Candler Hills Ocala Florida

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Candler Hills Entry Sign

Candler Hills Sign

Candler Hills is an active 55+ golf course community located in SW Ocala. Candler Hills is a newer part of the On Top of the World Communities. The homes here are of concrete block and stucco construction and built within the last few years. There are new homes for sale and quite a few resales. HOA fees include a 24 hour guard at the gate, common area maintenance, curb side trash pickup, access to On Top of the World amenities, discount golf fees and the exclusive Candler Hills clubhouse and heated outdoor pool. Candler Hills is a golf cart community meaning you can drive your cart down the road. As a matter of fact you could drive all the way to a super market if you were so inclined. You are not allowed to finance more than 80% of the purchase price of a home here. Candler Hills has very high quality and very energy efficient newer home. Candler Hills unlike OTOTW itself is a fee simple community meaning you own the land. There are Community Development District bonds attached to most of the resale homes which add approximately $900- year to your taxes.

Update 3/24/15 HOA fees are currently $229- month. I think resale homes in Candler Hills are a bargain at the present time.

Update HOA fees are $233- month. I still think that resales are a bargain in Candler Hills. These are the best built 55+ homes in our area in my opinion.

Update 1/18/2017 HOA fees have increased to $257.30 per month. I am told there is a very impressive Candler Hills clubhouse under construction. I will update and add pictures when available.

Update 1/4/2018 There is a lot of new home building in Candler West. A new clubhouse and pool have also been added see pictures below. HOA fees went up to $271.44 month.

Update 1/23/19 HOA fees are now $276.24 month and include access to all the amenities in OTOW as well as the Candler Hills Lodge.

Update 1/07/2020 HOA fees have gone up to $282.36

Update 3/4/2021 HOA fees have gone up to $289.56 a month

If you would like a list of homes for sale in Candler Hills fill out my Ocala Dream Home Finder, call me or send an email. I will set you up a Listing Cart on the Ocala MLS for Candler Hills.

Pictures below

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Indigo East Ocala FL

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Indigo East entrance sign

Indigo East

Indigo East is a newer part of On Top of the World communities. It is located just north of SR 200 and is close to shopping restaurants and health care.  Homes in Indigo East are all of concrete block and stucco construction and range in size from around 1200 sq ft of living area to a little over 2,000.  Prices are in the $100-200,000- range with most in the middle. Indigo East has an electronic gate that works on a bar code but not a person in a guard house at the gate. There is a nice clubhouse and pool. HOA fees include maintenance of the common areas, clubhouse, curbside trash pickup. For an additional $750- year per household you can use all the amenities at On Top of the World such as the indoor pool, fitness center and clubs.

Indigo East also has Community Development District bonds that add $483- per year to the taxes and an additional common area maintenance fee that adds an additional $296- year to the taxes. Bonds are for 30 years and the maintenance fee is forever and can go up or down. Great homes for the money despite the CDD bonds and resulting taxes.

Update 3/15 HOA fees are $133- month. Price remain stable. Great prices on newer CBS homes.

Update 3/16 HOA fees are now $136- month. There is also new construction and there is a current promotion where the builder is selling new homes with no CDD bonds. Prices start at only $150 K.

Update 1/18/2017 HOA fees went up to $150.47 month. They are renovating and expanding the clubhouse but I am told that there is still no exercise room.

Update 1/9/2018 They are building a lot of new homes and are adding a new clubhouse with a pool and fitness area. HOA fees went up to $159.87 month.

Update 10/29/18 The new fitness center and 2nd pool are now open. Pictures below.

Up date 1/23/19  HOA fees are now $161.47 month. New homes are selling like crazy in Indigo East. They are about 85% sold out. I have also seen a couple of almost new resales already.

Update 1/07/2020 HOA fees have gone up to $166.31. Indigo is almost built out.

Update 3/4/2021 HOA fees have gone up to $174.07 per month

If you would like a list of homes for sale in Indigo East fill out my Ocala Dream Home Finder , call me or send me an email. I will set you up a Listing Cart on the Ocala MLS for homes in Indigo East.

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Closing costs on new homes vs resales

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In Marion County the seller traditionally pays for title insurance and a tile company handles the closing. The seller pays Documentary Stamps a Florida tax on the sale of a home that is .007 % of the sale price. Unlike resales new home builders don’t pay either for title insurance or Doc Stamps. On a $200,000- home Title Ins. and Doc Stamps would ad up to $2700- +/-.

Some builders offer incentives, a fee at closing to the buyers. These vary by the builder and depend on how sales are doing. You might see them on a Spec home that has been there a while, a model that isn’t the most popular or a home on a less desirable lot. Incentives can offset closing costs.

Just sold a new home in JB Ranch

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JB Ranch entry sign

JB Ranch is a new 55+ community here in Ocala. It is located off SR 200 and couldn’t be in a better location. I haven’t done a blog profile yet because the community is so new the clubhouse is under construction. There are 2 national builders there DR Horton and Lennar Homes. Both are offering new homes for very close to the price per square foot of a resale.

I just sold a new home by Lennar. I was impressed by the standard features. The kitchen has 42″ upper cabinets, quartz counter tops and really nice GE appliances standard.. A washer and dryer are also standard something you never see in new homes. . The master bath has a walk in tiled Roman shower. It is a smart home with all sorts of new smart features that I’m just getting up to speed on. All at the prices of a nice resale around $100- to $115 sqft of living area.

See a few pictures below

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New homes in Ocala Florida

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New home building has started to pick up in the Ocala and surrounding Marion County Florida area. For the longest time new home building was dead. Starting in maybe 2015 things picked up and now there is new construction popping up around the county.

Where. Not 55+ homes are being built in Silver Springs Shores, Marion Oaks, Ocala Park Estates, Heathbrook, Oak Hill Plantation, Ocala Waterway and Meadow Glenn to name a few areas with a fair amount of new homes. The 55+ communities with new home construction are JB Ranch, Del Webb Stone Creek, On Top of the World including Candler Hills and Indigo East and Trilogy Ocala Preserve.

Price. Prices vary quite a bit. Excluding very high end homes prices run from about $100- Sqft to $150 sqft. That is sqft of living area, the area that is heated and cooled.

Upgrades. Although there are spec homes that you can buy either finished or almost finished a lot of new homes are semi custom. I was told by a salesperson at a large 55+ that a good ballpark number for upgrades is to add 20% to the base price you often see advertised.

If you are interested in a new homes call me. Using a Realtor doesn’t effect the price of a new home. I can also show you alternatives such as resales just a few years old. New home sales people are employees of the builder just like a car salesperson.

Is Ocala headed for a sellers market ?

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When the real estate market crashed in 2007 Ocala was hard hit. Resales went so low new home builders couldn’t compete. No one has started a major new community in almost 10 years. Subdivisions that already existed continued to build sporadically during those years but there were no new major investments. Only in the last year have we seen new investment. Shea homes started a Trilogy community. DR Horton is building in the area including JB Ranch. On Top of the World is building in new areas of Candler Hills and Indigo East. But those are established or revived subdivisions that already existed in some form.

In other parts of the country you buy a home in a town because you got a job there, you grew up there or you have relatives there. Here in Ocala people come here to escape the winters, retire on a budget or to escape the taxes and home owner insurance of southern Florida or some other state. Ocala needs it’s home inventory to constantly increase to keep up with newcomers. To some extent the flow of newcomers slowed when they couldn’t sell an existing home but it never stopped. People retire when it’s time to retire. Based on this I feel Ocala will have a housing shortage and a sellers market in the near future.

Trilogy Ocala Preserve

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large paver area with furniture looking out to a small pond

View of Reflection Lake from Lakeview Veranda

Ocala Preserve is a new Trilogy community developed by Shea homes. It is located on SR 27 in the NW horse farm area of Marion County just a couple of miles west of I 75. There may from time to time be a couple of resales but most homes here are new. The HOA fees are currently $395- month but cover a lot. There is outside maintenance including mowing, pruning, lawn care and water for the lawn. You pay for water you use in the house. Trash is not included and is $17- month extra. You also get cable tv the Centurylink Prism Essentials package but a DVR is extra. A blazing fast 100 mg internet is also included in the HOA fee. There is a fitness center with Technogym equipment which can interact with an app on your smartphone. The clubhouse called the Oak House has a restaurant, a special kitchen for cooking classes and private dining area. There is an outdoor heated resort type pool and a lap pool but no indoor pool. There is also a golf course designed by Tom Lehman, The Club at Ocala Preserve. Trilogy at the Ocala Preserve delivers a definite resort feel popular in newer 55+ communities. Of special interest to those who are not 55+ yet is a section of the community that is not age restricted. In addition to all of the above there is a dog park, extensive walking and biking trails, Reflection Lake where you can fish or kayak, pickleball courts, tennis, and a large green area called Reunion Park. The community is gated with a real life person at the gate.

Update June 1 2018 HOA fee is now $415- Month

Update 3/2/2020 HOA fee is now $430- Month

If you are interested in new homes at Ocala Preserve call me, email me or use my Ocala Dream Home Finder. I can show you new homes at Trilogy, competing Ocala 55+ communities and newer resales to help you make the best decision for your move.

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Ocala Florida weather report March 2017

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several yellow and orange color Orchids on a glass table

Orchids growing on Joe’s Lanai

February was much warmer then normal. Many days were close to 80. We didn’t have a decent frost this year where I live in the SW area. March is the beginning of spring here. The grass is getting green and the azaleas are beginning to bloom.

If you are living with snow and ice while I’m growing orchids on my Lanai you should join me living here in Ocala. Hoses are still very reasonable, taxes and living expenses are low and the weather is great.

New home prices in Ocala Florida

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Below is an article I saw in the Florida Realtors newsletter that I get every day. It talks about new home prices and how builders can’t afford to build lower priced homes. I think this is something buyers don’t understand. This is especially important to understanding new and newer home prices in Ocala. When the real estate market crashed in 2007 home prices fell too low for builders to build new homes. No one started a major new subdivision until just last year. Many resales were selling for $70 to $90 sqft of living area when new home builders need $110 to $130 sqft minimum to make money. This shows that prices don’t just go down for new homes builders stop building. There still are lower priced homes here but they are from the 80’s to the early 2000’s. Newer homes, 2004+, are at a premium as so few new homes were built during the Great Recession. That is not to say newer home prices here in Ocala are high. In fact they are quite low compared to some other parts of the country.

Lower-priced homes ? Builders can’t do it

CHICAGO – June 13, 2016 – Builders find it increasingly difficult to build a home for under $150,000, despite rising consumer demand for more affordable home options.

The median sales price of a new single-family home in 2015 was just under $300,000, according to the National Association of Home Builders; and about 78 percent of new homes were priced between $150,000 and $500,000. Less than 6 percent were priced under $150,000, and an even smaller share was priced under $100,000.

Yet, a 2015 Home Buyer Preference Survey conducted by NAHB shows that 31 percent of recent or prospective home shoppers say they expect to pay less than $150,000 for a home. Fifteen percent expect to pay under $100,000.

“The costs of acquiring land, developing it into a lot and constructing a home on it often make it impossible to produce a new home at a price substantially below $150,000,” NAHB notes on its blog, Eye on Housing.

Government regulation on a new home alone accounts for 24.3 percent of the price of the home – or about $84,000 based on the average new-home price.

“Cost factors like these leave little mystery about why the lower 30 percent of the home buying public is often restricted to the market for existing homes,” NAHB notes.

Source: “New House Price Data Shows Why Costs Are a Problem,” National Association of Home Builders’ Eye on Housing blog (June 6, 2016)

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