September weather here in Ocala, like all of Florida, is the peak of hurricane season. Hurricane season lasts from June until the end of October but mid August to early October is really where all the action is.
Ocala is one of the least hurricane likely places to live in Florida. It's one of the main reasons I moved here myself. Below are a couple of interesting hurricane web sites.
I like the hurricane risk map on this site....FloridaHurricane.net
This is a a site that has a coastal risk atlas, a very complicated multi layered map. Really great if you have an engineer or geeky personality. FloridaRiskAtlas
Aside from hurricanes it has been really humid for the first couple of weeks this month. We are still in the 90's most days and the 70's at night. Things should cool down a little by the end of the month.
OCALA REAL ESTATE MARKET REPORT
Homes Sold August 2008 ..............221*
$100,000.00 or less..........................67
$101 to $200,000.00.......................111
$201 to $300,000.00.........................31
$301 to $500,000.00.........................9
$500,000.00 Plus..............................3
Active Listings as of 8/05/08.......7066*
*This does not count homes sold by builders that may not be listed on the MLS Number may be revised due to late reports from board of Realtors.
WHAT"S HOT IN OCALA REAL ESTATE
· Foreclosures
· Newer Homes priced to compete with foreclosures & short sales
Sales in August were 221 homes up from July's very disappointing 190 homes. I think we are near the bottom of the market. That doesn't mean that I think prices will recover any time soon. Prices will not go back up until inventory goes down, way down below 2500 units.
Motivated sellers have been selling homes that were priced to compete with foreclosures and short sales. When you sell a house odds are the buyer will need financing. A bank will order an appraisal. Bank sales like short sales and foreclosures are usually passed over by appraisers because they are distressed properties. However these motivated seller sales do count and they are bringing prices down. I just lost a sale as a buyers agent when the appraisal came back $10,000.00 below the buyers offer and the seller wouldn't drop their price. The moral of this story is that your home is only worth the amount that a bank is willing to finance. Banks are getting more and more conservative after having been stuck with a lot of bad loans. The appraisal industry is also being watched after being a little too cooperative in the past. The seller can set any price they want but unless you get a cash buyer the house has to pass a bank appraisal.
If you're a buyer this is a great time to buy a house. In 5 years people will be looking back and kicking themselves for not taking advantage of today's prices.
Search the Ocala MLS on my web site.
See Ocala Homes that are priced to sell.
Think about it, as the expression goes. Interest rates are a historical lows. Oil prices dominate the evening news every night. Our economy revolves around oil and ever increasing oil prices are a cause of inflation. How does the goverment control inflation? Inflation is regulated by increasing interest rates.
Consider this, if you're waiting for home prices to fall. What if interest rates go up? A rise in interest rates could easily wipe out any saving that you might get by trying to "time the market".
I've been really busy and I'm only getting around to doing my monthly weather report now on August 23rd. It's been a very wet rainy summer. For the past couple of years we have been in drought condition. We we've returned to normal with a vengeance. It seems like it rained every afternoon for the entire month!
You've probably been watching tropical storm Fay flooding the space coast of Florida. Here in Ocala we've had a lot of rain, 2 to 4 inches depending on where you live but nothing like you see on TV. Here where I live in the SW I had to drain my swimming pool and I guess I got more towards the 4 inch area.
Tropical storms and hurricanes feed off the warm ocean water and rapidly lose strength over land. Ocala's big advantage is being located mid way between either coast.
Looking for a home in Ocala? Try my Ocala Dream Home Finder
OCALA REAL ESTATE MARKET REPORT
Homes Sold July 2008 ..............178*
$100,000.00 or less..........................60
$101 to $200,000.00........................87
$201 to $300,000.00........................17
$301 to $500,000.00.........................9
$500,000.00 Plus..............................5
Active Listings as of 8/05/08.......7101*
*This does not count homes sold by builders that may not be listed on the MLS Number may be revised due to late reports from board of Realtors.
WHAT"S HOT IN OCALA REAL ESTATE
· Foreclosures
· Newer Homes priced to compete with foreclosures & short sales
Buyers are looking for foreclosures. and Short Sales, which are pre foreclosures. It is these types of sales that are pulling prices down. Although they aren't supposed to be used as comp's for financing, seller's who have to sell are dropping their prices in an effort to compete with these types of bank sales.
I think foreclosures are just getting started and they will be a driving force in our market for the next year or so.
CHASING THE MARKET DOWN is real estate jargon for lowering your price but always in response to the competition. Unfortunately the leaders sell their houses and the followers don't sell and actually get less than if they had dropped their price initially.
Other times people drop their price to a very competitive level and then just give up after only a month at that good price. Even very well priced homes take 3 or 4 months to sell in this market.
This is all part of a predictable cycle. Builders over build and slash prices to sell off inventory, sellers try short sales to get out of homes they owe too much on, banks foreclose, then there is a period of years before prices rise again. The key will be when inventory declines to more normal levels. We currently have about 30 months of inventory and it needs to be more like 6 months. I think it will take 3 to 5 years before prices go up and I don't think we will hit bottom until mid 2009
For more info about Ocala Real Estate give me a call or shoot me an email.
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Ocala Florida Real Estate as seen by Joe Dallorso. Home Listings, advise for buyers and sellers, market conditions and general commentary on Ocala Florida Real Estate
I have been a self employed entrepeneur all my adult life. I've learned a great deal over those years about customer service. I live by the following rules:
I pride myself in being unconventional. A square peg in a world of round holes. I don't know how to think inside a box. If you think all real estate agents are the same then we should meet.
I specialize in residential real estate in Ocala and surrounding Marion County Florida. I work with both buyers and sellers. As a buyers agent I try to educate my customers about both buying process and local market market conditions.
When listing a home for sale, I try to get the highest price possible in the least amount of time. I like to keep my sellers well informed by providing weekly reports. I work a lot with expired and withdrawn listings as I beleive that a properly priced and agressively marketed home will sell regardless of market conditions.
I'm very interested in technology, 80% of buyers start their search online. I'm well aware of the power of the internet. I started my first web site as the owner of another business way back in 1999. I currently own a custom built web site with loads of Ocala information and tons of images all of which is totally original and can't been found any where else.
In conjunction with my interest in technology is my desire to help people relocate to Ocala. I like to work with people from other areas of the country who would like to move to Ocala or the surrounding Marion County. Despite my love of the internet, it's just no replacement for a Realtor who knows the area and has access to a much more powerfull search like that provided here by Marion County Board of Realtors.
If you're buying or selling in the Ocala or Marion county area please give me a call. I'd love to be your Realtor.
Ocala Florida is best known for its beautiful horse farms. More thoroughbred horses are raised here in Ocala than any where else in the world. There's something in the soil that makes the grass perfect to graze these magnificent and extraordinarily expensive creatures. Of course not all the horses in Ocala are being bred to race. There are literally hundreds some small hobby farms all over Marion County.
Unlike most Florida cities, Ocala has a charming downtown. Downtown Ocala has a nice little town common, complete with a bandstand, beautiful mature live oak trees and park benches. All of which is surrounded by charming little shops and some very nice restaurants. Most towns and small cities in Florida all look a like. Ocala has a small town atmosphere that makes it unique.
Perhaps the best reason to move to Ocala is the price of real estate. Ocala has the second lowest median home price in the state of Florida, second only to Pensacola. Ocala has never been directly hit by a hurricane, making it a safer place to live with a lower cost for home owners insurance.
Ocala is a small city with a small town atmosphere. Located almost equidistant between the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico you can be at the ocean in an hour. Orlando and it's international airport is a little over an hour away. Gainesville and the University of Florida is about 30 minutes. With all this to offer how could you want to relocate to any where else?
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