Data Analysis

More than a third of Ocala's home sales in July were brand new, the highest share in Florida

Marion County's median sale price rose 1.1% over the year. Both halves of its market rose faster than that, and the gap between those facts is the story.

New construction accounted for 35.7% of the homes that closed in Marion County in July, 339 sales out of 949. In Fort Lauderdale the same figure was 1.4%.

That is the widest spread of any two markets we cover, and it has been roughly this wide for five years. Marion's new-construction share has held between 9.9% and 42.8% every month since July 2021, and has sat above 34% in all but four of the last twenty-five.

It also explains a number that looks dull on its own. Marion's median sale price in July was $282,000, up 1.1% from $279,000 a year earlier. Statewide, Florida Realtors reported single-family prices up 3.7%. Ocala looks like it barely moved.

Underneath that median, both halves of the market moved more than the median did. Resale homes in Marion closed at a median of $265,000 in July, up 6.0% from $250,000 a year ago. New homes closed at $299,900, up 2.4% from $292,900. Neither of those is 1.1%.

Why the middle number is lower than both halves

A median is the midpoint of what sold. When the mix of what sells changes, the midpoint moves even if no individual home changed price.

In July 2025, new construction was 37.3% of Marion's closings. This July it was 35.7%. New homes there sell for more than resales, so a smaller share of them pulls the midpoint of the combined market down. Both segments got more expensive over the year, and the blended figure rose less than either.

This is the same effect Florida Realtors describes in its own economists' note, which says the median "only reflects the values of the homes that sold each month, and the mix of the types of homes that sell can change over time." In most Florida counties that caveat is a footnote. In Marion it is the main event, because a third of the market is a segment with its own pricing logic.

One detail supports that. The new-construction median of $299,900 is a builder number. Builders price to a round figure and hold it, then move the deal with incentives, rate buydowns and closing-cost credits rather than the sticker. Those concessions do not appear in a sale price. So the 2.4% year-over-year gain on new homes should be read as the change in list-adjacent pricing, and not as the change in what a buyer actually paid net of what the builder gave back.

The rest of the picture

Marion closed 949 sales in July, up 5.0% from 904 a year earlier. Florida Realtors, publishing the Ocala metro as Marion County, reported 837 single-family sales up 6.9% and 52 condo and townhouse sales up 10.6%. Our count runs about 7% above their combined 889, which is the direction to expect: ours is computed live, theirs was compiled on the 10th of August, so we hold late-reported closings they do not, and our residential category is broader than their two published segments.

Half of what sold went under contract within 52 days, one day faster than last July. Sellers received 95.9% of original list price, up from 95.5%. Price per square foot was $172 against $171. Those three barely moved, which is consistent with a market whose headline number barely moved.

Florida Realtors put the Ocala single-family median at $295,000 for July, up 1.8%, and the condo median at $168,500 on 52 sales, down 5.9%. At 52 sales a handful of transactions swings that condo percentage, and it should not be read as a trend.

What this number does not mean

A 35.7% new-construction share does not mean a third of Marion County's housing stock is new. It means a third of what changed hands in one month was new. New homes turn over at closing and then mostly stay put, while the resale market recycles the same stock repeatedly, so new construction is always overrepresented in sales relative to its share of homes standing.

It also does not mean Ocala is building faster than everywhere else this year. This measures closings, and a home closing in July 2026 was permitted and built well before then.

Nothing here values any particular property. A county median describes a market, and it is not an appraisal of anything.

If you are in this market

Buying in Marion means shopping two markets at once, priced $35,000 apart at the midpoint. A resale comparable and a new-build comparable are answering different questions, and an agent pulling comps that mix them without saying so is showing you a blend that describes neither.

If you are looking at new construction, the sale price is the least negotiable part of the transaction and the incentive package is the most. Ask what the builder is paying toward rate buydown and closing costs before comparing a base price to a resale asking price.

Selling a resale home in Marion means competing with a builder who can discount without cutting the price. Your listing has one lever and theirs has several.

If you own in Marion and are not selling, the 1.1% does not describe your home. It describes the midpoint of an unusually mixed set of transactions in a single month.

Limitations

Marion's new-construction and resale counts sum exactly to its total closings in 56 of the last 60 months, which is why this analysis is possible here. That is not true statewide: across all our covered counties the two categories account for under 5% of closings, so a Florida new-construction share cannot be computed from our data and is not published. It is not true for most individual markets either. Ocala, Tampa, St Petersburg, Space Coast, Fort Lauderdale and West Palm Beach have five clean years. Several others became computable only this week.

These figures are preliminary on both sides. Late-reported closings move ours and Florida Realtors' alike.

Sources and links

• Florida Realtors, Statewide by Metropolitan Statistical Area, July 2026
• Our data hub: /data/ocala/
• Tool: /tools/florida-home-affordability.html

Disclosure: Jon Brooks is a co-founder of Momentum Realty, a Florida real estate brokerage that owns and funds Florida Housing Intelligence. Momentum has a financial interest in Florida real estate transactions, including in markets named here. See our editorial standards.