Everything about Ocala Florida real estate

Ocala Florida Weather Report May 2019

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April was a great month, warm and sunny with no humidity. It’s one of the best months of the year. May is off to a warm humid start. We normally don’t get humidity until near the end of the month but this year you can already feel it and it’s only the first week of May. Days in May will be in the very high 80’s and as the humidity comes back so will afternoon thunderstorms. Of course the warm temperatures and rain make the grass green and the flowers bloom so it’s not that bad.

Ocala Real Estate Market Report March 2019

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Market Report
CLOSED SALES 600
MEDIAN SOLD PRICE $166,750
AVERAGE SOLD PRICE $212,428
MEDIAN % ORIGINAL LIST PRICE 96.5 %
MEDIAN TIME TO CONTRACT 50 days
MEDIAN TIME TO SALE 92 days
NEW PENDING SALES 725
NEW LISTINGS 794
ACTIVE LISTINGS 2566
MONTHS SUPPLY OF INVENTORY 4.6 months

It was a good month for home sales here in Ocala. Although March is one of our best months. The worse the weather is up north the better home sales are down here. As I say every month we are in a mild sellers market. You don’t see many multiple offer situations but nice homes are seller pretty close to list price.

New Home in Del Webb Stone Creek part 3

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This is part 3 of my experience building a new home in Del Webb Stone Creek.

We met our Field Manager on March 8th. It had been about 6 weeks that felt like a very long time before anything seemed to get going. Then BANG as soon as we were assigned Jacob our field manager things really took off. They installed the underground utilities and poured the concrete slab within 7-10 days. Next a crew came in and put up the block walls. We had to wait for inspection of the walls before proceeding but that didn’t take long. Next framers came in and set the roof trusses and sheathed the roof. It was beginning to look like a house. The interior walls were framed, the AC, electric and plumbing are roughed in, exterior doors and windows installed and the roof has been shingled all as of today April 19. Next week we meet with Jacob for a pre drywall build quality orientation. Up to this point we get weekly reports along with pictures of the weeks accomplishments.

Pictures below for anyone who enjoys construction like I do.

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New Home in Del Webb Stone Creek part 2

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This is part 2 of my experience building a new home in Del Webb Stone Creek here in Ocala.

On January 19 we signed our contract. On February 8th we went to the design center to pick out the interior finishes. Almost everything in the house can be upgraded. We decided on all tile floors in every room. Tile on both shower walls. We went with mid level cabinets in the kitchen and baths. We kept the base granite mostly because the upgrades didn’t wow us. We added pull out draws in the kitchen and under cabinets lighting. Although expensive it seemed too hard to do after closing and wouldn’t have come out as professional. We upgraded the base black appliances a couple of levels to stainless Kitchenaid. We had to pick door height 6 or 8 foot, door handle finishes, faucets, cabinet door pulls, even where and how to mount flat screen tv’s. I expected it to be overwhelming but it wasn’t too bad. We are decisive and were in and out in a little over 2 hours. In the end we added $27,000 in options in addition to our lot premium of $18,500.

Nothing else happened until March 7th when we met our Field Manager. Actually he had been busy ordering all the materials for the house and getting the building permit. Building permits take several weeks here.

JB Ranch

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JB Ranch Entry Sign

JB Ranch is a new 55+ community located just off SR 200 here in SW Ocala. JB Ranch was started just before the great real estate crash of 2008. There are a mix of 3 builders. Armstrong Homes, a local builder, built a few homes around 08. Lenar built a couple of dozen homes on lots they still owned in 2018 but have finished. The remaining homes are being built by DR Horton. These are really nice homes that are priced to compete with much older resales. Prices are in the high $100’s to low to mid $200’s.

The clubhouse is brand new. There is a meeting room, kitchen and a fitness room with really nice high end equipment. There is 1 outdoor beach entry type pool. Once built out there are expected to be approximately 380 homes.

HOA fees will include trash pick up and lawn mowing and trimming. Unlike other communities that include lawn mowing in the HOA fee JB allows fences. Once the clubhouse is open HOA fees will be $141- month. That is a lot of value for $141 a month.

Information and statistics 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

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New Home in Del Webb Stone Creek

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This is the first part of a series of posts about my wife and I building a new home in Del Webb Stone Creek. Much of this could apply to other new homes in other communities except of course spec homes.

Mid January 2019. We made our decision to build a new house in Stone Creek. We put down $20,000 to get started. The first step was to decide on a lot. Lots with no or little lot premium backed up to other homes or have a planting separating the homes. We decided on a home that looks out onto the Circle Square Cattle ranch that is owned by the family that builds On Top of the World. The lot premium was $18,500-. The next decisions involved structural components of the house.  We wanted an office with french doors, on the lanai we wanted the slider to close into a pocket and the Lanai to extend 8 feet into a screen cage. I have always loved a Roman shower so we got one. We decided against extending the garage 4 feet because it pushed the house back and we wanted as much yard as possible for our puppy Ginger. One of the bigger decisions was the elevation. The elevation is the front of the house and roof line. There were 6 options for the same floor plan that make the front of the house look totally different. Each having a different price.

A big take away is that in building any new home you can see a base price online. That is really base like a car with an AM radio and roll up windows if you remember back that far. I have heard different numbers but adding $40,000 + or 20% seems to be a good rule of thumb.

In my next post I’ll go over the time line and our visit to the design center.

Ocala Florida Weather Report April 2019

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It has been a weird winter and a weird spring so far here in Ocala. I swear February was warmer than March. I can accept a cool February and by that I mean the 60’s but March should be in the mid to high 70’s and beautiful and sunny with no humidity. It was more like February this year.

April is also one of my favorite months. It will or should be warm in the 80’s without any humidity. The nights are cool and you can sleep with your windows open.

Both my sister and sister in law fell on the ice up in our home state of Massachusetts this year. Both got hurt but nothing permanent. Like my sister said when you fall as you get older you don’t bounce like you used to. Just another reason to move to Ocala. We never get ice.

Ocala Real Estate Market Report February 2019

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Market Report
CLOSED SALES 481
MEDIAN SOLD PRICE $166,500
AVERAGE SOLD PRICE $190,977
MEDIAN % ORIGINAL LIST PRICE 96.6 %
MEDIAN TIME TO CONTRACT 56 days
MEDIAN TIME TO SALE 102 days
NEW PENDING SALES 653
NEW LISTINGS 754
ACTIVE LISTINGS 2638
MONTHS SUPPLY OF INVENTORY 4.7 months

February sales were up from January as would be expected since January sales are from contracts written over the holidays. We don’t have a real selling season here in Ocala. We sell homes all year round unlike up north where not much happens during the winter. However we do sell more homes in the first 6 months of the year than the second. The worse the winter is up north the better sales are here in Ocala.

We are still in a sellers market. Well maintained homes with something unique about them sell quickly. Prices have gone up and will continue to rise in my opinion.

I am moving to a 55+ community

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When my wife and I first moved to Ocala in 2004 we were only 49. Coming from a log cabin on 12 acres in Maine we made a pretty radical transition and bought a pool home on a 1/2 acre in SW Ocala. We loved the concept of a pool under a big screen cage right off the Lanai.

Fast forward 15 years. We are tired of maintaining our yard and pool. The pool really isn’t that hard but the maintaining the yard which was a sort of gardening hobby is getting old.

Time for a change. I have taken my wife on tours of 55+ communities in the past but we always thought the lots were small, didn’t want to pay HOA fees and weren’t interested in social activities. We decided a home with a view in back was really nice despite homes close on either side. We think the HOA fees are worth it because the curb appeal of the community beats any Not 55+ we can afford and we will utilize some amenities like the dog park and fitness center.

We have never had a new home and that’s a big factor in our move too. We are building a new home in Del Webb Stone Creek. I plan to blog about my new home building experience so people can follow the process in the very near future.

Ocala Real Estate Market Report January 2019

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Market Report
CLOSED SALES 401
MEDIAN SOLD PRICE $159,900
AVERAGE SOLD PRICE $185,322
MEDIAN % ORIGINAL LIST PRICE 95.5 %
MEDIAN TIME TO CONTRACT 53 days
MEDIAN TIME TO SALE 94 days
NEW PENDING SALES 625
NEW LISTINGS 867
ACTIVE LISTINGS 2619
MONTHS SUPPLY OF INVENTORY 4.7 months

January was slower than past months but that is a result of contracts being written during the previous 30-45 days which were the Holidays. As I keep saying we are in a sellers market. There is not enough inventory. We need more new construction.