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Ocala real estate market report for May 2009

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Sales in May were 259 homes in Marion County. That’s a large increase over January at 142, February at 188, March at 220 and April at 229. This is a steady upward trend. Total listings are finally below 6,000 which is great news.

Of course the main reason for this increase in sales is that prices have gone down here in Marion county. The median home price fell 16% in 2008. More so in areas hard hit by foreclosures like The Shores, Marion Oaks, Rainbow Park, Rolling Hills and several others.

I’m seeing a huge increase in hits to my web site. I’m getting between 50 and 75 visitors a day. I think people are realizing that we are near the bottom of the market and now is the time to jump in and get a deal

Ocala real estate sales report for April 2009

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Sales in April were 229 homes in Marion County. That’s a large increase over January at 142, February at 188 and about the same as March which was 220. Total listings also dropped below 6,000 which is great news.I am seeing a huge increase in buyer activity. I’m getting between 50 and 75 visitors a day to my web site and several contacts from buyers every week. That’s the good news. The bad news is that this increase in buyer interest is because home prices have dropped so much. The median home price in Marion County fell 16% in 2008 and more in certain areas.

In my opinion we are at or near the bottom of the market. I don’t expect prices to go up any time soon because there is still way too much inventory, 5900 +/- homes in relation to the number of monthly sales. We have about 30 months of inventory. A buyers market is defined as anything over 6 months of inventory. I think prices will remain fairly flat for the next several years or appreciate at the historical average of 5% or so. The days of 20% appreciation are over and won’t come back in most people’s life times.

Ocala real estate report for March 2009

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Sales were up in March from previous months this year. That’s the good news. The reason that sales are picking up is that home prices have gone down. The median home price on the Ocala Marion County MLS dropped 16% in 2008. Great for buyers. Seller have to accept the fact that the bubble burst and 2004-07 price are gone and won’t return any time soon.

Ocala real estate market report Feb 09

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Note, sales for this period are from offers made 30 to 45 days earlier. This means that the holidays impacted sales and this accounts for the low total. Additionally there was a foreclosure moratorium during that time also.

Active listing continue to go down as over priced sellers just give up. As I always say we will remain in a buyers market until active listings drop below 3,000 homes.

Ocala real estate market report Jan 09

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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.