Marion County Sees Construction Boom, Not Bust

While the housing bubble may be leaking air in many areas of the nation, the building boom continues in Marion County, Florida, with a record number of residential and commercial construction starts in the past 12 months, the Ocala Star-Banner reports.

The Marion County Building Department reported issuing building permits for 6,355 homes from October 1, 2005 through September 30, 2006, a 12.6 percent increase from the same period the year before. New commercial construction starts during the past year also set a record for Marion County.

Despite a rise in Florida mortgage costs, local taxes and insurance over the past calendar year, the county’s Building Department issued permits for 122 commercial projects during the same 12-month period, 40.2 percent more than the year before.

But Building Director John O’Conner said that even though construction was on the rise in Marion County the trend likely would continue upward with no signs of letting up soon.

“We are the next targeted growth area as Orlando and Tampa developers look up the interstate,” he said.

Much of the new housing activity also has its roots in older subdivisions that never were fully developed before now, O’Conner said.

As the Central Florida housing market heated up during the past few years, buyers created a market for new construction within those underutilized developments. There are still thousands of empty lots in subdivisions such as Silver Springs Shores southeast of Ocala and Marion Oaks in southern Marion County, he said.

To keep pace, O’Conner plans to add 11 new staff members to his department to accommodate the soaring permit and home inspection requests. He currently has 87 employees.

Carolyn Roberts, of Roberts Real Estate, said that Marion County’s housing market is doing well, although selling in a buyer’s market is proving to take longer than during the height of the real estate frenzy earlier this year and in 2005.

“Our housing market is stable, Our county has job growth. I don’t expect a downturn,” she said.

But now many of those homes built on speculation (by real estate developers without specific buyers) will sit an average of 7-11 months before they’re bought, Roberts predicted. That’s a lot of excess inventory that still has to be absorbed.

Location one of the major issues that fuels new construction, she said. Ocala is close to Tampa, Jacksonville and Orlando, area medical facilities and the University of Florida, all of which contributes to the area’s popularity.

“You couldn’t find a more inviting place to move,” Roberts said.

The same rising Florida real estate tide in Marion County also is keeping the city of Ocala’s construction market buoyant.

The Ocala Building Department reported issuing a total of 703 permits to developers from October 2005 to September 2006 authorizing new housing starts within its city limits. That was an 11.2 percent increase from the year before.

Commercial development within Ocala during the past year surpassed that. During the past year, the city issued 130 permits allowing commercial real estate construction, up 5.7 percent from the previous year.

In addition, housing construction within Ocala, while high for the year as a whole, was declining month by month leading up to the fall. The steady rise in property tax rates, as well as insurance premiums throughout the state, have adversely impacted home sales.