Want to Live in Downtown Orlando? You Probably Won’t Own Your Home and You’ll Like It.
Hello! :)
Thank you for taking the time to find “Everything Wrong With Orlando”.
You might ask, “Why this blog? Why are you targeting Orlando?” Well concerned citizens, I’m happy to tell you! I’ve lived in Orlando Incorporated or Unincorporated for about 12 years! My family moved here when I was younger from the big apple doing what everyone else does; chasing Disney without stopping to ask: why? Twelve years is a long time and I’m getting to the point where I’m ready to retire from Orlando—but while I’m here, I feel I can take my ramblings and rants about shoddy Orlando urban planning that my family & friends have had to endure (thank you) to produce something constructive, written, as well as attempt to highlight issues and provide a forum of some form (hah) to talk about it.
Orlando isn’t perfect. We have the I-4 traffic (ugh), closing businesses, decrepit infrastructure, and rise of the cost of living. Yet , on the contrary, we have some of the largest theme parks in the Continental United States, amazing beaches in driving distance (and finally now train distance too). We have a large international airport which connects us to the world and the world to us. We can see space shuttle launches from Patrick Space Force Base and some of us even work at those launches while staying in Orlando. Tons of urbanists moving from other cities to Orlando equipped with high paying jobs and great ideas simply trying to get away from the cold; including developers that see land to be improved.
The thing is, we have a lot going for us. Has anyone stopped to ask if we have all this movement and things going on— what’s the reason the “City Beautiful” itself isn’t doing better? Why is it so expensive to live and why is it such a hassle to get to work? Orlando has the population, talent, plus so much money flows through our area that we should have more than enough money to pay more so people can live modestly.That should provide for the infrastructure to support us too. That’s another topic.
Unfortunately, Orlando just doesn’t seem to get it. Let me put it clearly, Orlando: When a city, such as Orlando, gets bigger it needs more places to live. And it needs those places FAST. If you won’t build those places in the city itself, you need the infrastructure to bring everything together— busses, trains, etc. Not e-bikes, ubers, and taxis. What happens when you don’t do that? Your city quickly becomes Miami, where only the insanely rich can afford to live in the downtown itself and is surrounded by a urban sprawl hellscape of home owner associations and random single family housing blocks.
Consider this: most people reading this blog I’d wager are of the mindset that living in Downtown Orlando is simply prohibitively expensive. To be honest, you’re right! Average rents are reaching about two thousand dollars in Downtown Orlando. The answer is simple: supply and demand. I am of the mindset— I can’t see any other reason as to why the City would do this— that rents (and also mortgages) are artificially kept high by the City as well as the people who own property here to protect those investments. This is terrible for our society overall. Our city NEEDS to approve simpler, more numerous, and larger apartment complexes. Currently, the city only seems to approve “luxury apartments”. As a former land owner myself, I feel majority of the land owners (that the city probably thinks its protecting) who are protecting their interests and waiting to sell for the most profit will leave once their property value gets too low or they’re satisfied with their returns. It leads to this backward perception that living in a city is supposed to be a luxury. That too low or too high property value will force people away. “City luxury” is something I’ve noticed is very common here in Florida— I can tell you for a fact that human beings both poor and rich have coexisted in urban cities for a long, long time.
Think about it. You could almost count the amount of apartment complexes in Downtown on your own two hands. Let’s do it together: 55 West, Mondrian Lake Eola, Aspire Luxury Apartments, St Regis, Radius Orlando, Paramount on Lake Eola, MAA Parkside, Camden Thorton, Camden Lake Eola, MAA Robinson, Central Station on Orange, Steelhouse, and Camden Orange. Later this year, Society Orlando will be added to the mix.
With average rents sitting around $2,000, the problem is clear, as stated: supply and demand. There’s simply not enough cheap supply to meet demand— and the average cost is only going to go up once Society Orlando finishes being built. The cheapest room in Society is around $1,500— you heard me right. That’s $1,500 for a room with two more room mates. Why are we paying for a room what we used to pay for a whole two bed room apartment? For what? To exist in an apartment building that you’re paying more for the amenities than your actual living space? News flash: that’s called a hotel.
The simple solution to this is clear: build simpler high-density apartment buildings in the city. Easy.
What happens if you get to the point in your life that you’ve made it to middle-upper management with a ~$80k-$100k salary and a significant other and are now looking to buy some property in the City? Oh boy. It gets even worse. You’d best be a half-millionaire at least.
How many condominium complexes are there in the Downtown area? Let’s see: Solaire, The Grande, Waverly, Star Tower, The Jackson, 101 Eola, 530 East Central, Metropolitan, and The Vue. That’s it— and the HOA fees made it prohibitively expensive. Sure, maybe you can get a one bedroom one bathroom for $190,000 or $250,000 but you’ll have no room for a family and a $400 HOA that only goes up. Once you need to move into 2 bedroom territory, it gets to the point where its unbearable for most people as your HOA is for some reason associated to your square footage— even though condo associations don’t upkeep anything within the interior of your condo, only the exterior and common areas.
We need to dissociate this “the City is a luxury privilege” and make it the norm. The City of Orlando needs to increase supply of BOTH simple high-density apartments and condominium complexes to drive down the high average cost it is to live and stay here within the City. In some spots, it is cheaper to buy a town home in New York City than to live in a condominium within walking distance to work or your favorite spots in Orlando. You shouldn’t be ostracized or considered privileged because you don’t want to get in a gas guzzling or electricity draining car to get a coffee, go to work, or walk your kids to school. There’s nothing wrong with building up the city so we can all use the legs that God gave us to get to Church (or wherever you want to go— it’s a figure of speech.)
And—for my first post, that’s it! I hope you enjoyed it and if you have any comments please E-Mail me at EverythingWithOrlando@gmail.com. I hope to post once a week. Keep me motivated! Thank you.
