People are still moving to Ocala

I’ve read several times in several places that people are leaving Florida for other places. Most of these articles are based on statistics from moving companies claiming the have more trips leaving the Florida than coming down here.

This may be true for other parts of the state of Florida but it is not true for the Ocala Marion County area.

The US census has just reported that Ocala had an increase in population of 5,500 people. People are moving to Ocala because of low homes prices, lower taxes and property insurance than other parts of Florida, a more laid back life style and the fact Ocala has never been hit by a hurricane.

Ocala Florida weather March 09

Azalea

Spring has sprung here in Ocala. March is the first month of spring in Ocala. All of a sudden the weather warms up to the high 70’s & low 80’s, the grass turns green & the azaleas bloom. Nights do get down to the 50’s but things warm up by 10 in the morning. The air is dry with no humidity. It’s my favorite time of year. No need for heat or the AC. It’s a great time to be outside.

Ocala real estate market report Jan 09

According to the Ocala area MLS we sold 141 homes in January 2009. This number is low because most contracts take 30 to 45 days to close. That means all the closing in January came from offers written during the holidays from Thanksgiving to the end of December.

Of the 142 homes sold 59 were $100,000.00 and below. There are some very affordable houses in Ocala right now. Between $100K and $200K there were 61 sales, still very affordable.

If you are a seller you can see that most sales were below $200,000.00. Buyers are out there but they are mostly in the lower price ranges.

Foreclosures are still hot. During January they accounted for almost 30% of all sales.There were also 10 Short Sales. This is a fairly large number of Short sales that got to closing. I don’t know if banks are being more cooperative or if this was just an unusual month.

Inventory levels are about the same at around 6,500. This still gives us over 30 months of inventory and a severe buyers market.