Coming soon to DeLand, FL
Hontoon Reserve
Maronda Homes in west DeLand, backed by conservation near the St. Johns
Minutes from Blue Spring and the Hontoon Island ferry, in a town with an A-rated school district and a commuter rail station. Published from the mid $300,000s as of September 2026, with plans and the lot map still to come. There is also a flood question here worth taking seriously, and we cover it honestly below. Get the pricing and the incentives, and get properly represented before your first visit.
- Area
- DeLand, FL
- Builder
- Maronda
- From
- Mid $300,000s
- Schools
- A-rated district
At a glance
Hontoon Reserve fast facts
Here is what the builder has published today and what has not been released yet. Anything marked not yet released, get on our list and it goes out the day it drops.
- Area
- West DeLand, FL 32720
- County
- Volusia County
- Builder
- Maronda Homes
- Home sizes
- 1,562 to 3,059 sq ft
- Bedrooms
- 3 to 6, with multi-generational plans
- Setting
- Backed by conservation, per the builder
- Amenities
- Clubhouse, pool, pickleball, dog park
- Builder teaser price
- From the mid $300,000s, Sept 2026
- Number of homes
- Not yet disclosedGet pricing
- Floor plans
- Not yet publishedGet pricing
- Site plan and lot map
- Not yet releasedGet pricing
- HOA dues and district status
- Not yet publishedGet pricing
The starting price, home sizes, conservation frontage and distances shown are as published by the builder in September 2026 rather than independently verified, and the price is a starting point rather than a plan price. The home count, site plan and opening date have not been disclosed. All details are subject to change without notice.
Where it is
West DeLand in Volusia County, which the builder places about 3.2 miles from the historic downtown, toward the St. Johns River. Individual home addresses have not been assigned yet.
How to buy Hontoon Reserve without leaving money on the table
The person at the builder's sales desk works for the builder. You can have a Florida agent on your side instead, touring with you, reading the contract line by line, and pushing for every incentive, upgrade and closing-cost credit the builder will give. It costs you nothing: on new construction the builder already budgets your agent's fee whether you bring one or not. The one catch is timing. You usually need your own agent from the very first visit, or the builder will not recognize them and you lose it. Start here and we will set it up.
Get pricing & incentivesWhat a local would tell you
The river is the reason to live here and the thing to check hardest
Everything that makes this location special comes from the St. Johns. The conservation land, the island park you reach by ferry, the manatees wintering in the spring, the boat ramps, the fish camps. It is genuinely one of the better pieces of natural Florida you can buy a new house next to.
It also floods, and you should hear that from us rather than discover it later. The St. Johns corridor in west Volusia County flooded significantly after Hurricane Ian in 2022 and again after Hurricane Milton in 2024. What makes river flooding here different from coastal flooding is the timing: it is slow. The rain falls, the storm leaves, and the river keeps rising for weeks afterward. Both times, the county was still issuing warnings to residents along the river well after the storm had cleared the state.
Now the part that cuts the other way, because the honest picture is not one-sided. The most severe river flooding in both storms concentrated at low-lying river communities such as Astor, not in DeLand proper, which sits on higher ground. DeLand was steady enough that the county ran a long-term shelter here. So this is not a town that goes underwater. It is a town where the ground matters enormously, and where two homesites a few hundred yards apart can sit in completely different flood zones.
And Hontoon Reserve is on the west side of DeLand, which is the side toward the river. We do not know the flood zone or the elevation of this parcel. We looked, and it is not published, and we are not going to guess at something this consequential. What we will tell you plainly is that we will not repeat a claim that this community is high and dry or outside the floodplain, from us or from anyone else, without a parcel-level determination behind it.
So here is what to actually do. Before you contract, pull the FEMA flood determination and the elevation certificate for your specific homesite, not for the sales office and not for the community. Get a flood insurance quote tied to that lot. Ask what the community's stormwater design is and who maintains it. In this corridor, flood insurance is the live question and wind is the secondary one, which is the reverse of most of Florida. Do that work and this becomes a well-informed purchase in a beautiful spot. Skip it and you are guessing with a lot of money.
What is coming
Conservation frontage and a rail station
Maronda Homes describes Hontoon Reserve as the only new home community in the area surrounded by conservation land, with backyards backing preserved land, about 3.2 miles from downtown DeLand. Homes run roughly 1,562 to 3,059 square feet with three to six bedrooms and two to four and a half baths, and the plan family includes multi-generational designs with separate entries, which is genuinely useful and still relatively rare at this price. The amenity package is a clubhouse, pool, fitness room, pickleball court, dog park and walking trails. Pricing is published from the mid $300,000s as of September 2026, with a VIP list open.
Those conservation and distance claims are the builder's, and we have flagged them as such rather than dressing them up as verified. They are checkable, and they are worth checking, because a backyard that genuinely backs preserved land rather than a future phase is one of the few things in new construction that cannot be added later.
The other structural advantage here is transit. SunRail's DeLand station opened in August 2024 as the northernmost stop on the system, which connects this area south toward Sanford, Winter Park and Orlando. Maronda Homes puts the station about a mile from the community. A commuter rail station within walking or short-driving distance of new construction is rare in central Florida, and if you would use it, it is worth confirming the distance yourself and then weighting it heavily.
What has not been released: the number of homes, floor plans and elevations, plan-level pricing, the site plan and lot map, which homesites actually back conservation and what that premium is, HOA dues and what they cover, community district status, and the model and sales opening dates. Those arrive as the community approaches launch, and the day they land we send them to this list.
The area
DeLand, Stetson, and the best spring country on the St. Johns
DeLand is the best town attached to any community we currently cover, and if you are choosing between markets that should carry real weight. It is the Volusia County seat, it sits west of Interstate 4 away from the beach sprawl, and it is anchored by Stetson University, whose campus sits inside the city's National Historic District. That university is why the downtown works: it supplies theater, music, lectures and year-round sport, and it keeps the place from being seasonal. The main street is genuinely walkable and genuinely independent, supported by a main street association and an arts and entertainment district, and it has been repeatedly recognized regionally as one of central Florida's best.
Two events anchor the calendar: the Fall Festival of the Arts and the Volusia County Fair each November, which draws something like a quarter of a million people. And Skydive DeLand, at the airport on the edge of town, is a world-renowned drop zone, which is a strange and pleasant thing for a small city to be known for.
Then the water, which is the reason to be on this side of town. Hontoon Island State Park is 1,648 acres six miles west, surrounded by the St. Johns, the Hontoon Dead River and Snake Creek, and reachable only by boat or the park's passenger ferry. No cars. There is a 3.4-mile nature trail through pine flatwoods, hammock and cypress swamp, a longer trail out to an ancient shell mound, and tent sites and rustic cabins if you want to stay. It is the kind of place that stops feeling like an amenity and starts feeling like a reason.
Blue Spring State Park is the other one, and the timing matters. The spring runs at a constant 72 degrees year round, which is why manatees shelter there from mid-November through March when the river turns cold. The wintering population has grown from roughly three dozen animals in the 1970s to more than seven hundred. A third-of-a-mile boardwalk runs from the river up to the headspring, and in season it is one of the great wildlife experiences in the state. Water access is restricted during manatee season, so check the park before you plan a swim.
About fifteen miles north, De Leon Springs State Park has another 72-degree spring, old-growth bald cypress, guided boat tours running into Lake Woodruff National Wildlife Refuge, and the Old Sugar Mill Pancake House, where you cook your own pancakes on a griddle built into your table inside a historic mill. Closer to home, Lake Beresford Park and the Hontoon boat ramp are both a couple of miles out by the builder's reckoning.
On practicalities: AdventHealth DeLand on West Plymouth Avenue is the local hospital, with a 24-hour emergency department, robotic surgery and a five-star overall CMS quality rating, and it has been operating here since 1962. Regional employers include the two hospital systems, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University over in Daytona, Amazon distribution and the county school district. Daytona Beach and New Smyrna Beach are around thirty miles east, downtown Orlando about forty miles south, and both Daytona Beach and Orlando Sanford airports sit around twenty-five miles out, with Orlando International about forty-five.
On schools, this is the strongest story in our whole Florida set. Volusia County Schools was graded an A for 2025-26, and an A the year before, back to back at the district level, in a year when 34 of Florida's districts earned one. The district is also building, with a new elementary under way in nearby Orange City. Attendance zones are set by address and move with growth, so confirm current assignment with the district rather than relying on any third-party lookup.
Two closing notes on cost. Property taxes here are the highest of the Florida communities we cover, at roughly 18.23 mills inside the city and 17.36 in unincorporated west county for 2025, and part of the difference from the east side of the county is a west-county hospital authority levy that east-county residents do not pay. We do not know which side of the city line this community falls on, so confirm it for your homesite. And on insurance, the important thing here is that flood is the live question and wind is secondary, which reverses the usual Florida order. DeLand is about twenty-five miles inland, so wind exposure is meaningfully better than a beachside address, and the statewide direction turned in 2026 with the state announcing an average decrease of nearly nine percent from the state-backed insurer. Flood is a separate policy, priced off your specific elevation. Quote both before you contract.
The market
Holding value while the region softens
The DeLand ZIP code's smoothed home value index sat at about $330,100 as of July 2026, essentially flat year over year at down about half a percent. That is the most resilient reading of any Florida market we currently cover, most of which were down two to five percent over the same period.
One number needs a caveat rather than a headline. The median sale price in this ZIP was up close to eight percent over roughly the same window, which looks like sharp appreciation and almost certainly is not. When the smoothed index is flat and the median sale price jumps, the usual explanation is mix shift: more new construction and larger homes closing, pulling the middle of the sample upward. We would rather tell you that than let a misleading number do the selling.
The fair summary is that DeLand is holding its value while the wider central Florida market softens, which is a reasonable place to buy and a poor place to expect a quick flip.
What you need to know
Buying new construction with someone on your side
That is the short version. What follows is what representation actually changes at Hontoon Reserve, because the money is not only in the commission.
The highest-value work on this community is the flood diligence in the section above, and it is exactly the kind of thing a busy buyer skips and an agent should not. Beyond it: which homesites genuinely back conservation rather than a future phase, and what that premium is. What the site plan does with drainage and who maintains it. Whether any community district covers your lot and what it would assess. What the HOA dues are and what they cover. How far the SunRail station actually is from the entrance. What is included in the base price before options and where a realistically specified home lands. What the contract says about completion timing and the builder's ability to change price before closing. And which incentives are real versus tied to using the builder's own lender. Every one of those has a document behind it, and reading those documents is the job.
Subdiview is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Maronda Homes, any homebuilder, the developer, the City of DeLand, or Volusia County. Maronda Homes is identified here because it is the builder of this community as published in its own materials, which is a statement of fact and not a representation of any relationship. Community names and marks are the property of their respective owners and are used for identification only. Subdiview is operated by a real estate broker licensed in Illinois. We are not your agent, we do not represent you, and we perform no real estate brokerage services in this state. No one at Subdiview is licensed in this state. If you join an interest list, your information is referred to a real estate professional licensed in the state where the property is located, who will contact you directly. We are compensated by that professional's brokerage, not by you. Pricing, home sizes, distances, tax rates and market figures on this page carry the dates shown, are as published or reported rather than committed, and are subject to change without notice. Nothing on this page is a representation about the flood zone, elevation or insurability of any specific homesite.
Questions and answers
Hontoon Reserve FAQ
What is Hontoon Reserve?
Hontoon Reserve is a Maronda Homes single-family community in west DeLand, which the builder places about 3.2 miles from the historic downtown, in Volusia County. Maronda Homes describes it as the only new home community in the area surrounded by conservation land, with backyards backing up to preserved land. Homes run from about 1,562 to 3,059 square feet with three to six bedrooms, including multi-generational plans with separate entries, and the amenity package is a clubhouse, pool, fitness room, pickleball court, dog park and walking trails. As of September 2026 it is coming soon with a VIP list open and pricing published from the mid $300,000s.
How many homes, and when does it open?
Neither has been disclosed. Maronda Homes has not published a home count, a site plan, a lot map or an opening date, and we are not going to estimate any of them. What the builder does say is that VIP list members get first look at floor plans, pricing and homesite availability. That is the practical reason to be organized now rather than later, and it is the point at which having your own representation already lined up actually matters.
Do I need to worry about flooding here?
You need to investigate it carefully, and anyone who gives you a confident yes or no about this specific community without pulling the parcel record is guessing. Here is the honest context. The St. Johns River corridor in west Volusia County flooded significantly after Hurricane Ian in 2022 and again after Hurricane Milton in 2024. Both times the flooding was slow: the river crested weeks after the storm passed, and the county issued warnings to residents along the river as those crests approached. The most severe river flooding concentrated at low-lying river communities such as Astor rather than in DeLand proper, which sits on higher ground, and DeLand actually hosted a long-term shelter. But Hontoon Reserve is on the west side of DeLand, which is the side toward the river. Elevation and flood zone vary sharply over short distances in this part of the county. Pull the FEMA flood determination and the elevation certificate for your specific homesite, and get a flood insurance quote, before you contract rather than after.
Is there a community development district or an HOA?
We could not identify a community development district covering Hontoon Reserve, and none appears on Volusia County's published list of special districts. We are not going to tell you flatly that there is none, because county lists lag and districts can be created later. An HOA almost certainly exists given the amenity package, but the dues have not been published. Ask Maronda Homes in writing for both: whether any district covers your homesite and what it would assess annually, and what the HOA dues are and what they cover. On a community with a clubhouse and a pool, those numbers are a real part of your monthly cost.
What are the property taxes?
That depends on something you should confirm rather than assume. For 2025 the total millage inside the City of DeLand came to about 18.23, while unincorporated west Volusia County came to about 17.36. We do not know which side of that line Hontoon Reserve falls on, and with a west DeLand address either is plausible, so ask for your specific homesite. Either way, this is the highest tax rate of the Florida communities we currently cover, and part of the reason is a west-county hospital authority levy that east-county residents do not pay. That is worth knowing rather than discovering.
What is DeLand like?
It is the best town of any community we currently cover, and that is not a small factor. DeLand is the Volusia County seat, sits west of Interstate 4, and is sometimes called the Athens of Florida because of Stetson University, whose campus sits inside the city's National Historic District. The downtown is genuinely walkable and genuinely independent, with a main street association, an arts and entertainment district and a cultural calendar that runs on university energy rather than tourism. It has been repeatedly recognized regionally as one of central Florida's best main streets. The Fall Festival of the Arts and the Volusia County Fair, which draws around a quarter of a million visitors each November, are the year's two big events.
How is the commute, and what about the train?
The train is the headline. SunRail's DeLand station opened in August 2024 as the northernmost station on the system, giving this area a commuter rail connection south toward Sanford, Winter Park, Orlando and beyond. Maronda Homes puts the station about a mile from the community, which if accurate is an unusually good position for new construction anywhere in central Florida. Confirm the distance for yourself, then weigh it properly. By road you have New York Avenue, Interstate 4 and the regional toll network, with Daytona Beach around 25 miles east, downtown Orlando around 40 miles south, and Daytona Beach and Orlando Sanford airports both roughly 25 miles away.
How are the schools?
This is the strongest school story of any community we cover. Volusia County Schools was graded an A for 2025-26, and an A the year before as well, which is back-to-back at the district level. For context, 34 of Florida's districts earned an A that year. The district is also building, with a new elementary school under way in nearby Orange City. Attendance zones are set by address and change with growth, so confirm current assignment with the district directly rather than relying on any third-party lookup, ours included.
Before you tour
Get your inside track on Hontoon Reserve
We will send you what gets released as it gets released: floor plans, real pricing, the site plan and lot map, which homesites back conservation, HOA details and the model opening date. And we will connect you with a real estate professional licensed in Florida who represents you rather than the seller, who can pull the flood determination on the lot you are actually considering, and who can register you before your first visit.
It costs nothing, creates no brokerage relationship by itself, and does not obligate you to anything.