Lake Nona

[OTownKnight]

I'd say if you could afford one of the nice $500k homes in Laureate Park or a $1M+ home in Lake Nona Golf & CC, it would be worth looking into. Both are very nice communities and Laureate Park is pretty unique (although you're starting to see a lot of copycat communities go up across the country). However, if you're looking under $500k, you're not really going to find anything special that you can't find in most other parts of Central FL. Being in Baldwin Park, you guys are much closer to shopping, fine dining, and entertainment than you would be in Lake Nona (they're just now getting a Chili's which is a big deal...).

[Queensres]

Originally Posted by bmw335xi

I'm not politically correct. Millenia is much more than just the mall. It has a lot of high end stores (not the mall), Costco, new condos/townhomes/SFRs etc. It still receives crime from the nearby poverty areas. Likewise for Metrowest. It's fine for shopping, dining, visiting. Eventually, as development continues to spread, it will help push out the riff raff (hopefully) at least for Millenia. We will see though.

Lake Nona is a very nice community, I have a couple friends who live there and love it so much. It's seriously looks and feels like a town Disney would design, but it's cons to me at least is it lacks things to do and places to eat/shop.

A little off topic, but I looked at a few places in Lake Nona and decided to stay in Metrowest. I'm probably in the minority, but Lake Nona just seemed boring as hell and WAY too remote. Nothing but chain stores and restaurants. Maybe it'll get more interesting, but as of now it's mainly for families

Metrowest isn't as pretty, but I'm 5-10 minutes from Dr. Phillips, Windermere, brand new Costco, Total Wine, Millenia Mall, Super Target, a ton of great places to eat (Teak, Agave Azul, Border Grill, STP, Mikado, Lee and Ricks, Josies, etc...). Location wise it's incredibly hard to beat

I won't argue that it isn't shady sometimes (especially at night), but overall I've been pretty happy here the last 4-5 years

[bmw335xi]

Originally Posted by Queensres

A little off topic, but I looked at a few places in Lake Nona and decided to stay in Metrowest. I'm probably in the minority, but Lake Nona just seemed boring as hell and WAY too remote. Nothing but chain stores and restaurants. Maybe it'll get more interesting, but as of now it's mainly for families

Metrowest isn't as pretty, but I'm 5-10 minutes from Dr. Phillips, Windermere, brand new Costco, Total Wine, Millenia Mall, Super Target, a ton of great places to eat (Teak, Agave Azul, Border Grill, STP, Mikado, Lee and Ricks, Josies, etc...). Location wise it's incredibly hard to beat

I won't argue that it isn't shady sometimes (especially at night), but overall I've been pretty happy here the last 4-5 years

I'm with you completely. Lake Nona is boring, it's very pretty, but oh so boring and isolated. I'd rather live in Metrowest because of the reasons you gave as well. I do think most of Metrowest is quite beautiful too though.