[sotonc]

Hello, my familiy and I are from the carolina's. Charlotte suburbs.....We want to move in the outsides of Orlando. But all we here and read is all the bad stuff, why leave, get out, etc... All cities, towns, whatever, they all have goods and bads. All we want to know is the good. give positive feedback please. I think we all here bad in our own city., enough.

[bale002]

I have never lived in Orlando, so I'll let others reviews the specifics.

Orlando is basically at the geographical center of Florida, or at least in terms of its transportation network, so you are within about four hours ride from Florida's other major metropolitan areas.

It is also served by an international airport. People from different parts of the world live in the Orland area and visitors come from all over the world as well.

To start with, then, two positive points are the centrality of its geographical location within Florida and its international linkages.

So now that you can get in and out of Orlando, I'll let others describe the good life on the inside.

Hope this helps.

[OrlFla100]

I'm not sure how it is in Charlotte but I can imagine it's similar to what's going on in Orlando. We have an everyday huge growing population, higher property taxes in the metro area, rising insurance cost in the metro area, and a rising crime rate with more undesirable people moving in. Not to say that it's all bad here it's still a great place with a nice climate especially during the winter months and a home is still in the affordable range. The two big issues confronting Floridians here is with the homes is the rising property taxes and insurance. Since the bad hurricane seasons the insurance companies took advantage of the opportunity to ask for ridiculoulsy high rate increases and couple that with the big boom in real estate here during the last 3 years or so the market value for your home when they evaluate property taxes has gone up hence raising your tax bill. This year I will owe $3800 in property taxes and I'm in a neighborhood that the homes are very close together with a zero lot line. I'm not in a hurdy turdy high society neighborhood neither. It might be just above the average middle class.What am I paying for? Convenience of being in Orlando? You go back to the year 2000 and property taxes were like $1000 to $1500 a year for a property like mine. IF you are considering moving here I would stay away from MetroWest in Orlando or Pine Hills area. High crime and high tourist traffic. I would condier either Lake County or Seminole County if you are looking to be close to Orlando for your commute. East Orlando is still nice as well in Orange County but even here you have to beware of the area you pick with some areas going downhill to a lower scale type of person which usually brings drugs/crime. It's unfortunate but the truth in this America we are in. You can thank our government officials from Tallahassee to Washington for falling asleep at the wheel for too many years just going to their desk and doing nothing saying lets do that tomorrow. Before you know the next guy is in office in that same chair doing the same ripoffs and bs talk and the cycle continues while the working man gets shafted. Oh well, after that negativity Orlando is not all that bad but i have to point out the negatives as I've seen changes since being in florida for 15 years now. We are a new America and this is what it is with no looking back. Good luck with whereever you choose to move. Personally if I had a choice right now I'd consider the Upstate of South Carolina. Very nice country up there and the people seem nicer.

[BigJimSlade]

Hmmmm....just positive? Totally exclude negatives? Hmmmm....well, it is safe to breathe the air most of the time. I dunno, one person's positive is another person's negative. I will phrase things as questions to you:

1) Do you like high humidity?
2) Do you like balmy weather 6 months out of the year and 70s the other 6 months?
3) Do you like traffic?
4) How much crime do you like?
5) Do you prefer urban sprawl over something else like farms and local markets?
6) Do you like roads clogged with tourists who don't know where they are going?
7) Do you like getting paid less than a Northerner but living in a house that would cost about as much as one in another state where people make more money?
8) Do you like it where it never snows and rarely gets frost?
9) Do you like being an hour from the beach?

If you said yes to some of those, then maybe Orlando is the right place for you.

[alexander59]

I would have phrased it do you like hot humid weather 6 to 7 months out of the year and 70s and humid the rest of the year the rest I agree

I always tell people to do thier research before moving to this state and do the research well, not tourist propaganda and real estate brochures. Do not be fooled by beautiful beaches most of them are beautiful with thousands of people on them.

[Prichard]

Good things about Orlando.

Great job opportunities. People are fairly well educated; Good colleges in the area - University of Central Florida, Rollins College, Stetson College in Deland. Great public schools in Seminole County. Some good public schools in Orange County. Hundreds of lakes to go water skiing, sailing, boating, jet skiing, fishing, etc. 30-40 minutes from the ocean and large intercoastal waterways. Your friends from all over the country will come and visit you when they bring their kids to Disney and the other attractions. Weather allows you to enjoy being outside year round. We don't have long gloomy cold rainy seasons. Even when it's hot outside, as long as you like watersports, you can have fun. Orlando is a nice looking clean city. No heavy industry or dirty factories. People are pretty friendly. Personally, I haven't noticed any problem with crime - way overstated in my opinion.

Believe me, if Orlando wasn't a great place to live, I'd leave.

[pixiewytch]

Disney!! I love Disney. My father worked there when I was growing up and I have a lot of fond childhood memories surrounding it. I'm a bit of a Disney nut and even considered before moving closer to Orlando (we live an hour away now) just so I could be closer to the theme park.

The funny thing is that is the only reason I would move there and the cons naturally outweighed that one frivolous pro. Orlando is tourist hell because of Disney. People plan vacations from all over the country to stay here just to go and of course, there is also Universal Studios, Sea World, water parks, dinner shows, and every other possible tourist trap destination imaginable.

I understand that you can live sort of away from that though. Like any other metro area, Orlando has outerlying suburbanite areas where you may not be so oversaturated with that stuff. I imagine that you would still endure a lot of bad traffic if you were commuting to work or whatnot.

If you received a good job offer there or were accepted into a nice university or you are a Disney nut like me who wants to buy an annual pass and go to Disney like 30 times a year, I can see incentive for moving there. Otherwise, I don't know why anyone would really single out Orlando at all.

[sweetana3]

I am one of those tourists but we got a city map and drove all over rather than staying in the tourist area. I found a lot to like. Interesting diversity of areas with ethnic foods. Outer areas like Mt. Dora with festivals and antique shopping. Flea markets. We got around quite well on the interstates. Saw a lot of nice looking suburbs.

At least we were impressed by Orlando.

Some parts look very much like every other city in the US. Shopping malls were pretty much all the same. Chain restaurants are the same.

I think the costs and the actual weather would be most of your deciding points. Safe and clean areas with adequate schools can be found in and around Orlando with careful research.

[ambyr]

Wow! Sotonc asked for positive feedback and still, he gets mostly negative ones. I have been on this site looking for feedback on our move to Tampa and while some of it has been helpful, I've actually been PM'd with people asking me why I would chose Tampa, that it's a dump, the traffic is bad and so on. A lot of the negative comments seem to come from the same handful of people (you know who you are), these people sound a little bitter to me so I chose to ignore their comments...I'm sure it is frustrating for those of you who have been in Florida for years and years and see how bad the traffic has become and how expensive the housing is but honestly, I think Florida is just catching up with the rest of the world. Even in Maine, you can't find a decent house in a desirable neighborhood for less than $300,000...I currently live in NC and trust me, it's catching up here too...California is high, Hawaii(Oh my God!!)... I think sometimes people forget what's really important. We need to spend less time wishing we were somewhere else and just be thankful for what we have and where we are. Some of you see Tampa as a dump but I see it as a fun place for my son to grow up...I'll be able to take him to places like the aquarium, zoo, beach, which Charlotte currently has none of. Also, for those of you who complain about traffic, I can only assume you have not left Florida in at least 5 years because traffic is bad everywhere.

[SunnyDog]

Originally Posted by ambyr

Wow! Sotonc asked for positive feedback and still, he gets mostly negative ones. I have been on this site looking for feedback on our move to Tampa and while some of it has been helpful, I've actually been PM'd with people asking me why I would chose Tampa, that it's a dump, the traffic is bad and so on. A lot of the negative comments seem to come from the same handful of people (you know who you are), these people sound a little bitter to me so I chose to ignore their comments...I'm sure it is frustrating for those of you who have been in Florida for years and years and see how bad the traffic has become and how expensive the housing is but honestly, I think Florida is just catching up with the rest of the world. Even in Maine, you can't find a decent house in a desirable neighborhood for less than $300,000...I currently live in NC and trust me, it's catching up here too...California is high, Hawaii(Oh my God!!)... I think sometimes people forget what's really important. We need to spend less time wishing we were somewhere else and just be thankful for what we have and where we are. Some of you see Tampa as a dump but I see it as a fun place for my son to grow up...I'll be able to take him to places like the aquarium, zoo, beach, which Charlotte currently has none of. Also, for those of you who complain about traffic, I can only assume you have not left Florida in at least 5 years because traffic is bad everywhere.

You know something, everything you said is true. I think some people sit down at the end of the month staring at their bills shaking their heads thinking they can escape fiscal pains by moving away. But most of these places with cheaper real estate also have state income taxes, higher unemployment, same or lower wages, ad valoreum car taxes, higher sales taxes, heating fuel bills, etc. which are overlooked in the rush for cheap real estate. Many people also tend to adjust their income-earning and budgeting habits to wherever they're at--in other words, broke on the beach in FL, soon broke in the sticks of NC. I've been to Charlotte twice, and other than having cheaper real estate, I can't see what it has over Tampa. Enjoy your move!