A? fvor anyone who lives in the Orlando area...

[merryweather's twin]

I do not post much on this board but I thought this would be the best place to ask about Orlando. My DH is thinking of making a job and location change to Orlando..... I would like to know what other transfers think of the area? He and I love to visit and we spent 29 days in Orlando and a bunch of money last year so we put it at the top of our places to end up list. What is the housing like and the schools? We would like to know what areas are best to live and have good middle class housing.Thank you for your time.

 

[marlasmom]

I have posted bout this before. We just (one month ago) bought a retirement house in Winter Haven (about 35 minutes from WDW). It is brand new, 3 bedrooms, 2 full baths, large "great room" 2 car garage and screened in solar heated pool. It is smaller than I thought it was when we looked at it, but more than adequate for the two of us. We also have my grandson 3 nights a week since his mother is an RN working nights.

My daughter felt the schools were too crowded for GS because he has a very short attention span and needs to be prodded a lot. She has him in a Lutheran School $440 a month and he loves it.

Not one single bookstore in this town and more importantly - NO CANDY STORES. Lots and lots of supermarkets and fast food places.

Extremely hot in the summer. Feel free to e-mail or pm me if I can anser anything for you.

 

[Lucky4me]

Wow, Marlas Mom! Not even a Barnes and Noble at the mall in Winterhaven?
I love the bookstores around here, especially the old ones with old books.
I would think that would be a good business venture for someone down there, if the stores are few and far between.

I know what you mean about the grocery stores. Every corner. Lakeland is the same.

 

[kylara]

If you really plan on relocating to FL, I would suggest that you do a lot of research on areas if you have children that are school aged or will be going to school in the next few years. The schools in the Orange and Osceola counties are in bad shape. The classes are overcrowded and the students often are attending class in portables. Building of schools and teacher hiring has not been able to keep up with growth. Orange county just voted on a 1/2 cent sales tax to help fund the schools (this tax is being overseen by a committee outside the legislature who decided where it needs to be spent, how much each school gets etc), but that funding probably won't really show any effect for a few years.

What housing is like really would depend on where you are moving from. I know some people who move here and feel that is is real expensive and others feel it is real cheap. For example, should my family ever decide to relocate, it would seem cheap to them...they live in MA in an area where houses routinely sell for 300,000+...now for that they could get a real nice house in many areas of Central FL. Another friend I know lives in a rural area of GA and houses in his area only sell for about 40,000...so for him it would be an expensive relocation. For a middle class area, you could probably find a nice house for between 100,000 - 150,000 easily.

Good luck with your research.

 

[iluvorlando]

I live on the southeast side of Orlando, by the airport. This is a rather growing community with houses prices from the $170's+. My daughters go to an A elementary school and will be attending (hopefully will still be in 4 years) and A middle school. They have max 20 kids in their classes. I think 18 is the true number. Feel free to pm or email me with questions.

The best part about living on this side of town (besides being in the middle of everything) is the Waterford Town Center. SuperTarget, BestBuy, Longhorn, Red Lobster, Old Navy, Pier One, Barnes and Noble, so much shopping and restaurants and movie theater I can't even remember!

 

[DocRafiki]

Iluvorlando, you DO live in the area where I'm looking! Don't forget the PetSmart & Banfield! That's a beautiful shopping center, isn't it?

 

[kylara]

Just bumping this up since I saw it reposted.

 

[iluvorlando]

Jen, YES!YES!YES!! That is why I LOVE living on this side of town!

 

[Miss Jasmine]

Just a word of caution when researching schools in Florida...public schools are assigned grades based on its FCAT score (a standardized test that children take in certain grades). This is a misleading factor. All "A" schools are NOT the same. A school that was a "C" the year the before can make such an improvement that it bumps up its grade based on a bonus system, but the school could still be testing below another "A" school across town that was an "A" school to start with and maintained that grade. It's a very tricky thing. Also since school funding is based on the schools grade, FCAT preparation is really pushed sometimes with disregard for regular studies. So you really, really need to talk to parents of children going to that school to get a real feel for things.

My choice would be a private school if I ever have children. The school system stinks here. And if McBride is elected we will be taxed out of the wahzoo for the same stinky system.