Can you live in Orlando as a single male for $40,000/yr (Pine Hills: environment, insurance)

[ooziing stallion]

Just got a job offer in Orlando. Guess what it pays? I live in Knoxville, TN and live pretty comfortably at $35,000. I like to go boozin' at clubs in a city environment and also enjoy boozin' outdoors from time to time. Is it a good city for that? I heard there is a crap-load of crime. Can I walk the downtown streets late at night with my girlfriend and not be acosted by hooligans? Basically...does Orlando suck?

[knightgoose]

40k you would be fine in Orlando. Just know where to live...I would live downtown, maybe Metro West, or in East Orlando if you are into going out to bars. Downtown Orlando has a pretty good nightlife with around 30+ bars along Orange Avenue, Wall Street, and Church Street.

[THASPECIAL]

There's two parts of downtown Orlando......The nice area to live in is near Lake Eola but "DO NOT" live on the other side of I-4 to the west...that is tha ghetto.....Downtown Orlando is poppin on the weekend nights and stuff even happens on the week nights too but since there is a mix of clubs with different genres of music there is also a mix of different kinds of people and there are the occasional pepper sprayings by the cops for fighting and there are scattered homeless people around the club areas like on Orange avenue or Church street you will see some homeless people and sometimes some thugs just standing around but usually if you mind your buisness nothing will happen.....the homeless arent too bad they are just hungry like any other place with homeless.....I did see an ambulance take someone away a couple years back from being shot in front of one of the clubs and seen some fights but usually no one starts anything until you make it happen by starring or disrespecting peoples space.......just use common sense......Cops are posted up at the corners of most of the streets in tha clubing area so i wouldnt worry too much but just look around incase.....other than that there are lots and lots of bars around the whole Orlando area ....i work out near the attractions and work in a plaza with 3 bars in it off of Palm Parkway.....i like the atmosphere out in those bars......I lived in TN before and i think the drinking culture is bigger there but its kinda similar since we are in the south.....i would stay away from OBT, Paramore, Lockhart, Pine Hills, John Young Parkway unless its south of Mall of Milinea, Sanford, Cassleberry/Altamonte by that McDonalds near 17-92 and Parts of Apopka....other than that i think the rest of Orlando isnt too bad.....


Map of Antigua, 46 W Church St, Orlando, FL 32801 on Orlando Citysearch

A little secret ....if you go to those bars on Palm Parkway down near the attractions you can get a discount on your drinks if you say u work in the service industry....usually a bottle of Miller light costs $3.50 but with the discount its $2.20 something.....

Good luck man

[compelled to reply]

Originally Posted by THASPECIAL

Cassleberry/Altamonte by that McDonalds near 17-92 and Parts of Apopka

Ha! I remember that area!

[THASPECIAL]

Originally Posted by fort lauderdale

Ha! I remember that area!

Darn right you remember that area.....lol

[jenlando]

Regarding where to live Quote:"OBT, Paramore, Lockhart, Pine Hills, John Young Parkway unless its south of Mall of Milinea, Sanford, Cassleberry/Altamonte by that McDonalds near 17-92 and Parts of Apopka....other than that i think the rest of Orlando isnt too bad....."

The first person said to move to Metrowest - if you value your life DON'T! People get attacked in the day. The other areas that the other person wrote are true as well. Also stay away from north pine hills - aka Rosemont.

I'm young 20's and go downtown with my husband occasionally. We've never had a problem, but keep your common sense and don't walk around totally wasted or people might take advantage of you. Usually weekdays at the clubs downtown are filled with less-desireable people. Weekends are when us 9-5 clean cut weekday workers go.

Don't get scared off - majority of the bad stuff happens in bad parts of town during night hours. I've been here for 3 years and love it!!

[dorlando1979]

$40,000 per year is only enough money to live in orlando in the suburbs.. Houses downtown are in the $300,000 + range for about a 1,100 square foot house in a decent neighborhood. You can buy a condo probably about 10 miles outside of downtown in altamonte springs or sanford for 150's-170's that would be for about 1,200 sf... I would not recomend walking the downtown streets at night unless you are in trendy thorton park or somewhere like that where the 1700 sf homes start in the 500,000 range

[backtofla]

oozingstallion, 40k pay is not bad at all, but orlando aint cheap. my wife and i are at about 100k combined, we have a nice house, but not over the top. our cars are decent, but no mercedez or audi's in my driveway. and still, we can pay the bills, but we dont have a lot of extra spending money. oh yeah, no kids either.

[Nirvana-Guy]

Originally Posted by ooziing stallion

Just got a job offer in Orlando. Guess what it pays? I live in Knoxville, TN and live pretty comfortably at $35,000. I like to go boozin' at clubs in a city environment and also enjoy boozin' outdoors from time to time. Is it a good city for that? I heard there is a crap-load of crime. Can I walk the downtown streets late at night with my girlfriend and not be acosted by hooligans? Basically...does Orlando suck?

NO WAY! You will be living in substandard, ghetto housing and you will be counting pennies at the check out in the grocery store. There is no way someone can live a decent lifestyle in Orlando on $40,000/year. You will have a mediocre lifestyle at best. A decent middle-class lifestyle starts around $60,000/year or so. Florida is expensive. It wasn't before, but now it is highly expensive.

There is a TON of crime in Orlando. Orlando was rated #7 MOST VIOLENT city in the USA in 2006. It was #25 most violent in 2005, but Orlando has been "upgraded" to #7 most violent. Not good.

Downtown Orlando is filled with drug dealers because downtown is next to Parramore, an urbanized ghetto.

But your main concern needs to be wages vs. cost of living and at $40,000, your life will suck. Just as an example, rent here is extremely high. When I first moved out of Orlando to Lake Mary a 2/2 apt in a middle class, no crackhead neighborhood was $769/mo. After 1 year it went up to $900/mo and right before I moved (my 2nd year there) it was going to almost $1,000/mo. Mind you, that is like 15 miels from Orlando.

In Orlando, expect to pay between $1,100 - $1,500 a month in rent only, unless you wnat to live in a drug-filled neighborhood. Then your kids will get bullied/beaten, your cars broken into, your family in fear.

Also, FL is #4 MOST EXPENSIVE auto insurance state in the US of A. That is for car insurance, but if you live in FL, you need hurricane insurance (or renter's if you rent) or you are setting yourself up for disaster. Home insurance is also extremely high, as you can imagine.

Jobs are hard to get because we have way, I mean WAY more people than jobs. A lot of the jobs REQUIRE Spanish to get the job. Most jobs are "service jobs" working as a hotel housekeeper ($6.75/h), Disney (start at $7.15/h), and gas statsion ($6.75/h). If you lose that $40,000 job, you could be in deep trouble finding another one. Specially if you do not Habla Espanol.

[ceebee1957]

I have to say that, if your posts were the only indicators of Orlando life, I would, moving over there next month as I am, feel it my bounden duty to commit suicide in advance of reaching those shores.

Luckily, that isn't the case. Lucky also that I have a little broken Spanish to talk to my new neighbors as they attempt to remove either my wallet from my trousers (sorry, pants) or my skull from my shoulders for no more reason than that "they can and will".

What a post-apocalyptic wasteland you conjure up. As an ex-habitue of the locale, why don't you count yourself lucky and, having moved on, move on.

Originally Posted by Nirvana-Guy

Cut, cut and cut