Safe family neighborhoods near Disney?

[Luvchefmic]

Here's who I think of when I hear Florida man in my county, which is Polk: I could walk any of these streets and feel safe. If there are many news articles it's because our law enforcement are doing their jobs.
http://www.polksheriff.org/Sheriff/Pages/SheriffBio.aspx

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

True. Lake Mary is a great area.

I get the feeling traffic is kinda bad up that way. We get some on 27, and if I4 has an accident, forget it, no ones moving. But we don't have the same city traffic as the other areas more north Orlando, far as I can tell.. International drive is always a mess too..we only get that going to parks tho.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Here's who I think of when I hear Florida man in my county, which is Polk: I could walk any of these streets and feel safe. If there are many news articles it's because our law enforcement are doing their jobs.
http://www.polksheriff.org/Sheriff/Pages/SheriffBio.aspx

We are Polk county too! At least when you go to get your car registration, the place is called Tax Collector. That's being honest, instead of DMV. Lol. And its very organized too.

 

[staceyeileen]

I get the feeling traffic is kinda bad up that way. We get some on 27, and if I4 has an accident, forget it, no ones moving. But we font have the same city traffic as the other areas more north Orlando, far as O can tell.. International drive is always a mess too..we only get that going to parks tho.

You're right, traffic can be bad if you have to travel I-4. My comment was mainly responding to the poster asking about the schools. It all depends where you're commuting. I used to work right across the street from UCF and many of my co-workers lived in Lake Mary. It was an easy commute on the 417.

Regarding Clermont being too far out, it's true that it's a good distance west of Orlando. However, I feel like even though I sometimes have to drive farther than others to reach portions of Orlando but my drive time is actually often less because I rarely hit any traffic. I used to commute on the 408 going East in the morning and West in the afternoon which is the opposite direction of all the traffic. I very rarely have to travel on I-4. For example, the people we rent our house from now moved from Clermont to Dr. Phillips. The guy said he now spends an hour commuting to work at Florida Hospital due to traffic. From Clermont it was less, and Dr P is waaay closer distance wise.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Dr. Phillips, man that is an interesting area. Went there for dinner once. Quite upscale, but hideous traffic. Thankfully we were only going to dinner so not the end of the world.

In my opinion, Clermont (north of the orange groves, otherwise to me, it might as well be Davenport) is just a bit too far from Disney for our liking. We both work at home for now, so we don't have to commute, thank goodness! If I work anywhere else ever, I would like it to be Kissimmee, Celebration or LBV. All of which are still pretty close to here. I still like Clermont, some good restaurants, but I like our Posner park, our direct access to I-4 to hit Tampa (we have Busch Gardens AP too) and I like the new construction here. We also looked at Groveland, but they had no short term rental possibilities, and were further from WDW and you had to go through the 4:30 Clermont traffic to get to Disney. We often get off work and go right to parks, so that is a factor as well.

I'm so glad we found a great place to call home. Right now, our complex is so empty, we are the sole occupants entirely in our building, and I don't think anyone is in the building to our left, and they haven't even started selling the units in the building to our right, so its pretty peaceful out here for now. I know that's subject to change, but with vacant property in front and behind, it makes for a pretty peaceful setting right in the heart of the action. Oh yeah, I finally started using our gym for the first time this week! (lol) I had been running on all the running paths, but I finally made it to the clubhouse.

Bottom line, there are lots of great Central Florida areas. We liked Winter Haven too (although the roads were real small and windy, but if you love lakes, its for you!) Very unique, lots of orange groves next to lakefront. I hope all you Florida Dreamers can make it happen too. The FLR really do pay off (only you feel a bit bad for all your out of town guests, yikes!) and they make it really easy with the app to say "Hey you wanna go ride RnRc tomorrow?" "Sure, go ahead and book us a few FPs" and off we go. We never really wait for lines anymore, and having passes changes your park experience tremendously.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Also, now that I know that we can indeed see Star Wars fireworks so well from our balcony, I definitely intend to try and get a video clip or some photos. For bragging purposes, I will be posting them here. We tried to make it home from MK last night in time, but there was road construction AND a bad accident that made I-4 a parkinglot and we got home at 10:30. Boo! With the road work, we intend to take 192 home regardless now, we have been burned twice this week at 9pm-10pm at night on I-4. So anyway we are going to watch them AT the park next Sat and then I will try and take some balcony photos on Sunday of the fireworks. Happily, I also already have movie tix to Tomorrowland at DTD. What fun! Always something to do!

 

[staceyeileen]

In my opinion, Clermont (north of the orange groves, otherwise to me, it might as well be Davenport) is just a bit too far from Disney for our liking. We both work at home for now, so we don't have to commute, thank goodness!

True, I forget this thread is about people moving to be closer to Disney. Disney was not the reason we moved to the area. We used to be 1.5 hours from Disney and now we're 30 minutes, so that feels good to me! We also work from home... man, am I glad we don't have to commute anymore. Well, DH gets to commute to Baldwin Park area 2x/week but that's not too bad.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

True, I forget this thread is about people moving to be closer to Disney. Disney was not the reason we moved to the area. We used to be 1.5 hours from Disney and now we're 30 minutes, so that feels good to me! We also work from home... man, am I glad we don't have to commute anymore. Well, DH gets to commute to Baldwin Park area 2x/week but that's not too bad.

We really did try Clermont. In the end, it came down to the money for real estate. Its just a bit more expensive for housing up there. There is a good Mideast restaurant there BTW! For us making such a drastic move,we had to consider the investment. Once we eliminated any beach areas (Tampa was a bit older for property and more pricey, Daytona/Ormond was actually pretty nice but we had lived by the beach before) it became a question of two things:
-can we place it in a rental program if we change our mind and decide to move or sell, and if so, how far is it to make that viable? In this instance, being able to advertise that you can see the parks from here makes it good real estate for families wanting to book.
-and for us, we know we like to pull late nights at the parks, how far is too far to drive home late? We decided on no more than 30/40 min away, although sometimes our even 15 min feels pretty long (especially if the last park is MK and you have to ferry back to ticket for parked car, which is much longer.)

We were able to get a complete brand new townhouse, granite in every counter, tiled, ready to go. We AlMoST bought a house with a pool at auction but a closer look showed a ton of work and moisture problems and compared to the new place and fireworks and coming up here at night on our own, with the fact that the HOAs and insurance are quite reasonable especially compared with gulf coast where we came from, we just had to give up on the old foreclosure auctions. Way too dodgey....

My doggies like it too. Which is always good.

 

[staceyeileen]

We really did try Clermont. In the end, it came down to the money for real estate. Its just a bit more expensive for housing up there. There is a good Mideast restaurant there BTW!

Do you mean Sarah's? We love that place! It's down by 192 in the Cagan Crossings shopping center? We were just there last week actually and Sarah told us they were considering a new location in Clermont "proper"

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

There are a couple different areas that are both considered "Clermont" - one is Clermont proper, which is at the intersection of Hwy 50 and Hwy 27 and due west of Orlando. The other is down around the 4 Corners area where Hwy 27 and Hwy 192 meet. They are several miles apart. That could account for the mixed messages you've been receiving. To be honest, there's no place in the area that is going to be totally crime free. You will get a feel for the neighborhoods as you look around. You can have a very nice upscale gated neighborhood right down the road from an older, kind of run down neighborhood. I have friends and family in both Davenport (off Hwy 27) and Clermont proper, and they haven't had any complaints regarding crime in their areas.

I realize that Cagans Crossing is basically considered south Clermont. But Four Corners? Can that rightly be called Clermont? I literally live across the street from that intersection and its definitely Davenport, mailing address and all.

As for renting, that is also a matter of opinion. If you can get a deal at the lower end of a stable area that is going up (champions gate anyone?) than renting just costs deals and then you end up buying towards the top. We bought something that was worth 400k in 2006/7 before the flop. And we did NOT pay anything near that. My husband will not rent something, like ever. But we couldnt rent this place for what our payment is. That's the trick.

sorry I just now found the comment about a townhouse not being big enough for a family from Dgh. Normally I would agree with you about houses vs townhouses. Except all the properties in the range we looked at were around 16-1800 sq ft. Hubby said no way Jose only 2000. Houses with that sq footage were a lot more or ghetto. However, these townhouses are bigger than the majority of houses we looked at! We have lots od private outdoor space that belongs to us. We did give up a garage, that we do miss. Otherwise, we actually have the biggest place we have ever owned. And it was much much less than the previous house we bought in KY. And some houses had a lot of sq footage and were terrible for layout! Gotta see it in person for sure.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Do you mean Sarah's? We love that place! It's down by 192 in the Cagan Crossings shopping center? We were just there last week actually and Sarah told us they were considering a new location in Clermont "proper"

Sheesh I spent way too much there last time, very tastey, I just had to keep ordering! Lol. I meant actually Clermont proper, like 50/27 area. But definitely thumbs up for cagans crossing. Our years long fave is Jerusalem in Kissimmee tho. And right next to Sam's Club. Bottabang bottaboom. Speaking of Kissimmee,
I like 192 just fine. Its coming back too. (A few places are no bueno, but there is a lot of new development as well.) Great new Wawa's and Racetracks, tropical smoothie, major restaurants. I like to live on 27 but I spend half my time on 192 also.

 

[staceyeileen]

Sheesh I spent way too much there last time, very tastey, I just had to keep ordering! Lol. I meant actually Clermont proper, like 50/27 area.

Oh, then what med place were you referring to in Clermont? I know of Cedar Grill near the movie theater, but we'll drive to Sarahs anyday over that. We live at 50/27.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

Oh, then what med place were you referring to in Clermont? I know of Cedar Grill near the movie theater, but we'll drive to Sarahs anyday over that. We live at 50/27.

We had a pretty good experience at Cedar Grill. I guess we all have our faves. Those guys were from MI and they typically know good Mideast. Still, we love Jerusalem the best. I just spend too much for all my dips at cagabs xing.

Nice chat, neighbor!

 

[GeneralTso]

My husband lived in Celebration for several years and loved it. Wonderful sense of community, great schools. Really pretty town.

 

[TwinPrincessMermaids]

My husband lived in Celebration for several years and loved it. Wonderful sense of community, great schools. Really pretty town.

Hmm. I hope you don't mind my reply but I know a girl who transferred to Celebration high from Ohio and she was years ahead for her class. She said all the kids wanted to be was thugs. She is not like a super college person either. And she works for Disney, so not a hater. I wouldn't brag on the schools there. This is within the last 5 yrs or so I think.

The town is charming though, even if they're so strict, they had once mandated even the color of your curtains. If you like neighborhoods that look like the monopoly game icons, where you walk to everything and there isn't much parking, then this is the town for you.

 

[staceyrhood]

Hmm. I hope you don't mind my reply but I know a girl who transferred to Celebration high from Ohio and she was years ahead for her class. She said all the kids wanted to be was thugs. She is not like a super college person either. And she works for Disney, so not a hater. I wouldn't brag on the schools there. This is within the last 5 yrs or so I think.

The town is charming though, even if they're so strict, they had once mandated even the color of your curtains. If you like neighborhoods that look like the monopoly game icons, where you walk to everything and there isn't much parking, then this is the town for you.

My son goes to the k-8 school and it is amazing! We absolutely LOVE it here. We moved here to Celebration 14 years ago.

There are rules as there are in any good neighborhood to keep up your house and lawn, but curtain colors are certainly not mandated...there have been tons of rumors about the town and most of them are not true.

The high school was not the best when it first opened, there were SOOOOO many kids being bussed in, but now it is WAY better, especially in the past couple of years.

It is a great neighborhood with very nice people, safe, and great schools...also some of the best restaurants in the area. There are fun events downtown often, miles of walking trails, a farmers market every Sunday, you can walk or bike to school, church, restaurants. And best of all it takes us only 8 minutes door to door to get to the MK parking lot...It is a lovely place to live

 

[loveysbydesign]

Following along as we may be moving to FL in July!

 

[Dgh1973]

Any thoughts on the Poinciana or Haines City areas? Someone mentioned they were warned to stay away from Hanes City. Thoughts? That made me laugh about "Florida Man......." I wonder if that is where the guy lived that killed his imaginary BFF? ha..

 

[Dgh1973]

TwinPrincessMermaids: Do your townhomes do leases? You are selling me!

 

[harbin]

Hello!
We are moving to Orlando in August! I absolutely can't wait. We head down in June to look for housing. Focusing on celebration and Windermere. I will be working in davenport and need to be no more than 30 minutes away. Really want to be in celebration but the inventory is so low and the homes move so fast I don't know if that will be a reality. I am really excited to be so close to the parks, but I think I am most excited to explore the non tourist areas of Orlando. Will follow along with this post!