Winter Garden / Townhouses / Safe?

[NativeFL]

NYC-I'm not sure if I'm too late with this or not, but here goes.

I live in WG and haven't heard of the Southern Pines condos. I too live south of 50 on 535. There are 2 communties on 535 that might interest you. One is called Daniel's Landing. Those are townhomes, but usually there are always for rent signs in the windows. And the other one is kind of across the street from it, but I can't think of the name. They are a bunch of white condos. I'm sure they have for rent signs too.

Oh wait, I just thought of another one that is right in the same area as those 2. It is being built by KB Homes, but I'm not sure how many of them are done or how many will be for rent.

Hope that helps if I'm not too late.

[wintergardener]

I've lived in Central Florida for over 15 years now. With regards to the crime, downtown Orlando seems to be experiencing growing pains with the increase in population and staggering home prices.

With regard to Winter Garden, it used to be fairly quiet...much less expensive than Orlando..and with a prevailing "good ol' boy" attitude. You'll find many older people here who have lived in their house all of their lives..and with houses being left to grandchildren.

There are definitely a couple of sides to WG...you'll see poorer areas distributed between the 429 and 535. As far as crime, overall I believe it's relatively low. There's a mix between the whole new side of 535, and the bungalows that have been here since the turn of the century. There are also
lots of Spanish-speakers from migrant workers to professionals. If you're bilingual, you'll always have a job!!
The major plusses are that you are close to downtown O-town (20 min), the attractions (same), and 90 minutes from the beach. You are also inland enough to not have coastal worries with hurricanes. Winter Garden looks much like North Carolina..with oak trees covered in Spanish moss. It's not perfect..nothing is.. but for what it is..it's not a bad place to call home.

[wintergardener]

Those white condos are Southern Pines..across from Daniels' Landing.

[traysea]

Um, I have been up and down Plant Street since 2001. It's nothing like Crime Hills, er, I mean Pine Hills. Yes, there is some shady characters but seriously if there was serious stuff going on , I'd know about it b/c I would of been told never to drive down certain streets if so.

To answer someone else's questions, I don't think WG has a ghetto per say. I do see and have seen a lot of hispanics and honestly wouldn't be surprised if we had a lot of illegals b/c of the Tildenville elementary school stories I'd hear (this was back in 01 -- where there were lots of kids that would appear and then disappear seasonally and the suspicion was they were born here but parents were illegal).

I live in Winter Oaks subdivision and the back entrance is off Story Rd. It's a little seedy, I wouldn't want to walk by myself at night but driving it doesn't scare me. I wouldn't blow a light in that area (where I used to live -- Cincinnati.. we had a few ghetto places close to hip areas and I would blow stop signs and red lights to get out asap. )

I used to live in Oakland and at first was scared to death because there was a little ghetto (what we call a ghetto) 1 block away. What it is a lot very poor black folks (good and bad).. housing is from slavery time and just now habitat is fixing some of these houses up. They never bothered us. I will say they stayed in their neighborhood, we stayed in ours but I never felt scared when they would occassionally walk by.

I do recall a time when a woman asked for money and then offered to weed my yard. I was advised to not give money to her.

My point is you can't be too judgemental of WG. It's not as bad as some people would make you think. I feel 100% safe in the downtown areas from Plant Street up to the Lake. The closer to Ocoee you get on Plant, it gets a seedy a bit but I don't think it's anything even close to ghetto.

Good luck.

[sworlando]

Southern Pines were built like apartments and I'd suggest against the community. The poor build quality and not so great areas nearby make it a bad choice. I do not like the KB townhomes because they have 8 ft ceilings and for a little more you can find a townhome in Windermere where the area is much much nicer. Take a look at Merrick Landing.

[jaykay000]

We bought a home in Winter Garden last year when our son moved there to teach and we just love it. We have found the community to be very convenient to many areas in Florida. Disney World, Orlando, Universal Studios, Sea World are just 6-14 miles. The airport is only 20 miles away and is very easy to get to using the turnpike. Kennedy Space Center, Cocoa Beach, Tampa etc. are just a short drive. Winter Garden itself is very quaint with cute shops, sidewalk cafes and the West Orange bike Trail system right in the center of town. The system goes for several miles and connects to the Lake County Trail. Many of day we started out in the morning, had lunch someplace on the way and continued into the afternoon. There are several parks along the way. SR 50 offers great shopping and just about any restaurant you could want. The Library is great and will deliver right to your door! Winter Garden Village is a new outdoor shopping Mall that just opened and is fantastic! There is also a great fitness center located here. We drive 13 miles down one road to get to Disney World and have purchased annual passes because it is so easy for us to just hop on SR535 and we are there in no time, and all that Disney has to offer is there for us any day we want it. I don't think you could go wrong renting or purchasing here. Just take a walk in the area you plan to live in and look around and talk to the neighbors.

We bought a place in Hyde Park on SR 50 (West Colonial Drive)which is an adult gated community. Meaning, anyone 18 or over can live there. Many have children and Grandchildren visit. Our son, who is 25 lives there. He feels very safe there, too! In the year and one half since he has been there, there have been no incidents what so ever. We are from Michigan and another great thing is that friends and family from home love to come and visit and vacation because there is so much the Winter Garden area has to offer.