There are some other threads on this:

Orlando Places to Live

Orlando Suburbs

 

I’ve been told the Merritt Island schools are really good.

 

Schools beach side are pretty good. Mainland side not so much

 

Unfortunately, airline pilots are mostly priced out of saltwater waterfront now in most of the state. That’s sad isn’t it? $1m is about the price of entry for saltwater now and that doesn’t buy much.

 

I live over in the Clearwater part of Florida. Its about a 2 HR drive to the lot in MCO on a normal day, 1;30 mins at 4 in the AM, and about 2.5-3 Hrs during bad traffic or just every time that its not dark out. I4 is evil and it may deter you from living over in Tampa and driving into MCO if you have other options. I do the drive about once a week and hate it. Its nice having the car at the lot at the end of the trip, but I end up commuting out of TPA to our other bases often and sometimes I enjoy the downtime and not having to fight through traffic. YMMV.

 

If you’re going to do the west coast, Naples is a truly incredible community. Older population, super safe, entirely very wealthy, very expensive and manicured, 70 min drive to FLL across the Everglades, minimal traffic

I would NOT commute from the Tampa area to MCO. Interstate-4 is the most infuriating strip of pavement on plant earth and it’s easily a 3+ hour drive with traffic on I-4, and that’s if you can escape the Tampa traffic. I-4 ALWAYS has heavy traffic

I’d recommend Orlando. Communities like Windermere, Horizon West, Avalon, and Winter Park are hard to beat, all within 30 min of MCO. Money goes farther here than in south FL, also.


southeast Florida is it’s own animal entirely, I’ve lived all over the state except there. I like to think of it as a hot-and-humid version of SoCal, not really a fan myself but a lot of people love it

 

i just moved here, but Viera high school is rated really well, and everyone around Melbourne/Rockledge rave about it. I think the middle schools around Viera are better than those on meritt island and Rockledge.

 

Awesome thanks all for the school information, glad to hear there’s some good options in the area!

 

I've lived in both the MCO and FLL metro areas, and they are completely different besides the fact that both have horrible traffic with Orlando being slightly worse. I can help with any specific questions you may have but the general consensus from the pilot group is to save your money and live outside of the cities in the areas already mentioned in this thread.

 

Great answers all around, both this thread and the thread that was linked. I really appreciate all the help and will be reaching out to a couple of you in PM's. Many thanks.