That's what I was about to suggest. Even Lakeland is a nice area where you can find awesome deals for housing. Not to mention I-4 can take you to Tampa or Orlando, with the traffic not all that bad.

 

If you like nice, older neighborhoods, the city core has really improved in the last decade. Thornton Park, College Park, Colonialtown and Lake Eola Heights all have some very nice properties with yards and mature, tree-lined streets. If you head north a little bit more, the western portion of Winter Park (near Rollins College) is fantastic, and a few good deals can still be had. Or you could spend a bloody fortune for a Winter Park mansion. Depends on your means.

I'll also second what FlyingDog said--the market in many parts of Orlando is teetering on free-fall due to all the people who overextended themselves with "investment properties" before the subprime bubble burst. Now or the near future should be a good time to be a buyer in central Florida.

On the other hand, if you're looking to buy into a new development, be sure to do your homework on the associated companies. There have been some minor scandals with sub-par construction and corporate legal shields lately.

 

I agree with ILS37R - the new construction subdivisions could be house of cards deals if the companies go broke before they turn it over to the owners...

And most new construction here is zero lot lines... Looks really stupid from the air - all these cool McMansions and you can touch the neighbors house...

Eustis - Mt. Dora is close to two GA airports and nice - schools are pretty good - ILS is also right about college park - probably some of the better schools and a good small "down town area"...

Leesburg is coming alive - they now have a towered airport.

If I had to live anywhere in central fla. and I had a good job at a rather secure airline like you have - I may consider 2 places North and east of tampa - Trilby - looks like Pennsylvania no ****** big rolling hills in fla. or a small flyin community N.E. of tampa that I can't rem the name but will find if you are interested - I am kind of biased to flyins but I don't own a house on one due to the costs...

 

I appreciate all of the input. We will continue to look and maybe one of these areas will work for us..

Thanks again for the help.

 

Cocoa Beach is ok, and Melbourne is quite nice, but I have never seen Titusville and nice in the same sentence before. Titusville is the armpit of the Florida peninsula.

In the greater Orlando area, I'd vote for either Winter Park or Windemere. Both are nice.

If you are looking to be near the beach, Melbourne is good and a little farther away but nice is New Smyrna Beach.

 

I would not trust I-4 unless it's between 2-4am. Otherwise, it's just as likely to be a parking lot as it is to be a highway. If you want water, Merritt Island/Satellite Beach/Melbourne will put you there and 528 makes the drive pretty easy (about an hour give or take 15 minutes depending on your driving habits) Inland, I've heard good things about Lake Nona, but have no experience. Same goes for Winter Park.

 

no one has mentioned lake mary, i remember that area being nice and within a 30 min drive of mco.

 

Lake Nona is great and booming. Plenty of new homes down here and it's only a 10 minute drive to the employee parking lot of MCO. Plan on spending about $300K for a home that's 1700 sq. ft to $380K for a 2400 sq. ft. home.

Lake Nona is filled with aviation people (SWA, JetBlue, and others) plus all of the rich golfers live here. I run into golf pros all the time at the supermarket. If you want some land, look a little farther out, but you are going to get into some (I will be politically correct here) less than cultured folks depending on how far out you go.

Schools are new in Lake Nona, however, if you have kids over middle school age, consider a private school because they will get shipped out to a much bigger school than what Nona can support. Hope this helps. I've been in Nona for over 2 years now.

 

I used to live in Lake Mary, just north of MCO and very nice!!! If you don't mind the drive, Coral Springs is very nice too, as is Port St. Lucie, Florida. All have great schools, and you can't beat Florida!!

 

Longwood/Lake Mary and Apopka are all very nice areas ... however they are on the other side of the city from MCO...That is where the good ole florida SUNPASS (DOT TOLL EPASS) helps alot. Turnpike or GreenWay to to MCO no problems. Orlando is great everything is kinda of shiny and in some cases a little too much in the direction of surburban nightmares. Avoid Lakeland and in many cases Southern Volusia County (Deltona is cheap and you get what you pay for.) save your money and get a little place(seaside crashpad) on the side up the coast in St. Augustine, Ormond Beach or even New Smyrna and then you will know my pick of Florida. just some ideas from the northern side of the city.