2nd, if you got school age kids, try to get into the Winter Park area, has the better public schools, is also a safe area for the most part.
If working in Maitland, save yourself the headaches and stay to the east of Rte 4 and North of 408. Winter Park, Baldwin Park, Interlachen Lake areas are really nice. Seeing that you are paying 10k a year in property tax, you can get into the more established “posh” (relative term) areas w/o a problem. But I only know the area in Winter Park, I haven't spent much time in Maitland, Longwood, and Casselberr.y
Orange County/Orlando Metroplex has the 2nd highest level of foreclosures (# of housing in foreclousre/total housing units) in the country, but mostly at properties at lower value than what you’ll be looking for. BUT, there are some insane deals on pre-foreclosures and foreclosures in the area. Also realize that no matter when you buy within the next 6 months, you could have saved 3% to 5% by waiting another month. The market is in freefall.
Make sure you have property insurance policy in place BEFORE you sit down to closing. That means give yourself at least 3 weeks before closing to search for a carrier. Incredibly vital, it’s been a deal breaker for over a year there.
IF you need a real estate agent, freepmail me, my family has a broker we trust who works that area.
But seriously consider paying to join one of the foreclosure property listing services, and/or going to Florida banks and asking for their list of bank repossessed properties, the market has 9 months of foreclosed property backlog inventory, and then you got 2 months of pre-foreclosure inventory, then regular market, then those who gave up on selling and just have empty houses sitting there.
“but mostly at properties at lower value than what you’ll be looking for” This interests me. Could you elaborate on how it is lower value homes facing foreclosure. I have been arguing that liberal use of condemnation and buldozers is one way out of housing slump.