Winter Garden Questions.... (Oviedo, Winter Park, Seminole: short sale, foreclosures, house)

[LivNOregon]

I currently live in Oregon but may have to relocate within a month or so to Central Florida. My wife and I are considering Winter Garden, but we have some questions.

1. What is a good area that is not too expensive...but safe. We would like to buy a house if possible in the 125-160K range.
2. Are there areas of Winter Garden to avoid?
3. We have 2 boys ages 10 and 11. The 11yr old is Autistic, how are the school systems and is there support for special needs children.

Any information that anyone would like to share would be appreciated.

[cfIfan]

Hi there as an agent who specializes in Winter Garden, i would say they are a number of great areas, but areas north of hwy 50 i would avoid. Without knowing more about you and what you need in terms of size it is difficult to help really. I would say that to be honest a price range of $125,000-$160,000 realistically wont get you much if you want to be in a good neighbourhood and if you are looking for a single family home. Even foreclosures and shorts are more than that and i would keep away from those simply because of their condition and the liklihood is the final cost would be more than that just to clear all liens attached to the property.

[corderobrown]

You are not going to find much in Central Florida for that price range. A 3 bedroom house in an average neighborhood will start you at about $200,000. Keep in mind that the pay here is not that great.

[Alphaman]

I would look into Seminole county, the cities of oveido or winter springs they have much better schools then winter garden.

[cfIfan]

Originally Posted by Alphaman

I would look into Seminole county, the cities of oveido or winter springs they have much better schools then winter garden.

I would completely disagree with this comment. I have a daughter who is in schooling here in Winter Garden and we are very happy with her education. Alot of people blanket a complete area because of the county stats which is wrong. You can find great schools in any area if you are prepared to research. Winter Garden has a number of great schools.

[LIMermad]

I agree with CFIfan, there are some good buys in Winter Garden and even Windermere and Gotha (saw a few small ones today on MLS $130k-170K.Gotha and Bridgewater are two very good Middle Schools (comaratively speaking). You may find as I did (I'm from the North) that the schools are not as challenging. After one year of my daughter getting straight A's in honors classes w/little effort, I put her in private school...hope I can keep it up (I'm a realtor too.lol). I have a short sale of my own in Independence.

[AONE]

Indeed there are many bargains to be had in Windermere and Winter Garden but it won't improve the schools. The best schools in the area are in Oviedo and Winter Park, in that order. If buying a bargain home can make private schools an option then I would say yes to Windermere. If you get into Olympia district then ok for the high school. West Orange.. well I would choose other places if it were me and my kids...

[cfIfan]

Originally Posted by AONE

Indeed there are many bargains to be had in Windermere and Winter Garden but it won't improve the schools. The best schools in the area are in Oviedo and Winter Park, in that order. If buying a bargain home can make private schools an option then I would say yes to Windermere. If you get into Olympia district then ok for the high school. West Orange.. well I would choose other places if it were me and my kids...

I would have to say that as someone who lives in Winter Garden/windermere and sends my child to school here, and knows many parents sending their children to other schools in the area be they elementary or not, we are very happy with the schools available to us. I am originally from the UK and has first hand knowledge that the education system here whether it be just Florida or the entire USA is no-where compared to the UK education system, yet we are very happy with the level of schooling. In fact last year our daughters teacher was from the UK also so i was able to conference with her and guage where our daughter is with a direct comparrison to the UK system and she is on par if not a little ahead. Whilst the stats show The areas you mentioned as being top notch schools, unless you know people who have their children in the schools this really means very little. An example of this is Celebration. Their school is currently rated from what i hear a D school when in reality it should be a B or A school but because of a fault in the whole process of grading the schools it went down instead of up. Yet if you talk to people who have their children in this school you will find they are very happy. I only heard about this from one of the parents a couple of weeks ago.