Relocating to Orlando area from DC metro area (Altamonte Springs, Oviedo: transplants, real estate)

[meimei74]

Hi,

My family and I are considering a move to FL from the DC area. We are looking for a lower cost of living and a less hectic life. My husband and I both have good jobs in DC. We are just tired of traffic, the winter, and the fast pace around here - looking to be closer to family in South Florida, and have a better quality of life for our kids. Right now, I feel like we are so overscheduled with activities, daycare, working, and commuting. I have a potential job opp. in Winter Park.

I am curious to hear from other people with young children who have moved to Orlando and the surrounding area from DC. Has it been all that you hoped for? Has the cost of living really been less? How is the traffic? Has it been easy to make new friends? is the pace of life slower? And how is the job market? My husband works in IT - networking and support.

We are looking for a very family friendly neighborhood with a budget up to $300k (if we could spend less, even better) with lots of kids playing outside and good schools. Since I may be working in Winter Park, I've been looking there, Casselberry, Altamonte Springs, and Oviedo. When I look at Google, it says that they are all between 5-9 miles away and about 15-20 minutes drive to Winter Park. Since we are unsure about where my husband would work, we'd want to be centrally located.

Thanks!

[mizzoujohn]

Winter Park is nice. You'll enjoy it here... although traffic on I-4 is no picnic. I'd buy with a commute avoiding that.
-John

[tinytrump]

read today about " horizon west above Disney and off the 429... looks very nice

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by meimei74

Hi,

My family and I are considering a move to FL from the DC area. We are looking for a lower cost of living and a less hectic life. My husband and I both have good jobs in DC. We are just tired of traffic, the winter, and the fast pace around here - looking to be closer to family in South Florida, and have a better quality of life for our kids. Right now, I feel like we are so over scheduled with activities, daycare, working, and commuting. I have a potential job opp. in Winter Park.

I am curious to hear from other people with young children who have moved to Orlando and the surrounding area from DC. Has it been all that you hoped for? Has the cost of living really been less? How is the traffic? Has it been easy to make new friends? is the pace of life slower? And how is the job market? My husband works in IT - networking and support.

We are looking for a very family friendly neighborhood with a budget up to $300k (if we could spend less, even better) with lots of kids playing outside and good schools. Since I may be working in Winter Park, I've been looking there, Casselberry, Altamonte Springs, and Oviedo. When I look at Google, it says that they are all between 5-9 miles away and about 15-20 minutes drive to Winter Park. Since we are unsure about where my husband would work, we'd want to be centrally located.

Thanks!

I used to live in DC (several years) and now live in Central Florida as a result of a family illness. While I don't have young children I feel I can offer you some insight into other areas of concern or interest.

I'll start with jobs and would advise due diligence in investigating housing costs and insurance costs (both home and auto) in relation to your new salaries. The salary difference can be significantly lower and many can be blinded by the perceived great deal when selling a more expensive home in the Northeast for one here which is nowhere near in cost generally. The point being I wouldn't recommend trading all or part of that equity to offset your difference in salary other words.

The traffic will be significantly less and while I-4 can and will be more of a nightmare (a long term widening/improvement project starts this Fall) it still doesn't approach Beltway-like numbers. The downside here is the lack of highway options and a single major accident on I-4 can cripple the transportation infrastructure for an entire rush hour period. Living and working in Winter Park or the surrounding communities would probably take I-4 off the table in terms of workplace commute however.

Making friends will probably be easier as parents with young kids if you get involved with any of their social/recreational events in terms of meeting other parents. The Winter Park area has in my opinion some nice people who you would probably mesh best with in terms of where you're moving from when it comes to interests and life philosophies in general.

The pace of life is slower and depending upon where in the DC area you live in it might seem very slow or about what you're used to. I would liken living in Winter Park to Alexandria if that helps at all.

The job market in Florida isn't very good in terms of professional sector jobs but given you're accepting an offer here and the fact that your husband works in IT I wouldn't worry so much. IT is one of a few varying fields that probably aren't so much an issue here in terms of competitiveness with perhaps only a few applicants per opening versus 4 or 5 times that in other professional level jobs.

Your real estate dollar will go further in neighboring Casselberry. I'd recommend the Lake Howell/Red Bug area which is part of the A-rated Lake Howell School District. A bit further east you'll also find the Tuscawilla area which might well too. That area offers easy access to the 417 which makes for a fairly easy commute to areas to the SE where most of the IT jobs in the Orlando area tend to be centered and is a quick ride into Winter Park.

[meimei74]

Thank you so much for the replies. I appreciate hearing from you all. I've liked everything I've read about Winter Park. I just wonder if we can afford it.

That is good to hear about the IT industry in Orlando. I will share that with my husband. Do people commute into Orlando from places like Casselberry, etc?

[kyle19125]

Originally Posted by meimei74

Thank you so much for the replies. I appreciate hearing from you all. I've liked everything I've read about Winter Park. I just wonder if we can afford it.

That is good to hear about the IT industry in Orlando. I will share that with my husband. Do people commute into Orlando from places like Casselberry, etc?

You can afford Winter Park. There are some older neighborhoods (mostly 60s and 70s build ranch style) north and south (west of 436) where you'll find homes under 300K that are in the Winter Park school zone, as well as west of 17-92 and east of I-4 off of Fairbanks Ave or Lee Road. A vast majority will be "fixers" but if you're not allergic to that it would be a great investment in terms of equity should you do a decent remodel. People do commute into Orlando from Casselberry, many from the east side near the 417 (Tuscawilla area) who work to the southeast near UCF, Lake Nona and Avalon Park area. It's roughly a 30 minute drive (20 miles) with rare slowdowns or heavy congestion on the 417.

[EditorJul]

We just did the exact same thing in April -- moved from Laurel, MD to Central FL for the same reasons (lower cost of living, more relaxed pace of life, better weather, better life experience for our kiddo). We are big Disney fans, so we settled down in the Windermere area to be closer to the fun, but still outside of the tourist bubble.

The cost of living is a LOT less than it was in the DC area. Our car insurance went down by about 10% (although we were in PG county, so we were paying quite a bit for insurance up there). Fuel is a lot less -- last week I was visiting up in Columbia, MD and fueled up at $3.85/gal. while my husband who had to stay down here for work was filling up at $3.29/gal. I've found that grocery prices are a bit less, but some of that may be that because we're less stressed and in life overdrive, we're cooking more food instead of buying prepared foods. We're renting right now while we figure out where we want to build, and for an absolutely gorgeous, huge, brand-new three-bedroom resort suite (I can't even call this thing an apartment because it is too nice), we're paying less than $1700/month. The utilities are a lot lower, too -- for our house in Maryland, we never paid less than $250/month (and in the winters, a lot more). Here we're consistently paying less than $120/month. I don't know what age your child is, but we were paying around $800/month for private preschool in Maryland. We got quite a good shock when we moved here that Pre-K is free for all students, even if you opt to put your child in a private school.

Theoretically, wages are less, but I'm a freelancer, so my wages didn't change. Also, with no state income tax, that paycheck does go farther! My husband is in IT and he got a job paying pretty close to what he was paid on his last government contract project, so if you have the skills, the pay is there. He's on a short-term contract-to-hire position, and got that offer within 6 weeks of arriving.

For where we're located, and from what other people mention, it just seems like everything is less than 20 minutes away in this area. We've got options to avoid on I-4 (although some of them are toll roads), but even when I've had to take I-4, it is nothing like a typical day on the Beltway or on the non-Beltway parts of I-95.

The pace of life is a lot slower, and that has been such an amazing positive change in our lives. We haven't done a lot of focus on making friends down here, as we did know a few people in the area before we moved, but everyone has been insanely friendly. I asked him if he wanted to think about moving back up north at the end of his six-month contract (while secretly hoping his answer was no!), and he told me he'd rather work as a janitor at Disney with that small of a paycheck than move back up north. So yeah, we're thrilled with our move down here, and if we had to do it again, the only thing we might do differently would be to do it sooner!

Good luck on your planning!

[meimei74]

Originally Posted by EditorJul

We just did the exact same thing in April -- moved from Laurel, MD to Central FL for the same reasons (lower cost of living, more relaxed pace of life, better weather, better life experience for our kiddo). We are big Disney fans, so we settled down in the Windermere area to be closer to the fun, but still outside of the tourist bubble.

So glad to hear your experience since you are from the DC area. We are coming from Gaithersburg, MD. Thank you for sharing your story! It's great to hear that you have found it to be a lower cost of living, better quality of life. This is what I was hoping to hear!We are in overdrive mode here, like you described. I find us getting take out and prepared foods more than I like. I would like to see us slow down and cook more and have more time to relax instead of sitting in traffic. And save some money too!

I am hoping we can come down to visit soon to explore more fully.

[meimei74]

EditorJul, one other question for you. How are you finding the people in Orlando? Are they friendly? In the DC area, it's so busy that you don't often find real lasting friendships.

[EditorJul]

Originally Posted by meimei74

EditorJul, one other question for you. How are you finding the people in Orlando? Are they friendly? In the DC area, it's so busy that you don't often find real lasting friendships.

We've mostly been focusing on getting settled in, so we haven't done a whole lot of building lasting friendships (outside of folks we already knew before we moved down here), however the people here are much more friendly than up in the DC area. Our neighbors actually do things like say hi and have conversations with us when we run into them. I think part of it is because there are very few people down here who aren't transplants from somewhere else, so most people remember what it is like to be new.

One funny thing is that I now add in extra time if I'm going out to a store because I know I'll spend a few extra minutes at the check-out having a conversation with the cashier about something or other. People just interact like that around here. Very strange, but not unpleasant, once you get used to it!