Moving to the Orlando area from NY (Tampa, Largo: relocate, rent)

[E39Chris525i]

My family and I would like to relocate to the Orlando area. Are most of the jobs located in downtown Orlando area? I have about 10 years experience in Payroll, A/P, A/R, database, blah blah blah, etc... I have a 4 yr degree in Finance. Looking for a 3 bedroom house/apt in a decent area to rent for now. Crime is everywhere, even in good ol upstate NY so I know one person might say that their is crime in Mt. Dora when I heard from someone else its nice their (just using that town as an example). Any suggestions for other towns would be great. Thanks.

[Wilshire81182]

The jobs are downtown and in clusters around town like th research park by UCF, or areas west of I-4 in Heathrow/Lake Mary, or the office complexes by Florida Mall/John Young. The highest crime areas are West of I-4 and along Orange Blossom Trail and Pine Hills. I also don't really like Oak Ridge. Seminole County is nice, as well as East Orange County and SW Orange County. There are a lot of central areas that are nice places to live and work but are highly trafficked so they may have more crime than a similar area in the suburbs (Thornton Park, College Park, Colonialtown, Baldwin Park, Winter Park). Other nice areas are Belle Isle, Conway, Lake Nona and Hunters Creek all within Orange. Like I said, most of Seminole is nice and come highly recommended by myself and others on this forum (that includes Oviedo, Winter Springs, Lake Mary, and Altamonte Springs to name the best).

[Jonah1979]

Originally Posted by E39Chris525i

My family and I would like to relocate to the Orlando area. Are most of the jobs located in downtown Orlando area? I have about 10 years experience in Payroll, A/P, A/R, database, blah blah blah, etc... I have a 4 yr degree in Finance. Looking for a 3 bedroom house/apt in a decent area to rent for now. Crime is everywhere, even in good ol upstate NY so I know one person might say that their is crime in Mt. Dora when I heard from someone else its nice their (just using that town as an example). Any suggestions for other towns would be great. Thanks.

Mt. Dora is a great little town and I've never heard of them having a crime problem. Of course living in L.A. for the last 5 years i think of a crime problem as 6 ppl being shot in the last week around your block.

Winter Garden, Winter Park are a couple of other nice areas.

[E39Chris525i]

Thanks for the quick reply. So just stay away west of I-4. You aren't the first person to tell me this, so I see the trend. With regards to traffic, most commutes into downtown would be at worse an hour and change if one lives say 20 minutes away from downtown w/o traffic? As regards to employment, I know you have the Orlando Sentinal paper and also theflyer.com/careerbuilder/yahoo hot jobs, etc... Are their other classifieds that you guys use that I am not aware of? I have also heard that the tourist area (Kissimmee) isn't that great to live in and that Poinciana is too far......

[Wilshire81182]

Kissimmee is kind of rundown and over touristy and has some crime issues. Poinciana has some of these same issues (except being touristy) on top of having very bad freeway access. Unless you are looking at Celebration and working south of Sand Lake I would not recommend Osceola County in general. It is also much more rural feeling in parts down there as well. There are some areas on the west side of town that are nice, but they are well west of Pine Hills out by Ocoee or Winter Garden and are generally much nicer south of the 408/Turnpike. College Park and Wekiva are also nice areas west of I-4, it is just those central west areas along John Young, OBT, Pine Hills, Hiawassee, Silver Star or West Colonial that I would avoid.

[E39Chris525i]

Wishire, I see with your 400+ posts you know the area like the back of your hand. Thanks for the info. I have a million other questions such as employment. I know the state of the economy is in the dumps, especially with gas climbing to $5/gallon within two months and maybe $7/gallon in 20 months. However, what about jobs in the Disney/Universal companies (not being the space mountain space cadet or the shark operater for Jaws) such as finance/bookkeeping, etc...? Also I am willing to share my resume for anyone who wishes to see or knows of anyone looking for a skilled/educated worker. I know everyone claims that he/she is, so I will be part of "everyone". We are just tired of the overpriced NY living. We are one hour north of NYC and its getting to the point that my area is turning into another Westchester County area.

[cll2528]

Even though I am in the Tampa Largo area now (since2007). I lived in the Conway area of Orlando for the last 30 years. I agree with Willshire 81182 and others regarding the areas to avoid. lcuddihy's advise to locate an area of industry/job first-then look for living is logical too-Bit realize that even if you live in one area-it's really not outrageous to work a little distance away. Looking at an Orlando map - you see a quadrant divided by Colonial DR/Hwy 50 and 1-4. Although each section has the "Bad" and "Good" parts, The Conway, PineCastle, Belle Isle, Dr. Phillips, Sky Lake, Bay Hill, are mostly residential. Your industry areas are pretty spread out here and there- with many financial and business parks-of course DT Metro Orlando, Along 436, 434, Maitland, Altamonte, etc. Traffic everywhere on major roads in a major city like Orlando is going to be rough going and coming (630-830 am) (4-630 pm) that's just the way it is especially with a M-F/9-5 Acct./Business position. Using major roadways-even as congested as they can be - from Conway (SE) to Altamonte (NE) will be about 35-45 mins. From Winter Park (NE) to Disney is about the same-and that's covering a LOT of territory-so if you're living closer to work it wouldn't be as long-just really S-L-O-W. Check out Orlandoedc.com or other "Metro Orlando Business" searches to give you a better idea on economics. (I'm brand new on this forum-I hope this is ok to mention a web site) Just keep in mind the "avoid areas." Good luck and welcome to Florida.

[E39Chris525i]

Thanks alot everybody. I will probably have a question or two everyday until you guys are sick of me. However, two more questions for the day. Is it possible to get the YES Network on the cable networks in the Orlando area? I wouldn't mind paying $5-$10 extra for it because I need to watch the Yankees. Or do I have to bite the bullet and get Direct TV? Also, I contacted an independant BMW shop in Maitland that seems to be pretty good. Does anyone here have a BMW(s) and know of any other good mechanics? Remember, stealers (I meant dealers) are too expen$ive. Thanks!

[NEWYORKLI]

East Orlando is very nice. Of course you can get the YES network, you never want to miss a Yankee game!!

[Wilshire81182]

Originally Posted by E39Chris525i

Wishire, I see with your 400+ posts you know the area like the back of your hand. Thanks for the info. I have a million other questions such as employment. I know the state of the economy is in the dumps, especially with gas climbing to $5/gallon within two months and maybe $7/gallon in 20 months. However, what about jobs in the Disney/Universal companies (not being the space mountain space cadet or the shark operater for Jaws) such as finance/bookkeeping, etc...? Also I am willing to share my resume for anyone who wishes to see or knows of anyone looking for a skilled/educated worker. I know everyone claims that he/she is, so I will be part of "everyone". We are just tired of the overpriced NY living. We are one hour north of NYC and its getting to the point that my area is turning into another Westchester County area.

I have lived here about 3 years now, and I tend to get around and have friends who live in just about every part of town so it gives me a fairly good understanding of the area. There are good positions within Disney/Universal but I do not think they appreciate their employees as much as some of the "real" employers in the area or as much as they used to. Some of them do pay pretty well though. People like to complain about the pay in Orlando but I know a few people who work in IT in Disney making around 60,000 and some others who quote their pay around 20 dollars an hour. Those jobs are out there but there is more competition for them here with the influx of people, the job market, and type of jobs in this tourist/service industry driven market.