Homestead Portability in Florida

Homestead Portability applies to people selling a home that has a homestead exemption in Florida and buying a new home in Florida. You can bring your homestead exemption along with you to your next house. It’s not that simple though as I realized when I recently bought my new home. It was a short time after I closed on my new Stone Creek home that I got an email from a local title company with a link to a video talking about a service that checks your Portability. I was shocked that I lost out on almost $500- in tax breaks ! I called my broker and a few real estate friends some whom have been in the business for over 20 years. No one had heard of this.

When you have owned a house for a long time like me 15 years the value of your house goes up. The property appraiser has different values for your house. Assessed value which is what you pay taxes on and Market or Just Value. If your Market or Just Value is way off from the amount you are going to sell your house for you will lose a large amount of Homestead Portability. If you don’t dispute the Market or Just Value before you close on your existing home it’s too late. Period.

This is complicated so here is a link to the service where I saw the video. I am not endorsing them. I’m not affiliated in any way. This is just great info that can save you hundreds on your taxes every year.   https://floridahomesteadcheck.com/

Ocala Real Estate Market Report September 2020

 

Market Report
CLOSED SALES 621
MEDIAN SOLD PRICE $185,000
AVERAGE SOLD PRICE $237,422
MEDIAN % ORIGINAL LIST PRICE 98 %
MEDIAN TIME TO CONTRACT 29 days
MEDIAN TIME TO SALE 84 days
NEW PENDING SALES 676
NEW LISTINGS 663
ACTIVE LISTINGS 1216
MONTHS SUPPLY OF INVENTORY 2.1 months

I get these statistics from our local board of Realtors. They publish last months numbers and the same period a year ago for comparison. You might think with the Covid and a lock down in some states that sales would be way down. Just the opposite ! Sales were up 9.9%. Median sold price up 9.8%. Average sold price up 19%. Median time to contract down from 49 days to 29. Active listings down 52.6% ! We are in a sellers market and Coviid hasn’t slowed it down.

Ocala #6 in Best Places to Retire

Ocala sign for historic downtown square

US News and World Reports published a list of the Best Places to retire in 2020-21 and Ocala came in at # 6 out of 150 major metropolitan areas. You will notice out of the top 20 Ocala has the highest housing affordability score.

Link to article    https://realestate.usnews.com/places/rankings/best-places-to-retire?sort=overall&high_to_low=true

Ocala weather report for October 2020

October in Ocala is the beginning of our fall. It’s also the beginning of the dry season. You can almost divide our year into 2 seasons. From late May until October we have the wet season. During the wet season we have high humidity every day with afternoon thunderstorms several times a week. The dry season is from October until May. It’s warm but not hot. Not a lot of rain and little or no humidity. October is one of my favorite months. Temperatures in the 80’s but dry and sunny.

Ocala Real Estate Market Report August 2020

 

Market Report
CLOSED SALES 658
MEDIAN SOLD PRICE $186,000
AVERAGE SOLD PRICE $224,360
MEDIAN % ORIGINAL LIST PRICE 97.5%
MEDIAN TIME TO CONTRACT 39 days
MEDIAN TIME TO SALE 91 days
NEW PENDING SALES 752
NEW LISTINGS 742
ACTIVE LISTINGS 1392
MONTHS SUPPLY OF INVENTORY 2.4 months

You would think that with the Covid 19 and the lock down in northern states home sales would have come to a screeching halt. Just the opposite home sales are great. Inventory is low. We are in a sellers market but still nothing crazy like multiple offers on every other sale. I have found when making appointments to see hoses that if I try to make 10 appointments I’ll find one or two has an offer but the agent hasn’t had time to post it as pending yet. It’s not uncommon for a house to take 3 or 4 months to sell. If you’re looking to buy there is still a good selection of nice homes. Homes prices have gone up a lot in the past few years and there aren’t many low priced homes like there used to be here in Ocala.