Opinions From the Outsiders (Orlando, Kissimmee: sales, real estate, houses)

[SAPHIREVISION]

Hello,

For those of you who have lived in another state besides Florida but now are living in the Orlando, Florida area...please give me a good idea of what the work is for college educated people, some of the very bad areas( ghetto areas) and just overall upscale, to middle scale, to lower scale, neighborhoods. I know that in each town and city there are those places that are clearly just cheap and sorry, while there are the other places that the super rich people live. I don't wish to be in any of those places...but am looking for the places where middle class families would normally live.

Thanks a lot.

[afghan67]

This is by and large a service economy. Real estate and tourism drive this market. It is not a financial center, it is not a center of industry, it is not a legal center, etc. For that reason, the workforce is not as highly-educated as other cities (we came from ATL). Unless you strike a deal when relocating from another market (my employer matched my ATL salary), wages are low compared with other markets. Combine that with outrageously priced homes (Orlando-area houses at 400k are crap compared to what you can get at 400k in ATL), and Orlando is a hard sell.

Areas I would stay away from: Pine Hills, Parramore, Hunters Creek, Metrowest, East Orlando, Sanford

Areas that are good: Longwood, Lake Mary, Maitland, Winter Park, Dr. Phillips, Windermere, Clermont, Oviedo

[rholborn]

family communities are lake mary, maitland, oviedo, winter park, winter springs (tuskawilla area), windermere. if you are looking for more privacy, larger lots of land for horses i would look in deland or the mount dora area too. it all depends what you're looking for because you can find it in central florida!

[Stupid Flanders]

Originally Posted by afghan67

This is by and large a service economy. Real estate and tourism drive this market. It is not a financial center, it is not a center of industry, it is not a legal center, etc. For that reason, the workforce is not as highly-educated as other cities (we came from ATL). Unless you strike a deal when relocating from another market (my employer matched my ATL salary), wages are low compared with other markets. Combine that with outrageously priced homes (Orlando-area houses at 400k are crap compared to what you can get at 400k in ATL), and Orlando is a hard sell.

Areas I would stay away from: Pine Hills, Parramore, Hunters Creek, Metrowest, East Orlando, Sanford

Areas that are good: Longwood, Lake Mary, Maitland, Winter Park, Dr. Phillips, Windermere, Clermont, Oviedo

I agree with this post 100%. I too came from ATL by way of Chicago, and my company agreed to match my Chicago/ATL salary.

I could not even imagine coming down here and looking for work. Do a quick search on Monster.com in the Orlando area and use the key word "MBA". I just did, and within 50 miles of Orlando, there are a mere 137 jobs listed that require an MBA. Many of them are sales and many of them are for entry-level "marketing" positions. So unless you are an accountant or an engineer, you should consider yourself lucky with a $38 to $45k per year job. This would be outright blasphamy in ATL (where houses are much cheaper) or Chicago (where houses are about the same price).

As far as areas to live in, Semionole County is fine. But since I don't have children, I would start with Thornton Park (downtown) and then Winter Park (5 minutes north of downtown on I-4).

Good luck, and remember, the grass is always greener over the septic tank!

[SAPHIREVISION]

Well, the responses I received so far seem to be very great. Afgan67 seems to have given a fairly good idea of what to expect of this place. I think it seems to be one of the better post, speaking of Orlando without needing to go into too much detail; so that I still get a great picture of what to expect.

Does everyone agree with Afgan67; that wages are particularly low in Orlando and that it is a service economy? If you disagree please let me know why.

[ARC]

I agree with your post. However, why did you say to stay away from Hunter's Creek????? I live there and it's a very safe area (although too close to Kissimmee but what are you going to do?) But HC itself is very nice and a stable neighborhood.

Originally Posted by afghan67

This is by and large a service economy. Real estate and tourism drive this market. It is not a financial center, it is not a center of industry, it is not a legal center, etc. For that reason, the workforce is not as highly-educated as other cities (we came from ATL). Unless you strike a deal when relocating from another market (my employer matched my ATL salary), wages are low compared with other markets. Combine that with outrageously priced homes (Orlando-area houses at 400k are crap compared to what you can get at 400k in ATL), and Orlando is a hard sell.

Areas I would stay away from: Pine Hills, Parramore, Hunters Creek, Metrowest, East Orlando, Sanford

Areas that are good: Longwood, Lake Mary, Maitland, Winter Park, Dr. Phillips, Windermere, Clermont, Oviedo

[ARC]

I think everyone else answered your question pretty accurately. My husband transferred with Lockheed Martin and has a good salary. I am college educated and am re-entering the workforce and have had to take a massive pay cut from my previous working years in Texas. Of course some of that is related to my being out of the workforce for a number of years - but still, Orlando is not known for having jobs that require college degrees.

Originally Posted by SAPHIREVISION

Hello,

For those of you who have lived in another state besides Florida but now are living in the Orlando, Florida area...please give me a good idea of what the work is for college educated people, some of the very bad areas( ghetto areas) and just overall upscale, to middle scale, to lower scale, neighborhoods. I know that in each town and city there are those places that are clearly just cheap and sorry, while there are the other places that the super rich people live. I don't wish to be in any of those places...but am looking for the places where middle class families would normally live.

Thanks a lot.

[SAPHIREVISION]

I see.

The reason more specifically, why I was looking for the opinions from those who have lived in other states before is because through reading these blogs, I was getting the impression that maybe Orlando was getting such bad reviews only because with people not knowing what else is out there, they tend to think they have it so bad even thought that may not be the case. So I was concerned with how objective they were and could be.

With those of you who have lived other places, a more balanced response on the status of Orlando was to be expected by me.

Thank you all again.

[BeenAroundTheBlock]

I totally agree that it's better to transfer down here with your company because you keep the same salary. We came to FL due to my husband's engineering contacts. Professional positions are tough to come by here unless you know someone or your resume stands out among the 100's of others applying. He was lucky, I was not after we moved here. I didn't work for 8 months and went from a professional position to an administrative position making 30k less a year. Ouch... A week ago the Orlando Sentinel newspaper had the top employers in the Orlando area. Maybe you search on their website to get the list.

Others failed to mention that the Waterford Lakes area of Orlando is a great part of town to look for housing. We are located in East Orlando, follow the 408 to Alafaya Trail. Great shopping and schools.

[alezu]

Most of my college educated friends working a "real" job here in Orlando are struggling to get by. They must rely on overtime or work at a restaurant on the weekend, leaving little free time. I don't want to live like that so I bartend. I don't have to worry about money but I'm getting tired of it. I'm going back to NY in 7 weeks after living here for over 5 years.