What You Need to Know About Davenport, FL
Today, we are going to be talking about why you should consider Davenport as a good option to move to. So Davenport, for anyone who doesn't know is to the southwest of Walt Disney World Property. It is also the place where if you've ever left Disney World and you saw 13,000 vans going one singular direction, that's where they're going. So that is their destination. Davenport. So on the I-4, they're located between about exit 55 as the low end, like towards Haines City. It's gonna go up towards exit 60 to 62, which is where celebration starts. And it can be a bit of a traffic nightmare. So I'm gonna go over some of the drawbacks of Davenport and then we'll get to the better stuff with it. So definite drawbacks. It is a lot of traffic. It is always a lot of traffic. I've tried going through the, the I four segment there at eight o'clock in the morning. It's terrible at noon. It's terrible at five. Even worse somehow. Like it just gridlocks and it just, it halts And I don't know, maybe through the night, like maybe if you're there at like midnight or something and maybe that's gonna be a better way to go. But like I, realistically, it's a lot of vacationers. It's people who want to go to Disney and . Yeah, that's definitely one of the biggest drawbacks. And it is also concrete jungle ish. You'll hear Pete sometimes talk about 1 92 being a concrete jungle, davenport's kind of that way. Overall it, it's just mostly home communities. Not a lot of greenery, not a lot of, that type of thing. But there are a lot of really positive things about Davenport, and I'll let Ruben and Danielle tell you, and then if there's any more I think of that are good, then I'll jump in and Craig can jump in and whoever wants to, so I'll start with Danielle this time. Okay. So Davenport is primarily made up of single family homes. Not gonna see a lot of condo town homes around here, unless you're looking in the resort style communities. So primarily single family homes. Right now. February 22nd, 2022. Median price is about 355,000 for a single family home. The prices we've seen have steadily increased as everywhere else has. Davenport has start to started to become one of the more popular areas for, like you said, vacationers. When I used to come here, we had a family of 12, couldn't stay at a hotel, so we would rent out a. House in Davenport. So I think a drawback of Davenport would just be having short term renters in the same neighborhood. When you have a family, a lot of people don't like their neighbors changing a lot, so I think that is a little drawback or could be on the positive side. You never know who you're living next to. So maybe you could have really great neighbors for a week. For a week, yeah. for a week. Okay, Ruben. So I'm gonna be more positive cuz I want you to consider moving here cuz I do think there's a lot about Davenport that might actually catch. People's attentions and I'll be the first to say that traffic sucks. I live over in that area. I live right off of the exit 55, so the HA City Davenport exit. So the traffic sucks. If you can get past that traffic, there's a lot of benefits into living in this area. Firstly, the costs of homes over there compared to some of the other areas. We'll use new builds cuz I know new builds are really popular right now. So we'll use new build prices. For example, handover family builders. It's a builder that ha that has a lot of the same floor plants available and tons of communities throughout central Florida. So just to let, we'll take the Willshire floor plan for example. Over in Claremont, that same floor point to Wil. The starting price for that will be 4 75. Over in St. Cloud wire grass, that starting price will be 4 65 over in a community called Davenport States located in Davenport. The starting price for that is 417,000. That's that's between 48,000 if you're looking, comparing it to St. Cloud and 58,000 difference if you're comparing it to clmi. So it lets you know that if you give Davenport a. it's a area where you can find more affordable homes compared to some of the other, big communities in central Florida. You can also find a little bit more inventory too, in terms of resales. Last night I did a quick check of just what resales are available and for as of last night between 300 and 600,000 and did the same thing for some other areas. I used Claremont, just cuz that's where I'm from. As an example. So Claremont had 35 resales available between that price range as of last night. Davenport has 130 resales available between that price range. Oh, what was the price point again? 300 to 600. Oh, okay. Yeah. And that's only single family that, that does include town homes or condos as well. Cool. So just a couple things that kind of like to consider about, hey, you. What makes Davenport kind of stick out a little bit? Danny, Sean have both mentioned that there are a lot of short term rental communities over in Davenport. A lot of these are actually primarily used as residential communities for the most part. A lot of people used to use as their residential home. It just allows short term rental. So you might find some of the homes in that community that are being used as an investment property. You will find a good amount of them ev throughout these communities. But I do wanna point out that there is a condo community located in Champion Ski which is technically Davenport. I will defend that. It's a community that It's called bere. It's a residential only condominium community, condominium and town home community. And it, the prices range anywhere between 190,000 right now to about 230,000 for condos. Now, again, this is a gated community. It's located in champion skate. It has tons of different types of amenities. It's on a golf course. So you can go do the Champions skate golf course. And the HOA is really high. It is like 6 0 1 I believe, but includes everything except for electric. So you're talking about water, cable, internet. Any exterior maintenance fees, all that's included with hoa. And I, yeah, that's, I love that community. I had a couple people really interested in it and fortunately we didn't get the offer accepted, but it was really cool to go in there. And the outside, it was screened in and it had a view of the lake area that they have, and it was just so peaceful to know that you were so close to I four. And it, it is a very nice community. Surprised it's only residential since it's like right in the heart Of Champions Gate. Yeah. And actually in Champions Gate as well, like whenever you're driving in one side of the road is gonna be like all the short term rental homes. And then there is one whole chunk of the actual Champions GATE community that is. The, primary residents are just, doesn't allow short term renting at all. So you could long term rent it out if you needed to, but it is nice that a couple communities do have those choices and options for you. And Highway 27 in general, but especially the Davenport Chunk is going to have a lot. Of dining options, it's gonna have a lot of chain restaurants mostly, but you will see some mom and pop places. I have been down there and gone to a British restaurant and it's like authentically British restaurant. So the people there, they came over from the uk, that is where they come and run there, run their restaurant and they order all their products from the UK and you can buy like, the Walker's, chips and everything like that from in, in Davenport. From there and there, but all sorts of, pretty much any cuisine type that you would want exists somewhere around the Davenport area. The home prices, they tend to be better there than they are other places. And even my previous home in Kissimee that I had, it was a short term rental zoned. Community, but I think only two or three homes in the community out of like a hundred and something houses actually actively used it for Airbnb. So it's up to you, it's your choice. But most people there they do, they're moving for full-time. But we do of course, work with people who wanna buy short-term rental properties. So if you wanna buy an investment property, that's where you need to go. Davenport is in Polk County. We always say four corners on the show. That's essentially where four different counties meet. And Polk County is gonna be a lot less strict on their rules as far as having, farm animals. And I can't say for Davenport as a whole, but Polk County in general is gonna have higher limits. I know they allow, I. Eight, like domesticated pets is like the city ordinance, whereas I believe like Orange County is gonna be only four and that's where Orlando is. So you should have any combination of three dogs and one cat or whatever. But you can't get more than that. But there really isn't a lot of limitations once you start getting into Polk County. Davenport's definitely a good option for dining price point. Condos and town homes for sure. You can get some good options. I know. I think it's the Tuscan Hills community is really good. The legacy community there is a lot of short term renting in there, but we do, I have people that live in there full time and even going down toward, Towards the Haines City area. I think it barely gets in there is Southern Dunes, and I think that's a really great gated community. And the HOA there is quite low for what it is. And it's on a golf course and very, it's very pretty actually. So you mentioned dining, and I'm surprised you didn't bring up Shabos. I was going to, but I was, I gave, I was letting someone else. Yeah, no, it's a really good ice cream shop from. Fifties themed and I don't know, it has like the best ice cream. So recommend if you're ever driving down 27, it's like really close to the I four exit of Davenport. You should go to Shabos. Oh yeah. I I always say oh, I'm gonna go back here and do a vlog and then we just never have. But so it's on my list, but I told it just on my brother the other day. I was like, oh, you gotta go to Shabos and try it out. Cause he loves ice cream and so he like literally, Was like, I'm going tomorrow, like whenever I wake up. Cause I was like, they make their, I, they make the cones, like on the like waffle cone press where it's thin and they roll. Like they do it all in house. And I don't know what's in there. I'm really not a big ice cream fan, but something about their ice cream is really good. And they, it's much better in my opinion than like Cold Stone or any of that type of thing. So I don't know what they're doing at Shabos, but it's. Great ice cream and the price is really low. So I'm like, I'm used to Coldstone and I'm paying like six, $7 for a scoop or two with some mixings in here. They're like, it's two bucks. Here's your ice cream cold. And I'm like just one scoop. And she's I'm just gonna give you like two more. I don't like, you seem nice. There's never ever anyone in there. There's never, so I'm like, who? I wonder if we're keeping them in business. I'm so scared they're gonna go to business. I have no idea. As soon as you guys walk in, they're like yeah. Please go. So they don't go out of business. Like I can't, I wouldn't be able to take it if they did. So yeah it, there's, there are a lot of positives on the price front, but of course if you do want to invest as I was saying, buying an investment property in Davenport is generally super easy. The whole area is zoned for it. C Bay Park is a really good one. I've had a few people buy short term rental homes in there and they're doing quite. With their rentals, and they're very satisfied with it. But that one is still very residential too. Where it's a good split amongst it. And then of course, champions Gate is right in the heart of Davenport, so it's People say Champions Gate, but it's really just a big, like pre-planned community by comparison to Davenport as a whole. And they're gonna have some really obviously they have the golf course there. That's where the bulk of the Omnia Hotel is gonna be there. But it is You gotta have more shopping centers in that area. So you, again, you have a lot of food options, but you also are gonna go there for, to have an attorney or to have, there's vacation rental management companies in there. So that's more of the, I don't wanna say financial district that's giving way too much . I think it's untrue, but like it's just the. It's you, I think you said the heart of it, maybe. Yeah. But it just, it is. It's it is the place that you will see the most people coming and going through and, it is conveniently right off of I four. So that plays a big part into it too. But my first house that I lived in Florida was in Davenport on The north side of I 4 27 up, where I could go through Champions Gate in the morning to go to I four to head towards Universal, or I could go up to 1 92 and then hit I four that way. I loved that area in terms of. It was cheap and I had different driving options so it wasn't like the same thing every day. It's oh, I can go this way one day. I can go this way the next I can. And there's so much food around that stayed open pretty late and I like that being there. It allowed me to explore like down towards Tampa a little bit more because you're already you're basically at the best spot to jump on to go to Tampa, cuz 27 is where the pile up happens on I four both ways. I will never underst. Because it's, there's not enough people getting on or off there, but it just always is gridlocked. But if you live in that area and you're getting on going that way, traffic's gonna relieve itself very quickly. And then you have pretty much smooth sailing. If you're heading towards Disney, it's gonna pick back up against once you hit, 5 36 in that area in downtown Disney at 5 35 Disney Springs. Jesus, how long have I lived here? back in the day. Or, if you're going the other way, you'll hit traffic around Lakeland on I four. . But it's not, it's one of those places. I hated it for a while after I left there cuz, it's, I feel like sometimes you don't appreciate how it can be. But then now that I've gotten further out around Orlando and experienced worse drives and worse communities, I'm like, It wasn't actually that bad. . Yeah. No it's not that bad. It definitely does gridlock it we do get people, especially maybe a year and a half ago that really were looking in like Lakeland area, we do get a lot more people now that are Winter Haven, even like Lake Alfred, which is a different way, but it intersects up in there anyway. So you, it's pretty smooth down there until you just. At Davenport and then it, it stops. But I do get people sometimes, We're looking on Highway 27 and they can only look at it as, okay, going up to 1 92 and over to Disney. And I'm like, it actually can be the exact same time wise to be further south in the Davenport, which is a weird thing. So actually being technically further mileage away from Disney or the airport or whatever can be the quicker route to get there, cuz then you get closer to the I four. So you're gonna have a much clearer path. To, to get there, or if you're a little higher up going towards 1 92 then yeah, there is gonna be traffic at night and tra early in the mornings especially, but there, there are some good avenues to get around in there. Yeah I go to Davenport. To do showings at least three to four times a week. And I go my, my clients, they can only do it after work after five. I am one of the people we take, like from Moja Gardens , around behind Margaritaville. So I try to Avi avoid I four. Sometimes it's right around the same time. Yeah. But there are a couple side streets that you can take to try to avoid it. To get to 27 without having to take I four, but around five o'clock, five 30, everywhere's gonna have traffic. That's, I think, just the realistic part of living. Anywhere in, in a like populated area? Yeah, and actually, where I just moved to is wind mirror and one of the things going there was I was like, oh, I'm moving out of Kissimee, and the traffic's kind of high in kissimee, so like I'm moving to wind mirror and it's more residential. I've always thought, okay, it's just high traffic because of it being in a touristy area and then wind mirror's. Equally as high traffic as it was on the south side of Disney, and now I'm just to the north side of Disney. So I'm like, it really ended up being about the same. And the running thing in Orlando is everything's 30 minutes away. So like literally every I'm the exact same time away. It actually took me, I think, five minutes longer to get here to Pete's house to record today than it did from my old house. I'm like, oh even though even. Physically closer. It still took the same amount of time somehow. It, I think my old house, like Ruben currently lives in Haines City, which is like right at Davenport. Took us about 30 minutes to get from my old house. I think it takes about 30 minutes to get from my new house, like to to get there. So 30 minutes are just beyond, but that's the running thing here in Orlando. So just say 30 minutes, like where, no matter where you're, wherever you're coming from it's easy to play into that. If you are interested in moving to Davenport or anywhere in central Florida for that matter you can feel free to reach out to us. And I didn't, haven't been giving people's direct emails, I realized. So if you are interested and wanna reach out, To Ruben, you can r u b e n, at moving to orlando.com or Danielle, d a n i e l e@movingtoorlando.com. Or of course you can just go to our contact us form on the Moving to Orlando website and do it from there. And we have a phone number, so that's why I waited till the end to do this. So we have a phone number, which is eight five five six five zero move. That's 8 5 5 6 5 0. 66, 83. Awesome. So that'll do it for us, but if you are interested as well in joining our Facebook group really cool community group a lot of people in Davenport are in there, so you can talk to them and ask them their honest opinions about everything in Davenport. So there'll be a link in the description below so you can join our Facebook group, just answer all the questions that are there or else you're not gonna get approved. And yeah, forward to seeing you in the group and seeing you when you move to Orlando. That'll do it for us.
Haines City Florida - City Snapshot - A Hub Between Orlando and Tampa
Welcome to Haines City! Located next door to last week’s featured town, Davenport, Haines City rests about a 45 minute drive Southwest of downtown Orlando in Polk county. Named after former Confederate States Army Colonel Henry Haines, Haines City was founded in 1914. The early settlers planted citrus groves, and citrus growing and processing became the main industry of the city. When Walt Disney purchased land and started developing Walt Disney World just 15 miles North, the entire region’s economy changed. Tourism now ranks at the top of the economic ladder. Because of this, Haines City is experiencing explosive growth, The trickle-down effect of this is very evident as new communities are popping up everywhere with new houses intended for families, as well as vacation rentals. Proximity to both I-4 and highway 27 make Haines City a great choice for people who are looking to work in the Orlando area, but are looking to be in more of a country setting. Although the city is growing at a rapid rate, community planners have done a great job of maintaining the small town feel. There are still citrus groves to be found on the outskirts of town, and the historic downtown area is well kept, offers plenty of green space, and is also well preserved. In fact, many of the buildings are listed in the National Historic register. Downtown you will find a fantastic library, many quaint shopping choices, and delectable food trucks. It is quite evident as well that the arts play a huge roll in the culture of the city, as murals can be found painted on many of the buildings. A big highlight of Haines City (And in our eyes, the centerpiece) is Lake Eva Park. The park is picturesque, and no matter what kind of activities you are into, you are sure to find something that you enjoy here. There is a large dock for fishing, a boat ramp, walking trails around the lake, and even a beach! But the fun doesn’t stop at the water’s edge. If you head across the parking lot there are also not just one, but two expansive parks for children to play. If you are into sports you can find basketball and tennis courts within the park as well. And we can’t talk about Lake Eva Park without mentioning the Aquatic Center! For a nominal fee, you can gain access to the facility which includes a play area for kids, as well as a lap pool. Currently, The population of Haines City sits at just over 25,000 residents, but honestly, the city doesn’t even feel that big. It still very much has that “small town” feel that so many of us are looking for….and with a median home price of about $200,000 for a freestanding home, Haines City is also Affordable. Throughout the town, the Hispanic culture in the area is very evident. It is easy to see why since nearly half of the population in Haines City identify themselves as being Hispanic in race. There are many authentic Mexican, Latin, and Puerto Rican restaurants and food trucks throughout the town. A great number of these can be found grouped together on highway 17/92 heading from Davenport towards Haines City. There are also a good number of Hispanic supermarkets in town as well. We are curious to know, what are your thoughts on Haines City? Does it look like a place that you would like to live? If you have a city that you would like us to feature, let us know in the comments below, we would love to hear from you! As always guys, thank you so much for watching, and we will see you…….NEXT TIME!
Borrowers are back: Mortgage applications rise
For months, mortgage rates rose with no end in sight, and potential homebuyers backed off. Now the reverse is happening. The average rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages fell for the second week in a row to 6.67 percent, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. It is now down almost 50 basis points from a peak of 7.16 percent one month ago. In turn, mortgage loan application volume increased 2.2 percent on a seasonally adjusted basis from one week earlier. Refinances increased 2 percent from the previous week, although they were still 86 percent lower than the same week one year ago, when mortgage rates were much lower. “The decrease in mortgage rates should improve the purchasing power of prospective homebuyers, who have been largely sidelined as mortgage rates have more than doubled in the past year,” Joel Kan, MBA’s vice president and deputy chief economist, said in a statement. The average contract interest rate for 30-year fixed-rate mortgages with jumbo loan balances — greater than $647,200 — decreased to 6.30 percent. The turnaround may be fledgling and fragile, but is nonetheless welcome in an industry that has suffered losses and layoffs this year. Some signs of trouble in the nation’s housing market did emerge last month. The delinquency rate rose 12 basis points from September to 2.91 percent, driven by a 9.4 percent rise in 30-day delinquencies, according to Black Knight. The firm noted that Florida led the jump in new early delinquencies, with the state’s delinquency rate rising 53 basis points to 3.42 percent. The rate’s 18 percent increase is likely attributable in part to Hurricane Ian. The foreclosure process was initiated on 7 percent more properties than in September. But foreclosure starts are still 55 percent below pre-pandemic levels, according to Black Knight. That is because lenders are going easier on troubled borrowers than they did before the pandemic. They began the process on just 4 percent of seriously delinquent mortgages in October, less than half the rate of the years leading up to the pandemic. (Photo Illustration by Steven Dilakian for The Real Deal with Getty) The post Borrowers are back: Mortgage applications rise appeared first on The Real Deal South Florida.
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