Good morning,

Here is a quick easy way to find a neighborhood with lots of children in Seminole County. Look for closest neighborhoods to the elementary schools with predominantly 4 bedroom homes. Seminole county has many highly rated elementary schools. I have included the link to Seminole County Schools for you here. Best of Luck..

Well Marty would know the rules.

The best way to find out how many kids are in the Neighborhood is to wait for the ice cream man to come through.

Ramona, Marty is correct. I understand your desire for your children to have friends in the neighborhood, But REALTORS(r) are not allowed to steer you into a neighborhood, based on it's percentage of occupants of a particular "familial status". It's a violation of the Federal Fair Housing Law. There are web sites you can use to search for demographics, but that's something you would have to do on your own. I wish I could help more, but we're really discouraged from even talking about any of the protected classes within the HUD list, lest the conversation be misinterpreted.

For your own information, the list of protected classes upon which it is illegal to discriminate against (meaning we can't direct you to or away from any of these) are race, color, religion, sex, handicap, familial status, or national origin.

Good luck!

Visit my web site at http://www.rddrealty.com and click on Community, you will find much information to answer questions you may have.

Hi Ramona.

I'm sure the question you ask is well intentioned but Fair Housing laws would prohibit any licensed agent from directly answering your question about family/children oriented neighborhoods. We certainly CAN direct you to impartial demographic information (most is from the census and can be a bit dated...).

In my nineteen years of helping people find nice homes in neighborhoods they enjoy, the first tip I give them is to talk to the neighbors once they identify a neighborhood they would consider. Catch someone out doing yard work or walking the dog and they'll usually give you their opinion about the neighborhood. They often know who has children, how many and what ages. Another question to ask might be how many homes are lived in by owners and how many are rentals. There may be a better chance (but certainly not 100% of the time) that the "nice family next door" moves away if they are tenants rather than owners. In general homeowners are more stable and less transient than the renters, but again there certainly are exceptions.

Also, I've had many clients who visit the schools in areas of interest and they may give you some data on where their student population lives. I've also had clients who watched the children get off the school bus to see how many and what ages there are in the neighborhood.

One place to start is http://www.census.gov and then look for "Quick Facts" on the right hand side of the home page. The information might be too broad by county or by city. You probably want more neighborhood demographics which I can probably access and supply to you upon your request for any established neighborhood you want to know about.

You can get information and school grades for all Seminole County schools at http://www.scps.k12.fl.us/Testing/schoolgradesexplained.cfm

I hope this gets you started in the right direction. Please feel free to call on me directly if you have any other questions. I have two girls (now college age and above) so as a parent I understand the value of having friends in the neighborhood. The good news is that there are many wonderful neighborhoods throughout Seminole County. Good luck.

Marty

Marty Hunt, Realtor®, ABR, CRS, GRI, e-PRO
Realty Executives Orlando
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