Has anyone here seriously considered moving to Orlando?

[tinaluis]

We are moving there when my boss of 16 years retires (which hopefully will be in December, 2004). We will sell our house here and then rent for awhile there until we decide which neighborhood suits us. Our thinking is the opposite of most, though, in that we think it's easier to move with little ones. Once they get older, they may not want to move. It will certainly be an adventure and may not work out but we love Florida so much that we'd be crazy not to try it.

 

[eelderm1]

We are considering moving as well. Good schools are very important to us . My mother will be moving with us so I will still have her close. Yesterday I asked my mother "dont you think its silly for us to move to FL just because I love WDW, and she said its just as silly to move because of WDW as it is to stay here just because we have always been here. I mean we live in Savannah Ga and it is beautiful and only a 5 hour drive from WDW but the only reason we are here is simply because its where we have always been. Ther is no family here holding us back. I think we will really move within the next year.

 

[VampHeartless]

I've actually been considering for a long while, using my VA loan to buy a vacation house in Orlando (The kind you rent out.) And just staying there when I get tired of winters back home. (Which will eventually be in either Oregon or D.C.) But, truth be told can't decide where I want to live when I'm older. Everywhere has it's good points! I sure do like Disneyworld though.

 

[msdis]

Good luck deciding!

 

[Dopey & Grumpy]

We're hoping to move to Florida when our grandchildren get a little older. We moved from the cold Northeast.<a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/28/28_3_10.gif' border=0></a> two years ago to be near our grandchildren. As soon as the youngest 2 (3 yo and 5 yo) are a little older, we're thinking of going down for 3 months during the winter and gradually migrating there permanentaly.

I was laid off from work and am able to receive a partial pension and my DH was medically retired and is receiving a pension plus SS. As soon as his military pension and my SS kicks in, we'll be in a better position to do the 3 winter months in the south. <a href='http://www.smileycentral.com/?partner=ZSzeb008' target='_blank'><img src='http://smileys.smileycentral.com/cat/16/16_6_13.gif' border=0></a>

This has been a dream of ours for quite a while. Hopefully, we can start living it in a few short years.

 

[safetymom]

I made the move to Orlando in Dec. 03. We love it. I had been to Orlando 9 times the year before and decided it was time to think about living in Orlando.

 

[Lisa F]

Originally posted by VampHeartless
I've actually been considering for a long while, using my VA loan to buy a vacation house in Orlando (The kind you rent out.) And just staying there when I get tired of winters back home. (Which will eventually be in either Oregon or D.C.) But, truth be told can't decide where I want to live when I'm older. Everywhere has it's good points! I sure do like Disneyworld though.

I'm pretty sure that one of the requirements for a VA loan is that the property is owner occupied. I think they are intended for people to be able to purchase a primary home, not an income producing vacation home.

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

We will be moving in 3 years(see tag under username). We don't have to worry about jobs because DW and I will both be retired then and only be 51. So hopefully we will have a lot of years to enjoy the Florida

.

We have Orlando as 1 of our final 3 choices(along with Vero Beach+Melbourne). My sister's family just relocated from Pittsburgh to West Palm Beach 4 months ago and LOVE it.

We are just tired of the cold weather

, scrapping windows,potholes,etc here in Ohio. From November through April you are just forced to stay indoors, so we have had enough of it and will be heading to Florida very shortly.

 

[babslittleones]

I met my husband at a travel school in Kissimmee back in 1992. We lived in Orlando for two years after completing our two month school session. We lived about a block of Orange Blossom Trail about five minutes north of the Florida Mall. We could see the fireworks go off at the parks at night. We had a wonderful time living there. There was always something to do.

We got a job transfer to Wisconsin and then moved back Ohio to be close to our families a few years later.

All I can say, is we miss Florida dearly. We can't wait to be able to move back. I do agree it is alot harder to consider when you have young school age children to consider. But I figure we will back living in Florida within the next three years. YIPPY! We can't wait.

Beth

 

[Tiffany]

Originally posted by Disney Princess 6
We're just back from Disney - this was our 9th trip in 10 years. Back in 1995, I went to Orlando and did about 20 different interviews for positions at Disney corporate. I went through a lot just to get those interviews - it was not easy. I was not selected for a corporate job and it was devastating. We were all set to move and we had already begun looking at houses. We were very young then and had no children. Now, almost 10 years later, I still want to move down. I still dream of working for Disney. But if I can't work for them, I'd sure settle for living in Orlando and getting to visit often. My DH & I adore Celebration and we would love to move there. We considered it back in 1995. We thought about buying a house and just winging it. Now I wish we had! Moving once you have two young children seems so difficult to do. That's our situation now. I'd still love to live in Celebration - although we like Winter Park and Windermere too. We look at houses every year when we go down. Just wondered if anyone else has considered this or has actually made the move. It seems so hard to relocate.

Have we considered it? Yes. We do not act on it because we could not get jobs in our fields making the money we make up here in MA. True you can make less in FL and maintain the same standard of living and true house prices are so high up here in MA that we could sell our house and buy a new house on a gold course in FL for cash but then what do we do for a living? I am an accounting unit manager for a large financial services company and my husband works for Verizon so unfortunetly neither of our companies have office down in FL.

So until I am ready to retire which is another 34yrs if I work until I can collect full SS Benifits (assuming SS still exists 34yrs from now) or the companines we work for would be willing to transfer us to FL and keep our pay the same I guess we will be staying in MA.

 

[VampHeartless]

Originally posted by Lisa F
I'm pretty sure that one of the requirements for a VA loan is that the property is owner occupied. I think they are intended for people to be able to purchase a primary home, not an income producing vacation home.

Actually, the way the guy explained it to me, is that you have to intend to live there someday. I know a lot of people overseas, buying homes now with their VA loans, and renting it out to pay off their loans.

If not, I'll just get a regular loan...no biggie...just gotta save up a bit of a downpayment.

 

[safetymom]

Nick@ VB+OKW, I spent the weekend in Melbourne. It was beautiful. We did Sunrise Mass on the beach this morning. It was wonderful. I don't think you can go wrong with any of your choices.

 

[Nick@ VB+OKW]

Originally posted by safetymom
Nick@ VB+OKW, I spent the weekend in Melbourne. It was beautiful. We did Sunrise Mass on the beach this morning. It was wonderful. I don't think you can go wrong with any of your choices.

Thanks for the good reviews safetymom. We just hope these 3 years go by quick................I guess this is when our DVC pts come in handy while we are waiting.

 

[dvcgirl]

We're moving in a couple of months to Orlando. Hubby and I always knew we'd move, but thought we'd go a few years down the road. Then we started reading more and more about the tech job growth in Orlando over the next decade. Second only in the nation to Las Vegas. Hubby started looking for jobs on Monster and sees lots and lots of jobs in his field. Then the housing market up here went insane and it felt like the right time to go. So we took a trip down to Orlando to hook up with a couple of realtors. Ahead of time we did lots of research and decided that we wanted to live in SW Orlando. No kids and no plans for them, so we didn't need to worry about schools.

We looked at a quite a few homes in Windermere, but found accessability to be difficult. Going through "Olde Windermere" with a tiny 2 lane road and all those 4 way stops was a nightmare. And with all the building they're doing out there it seems like they're having a tough time keeping up with the population growth. Specifically we looked at Providence, by Morrison Homes and Belmere by some other builder. Nice homes, but we felt a little isolated.

We drove out to Hunter's Creek to check that out. Again, nice homes, but we keep hearing/reading about the high speed train that Florida wants to send through that subdivision. Plus, that John Young Parkway seems like a tough road to travel on a regular basis. Everyone gets going pretty good, up to 60+ MPH and then everyone slams on their brakes at the next red light.

Finally, we checked out the MetroWest area of Orlando. Rolling golf courses, really nice established neighborhoods. Great accessability to the 408 for commuting. Easy access to Disney and Universal via back roads. Really good restaurants and shoping in the area. The houses are a little more expensive in there, but location is everything in real estate.

We put our house on the market and sold it in 6 days, so we're looking now for that house in Orlando. We can't wait to get there!!