Family friendly towns near Maitland? Please help! (Altamonte Springs, Sanford: real estate, low crime)

[Townsearching123]

Hi! We are searching for a family friendly town within 30 minutes of Maitland. We have a baby so low crime and good school zones are at the top of our list. My husband and I didn’t grow up here so don’t know much about Seminole or Lake County.

Ideally we would love to be in a town that is walkable with a town center/shops/restaurants. So far we have viewed Avalon Park, Windermere, Winter Park. & Winter Garden but they are on the pricier end so keeping our options opens.

Here is our list of towns we are interested in checking out & would love personal opinions!

1. Mount Dora (love how it looks like a quaint little town but worried we don’t know anything about Lake County and the school zones/lifestyle this way)
2. Winter Springs
3. Oviedo

& open to any other suggestions that have reasonably priced homes! I think we are priced out of Winter Garden/Windermere

[kyle19125]

You might consider the Downtown Sanford Historic District and Sanford Heights. Both are very walkable, loaded with small-town charm and a very welcoming resident base of families and young professionals. The schools are top-tier in the highly rated Seminole County school district, second overall to only Oviedo which lacks the charm factor pretty much and ease of assimilation with neighbors. I would be happy to help with any questions and can give you a few different options for neighborhood real estate agents who mirror your demographic and can give you more detailed information.

[Arcenal813]

With kids, I'd have a hard time recommending anything in Lake County, barring maybe Clermont. The schools are bad, and quite frankly, it is just not a kid-friendly area. Mount Dora has a nice little downtown, but it's very small, and outside of that, there is little of interest there, in addition to bad schools and some pretty crappy neighborhoods.

Kyle's suggestion is pretty solid.

Aside from that, "low crime" and "walkable" within close enough proximity to Maitland at an "affordable" price is a bit tough. The walkable neighborhoods are mostly centrally-located, and on the pricier side.

Might want to check out Longwood as well. It doesn't have anything remotely close to Sanford's Downtown, but it has an old, charming town center nonetheless, is FAIRLY walkable, and has a Sunrail stop right there.

Seminole County is where you will find good schools at a fairly affordable price.

[Townsearching123]

Originally Posted by kyle19125

You might consider the Downtown Sanford Historic District and Sanford Heights. Both are very walkable, loaded with small-town charm and a very welcoming resident base of families and young professionals. The schools are top-tier in the highly rated Seminole County school district, second overall to only Oviedo which lacks the charm factor pretty much and ease of assimilation with neighbors. I would be happy to help with any questions and can give you a few different options for neighborhood real estate agents who mirror your demographic and can give you more detailed information.

Thank you! I will definitely check out those areas

[Townsearching123]

Originally Posted by Arcenal813

With kids, I'd have a hard time recommending anything in Lake County, barring maybe Clermont. The schools are bad, and quite frankly, it is just not a kid-friendly area. Mount Dora has a nice little downtown, but it's very small, and outside of that, there is little of interest there, in addition to bad schools and some pretty crappy neighborhoods.

Kyle's suggestion is pretty solid.

Aside from that, "low crime" and "walkable" within close enough proximity to Maitland at an "affordable" price is a bit tough. The walkable neighborhoods are mostly centrally-located, and on the pricier side.

Might want to check out Longwood as well. It doesn't have anything remotely close to Sanford's Downtown, but it has an old, charming town center nonetheless, is FAIRLY walkable, and has a Sunrail stop right there.

Seminole County is where you will find good schools at a fairly affordable price.

Okay thank you! I will check out Longwood as well. That makes sense I have been looking on the map and didn’t see much else nearby so was curious to hear more about Mount Dora!

[brinkofsunshine]

I would look at Audubon Park: it doesn’t have the traditional downtown of Winter Park or Winter Garden, but the businesses along Corinne Drive are definitely walkable and there’s some great local shops and restaurants there, lots of community events and a great little farmer’s market. I always see families walking and biking around there. Plus Baldwin Park is right around the corner with its walkable downtown. Audubon Park K-8 is highly rated as well.

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by brinkofsunshine

I would look at Audubon Park: it doesn’t have the traditional downtown of Winter Park or Winter Garden, but the businesses along Corinne Drive are definitely walkable and there’s some great local shops and restaurants there, lots of community events and a great little farmer’s market. I always see families walking and biking around there. Plus Baldwin Park is right around the corner with its walkable downtown. Audubon Park K-8 is highly rated as well.

I thought about this as well (and Colonialtown North) but wasn't sure about the affordability part. But yes, if you can find something within your price range, absolutely recommended.

[drive carephilly]

Originally Posted by brinkofsunshine

I would look at Audubon Park: it doesn’t have the traditional downtown of Winter Park or Winter Garden, but the businesses along Corinne Drive are definitely walkable and there’s some great local shops and restaurants there, lots of community events and a great little farmer’s market. I always see families walking and biking around there. Plus Baldwin Park is right around the corner with its walkable downtown. Audubon Park K-8 is highly rated as well.

Yeah, I would 2nd checking out Audubon Park and neighboring Colonialtown. The only sacrifice is house size but - on that note the lots are usually pretty large by today's standards and personally, I'd much rather be in the right neighborhood and put an addition on my house than have a bad commute and have to drive everywhere.

Audubon Park K-8 is one of the best schools in the district.

I used to commute to Altamonte Springs and either of those neighborhoods would put you within ~15-20 minutes of all of Maitland, put you in the center of everything, and what is overall, a very convenient area to live in.

I can't stress enough the ease of living there for day-to-day life. I work downtown, it takes me 12 minutes to drive it at 8am and about 20 minutes to ride my bike. There is no real traffic in this part of town because it's a grid. If there are too many cars in front of you take a right and go down to the next street. I have co-workers that spend an hour on the road in each direction to get to work and are so exhausted when they get home they don't go back out.

It takes me about 6 minutes to drive to Target, maybe 10 to get to Sprouts. 15 minutes to get to Trader Joe's. Or it's a 10 minute bike ride to Target. I can walk to East End Market or Kelly's Ice Cream in 10 minutes. It's an extra 5 minutes of walking to get to Redlight Redlight or Publix and all these places are under 5 minutes on a bicycle. I could not fathom the driving and the traffic of living in those further afield places.

[Arcenal813]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

Yeah, I would 2nd checking out Audubon Park and neighboring Colonialtown. The only sacrifice is house size but - on that note the lots are usually pretty large by today's standards and personally, I'd much rather be in the right neighborhood and put an addition on my house than have a bad commute and have to drive everywhere.

Audubon Park K-8 is one of the best schools in the district.

I used to commute to Altamonte Springs and either of those neighborhoods would put you within ~15-20 minutes of all of Maitland, put you in the center of everything, and what is overall, a very convenient area to live in.

I can't stress enough the ease of living there for day-to-day life. I work downtown, it takes me 12 minutes to drive it at 8am and about 20 minutes to ride my bike. There is no real traffic in this part of town because it's a grid. If there are too many cars in front of you take a right and go down to the next street. I have co-workers that spend an hour on the road in each direction to get to work and are so exhausted when they get home they don't go back out.

It takes me about 6 minutes to drive to Target, maybe 10 to get to Sprouts. 15 minutes to get to Trader Joe's. Or it's a 10 minute bike ride to Target. I can walk to East End Market or Kelly's Ice Cream in 10 minutes. It's an extra 5 minutes of walking to get to Redlight Redlight or Publix and all these places are under 5 minutes on a bicycle. I could not fathom the driving and the traffic of living in those further afield places.

I used to just ride a little scooter from Baldwin to Downtown when I lived there. Maguire to Robinson and done.
Or, on days I felt a bit lazy, I'd catch the bus. I know, the HORROR lol...
I loved the fact that I could get to work so easily without having to drive and deal with giant parking garages and whatnot.
Can't wait to move back to the area.

[brinkofsunshine]

Originally Posted by drive carephilly

Yeah, I would 2nd checking out Audubon Park and neighboring Colonialtown. The only sacrifice is house size but - on that note the lots are usually pretty large by today's standards and personally, I'd much rather be in the right neighborhood and put an addition on my house than have a bad commute and have to drive everywhere.

Audubon Park K-8 is one of the best schools in the district.

I used to commute to Altamonte Springs and either of those neighborhoods would put you within ~15-20 minutes of all of Maitland, put you in the center of everything, and what is overall, a very convenient area to live in.

I can't stress enough the ease of living there for day-to-day life. I work downtown, it takes me 12 minutes to drive it at 8am and about 20 minutes to ride my bike. There is no real traffic in this part of town because it's a grid. If there are too many cars in front of you take a right and go down to the next street. I have co-workers that spend an hour on the road in each direction to get to work and are so exhausted when they get home they don't go back out.

It takes me about 6 minutes to drive to Target, maybe 10 to get to Sprouts. 15 minutes to get to Trader Joe's. Or it's a 10 minute bike ride to Target. I can walk to East End Market or Kelly's Ice Cream in 10 minutes. It's an extra 5 minutes of walking to get to Redlight Redlight or Publix and all these places are under 5 minutes on a bicycle. I could not fathom the driving and the traffic of living in those further afield places.

I totally second everything you said- especially about the lack of traffic! People who don’t live downtown think that there must be crazy traffic here, but it’s truly nothing compared to any of the suburbs. Traffic on Colonial? Just jump on any side street and they’re all mostly empty.

The Mills 50/Colonialtown/Audubon Park/Milk District/Thornton Park/Eola Heights area is definitely my absolute favorite part of town. There’s just so much to do, so many awesome restaurants and bars, local shops, pop up markets, parks… After living there for 5 years I just moved to the Packing District and I miss being right there, even if I’m less than 15 minutes away lol.