Ocala Real Estate Talk

Sales in March were way up over the 2 previous months so far this year. January had 227 residential sales and February had 283. Of course both those months were influenced by the holidays when you consider that it takes 30 to 60 days to close.

Short Sales and Foreclosures combined represented 46% of sales. This is a percentage that was pretty constant through most of 2009. As long as these distress sales are such a huge part of our market we will not see home prices rising. This is bad for sellers and great for buyers.

The Fed just recently stopped buying mortgage backed securities from Fannie and Freddie. A lot of people including myself were concerned that mortgage rates would shoot up because the FED was artificially keeping rates low. So far rates have edged up slightly and are up just a little over this time last year.  This is good news for both buyers and sellers but rates need to be watched carefully.

If you are a seller waiting for the market to come back forget it. Prices in 2005-2008 should never have been that high in the first place. The Ocala area never had an economy to support those high home prices and won’t for the foreseeable future.

If you are a buyer interest rates are at historical lows and the type of buyers market that we have currently will only happen once in a life time. If you are a serious buyer you need an agent. Call me or fill out my Ocala Dream Home Finder today.

Sales in December were 374 homes here in Marion County. If you remember my November report I thought sales were oddly low that month with only 266 sales. Apparently it was just a statistical fluctuation. Probably just a result of the time that offers were accepted or the time required to close the transactions.

Just as in previous months, the vast majority of sales are below $200,000- and over half are below $100,000.00. Once again foreclosures and to a lesser extent short sales account for over 50% of all sales.

The total number of listings seem to be pretty constant at around 5,500. As I’ve said many times, our market won’t recover until the number of active listings goes down. If you take 5534 active listings and divide it by the sales in December you get 14.8 months of inventory.

In general 2009 was a huge improvement over the past 2 years.  Prices are down but volume is way up. There were 3224 sales of residential homes in Marion County in 2009 as compared to 2008 with 2453 and 2007 at 3169.

Sales in October were 337 homes, September was 300 homes, August 294 homes, July came in at 282 homes and June at 329. Total listings remain around 5,500 homes. About 14 homes sell every business day in Marion County.

Sellers sales are still being driven by bargain hunters. As you can see most homes sell for less than $200,000 and the majority sell below $100,000. There were 31 short sales and 137 foreclosure sales in October. That accounts for 50% of all sold homes. The Ocala area has a 13.5% unemployment rate. It will be 10 years before the market returns to the prices we saw in 2005-07. Waiting for the market to recover is not an option.

Buyers prices aren’t going much lower. We are already rolled back to about 2004. Interest rates are at historical lows and given the federal deficit and the weak dollar interest rates have to go up soon. There is still a great selection but if you’re looking for one of those newer foreclosures there are a finite number and they will run out sooner or later.

Sales in June were 305 homes in Marion County. That’s a large increase over January at 142, February at 188, March at 220, April at 229 7 May at 259. This is a steady upward trend. Total listings also keep steadily going down which is great news.

We saw a huge increase in sales during June. This is all a result of lower prices. Buyers realize that prices are near bottom and interest rates are at historical lows with no where to go but up. Sellers realize that price is what sells a house in this market and that over priced homes just get over looked.

I don’t see prices going back up for a long time but the increase in sales combined with the decrease in listings is a very welcome sign.

Although I’m very optimistic about the increase is sales it should be noted that Foreclosures and Short sales accounted for 135 of the 319 sales in June. That’s 40%. Short sales being 37 sold and foreclosures a whopping 98 sales.

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.