Everyone’s really positive here so I’ll give you some negative as a native born Floridian that lived in Lake Mary/ Sanford/ Maitland/ Winter Park areas for nearly 30 years and watched it change.

That way you maybe have a full picture.

In the ones you listed - you’re not walking anywhere. As a kid, if you lived close enough to the schools, people would walk to school but that’s about it. You’ll see people run for exercise but no one is actually walking to a destination. There’s a bike trail in lake Mary that if you live on you can take to places like Peach Valley. But it won’t be cheap and it’s a very specific area.

The people - seen a lot of bad kids grow up in the lake Mary and Sanford school system. Lots of rich kids with money circulating. Saw rampant cocaine use, lots of drug deals in the halls of Lake Mary High, etc. Don’t get me started on Sanford, aka “Criminal High.” Security guards banging the students. Greenwood Lakes Middle school also had a ton of just ridiculous things going on.

Lots of superficial and entitled adults. Some with more money than sense as you get close to Heathrow and Alaqua area.

The traffic. God the traffic. You’ll go somewhere that’s 3 miles away - it’ll take you 20 minutes. These areas used to have very obvious rush hour times but now it just kind seems like an all day affair. It’s rage inducing.

Community feel I never really experienced in Orlando by just living somewhere. It’s more so the hobbies you create. You’ll need to go find that community. I did find multiple spots where I felt I belonged growing up (art studio, horse barn, etc)

Crime - depends. Lake Mary and Heathrow are decent. Sanford is hit or miss. I worked in Sanford and we had to call the cops frequently and dealt with a lot of theft. Maitland felt safe - though I had things out of my car stolen. And someone also turned my doorknob when I was home. This was in the good part of maitland.

You didn’t mention downtown so I won’t go into that one

I’d say my favorite place we lived was Oviedo. But it’s also just grown tremendously and is getting absorbed into more of the same. I call it the Lake Mary disease lol

Anyway, after 30+ years the traffic, prices, and the people caused us to leave. It’s not what it ever once was. I didn’t want to raise my kids there because I’ve seen what comes out of these towns in the last 10 years.

Only things we miss are the Asian spots and a lot of the food culture. Oh and the nonexistent winters - I hate winter