Home sale prices show slight drop in Florida and Ocala area

The Florida Realtors agents’ association released its May 2024 market report, showing that statewide, the median single-family home sale price dropped slightly to $426,581, a 1.6% year over year increase, and townhouses and condo median sales price also decreased slightly to $330,000, a 1.5% year over year increase.

Ocala/Marion County’s May median sale price reported for single-family homes was $289,900, a drop of 1.7% from last year. Ocala/Marion County saw 927 closings of single-family homes in May, an increase of 9.5% from May 2023.

Single-family market sector

Brad O’Connor, senior economist for the Florida Realtors, a statewide agents’ reporting and professional trade association, said, “Sales of single-family homes fell by less than 1% in May compared to the previous year, while townhouse and condo sales dropped by more than 8.5%. Year-over-year growth in home prices was as weak as it’s been in several months. The median sale price for single-family homes in Florida was around $426,000, slightly over a 1.5% increase from May of last year. For townhouses and condos, the median sale price rose by 1.5% to $330,000.”

The statewide active listing inventory for single-family homes is just over 94,216, an increase of 60.5% over last May.

Overall, inventory levels are rising, O’Connor explained.

“While sales growth remains stagnant, with new listings still climbing compared to a year ago, inventory levels are still rising at the statewide level. That said, we are seeing a decent amount of variation at the county level—and even within several counties, when we drill down to the zip code level. Some parts of the state, like most of South Florida, still have inventory levels below what was typical from, say, 2014 through 2019, leading up to the pandemic. Other areas of the state—particularly suburban and exurban areas on the fringes of other large metros like Tampa-St. Pete, Orlando, and Jacksonville—are seeing inventory levels above pre-pandemic levels. Nothing quite like we saw in 2008 or 2009, mind you, but still notable. These are the areas where we might expect price growth to be slowing down the most in the coming months.”

The association reported the supply of single-family existing homes statewide increased to a 4.4-months’ supply.

“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 decreased slightly by -0.4% with a total of 7,483 throughout Florida, which accounted for 28.5% of all sales, less than one-third 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.”

O’Connor said further, “New listings of single-family home listings were up by over 15% in May, which was the lowest year-over-year increase we’ve reported this year outside of the less-than-8% increase in March. For townhouses and condos, new listings grew by nearly 14% year-over-year in May—also the second-lowest increase reported for this property type category in 2024.”

Townhomes/condos market sector

Locally, the market area of Ocala/Marion County townhouses and condos median sales prices came in at $225,000, an increase of 9.8% over May 2023. A total of 61 closed sales were reported.

Statewide, townhouses and condos active inventory is 61,767, a 91.3% increase from May 2023. Overall, the market is moving toward more activity.

Existing townhouse and condo properties statewide were at a 7.2-months’ supply, an increase of 100% from May of 2023.

For townhomes and condos, the number of cash sales statewide was 5,266 a decrease of 12.3% from May 2023. Those sales represented just over 50% of the market.