Residential home sales slowdown statewide

A house that is for sale on Southeast 4th Street in Ocala, Fla. is for sale on Realtor.com for $283,000. The average single family home sold in Marion County for the month of November was $275,000. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2022.

According to a recently released report by Florida Realtors Association, the November statewide median single-family home sale price was $400,000, a 12% year over year increase and townhouses and condo median sales price, $310,000, a 19.2% year over year increase.

In the same report, Ocala/Marion County’s November median sale price for single-family homes was $275,000, up from $250,000 a year before. Local townhouses and condos median sales prices came in at $177,000, up from $162,900 a year before.

Ocala/Marion County has seen a drop of 27.7% in single-family home closings in over the past twelve months, however, that drop is less than the 38.2% experienced statewide.

Higher statewide inventory for single-family homes, townhouses, and condos is impacting how long properties are staying on the market according to the Florida Realtor’s Association

“In many local markets across the state, we’re starting to see more for-sale inventory, which gives previously frustrated buyers more opportunities,” said 2022 Florida Realtors President Christina Pappas, vice president of the Keyes Family of Companies in Miami. “Homes in Florida continue to go under contract quickly, though the time to contract continues to increase: The median time to contract for single-family existing homes last month was 29 days compared to 11 days during the same month a year ago. The median time to contract for existing condo-townhouse units was 27 days compared to 15 days in November 2021.”

The association reported the supply of single-family existing homes increased to a 2.8-months’ supply while existing condo-townhouse properties were at a 2.7-months’ supply in November.

According to Florida Realtors Chief Economist Dr. Brad O’Connor, Freddie Mac’s weekly national mortgage market survey showed that the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate remains above 6% – a rate level not seen since late 2008.

“The effect of these higher rates on homebuyer demand throughout the U.S. this fall was not a positive one,” O’Connor says. “Here in Florida, we could already see that conditions were worsening in response to the rise in rates above 6% in October’s housing market data. Based on those figures, it’s not surprising that the newly released November figures for closed sales from Florida Realtors exhibit similar declines – and we should probably expect similar declines in closed sales for December, as well, given that rates were at their recent peak near 7% for much of November, when many of the homes scheduled to close in December were going under contract.”