In most areas of the country, housing inventory is low - meaning, buyers are finding few options on the market and are often having to make fast (and high) offers to get the homes they want. Ocala/Marion County is no exception to this, with one key distinction.
$300k is is a bit of a "magic number" in Marion County. Under that price point, there's very little inventory and it's a pretty strong seller's market. Over that price, we're seeing quite a bit of inventory and a buyer's market.
There are currently 924 homes on the market over $300k. And we're averaging just about 40 homes sold per month over $300k, which equates to over 20 months of inventory, which is quite a bit. If we restrict our search to the city of Ocala, it's not quite as bad, with 429 homes on the market and about 25 homes sold per month. That's about 17 months of inventory.
Generally speaking, anything over 8 months or so is considered a buyer's market. Anything under 4-5 months is considered a seller's market. Under $300k, and particularly under $200k, it's definitely a seller's market (as it currently is in most areas of the country). But Marion County could stand to see a bit less inventory over that magic $300k mark.
Luckily, Bloomberg recently reported that the housing market's comeback should accelerate in 2018. This would be welcome news in that over-$300k segment here in Marion County.
