roof will have no problem replacing flooring. Flooring prices vary a lot from builder quality carpet to tile and wood floors.

Kitchen appliances can be 20 years old in an estate sale and missing altogether in many foreclosures. Here again there is a big difference in price between builder quality and top of the line. I do think appliances are at the bottom of the list price wise though.

Landscaping is often totally absent in foreclosures. No shrubs or trees, dead sod in the front of the home and a back yard that never had grass in the first place because builders here for some reason give an amount of sod that won’t cover the whole yard. You don’t over seed a bad lawn here. You rip out the old sod and lay down new sod.  Mature trees and shrubs won’t add anything to an appraisal. However I owned a landscape company and I can tell you an extensive landscape job on the house in an empty field can cost as much as all the four items above combined! Curb appeal is what makes a house a home.

Am I trying to sell more expensive houses? No I just believe too many people are “Penny wise and pound foolish”. I’ve walked out of what at first appeared to be low priced homes and said to my buyers that they couldn’t buy that house cheap enough to make up for all the work it needed.

Ocala area home sales have been pretty steady since June, plus or minus 5%. Active listings have remained about the same since June after dropping around 1,000 units earlier this year. Foreclosures are down about 30% from early 2011. Short sales always seem to be about the same.

You can see all my market reports and compare them month to month yourself at Ocala Home Sales. I think you’ll see that we are at the bottom of the market.

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 or by auction that were not  listed on the MLS, commercial properties or vacant land.

The cooler dryer weather arrived early this year. By cooler I mean the 80′s but that is cool by Ocala standards. A cold front came through over the week end and on Saturday, October 1st, I woke up to temperatures in the 50′s. The high on Saturday barely reached 80. As this week goes on we are expected to get back to normal for early October which is the high 80′s. By the end of this month temperatures during the day should be around 80. This is the beginning of the best time of year here in Ocala. I love the 80′s with no humidity. As a matter of fact the humidity is gone and won’t come back until late May. If you dread the winter months stop complaining and move to Ocala. Ocala has great weather and some of the lowest home prices in Florida.