Real estate inventory goes up; home sale prices move downward in Florida and Ocala area

The Florida Realtors agents’ association released its August 2024 market report, showing that statewide, the median single-family home sale price in Florida was reduced to $411,638, a 0.8% year over year decrease, and substantially lower than July’s reported $417,000 median price. Townhouses and condo median sales price decreased to $310,000, a 4.3% decrease from August 2023.

The Ocala/Marion County’s August median sale price reported for single-family homes was $290,000, reduced 3.9% from last year. Ocala/Marion County reported 799 closings of single-family homes in August, a decrease of 3.9% from August 2023.

Brad O’Connor, senior economist for the Florida Realtors, a statewide agents’ reporting and professional trade association, said inventory levels have shifted.

“Year to date through the end of August, closed sales of single-family homes are down 1.7%. New listings of single-family homes in August were up by over 2% compared to a year ago, which is the smallest year over year increase we’ve seen for new listings of single-family homes so far this year. Overall, for the year, we are still up by nearly 14% in this category, but we should probably expect a smaller year over year increases for the remainder of the year.”

Single-Family Market Sector

O’Connor also said about sales prices, “The August median sale price for closed single family home sales in Florida was down year over year for the first time in a while. This decline was less than 1%, however, and is not altogether surprising given that inventory has seen fairly significant rises over the past year. Despite showing signs that it is leveling off more recently, the nearly $412,000 median sale price for single family homes is still significantly above pre-pandemic levels.”

Statewide, single family home sales in August were down 1.1% compared to a year ago, with 22,675 total sales reported. The active listing inventory for single-family homes is at 95,658 an increase of 49.5% over last August.

The association reported the supply of single-family existing homes statewide increased to a 4.5-months’ supply, a 50% increase from last August.

“Months’ supply inventory is a useful indicator of market conditions,” the report stated. “The benchmark for a balanced market (favoring neither buyer nor seller) is 5.5 months of inventory. Anything higher is traditionally a buyers’ market, and anything lower is a sellers’ market. “

Statewide, the number of cash sales for single-family homes increased by 12.3% with a total of 5,880 throughout Florida, which accounted for 25.9% of all sales, just over one-quarter of the overall market.

“Cash sales can be a useful indicator,” the report stated, “of the extent to which investors are participating in the market. Investors are far more likely to have the funds to purchase a home available up front, whereas the typical homebuyer requires a mortgage or some other form of financing.”

Townhomes/Condos Market Sector

Locally, the market area of Ocala/Marion County townhouses and condos median sales prices came in at $220,000, an increase of 4.8% from August 2023. A total of 50 closed sales were reported.

Statewide, townhouses and condos median price was $310,000, a decrease of 4.3% from last August. The active inventory is 58,915, a 74.7% increase from August 2023. Overall, this segment of the real estate market is moving toward more activity.

“Over in the townhouse and condo property type category,” said O’Connor, “August was a little bit more turbulent. Closed sales in this category were down by nearly 15% year over year, which is the third year over year decline we’ve seen this year for townhouses and condos, trailing only the nearly 17% decline in March, and the more than 20% decline in June.”

Existing townhouse and condo properties statewide were at a 7.1-months’ supply, an increase of 89.5% over August of 2023.

For townhomes and condos, the number of cash sales statewide was 6,620 a decrease of 22.8% from August 2023. Those sales represented just over 45% of the market.