How is Ocala Fl?? (Orlando, Gainesville: appointed, apartments, car insurance)

[BKLYNMOM]

At first we were thinking of moving to PA but my husband decided he did not want to dig his car out of the snow for an hour before driving for 2 hours to get to work. After so many years working the drug infested streets in the freezing cold I think he has had enough. So a friend told him he was moving with his wife and kids to Ocala and my husband checked it out and said it was nicer than Orlando. My husband has family in Port St Lucie a sister and a brother who moved there from NY. They are in their late 20's and early 30's and think it is boring. My brother is in Margate and works in Boca. My friend is in Orlando. She misses NY. We always talk about the shopping trips during our lunch hour in Manhattan. I feel that Ocala is kind of far from everyone we know in Florida. We pay so much for rent that my morgage in Ocala will probably be around the same.

Oh I forgot to mention that my brother said the last hurricane hit them really bad and Port St Lucie was affected as well. I prefer to be near the beach but after what we saw during Hurricane Katrina my husband felt Ocala was a safer bet.

[Jammie]

Brklyn, we couldn't really afford to live by the beach because it's quite expensive there. We're from the upper midwest and aren't used to the cost of housing there. You can still get a very nice home here for $100,000 and even though we live in tornado alley, homeowner's insurance is just a fraction of what it appears to be in coastal cities or the southern part of the state. We're also not used to crowds or a lot of traffic so it'll be quite a change for us, too. But I'm confident it will be a good change.

I also have a brother who lives in Fla. and it's 2 and 1/2 hours from Ocala. Several nieces and their families live within driving distance, too. The ones who live inland have only had minor hurricane damage so it appears that Ocala may be relatively safe.

[BKLYNMOM]

In NY we rent and it is so expensive. Being that my husband has retired with a pension, and only 40 he is set on working so that is a big help. Right now I am a stay at home MOM of 3. Here it will probably take my entire salary to pay for child care, so it is not possible for me to work right now. I here in FL summer camp and after school programs are more affordable. The home his friend looked into was 260,000 a year ago and now this house is around 300,000. To bad we didn't buy 2 years ago. A home for a large family is going to be pricey no matter where we look.

[Jammie]

Recently, I've started to read the Ocala newspaper a couple times a week. The paper has an article that is talking about a runaway train. They are expecting an increase in their schools of about 20,000 children in the next decade. It will be a 50% increase.

Also, I remember someone on here talking about nice communities and mentioned Oak Run. The citizens in three communities were trying to keep developers out because they lived on the outskirts of town and it was peaceful and serene in their area with a lot of wildlife. Originally, the plans were for it to become a large park. It was now sold to developers. We're hoping the area doesn't become too overcrowded. They were discussing the problems they'd be having with roads, water, schools, etc. in the near future.

[BKLYNMOM]

I really hope that they will rezone the area that we are looking into so that my son can be closer to home while in school. We are going to Ocala in a couple of weeks. This time I hope I get to see more. I am hoping to check the schools out. Hopefully I won't be extremely disapointed. I read that there is a mall there so I will try to see that as well.

[Jammie]

I just have to share this with everyone. Our plans are to rent an apartment in the Ocala area when we move down there. One of the things we were worried about is the fact that we have three pets and didn't know if they'd be accepted. I just called down there and spoke with a very friendly apartment manager. We'd need to make a deposit for each pet and also pay a bit of pet rent each month for each one, but they accept and welcome pets. That's so rare and it's just wonderful.

[jasonrais]

Well this is my first time on here. I will tell you all the posts have made me a lot more comfortable about thinking about moving down to Ocala. See we live in Cincinnati OH and my wife just hates the cold weather and she wants a change. She works for Time Warner and saw that there was a listing for a job in Ocala so we have considered moving down here. We have 3 kids and would love to move down here and thank you all for helping me be at ease with the decision. Now just time to get things in movement.

[Jammie]

Jason, I'm feeling the same way that you are. We've heard so many positive things about Ocala that our apprehension is gone.

Your wife sounds like me~we live in So. Dak and I just can't handle those cold and snowy winters anymore.

[jasonrais]

Well the thing is the worries me is work for me. That is the only thing that bothers me and concerns me. I have worked in the financial field for 7 years now with bank collections and I really dont see anything down there that is in my field. I mean I can always change fields for her but its the matter of finding something down there. I went on monster and didnt really find to many things in ocala. That is the thing that concerns me. Plus we are looking at places down there and we are planning on renting for a year of so then buying a home. Everything he see down there is nice just dont really know the area that well to know whether its a good area or not. So we are kinda going blind on this one.

[Jammie]

Monster and Career Builder have almost NO jobs listed for that area. Just type Ocala newspaper in your search engine. I think the paper is called the Star Banner. They have thousands of jobs, but I couldn't really tell you if any are in your field or not. The paper also has a lot of rental listings that aren't on realtor.com Let me know how you turn out in your search.