OT: Anyone live in or near Orlando

[ExCPKate]

When we were younger, we rented an apartment in a part of town we THOUGHT was nice; the complex itself was gorgeous but once we moved there, we realized we hadn't done enough driving in all directions. Turns out we were literally two miles east of Orange Blossom Trail, the part of town with hookers, drug dealers, and lots of crime. We got out of there quick, which is something we would not have been able to do if we had bought the house.

That is so funny what you said about OBT. When I was down there for my college program, I was looking for a Kinko's in the evening that was listed on OBT. We start driving further and further away from the mall, and started to see people standing on the corner in either trenchcoats or thigh high boots. Being from the country it took me a few minutes to figure out that we need to forget Kinko's and TURN AROUND! haha...

 

[purplegirl247]

Winter Park is just east of us here in College Park (the "college" there refers to Rollins College, btw, not UCF). It is a very nice area, but very expensive. If you see a cheap house in Winter Park, it's likely in the more run-down part, which they're trying medium successfully to revitalize. It's a bit off I-4 though, which makes it a wee bit more difficult to get to Disney.

There's an area of town called Narcoosee, that's sort of south east Orlando (south of UCF but east of Disney) that's sort of central to both locations. That area is growing by leaps and bounds, but you can still find houses at fairly reasonable prices. It's sort of near the intersection of 417 and 528, if you happen to have a map handy.

Traffic in Orlando is not as bad as some places, but is definitely worse than in the past, so basically, if you'll be going to both UCF and Disney on a regular basis, you'll be sitting for awhile! Problem is, they're on complete opposite ends of Orlando...

 

[Rustyflwr3]

Traffic in Orlando is not as bad as some places, but is definitely worse than in the past, so basically, if you'll be going to both UCF and Disney on a regular basis, you'll be sitting for awhile! Problem is, they're on complete opposite ends of Orlando...

The traffic definitely depends on where you are going and when. If the OP is interested in going to the hospitality management school at UCF, that is close to Disney. It might be right in between main campus and Disney. If you live around there, the traffic isn't going to be bad at all commuting between the two. Unless gen eds need to be taken at main campus.. It's when (in my experience), you start going into downtown in the morning commute and evening commute when it can get kind of bad. Traffic really isn't as horrible as I thought it was going to be.

 

[CivilTwilight]

We live right on the Maitland/Winter Park/Casselberry lines and buying in this area is extremely expensive. We currently rent but are looking for a house. THere is no way we will be able to afford a house in this area. A simple 2-3 bedroom, (single family) 1700 sq. foot house will run you about $330K minimal. We are looking in the $200K because this will be our first home and that is already a $1500 mortgage approximately.

We looked in Orange county too and anything that comes up for 200K is literally IN THE GHETTO. You don't realize it until you drive through the neighborhood that it's in a bad area because the pics of houses look fine! Scarry!

So we've started to look in Kissimmee, but more of the eastern side (zip code 34743 & 44) where it is far enough from Disney, but literally right off the Florida Turnpike. Taxes in Osceola county are much less as well, something to consider.

There are of course areas that are in the same price range waaay north of the city and waay west of the city, but then you're talking an hour + ONE WAY into Orlando. I cannot stress enough why it's extremely important to live as near as possible to your place of business... this gets tricky with housing prices though. It's taken us a year to figure out where the traffic is worse than others. STAY AWAY FROM ANYWHERE THAT REQUIRES YOU TO BE ON I-4 FOR LONG PERIODS OF TIME!!! Unless of course you work the graveyard shift which you probably wouldn't have much traffic at all anywhere.

 

[KQAN]

Purple Girl, we also live in College Park. We're renting a 1940s house, I really love it! It's a great neighborhood in walking distance to a lot of shops, restaurants, etc, so to the OP, I definitely recommend checking out this area. Other great neighborhoods in and around downtown include Thornton Park and Baldwin Park. Plus, there are a ton of condos being built downtown right now. I much prefer these types of places to sprawl-y suburbs such as Clermont. I highly advise against Clermont - plus, Clermont is really far from UCF.

You will definitely need to find out which UCF campus you will be at. The main UCF campus is far from Disney, so you won't be able to live anywhere that is close to both.