Celebration - Good? (Spring Hill, Winter Springs, Oviedo: HOA fees, high crime, houses)

[NYPDhuntington]

We live in Huntington NY on Long Island. We have great schools and the area is for the most part well off. Crime is low and is very surburban. We are 35 miles from Manhattan. My husband is a NYPD officer who is retiring (age 40) and our daughter is going to be 11 when we are ready to move.

We go to Florida two times a year (I have mother who lives in Spring Hill). We have visited Celebration a few times and are going for Christmas week. What about Celebration? I know the houses are more expensive and there are HOA fees. How are the schools?? I saw the rating as A on the elementary school but I am not totally sold. What area is similar and int he Disney resort area (where I intend to be working).

I keep reading about Hunters Creek, and a cop friend of our recommended Stoneybrook West.

Thanks you any input?

[Guntersville Boomer]

NYPD-- I live in Osceola County where Celebration is, my husband and I could not afford to buy out there 10 years ago and ended up in another gated community until we recently sold our house, we are retiring to NE Alabama where our daughter is. Celebration has a lot of forclosures right now so I bet you can get a good deal if you look around. Just make sure you understand they have what is called a Community Development District CDD and tax you for Celebration related services directly on your tax bill with the CDD, this is on top of all your other taxing entities, it basically replaces what say someone else would pay if they lived in the city limits of a city. I can tell you Celebration uses an off duty officer at night to patrol on top of regular poliice coverage and uses what is called Community Volunteers during the day, they are given a Sheriff's Office marked vehicle for the program. We used it too in our subdivision during the day and it worked real well. I love Celebration and we go out there to eat and walk around quite often, you just have to understand it is kind of a bit of a tourist attraction since disney developed it so the downtown area usually has tourist walking around. If you have not visited Winter Park, I do recommend you do so. It is a wonderful area to walk around but is more local, fewer tourists for sure in comparison to Celebration. Winter Park is very established and I bet there are some good schools there. As for Celebration Schools, from what I hear, they are not what they were originally as far as being wonderful but, I do think they are good. We have a program here called School Resource Officers and I know the one who is in Celebration High School and he likes that school, even his own children attend there so that says something to me. Hope this helps....

[NYPDhuntington]

I was concerned about crime. Suffolk County Here on Long ISland is not a hot bed of crime. So We don't want to retire to a high crime area, and schools are a huge decision maker for us.

Thanks your input is very helpful.

[fperkins]

Let me tell you, I have been looking at that exact thing. I am in New Hampshire and thinking about moving.
At first I was thinking about Celebration, so I posted this question on Craigs List. Below I will quote an email I got. Totally changed my mind actually! Hope it helps.

"The K-8 school is ok.. the high school is awful if you plan to move
in celebration.. they bus kids in from other areas of the county and
the kids all have something against the kids that live in Celebration
so it's a big rivalry.. most high school kids that live in
celebration now are either home schooled or go to private school"

[DailyJournalist]

If you have school age children you are better off living in Seminole County, much better school system. Towns to look into would be Oviedo, Lake Mary, or Winter Springs.

[markhunt]

Originally Posted by NYPDhuntington

We live in Huntington NY on Long Island. We have great schools and the area is for the most part well off. Crime is low and is very surburban. We are 35 miles from Manhattan. My husband is a NYPD officer who is retiring (age 40) and our daughter is going to be 11 when we are ready to move.

We go to Florida two times a year (I have mother who lives in Spring Hill). We have visited Celebration a few times and are going for Christmas week. What about Celebration? I know the houses are more expensive and there are HOA fees. How are the schools?? I saw the rating as A on the elementary school but I am not totally sold. What area is similar and int he Disney resort area (where I intend to be working).

I keep reading about Hunters Creek, and a cop friend of our recommended Stoneybrook West.


Thanks you any input?

Since you want to be close to the Disney Resort area, maybe check out Dr. Phillips\Windermere?

What else have you checked up on for the schools down here besides seeing the letter grades they receive from the Florida Department Of Education?

What factors and criteria are important to you with a school?

[cmj_fla]

I have heard the same thing about the high school that fperkins said. There is a rift between students who live in Celebration and those who don't and it is causing problems. It is a lovely town but there are better choices, in my opinion, and I would also agree with Mark Hunt that Windermere/Dr. Phillips would be a better choice.

[sehnsucht5150]

I stayed there for about a month this past summer. It was a really clean area, nice people, i seen folks walking/jogging around at 2am, so that should go to say something.

[autumnlee]

We moved moved here last NOV. 2008 My son is a junior this year at celebration high school and he absolutely loves it. I just asked him if he knows anything about this rivary between the celebration students and osceola students and he say he has never heard of such a thing. We came from a small crime free bedroom town in MASS. We are very pleased with the high school and we did alot of investigating when it came to choosing the right school. Stay away fom polk schools they are not so good. Also if you plan on working at Disney world drive the main highway to disney goes right in to celebration. Good luck

[Alphaman]

Forget celebration I would look into Windermere, winter park or the Oviedo/winter springs areas.