Ocala real estate trends & predictions for 2021: demand side

Ocala Real Estate Predictions for 2021

As the wild ride known as 2020 is nearing its close, now seems like a good time to predict what we might expect in 2021 in real estate trends in Marion County, specifically in Ocala.

When Clay Lehman, president and founder of Resolute Property Management, envisions what to expect, he looks at two sides of the real estate transaction equation: supply and demand. “It’s important to analyze what is driving demand,” he says, “and what could change the supply. When I look at the second half of 2020, I see low inventory and high buyer demand, which in turn has led to an increase in home prices and a whole lot of frenzy in the market.”

Here are more specifics about demand.

Real Estate Demand in Marion County

“The demand,” Clay shares, “is driven by the increased employment, with Marion County’s unemployment rates among the lowest in Florida. Jobs are being added like crazy, with more people coming to our area. I don’t think that will change in 2021, with the area still growing and businesses adding jobs. For example, the World Equestrian Center will open in 2021, and they’re also building a hotel and restaurant. Plus, distribution jobs are still being added in Marion County.”

Many of these jobs pay wages that will make employees likely to rent a home. In fact, during the second half of 2020, we noted how, for Resolute, demand for rentals was crazy. In fact, as Clay had explained, for rental properties in the $1,300 to $1,500 range, we have been receiving multiple applications for each home.

To provide more insights for investors, here is a deep dive on Marion County and real estate investment opportunities.

Here’s another employment-related factor to consider about real estate demand. Besides people moving to the Ocala area because of jobs, there are plenty of people who now are, as Clay puts it, “becoming untethered from a specific geographic location because they are working remotely. This means that they can choose where to live and many of them are moving to Florida.”

Remote work was already becoming increasingly common, even before COVID-19 hit. When looking at 2020 before COVID, nearly half of the employees in the United States (43 percent) were working remotely at least some of the time. Seven million of them were working in a fully remote situation. When looking at the past five years, the number of people working remotely had grown by 44 percent (again, not factoring in COVID) and now we’re in what Time magazine calls “the world’s largest work-from-home experiment.”

Will some of these workers return to a more traditional workplace setting after COVID calms down? Sure. However, large numbers of workers are expressing a desire to remain a remote worker, post-COVID.

For those who will remain untethered geographically, Clay continues, “there are many reasons why people will choose to live in Florida. First, we’re Florida. We’ve always been an in-demand place to live. Plus, there is low property tax, no state income tax, and nice weather. In addition, we’ve had a pretty quiet hurricane season, which typically creates a net migration the following year—meaning, more people moving to Florida than moving away from the state. So, when the pandemic abates, I expect that even more people will migrate to Florida.”

Where in Florida, though? Here is a compare and contrast piece we recently created to show how Ocala is the place to invest in real estate. In it, we compare Ocala properties to those in Orlando and Tampa and show why Ocala would be so appealing to renters.

“Also,” Clay adds, “low interest rates are driving demand across markets. Although this isn’t directly determined by the Federal Reserve, they are a key influencer, and they are committed to not increasing rates until late 2021 or beyond.”

Stay tuned for an upcoming post about real estate supply in Ocala in 2021!

How Resolute Property Management Can Help

If you’re looking for more insights into Ocala real estate demand in 2021, just schedule a 15-minute call today. Our Ocala property management company closely monitors trends to provide investors like you with the best services possible—and we’d love to talk to you about what else we see for Ocala real estate investments going forward.