Marion County, Florida: A Local Guide for Home Buyers and Homeowners

Ocala

Ocala is the county seat and its largest city, incorporated as a town in 1869 and as a city in 1885. After an 1883 fire, downtown was rebuilt in brick, granite and steel, which is where the Brick City nickname comes from.

The Ocala Historic District, listed in 1984, takes in the Victorian homes along East Fort King Street. I-75 runs along the city’s western edge with exits at SR 200, SR 40 and US 27.

World Equestrian Center

World Equestrian Center at 1750 NW 80th Ave. is a major equestrian complex with indoor and outdoor arenas, two on-site hotels (The Equestrian Hotel and The Riding Academy Hotel) and an RV park, and general admission and parking are free seven days a week.

Silver Springs

Silver Springs is an unincorporated community surrounding Silver Springs State Park at 5656 E. Silver Springs Blvd., a first-magnitude spring and the place where the glass-bottom boat was invented. It was developed in the 19th century as Florida’s first tourist destination.

Dunnellon

Dunnellon was founded in 1887 and incorporated in 1891, and phosphate found here in 1889 set off Florida’s first phosphate boom, which lasted into the 1910s. The Rainbow River joins the Withlacoochee inside city limits, and US 41 runs through town, 24 miles from Williston and 18 from Inverness.

Ocala Union Station

Ocala Union Station is on the National Register and serves as the main base for SunTran buses. Amtrak passenger service there ended in 2004.

Salt Springs

Salt Springs is an unincorporated community that shares its name with one of the Ocala National Forest’s springs, and Clay Electric Cooperative keeps a district office there on East County Road 316.

The Villages (Marion County portion)

The Villages is a legally age-restricted 55-and-older master-planned community. It spans Sumter, Lake and Marion counties and has expanded north into Marion. It began in the early 1970s as Orange Blossom Gardens and took its current name in 1992.

Marion County Homebuyer Purchase Assistance

Marion County Community Services helps households that qualify by income and need with down payment and closing costs, funded first-qualified, first-served while the money lasts. The program’s FAQ covers the homebuyer education classes. Office: 2710 E. Silver Springs Blvd., Ocala, 352-671-8781.

Because it’s first-qualified, first-served, getting your paperwork in early matters. Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll find out from Community Services on Silver Springs Boulevard how much purchase money is left and what it pays, before you write an offer.

Official program page

City of Ocala SHIP Purchase Assistance

The City of Ocala helps buyers inside city limits with down payment and closing costs, tiered by household income, with some money for repairs built in. It’s a 0% deferred loan forgiven after 10 years and due if you sell, refinance or move out first. You can’t have owned a home in the past 3 years, and homebuyer education is required.

Ocala sets the amounts in its city housing plan and opens applications as funds allow. If the house is inside Ocala city limits, text us at 954-816-8820 and we’ll confirm the city is accepting applications and what it pays before you sign.

City housing plan (PDF)

City of Ocala New Construction assistance

Ocala also helps buyers of homes built under the city’s SHIP new construction program, as a 0% deferred loan forgiven after 10 years. The first mortgage has to be fixed-rate with a term of 30 years or less.

Availability depends on which program homes are finished. Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll ask the city which homes are ready to sell and how much help comes with them.

City housing plan (PDF)

Escambia County HFA program

Marion County has an agreement with the Escambia County Housing Finance Authority that lets county residents apply to its first-time homebuyer program.

The Escambia HFA sets its own terms and changes them over time. Text us at 954-816-8820 and we’ll get the HFA’s terms for a Marion purchase.

Marion County housing page

Florida Hometown Heroes (statewide)

Hometown Heroes is a Florida Housing purchase program: a 30-year fixed first mortgage plus a 0% down payment and closing cost second. You make no monthly payment on the second, it’s repaid when you sell, refinance or pay off the home or stop living in it, and it isn’t forgiven. To qualify, one buyer works full time for an eligible Florida-based employer in health care, K-12 schools, first response, public safety, the courts or licensed child care. For military buyers, active duty qualifies with any employer, and veterans, Reserve and National Guard members qualify with full-time work for a Florida-based employer.

Florida Housing help can be used once in a lifetime, and you apply through a participating lender or broker. Call 888-601-8344 before you pick the Marion house, and we’ll check the county’s income and price limits and whether funds are open for your loan.

Official program page

FL Assist, FL HLP and HFA Preferred (statewide)

FL Assist defers a 0% second with no monthly payment until you sell, refinance, transfer the home or move out. FL HLP is a second with a modest fixed monthly payment, paid off over 30 years. Both pair with a Florida Housing first mortgage: FHA, VA, USDA, or a Conventional HFA Preferred or HFA Advantage loan. HFA Advantage PLUS sets a Freddie Mac Conventional first beside a second forgiven over 5 years, provided you keep living in the home.

Florida Housing adjusts these through the year, so call 888-601-8344 and we’ll tell you which one works best next to the county or Ocala money.

Official program page

Schools and colleges

Marion County Public Schools runs the public schools; start at the district website for enrollment. The district also runs the Silver River Museum and Environmental Education Center at Silver Springs State Park, off CR 35.

The College of Central Florida’s Ocala campus offers four-year and associate degrees, with specialty programs in equine studies, agribusiness and logistics.

Getting around

I-75 runs north-south through the middle of the county with interchanges at CR 484, SR 200, SR 40, US 27, SR 326 and CR 318. US 27, US 301, US 441 and US 41 are the main U.S. routes, SR 40 is the main west-east road, and SR 19 follows the eastern edge through the Ocala National Forest.

Orlando and Tampa are each about 75 minutes away by car, Daytona Beach about 90 minutes and Jacksonville about two hours. Ocala International Airport handles general aviation, SunTran runs fixed-route buses in parts of Ocala, and CSX runs one freight line through the county.

Silver Springs State Park

Silver Springs is a first-magnitude spring, and glass-bottom boats still run on the Silver River where they were invented. You can kayak through the floodplain forest or stay in a cabin, campground or RV site.

Rainbow Springs State Park

Rainbow Springs in Dunnellon is a first-magnitude spring, and its three big waterfalls are man-made, left from its days as a mining site and then a private attraction. Tubing and swimming are the draw, and the park is at 19158 S.W. 81st Place Road; check the park’s page for day-use reservations before you go.

Ocala National Forest

The Ocala National Forest was established in 1908, the oldest national forest east of the Mississippi, and Marion holds the largest share of it. It has the world’s largest concentration of sand pine, known as the Big Scrub, more than 600 lakes and ponds, Juniper, Salt and Alexander springs, and part of the Florida Trail. The Navy’s fenced 5,760-acre Pinecastle Range sits inside it.

Lakes and Rodman Reservoir

Lake Weir in the south is the largest of the county’s three main lakes, with Orange Lake in the far north and Lake Kerr in the northeast, and part of Lake George lies in the county. Rodman Reservoir, shared with Putnam, covers 13,000 acres on the Ocklawaha River; it was created in 1968 for the halted Cross Florida Barge Canal and is known for largemouth bass.

Thoroughbred history

Rosemere Farm, the county’s first thoroughbred farm, opened in 1943. Needles became the first Florida-bred Kentucky Derby winner in 1956, and Affirmed, from Harbor View Farm, won the Triple Crown in 1978.

Show season and steeplechase

Watching competition at World Equestrian Center costs nothing, seven days a week, and HITS fills about 12 weeks starting each January. The Florida Horse Park hosted the first point-to-point Florida Steeplechase in 2022.

Buying a home

FHA is what most of our Marion County buyers use: 3.5% down, flexible credit guidelines, and it pairs with the county, Ocala and statewide programs above. Eligible veterans can buy with a VA loan and nothing down, and we also close Conventional loans, Hometown Heroes and FHA 100% financing across Marion.

AAA Capital Funding has been a licensed Florida mortgage broker since 1997 and lends in all 67 Florida counties statewide, from Reddick and McIntosh down to Marion Oaks and on to the coasts. We shop your loan with multiple wholesale lenders, so you know your number before you tour a house in Ocala, Belleview or Dunnellon.

Refinancing the home you have

A refinance can lower the monthly payment, take cash out for a roof, a barn or a remodel, pay off higher-interest debt, or buy someone else off the title. The equity you’ve built in a Marion home can pay for any of those.

Call 888-601-8344 and we’ll show you the new payment, the cash you’d walk away with and the closing costs next to what you pay now.