ocala (Tampa, Orlando, Gainesville: for sale, home owners insurance, crime)

[ange70]

Any information on ocala, specifically Fore Ranch? I am looking for a new family community. Please give me any input that you have. Thanks.

[Jammie]

At the top of the page where it says, "Search", type in Ocala. There is a lot of info about the city on here in the archives. There are finally a few members here from Ocala and they may be able to give you specifics about the place you're looking at.

[lulu]

Jammie,

Are you surviving? How's the cold there?????? brrrr.......

[Jammie]

Ange, if you're looking for a job or anything, you can check out Ocala4Sale. It's a huge site where everything that's for sale in that area is listed along with employment opportunities.

Lulu, it's COLD up here. My husband has today for a holiday so I took it as a vacation day and I'm SO glad I can just stay in the house. Our back door has a layer of frozen ice on the inside of it. Looks like we should get a new, better insulated door on there next spring.

[MyHomeIsInOcala]

Fore Ranch is on the west/South West side of Ocala. It is just a typical Cookie Cutter Subdivision (like the rest of them LOL)

If you would like, I can go take pictures, I am right around the corner from there!!!

[lulu]

Ohhh..goodness you poor dear. I was thinking about you, since you had mentioned once about the below zero temperatures you experience & how hard it was for you.
Well...I'm sure you've gotten all your blankies out, so try to keep nice & warm - especially those fingers for typing as we don't want to lose you.

[MotleyCrew]

Fore Ranch is built by Pulte and if you go to Pulte Homes. com you can see the floor plans and houses. The single family homes are cute, then they have the townhomes, which are ok. Not very exciting as far as developments go, but if you find out what homeowners insurance runs in that community, please post it. We looked at them last spring and almost bought one. Just not very exciting there. I have heard that other big builders are looking at Ocala.

[ange70]

Jill, Thanks for the information. I spoke with the sales agent at Fore Ranch and she tells me the home owners insurance runs approx $900 - $1100. This seems reasonable compared to what I have heard around the Tampa area.

MyHomeIsInOcala, thanks for you response. If you would like to take some pics of ForeRanch and post that would be wonderful. I am planning a trip to Florida in March and would like to get an idea of what I am going to see.

Jammie, thank you also for your reply. My husband and I are both in the medical field and hopefully won't have difficulty finding a job. I will check out the ocala4sale website and do a search for ocala.

I am not set on Ocala but it seems affordable compared to the Tampa area where I have also researched. If anyone knows about any other family developements near Ocala or near The Villages, please give me the names of the developements. Thanks.

[ClarkProp2007]

I definitely have to promote Ocala... I grew up here and love it. I didn't even go away to college I liked it so much... I commuted to UF in Gainesville for three years instead. It's a safe, family & community oriented, great place to live.

Ocala is a neat area. Smaller than Orlando and Tampa so you miss out on the traffic pains, but still filled with enough to do. We have a large museum, civic theatre, mall (with another one on it's way out west of I-75), and community college (with a seperate university building that offers classes from several state universities)...so we are larger than other cities you will find in central Florida and we offer a lot, yet we still manage to maintain our small town feel. Also, if you like the activities in the big city but not the hassle, cost, and concern over crime associated with living there, Ocala is only 1.5 hrs from Orlando and 1.5 - 2 hrs from Tampa. It's very centrally located. If you want to hit the beach, yet be protected from the massive damage of coastline hurricanes, you can make the 1.5 hour trip to west coast or east coast.

We also have several lakes and natural springs in the area that are absolutely beautiful and fun to visit, especially when it starts heating up in the summer.

Ocala's weather is great too. It's warm like everywhere else in Florida, BUT when it comes around to the holidays we actually get a little bit of cool weather here. IE-Orlando and Tampa could be in the mid 70's and hot on Christmas day, while here we might actually be 10 degrees cooler and able to light a fire in the fireplace.

If you are interested in more info on the area I have a friend who works at the chamber of commerce and another one who works in tourism development (promoting visitors to our city) that I could get information from.

[MyHomeIsInOcala]

Community Center:

Townhouses:

Single Family Homes: