Need Help From Orlando Area People... Again!

[Virgo10]

More questions. I'm trying to keep an open mind about our move. Up until now I had been focused in on Clermont and the surrounding areas. Right now there are not many homes for sale there that fit our needs. Orlando has a bunch of listings in comparison. However, the homes I've seen online labeled ORLANDO are all over the place in and around the city. So what are the better areas. For instance, in my city there are certain areas you just don't want to live in (high crime, zoned for business, ie: mostly stores with a few homes thrown in, etc.) Other areas here are almost like the country. Every large city has its good and bad areas. I'm trying to find parts of the "Orlando" area that are just places where people live.

To anyone who responds (thanks in advance!) if you could give me the names of the larger streets, that would be most helpful. I'm looking things up on Mapquest and it's nice to see where these areas are located. Any other information (how close are the stores for shopping, is the traffic a nightmare and anything else) would be wonderful. If I can get an idea of what the Orlando area is like, I can expand my search for a house and have the real estate agent send me more listings.

Thanks again!
Roberta

Roberta

 

[chrissyk]

From our home search, it was apparent that location in Orlando should be determined by where you'll be working. If you're on one side of Orlando and you work on the other, you'll likely be in for a bad commute. That alone should be helpful in narrowing down the search area

BTW, everyone said that "Winter Park" was such a nice area of Orlando. We looked at the planned community there (Baldwin Park), and it was very nice. One street away from that community was an unbelievably skeevy area, though The line of deliniation between "nice" and "scary" down here isn't as broad as it is in New England. There doesn't seem to be anything in between here to gradually take you from the nice neighborhood to the not-so-nice neighborhood like there is up north.

 

[tinaluis]

We looked at homes in Orlando in the 32819 (Dr. Phillips area), 32822 (Meadow Woods) and 32837 (Hunters Creek) zip codes. They seemed like nice areas. I agree with chrissyk, though, about one area being very nice and, literally, the next "block" things aren't very nice. Perhaps a short-term rental apartment may be in order until you're sure of where you want to buy. We were considering a move down to Orlando from Chicago but have changed our minds. Our plan was to get a short-term apartment so we had time to truly investigate different areas before we decided to buy a house there, as much as the thought of an apartment vs. a house killed me. Unfortunately, things did not work out so we've scrapped the plan to move for now. I also second what chrissyk said about job location -- the traffic in Orlando was terrible when we were there. Most people said "Hey, you're from Chicago, you KNOW what traffic is", which is true, but I take rapid transit and don't have to deal with the traffic. That wouldn't be the case in Orlando. Good luck to you on your search.

 

[Cebhfhionn]

I'm in total agreement about the apartment rental thing! That's exactly what we did, we rented for a year to get our selves situated with our jobs and get a better idea about what areas we liked and didn't like.

Everyone is right too about the traffic. We're from the metro area of NJ, right outside of NYC and we had horrific traffic up there. Nothing compared to I-4 though at rush hour, I was thoroughly amazed.

Do you know where you & DH are going to work? Do you have kids? The crime statuses are a little skewed because there are so many people living here and like you have found out, Orlando covers quite a vast area.

If you have an idea about some of the places you are looking at, we might be able to help better.

Good luck!

 

[Feralpeg]

I don't know that much about other areas, but I love my area. I live in Windermere (34786). We live near CR535 and Chase Road. Dr. Phillips is also very nice. The only drawback in my area is that it is very new and there is a lot of construction going on. We have to drive a ways to get to most things. They are going to be building some shopping areas closer to us, but they are not here yet. On the very good side, it only takes me 10 minutes from the time I pull out of my driveway to get to WDW.

 

[Virgo10]

Thanks for the replies so far. Renting is not an option. We, simply put, have too many animals to even think that someone would rent to us. In addition to that, my DH has medical problems. Moving once is going to be hard on him. He WANTS to make this move, though. I'd love to be able to do this right the first time but I figure the worst thing that will happen is we buy a house in community A, don't like it there and sell in a year moving to community B when we know the area better.

No kids involved but after having read numerous threads here on the importance of good schools, I'd like to find an area that has them.

He won't be working but I may try and get a job at WDW. I figure I can take over once Michael leaves in a few years. At any rate, I want my commute to WDW to be as simple as possible. I intend to go there a lot!

We're looking at houses in the 150K range. I don't need or want a huge house. We've considered, BVL, Winter Garden, Clermont, Ocoee, Davenport and Windermere.

Although I will be accessing the attractions down there regularly, what I really want is just a place to live. I don't want a trip to the market to be an all day event because of the traffic. I've already lived in a tourist town once (Plymouth, MA) and I know what a pain it can be when the tourists flood in. There we only had to worry about the extra people from May through November. In Florida it's an all year event.

Once again thanks for the help. Keep it coming!

Roberta

 

[kylara]

Virgo,

I can say for sure that BVL is a nice place and people there are neighborly since most of the kids go to school together. BVL has the shopping you are looking for with a Publix and Winn Dixie, banks, etc all in one area. Also there are a couple of new developments going up on the Osceola Parkway area so BVL is expanding. If you are going to work at WDW, it is an easy drive their on Osceola Parkway, but that is a toll road.

Windemere is very nice but as was already pointed out, it is a new community and growing so not all the shopping centers have been put in. Depending on where you buy, you might have to go out of your way to do your shopping, but I wouldn't think it would be too far. From Windemere, you would have an easy commute to WDW.

I don't know to much about the other areas. I do know that Davenport is growing and again, shopping and stuff might be a little out of the way until all the centers are completed.

 

[Bella2000]

We also are from NE - I'm Northwest area of MA. We have friends moving into a new development in Ocoee however they do not have children so school isn't an issue. Traveling for work our issue is just being able to get to the airport. We've heard about Lake Mary in Seminole county but I wondered whether it is too far or good. We have an excellent school system here (of course we pay through the nose in taxes ) so I am now wondering if it's just going to end up being private school when the time comes. Is FLA similar to NH in that area? We are looking at Central Florida primarily and our home search is only in the "hmm lets think about this a little bit more seriously" phase. I can't believe that no one has written a book about relocation to Florida when it's not about retirement.

 

[ducklite]

Keep looking in Clermont! I can't tell you how happy I am with my decision to build there.

Have you been working with a Realtor at all? There are a couple really good ones in Clermont that seem to know the area really well. Let me know if you want their names/numbers.

Anne

 

[Virgo10]

Right now the biggest problem is the post hurricanes slow down. I was told by the agent I'm using that the listings have bottomed out because of damages. Say you were going to sell and your house was altered in any way by Ivan et al, you have to have an adjuster come and check it out. There are only so many adjusters and they are REALLY busy. So you may have to wait. Insurance is also a problem. I've heard that currently nobody is writing new policies but that's suppose to change in October.

While we are still seeing houses on the market, it is no where near the amount that were there before all these storms. I'm the type who figures everything happens for a reason. We haven't sold our house yet... a must before I can go down there and even think about buying. I'm trying to use this time to find an area we'll be happy in. I loved Clermont. It reminded me of Vermont (all those hills!) only with palm trees. But I'm still trying to keep an open mind about living elsewhere.

So just in case anyone is reading this for the first time, if you live in the greater Orlando area, let me know how you like it. Knowing your zip code would be most helpful as it will allow me to see where the area is via Mapquest and I can ask the realtor about homes in those areas that may be for sale.

I can't thank those of you who have helped me with this enough. It's scary but I'm really excited about going to live in the place I've wanted to be for the past 20 years!

Roberta

 

[ducklite]

Roberta, as an FYI, there was very little damage to any homes in Clermont. A very little down close to the four corners are, mostly cosmetic, and a few bits and pieces otherwise around the area, but ingeneral, Clermont fared quite well through both Frances and Charley, and Ivan wasn't an issue in the least.

Inventory in Clermont was down to nil before the hurricane season really kicked in. I was talking to our builder in June and he was saying that the MLS had 90% LESS inventory in that time frame than in the same time frame for the prior five years!

You might also want to expand your search to Howey-In-The-Hills, an area very much like Clermont, a little less built up and slightly more rural.

But you are correct about no insurance policies being issued until October...although even if you were to find a house today you wouldn't be able to close until then anyhow, so that shouldn't make any difference at all.

Anne

 

[ChristmasElf]

Howey in the Hills is a nice rural area, but will be somewhat of a commute.

One of the areas most people know not to look into is Pine Hills. It is actually referred to as "crime hills".

Hunters Creek has prices that range from 125K to the mid 400's.
Stay west of John Young near 417 is the Vistas in hunters Creek which is all fairly new housing. The Hunters Creek schools are very good as well.

Winter Garden prices are also reasonable but the schools are the pits!!! Tildenville Elementary/Lakeview Middle not good.
West Orange High school is Okay though.

Windermere-has pockets that are very pricey as well as the fixer uppers. The commute is not bad depending on which side of Windermere you are on. (the speed limit on Main Street in Windermere is 25 in some spots and heavily patrolled with radar so your drive is a lot slower through here!)

Conroy and Apopka Vineland Rd is in Dr. Philips area. Schools are good but the housing will cost you approx. 350K and up.

Ocoee will have reasonable housing costs but the commute will be longer. Ocoee is just North of Colonial. Schools are hit and miss.There are subs off of Clark Rd that have housing in the 150's up through the 300's.

Lake Mary is in Seminole County so you would have to deal with I 4 to get to Disney. (nightmare at rush hour) unless you take 417 but then you would have tolls. (Seminole County schools are good though)

HTH!!!

 

[Virgo10]

ChristmasElf, thanks so much. I'm lucky that my son lived in that area for nearly 3 years but as a 20 something guy there is a lot he just didn't notice. I'll show him what you wrote and he can help me find the areas on a map.

Still looking for more info. Anyone?

Roberta

 

[chrismiss56]

Hi to all!!

And thanks for all the information. DH, 2 DD (16 and 20) and I are seriously discussing a move to the WDW area in about 5 years.

I am looking to work at WDW while my husband plays on the golf courses so we need to be within 20 - 30 minutes of WDW.

Looking for a one story family home - new construction or existing 4bdr/3ba with a max price of $450,000. Hoping to come down after the first of the year to start looking.

Thanks again and keep the information coming.

Have a magical Disney Day!!