Talk to me about Thornton Park/Delaney Park (Orlando, East Lake: townhome, neighborhoods)

[Happychickens]

I’m looking into relocating into Orlando and these two areas seem to come up pretty frequently. How walkable are these locations? Are there coffee shops, rest, etc nearby?

[brinkofsunshine]

Thornton Park is more walkable than Delaney Park. Delaney Park is very residential; there's not really many stores/shops until you get closer to Orange Ave./Michigan but it's not the trendiest area over there. In terms of coffee shops, Thornton Park has a french cafe and a Starbucks. There’s also several restaurants and a monthly art/wine walk. They are both really lovely areas with a lot of charming, brick-paved streets, huge oaks, historic homes, etc.

I'm a big coffeeshop person and the best ones tend to be kind of spread out, but Mills 50/Audubon Park/Milk District have some of the best hip restaurants, shops, cafes, etc. The main strip of Audubon Park is pretty walkable, but honestly Orlando is just not really a walking kind of place as places of interest are pretty spread out.

[bmw335xi]

Thornton Park is very walkable for Orlando. I think it’d be a great choice. However, it’s not an urban city in general, so don’t expect NYC or San Francisco lol.

[OTownKnight]

These areas, along with Mills 50, Audubon Park, and Milk District, are the trendy/hip areas of Orlando. You'll find tons of local restaurants, cafes, shops, and craft breweries here. As others have said, Thornton Park is walkable for Orlando. In fact, depending on which part you live, you can technically walk to downtown and the Lake Eola area pretty easily from here.

However, in general Orlando is extremely car dependent and you'll probably have to drive 98% of the time for most things, even in all of these neighborhoods. However, if you're talking about just taking the casual weekend stroll, these are great areas to do that. Most neighborhoods around here have sidewalks, speed limits are slow (other than like the 3 main roads), and it's beautiful. The brick lined streets, historic homes with white picket fences, and big tree lined streets make it a very desirable place to live, eat, and drink.

Very expensive though, hope you're OK with a 1300 SF 2/2 bungalow from 1925 with no garage that costs $400k. If you want the bigger or more updated houses, there are some just north of $1M in the Thornton Park and Delaney Park areas.

The people that bought the fixer uppers in these areas back in 2011 or 2012 did it right. They're sitting on some MAJOR equity right now. I'm so jealous As someone who lives in the way out suburbs, I'm kicking myself for buying my townhome out there for the same price that I could've gotten a little 2 bed 2 bath fixer upper near Thornton Park a few years ago

[WithDisp]

Thorton Park is an incredibly small area encompassing East Lake Eola. It's a premiere location with convenient road and walking access, fairly trendy- but very pricey and with dodgy schools. Edgewater High is 'C' rated and has had issues the last few years. As of next year I believe the local middle school (Howard) will go all Magnet and thus you end up likely at the new Kaley-Lake Como K8 school. Not sure how enrollment there will work.

Delaney Park, which for all intensive purposes is usually called the area from 408 down to Michigan. Mostly wealthy professionals and long term Orlando residents. It's not terribly walkable, though from Delaney Ave and West you're a short distance from a lot of places. Typical Starbucks & Dunkin Donuts- but also a Foxtail Coffee Co. is coming to Orange & Waverly where Mama B's Giant Subs was. Schools are far better. Cherokee Elementary & Blankner K8 are solid 'A' schools, Boone HS is a 'B'.

Both of these areas are not particularly diverse, but the premium you pay is really for their proximity to locations.

[Happychickens]

Thanks everyone, this has been super helpful! Will definitely keep these two areas in my rada. I will also include Mills 50, AUDUBON Park and the milk district.