Orlando as a place to live
 

When people talk about Orlando, they usually talk about Disney and other touristy aspects of the city.

Besides that, how is Orlando area as a place to live? Are there master-planned communities in the area and, if so, could someone suggests some of those? What about school system and crime rate? What about housing cost? For example, how much a new 3000 sq home with front and back yards in a good location would cost? What are the property tax rates? Are there any exemptions/concessions on those property rates? What about home owner insurance. I would imagine it is the hightest in the country due to hurricanes. Is that true?
I know, these are lots of questions but I would truly appreciate any help/guidance in this matter.

Again, I am not necessarily talking about Orlando city but the region in general, say, within 30-40 minutes freeway commute.

First off, Disney isn't actually in Orlando, it is sw of orlando, closer to Kissimmee. I used to live in south orlando and now live in a bedroom community called Clermont, west of Orlando. I'm not too sure what you mean by master-planned communities. There's Baldwin Park near downtown which is 100% master-planned and Avalon Park and Celebration which is Disney's master-planned community, but more of a place for rich tourists to own vacation homes. If a yard is important to you then these aren't the place for you. Everyone is right on top of each other with an alley in the back and a shared park in the front. I find them to be a little icky since they're so fake, but a lot of people like the perfection of them. Home prices are definitely more expensive in them. Downtown Orlando's communities don't have the separate characteristic identities that Seattle does. Downtown is yuppyish and a lot more expensive, but IMO the only real advantage to living there is no commute. Everything else you can find all over the area. As far as schools go, well, my kids go to a private school. The best areas for schools are Winter Park, Dr. Phillips, and some areas of Seminole county. Winter Park is a nice area of very old money, where the Vanderbilts and Rockafellers lived in the winter. Very treed and more expensive of course. Dr. Phillips/Windermere is a newer area of golf courses, lakes, and McMansions. A lot of professional athletes live here. It is also nice and more expensive. I would live in both of those area. Seminole County, north of Orlando, is also treed, pretty, and full of a lot of very nice neighborhoods, but the commute to downtown is so bad that i wouldn't consider living there. These areas have better schools because of the socio-economic level of the students attending them, but all schools around here are over-crowded and short on resources. As far as crime goes, i feel like Orlando is a very safe place to live. Of course, like any city, there are bad sections, but i wouldn't even feel nervous driving through those areas. Our nightly news is not one long list of murders. Housing prices have skyrocketed in the last year. The 3000 sq.ft. house across the street from me with a bad yard and no pool just sold for 360,000. Four years ago it was 180,000. Again, i live in the suburbs, about 25 min. to Downtown without traffic. Check out realtor.com to get an idea of housing prices. One nice area of downtown is 32806. Winter Park is 32792. Windermere is 34786. Some of the bedroom communities are very nice because they were their own small southern towns before urban sprawl. For instance, we have a small downtown, lots of parks (unusual for Orlando) lakes, and bike trails, and many family-oriented community events. East Orlando is a lot of new subdivisions. South Orlando and Kissimee (Osceola county)are more touristy and you may not want to live there if you don't speak Spanish. I don't know about property taxes, my husband's dept., but they do vary by area. Fl has a $25,000 homestead exemption for primary residences. And, insurance is questionable also. Our co. is pulling out of fl in July so we have to find someone else and hopefully it won't be too much. Living in the center of the state makes it one of the cheaper areas for insurance. A realtor could give you more specific answers. Hope this helps. We really like it here. There's lots to do and see. One tip, consider a home with a pool. Good Luck.

Thanks for the detailed information!
In summary, I am looking for a nice, treed area where I can find a new, single-family home. For me, suburbs would be fine and so I dont really have to live in downtown Orlando. A price of $360,000 on a 3000 sq feet house still isnt bad compared to Seattle but that depends on the property taxes. I know that property tax rate in Seattle area is generally 1.2%. So if the rate in Orlando is similar, then it may not be that bad.

A lot of the newer neighborhoods have trees, but not very big ones since they've been built on bulldozed citrus fields and cattle-grazing fields. If you buy a new or newer home research the builder first. There have been a number of builders whose homes have had serious problems with leaking and mold. We know 3 people who had their home bought back by the builder. Despite what they say, a home built post-hurrican Andrew (1991) should not leak. One of the local news stations, i think channel 2, has done a series of stories on this issue and lists the builders with the most complaints. Insurance runs about 1500 a year on a 250,000 house.

I think it depends on where your moving from...I love to visit there for vacation, but I couldn't see myself livivng there. I'm from a fast paced city in the northeast, and in my opinion it is much too slow, and the economy seems to be less than thriving down there, besides in and around the Disney area. I can name four different people that have moved down their, and bought houses/condos and lasted not even a year, and then moved right back north. It is very inexpensive, but you get what you pay for. If your looking for a relaxing, laid back area its prob. a good idea. I don't want to make orlando sound bad, I love vacationing there to get away, but if i were to move to florida, I would move to a city or suburb near ft. lauderdale or miami; but thats comming from a suburb girl who lives 5 min. from a big city. Good luck with your search!

I am used to living in suburbs so laid back ambiance of Orlano may be ok with me. However, with all those tourist attractions and the number of tourists who visit Orlando, how could it be consider slow? One would imagine that there are enough things to do to keep one busy over the weekends, no? One advantage of being there would that if I am too bored, I could always drive down to miami, ft. lauderdale, tampa, naples etc. I am not used to living in a high-density urban area in or near the core of a big city such as NYC, Chicago etc since I have lived out in the 'burbs most of the time.

Winter Park is now considered a suburb of Orlando but was once a separate city. The area in between has been developed so you can no longer tell when one stops, the other begins. That's the area I'd check out if I were interested in living in Orlando. But I have no idea if real estate has sky-rocketed there as much as it has in the rest of FL. I assume it has. In South Tampa where I live you could not buy a 3000 sf house for under $400,000 -- and that would be an older house needing lots of improvements. The value is in the land not the property. I hear that other areas of the state, such as Naples, have even more escalated values.

pnj is right, Orlando is a slower paced city than those in the north or miami, but you have to remember that Orlando is in the south and the old south still exists here. The pace of life is laid back, it is quite conservative, and not very materialistic. I am not a city person and would never live in the south florida area. If you mean boring when you describe it as slow, then you don't know Orlando. It is rediculous how much there is to do here throughout the year. I especially notice this when i visit friends in other parts of the country and ask them what there is to do. Being at the theme parks really can't give you an idea of what it's like to live in Orlando since no one actually lives over there and everyone around you is a tourist. I'm not sure where your idea about the economy comes from. My husband is in banking and that sector is booming which must be some indication of businesses and money coming in. We do not have a state income tax in florida, and next to no local taxes thanks to the billions of dollars tourists bring to our area. That is why it is inexpensive here. I don't know how it is in other parts of the country, but in florida the people have to approve higher sales taxes with a vote. Moving to florida is not moving to a permanent vacation. We still have to go to work, pay bills, do laundry and take care of the kids, but the weather and way of life do make it a nice place to live. I've known people who moved back up north quickly too, but they weren't realistic about what it would be like on a day to day basis.

A couple things no one has mentioned, it is very hot here from late April until late November. Summer months of June July and August average mid to high 90's with about 100% humidity. Coming here for vacation for a week or 2 and living here in the heat are quite different.
Your A/C bill can get very high in these months.
We also have all the little creatures associated with tropical climates. Lizards and snakes and the bugs.
And traffic is a mess, the main roads and the interstate slow to a crawl everyday am and pm rush hour.
After you live here awhile you don't even think of it as a major tourist destination, it's just home.

As MarthaT mentioned, it's bloody hot down here in summer. From about June through October, it doesn't cool off - even at night. That's one reason why the pace is slower than the northern cities.

my friend has located to altamonte springs which is a bedroom community for orlando. she is in a private community called country creek which has several areas. yards, not huge but mature vegetation, and the prices are not over the moon. close enough to rt. 4, and this area is about an hour from daytona. seemed like nice suburbia to me, and a half hour had you in downtown orlando for some city life

Another suggestion is Ocoee (w of orlando). You can get to downtown with rush hour traffic in 30 min., it has a lot of newer homes but is also heavily treed due to strict tree-cutting laws, still reasonably priced, and has a new state of the art middle school and will have a new high school next year.

I also live in Ocoee and can highly recommend the area. It's also right in the price range you're looking for. We recently moved into our second house here. It was built to the new, very strict hurricane standards, it's about 3,000 s.f., and right down the street from a park and my child's elementary school. You'll also find some of Orange County's highest rated schools in this area.

I moved here from up north and will gladly trade the freezing cold winters that lasted forever for the hot months of July and August when the kids spend all their time in the pool.

It's a great lifestyle!

I live a mere 12mi NWsh of downtown Orlando and the traffic is HE11 on I-4 in the AM. It takes me 45 mins to get to work in Winter Park (which on normal days, w/o traffic should take max of 20 mins). Why do I stay? Because I LOVE my neighborhood, even though it's 30+ years old, but w/ beautiful mature trees and landscaping, and the school district (Seminole) and particularly my school zone, is awesome. There are alot of great places to live around the Orlando area. Another well established, but with newer homes and neighborhoods, w/ good schools is the Winter Springs area and it has the benefit of the 417 (toll road) which you can use to avoid 1-4 to get downtown in the AM's.