Central Florida Traditional Neighborhoods and Master-Planned Communities

Central Florida is one of the fastest growing regions in the United States with more than 1100 adults relocating here every week. Developers, planners and builders have worked nonstop to keep up with demand. As a result, housing sales and construction start-ups in the Greater Orlando area has skyrocketed. Last year over 33,000 homes and condominiums were sold in Central Florida housing market was one of the hottest in the country with home prices doubling and sometimes tripling in value in a short amount of time. Despite the recent softening of the home sales market, Central Florida is still hot with a large inventory of homes to choose from in many price ranges. The median home price in Central Florida is around $250,000.

There are essentially two varieties of homes in the Orlando area: Homes in established neighborhoods that were here before the housing boom of the mid-90's and homes in neighborhoods that were a result of the housing boom. Some of the more established pre-boom neighborhoods in Central Florida include: downtown Orlando's Eola Heights and neighboring Colonial Town, College Park, Winter Park, Lake County's Mount Dora, and Volusia County's downtown Deland. While there are new developments in these established neighborhoods, most of the existing homes have been there since the mid-1900s and earlier. These neighborhoods have an older charm that can't be manufactured, it's a quaintness only earned with time and history. Take a walk through these neighborhoods and you'll get a feel for what Old Florida was like. Brick-paved streets, tall shady oak trees and family-owned corner stores often mark these attractive neighborhoods. These are some of the most sought after addresses in the area and home prices in these neighborhoods are typically higher than average.

One of the most famous of these affluent and desirable neighborhoods is Orange County's Winter Park. Winter Park was originally a resort destination for wealthy New Englanders in the early 1900's and many of its buildings are over 100 years old - quite rare for Florida. Winter Park still attracts the rich and famous as many celebrities and power players reside here. Winter Park plays host too many festivals including the Bach Festival, the nationally ranked Sidewalk Art Festival and the Winter Park Concours d'Elegance, a gathering of highly collectible and exotic automobiles. Winter Park is also home to Rollins College, one of the oldest colleges in Florida. Strolling down Park Avenue visiting the many boutiques, restaurants and galleries and it's easy to imagine calling Winter Park home.

If old-world isn't your style or you want a new home with the latest technology and most up-to-date building codes check out one of Central Florida's master-planned community.

Master-planned communities are one of the hottest homebuilding trends in the nation. These are usually large-scale communities created from scratch to resemble traditional, established neighborhoods complete with tree-lined streets, plenty of natural park space, golf courses, exercise facilities and a town center filled with shops and community pavilions. Master-planned communities are usually created with an architectural theme that houses and business follow to create a cohesive look and fell. Modern developers have gone to great lengths to avoid the "cookie-cutter" look of row upon row of nearly identical homes built on giant treeless tracts of land.

A major draw for master-planned communities is the fact that most are self-contained - housing, schooling, shopping, recreation and often, working is all in the neighborhood. Talk about convenience! Most master-planned developments vary depending on home size and neighborhood exclusivity but can be generally lower than if you were to buy a piece of property and have a house custom built.

When it comes to master-planned communities in Central Florida the oldest and best know is Celebration. Created in 1994 by Walt Disney Company on the Osceola/Orange County border, Celebration would change the way people and businesses looked at the idea of housing. Celebration was founded on the concept of "new-urbanism," a walkable, self-contained community with a diverse mix of home styles, residents, recreation opportunities and businesses. One of the underlying principles of New-urbanism is that of controlling urban sprawl by using well thought out street design and local-based business. By keeping the core needs of the residents close to home, there would be little need to spend time in traffic trying to get to and from work, shopping and recreational activities. Celebration residents' personal modes of transportations gained as much notoriety as the town itself. Due to the close proximity of the town center to their homes, many residents shunned their cars in favor of small electric cars and Segways.

There were many doubters and skeptics who thought this was nothing more than an extension of the theme park and that this grand experiment would fail. But time would prove that the concept of a master-planned community could be successful and is a better alternative to urban sprawl.

With the noted success of Celebration, master-planned communities started popping up all over Central Florida. The closest to downtown Orlando is Baldwin Park. Located just a few miles east of Downtown Orlando, Baldwin Park is built on the grounds of the former Naval Training Center and is named after former Under Secretary of the Navy Robert H. B. Baldwin. Baldwin Park mixes open park space, winding roads lined with single-family homes and apartments and a multi-use town center where apartments and condominiums reside over storefronts. Plans are in the work to develop the waterfront area and include a high-rise condominium tower.

Other prominent master-planned communities in Central Florida include Avalon Park in East Orange County, Hunters Creek in Southwest Orlando, Victoria Park in Deland and MetroWest in West Orange County.

While master-planned communities have many advantages they may not be for everybody. Master-planned means exactly that - master planned. The developers have a vision of what they want their community to look like and they have planned out everything: architecture, color schemes, landscaping, etc. So if you like variety in lot and home design, it might be wise to check with the homeowners association first before buying.