Celebration, Fla question

[Realgrumpy]

I'm not sure if this is the right board, not sure where this should land. Do people that buy houses in Celebration live there year round, do some people buy and rent their homes out for people that are vacationing? Any insight?

 

[Dan Murphy]

I do know 2 folks from the dis here who live/lived full time there.

 

[_19disnA]

Seem to recall some older threads that discuss Celebration. There were issues with shoddy construction and various lawsuits taking place. No idea if that has been resolved. I think Disney started that community but not sure if they are still involved.

 

[Mle8308]

I lived there for 5 years before moving back up north. Wild Elm Street! Disney backed out before 2000. Most of my neighbors owned and lived there. Fortunately, my house was constructed quite well, there were a lot of issues with the condos. It was nice and I lived more of the "back side" of Celebration, so not a lot of tourists driving down my street. It was a great commute to Disney!

 

[White Cat]

Year round. They have a high school. Not a place I would ever move to.

 

[GreatLakes]

I've heard about some of the condo issues. The ones I know about were over on the western side of Celebration near World Drive. I can't say I've heard a lot about issues nearer to the center or east side but that doesn't mean there weren't issues.

My understanding is there are pretty strict rules so I'd investigate the options if you are looking to buy an investment property. I'm not sure what is or isn't allowed. The few people I know that own there have Celebration as their second home but they don't rent them out. When they aren't there no one is.

 

[Communicore1991]

I just finished reading the book Doctor to the Mouse by Anthony Rizzo from Theme Park Press and he worked as a doctor for WDW for several years and was one of the first residents of Celebration.

In the book he talks about how he and his wife wanted a blue roof to match the colors of the turret of Cinderella Castle and Disney told him he wasn't allowed to do that. Disney also ripped up a 2 feet strip of his lawn because they owned the sidewalk and 2 feet on either side of it and they wanted to expand the sidewalk or something like that. He also alludes to the fact that Disney set up Celebration as a way to get the state to build an off ramp from I-4 in an area that would be advantageous to them. All in all, it sounds like Celebration residents really got screwed over by Disney. And the school system was abysmal.

I have been to the Catholic church in Celebration and it is a massive building and very well attended. I was quite impressed! I would really be interested in reading any books written about Celebration since it was built during a very interesting time in Disney's history.