Perhaps the biggest benefit of a vacation rental in Central Florida is the convenience of location. The cities of Kissimmee and Davenport, the home for many rental home communities in the Orlando area are within easy driving distance to all the major theme parks and many Florida recreational landmarks around the state. This includes the many freshwater lakes and state parks.

What makes the fall/winter weather in the area unique is the fact that the region  only gets a gentle touch of the autumn and winter seasons. Fall temperatures in the area tend to run highs in the 70′s and lows in the 50′s, but temps do dip into the 30′s at times at night. This is enough winter for most Floridians, but delightful for visitors!

Winter Rentals in Florida

The pleasant weather and central location help boost attendance to the many world class attractions and activities in the area. This includes Walt Disney World® and Epcot, Univeral Studios, the Wizarding World of Harry Potter, and the soon to debut Legoland. For sports fans, don’t forget about major league baseball beginning in late February. The Grapefruit League features 15 major league teams, 3 of which play within 1 hour of Orlando (Houston Astros, Atlanta Braves, Detroit Tigers). During January-March, the weather is typically perfect to enjoy these activities.

Since the weather does occasionally reach the lower 80′s in mid-March, it can be a good time to travel to the beach. The closest beach to Orlando is Cocoa Beach near Cape Canaveral which is usually within an hour. In the same general direction, Daytona Beach is roughly 1 hour and 15 minutes away and New Smyrna Beach is about 2 hours away. South of Orlando and less than 2 hours away, beach locations include Clearwater Beach and St. Petersburg.

In terms of vacation home rental options, Central Florida boasts a plentiful supply of homes for rental. Kissimmee vacation homes along with Clermont and Davenport FL vacation rentals offer many choices in location, amenities and privacy. On this website alone, there are over 80 reviews of individual vacation home communities. No other area or region in the country offers this type of selection and choice. Orlando area vacation rentals in the fall/autumn months are the perfect option for any Florida visitor.

But in this day of economic uncertainty, one ”bad apple” can always take advantage of naive consumers. 

Prospective Orlando area vacation home renters should be knowledgeable of ways to spot vacation rental scams and be aware of consumer resources.

 We encourage consumers to rent from a credible vacation home rental company rather than by owner as it easy to quickly research vacation rental companies online.

Some resources for renters include, but are not limited to:

1. Check the Central Florida Better Business Bureau for online consumer information. Your vacation home rental company should be an accredited member in good standing.

2. Check local chambers of commerce to check for members in good standing. One good local source of information would be the Kissimmee Chamber of Commerce (www.kissimmeechamber.com).

3. Check the management company is a member in good standing of the Central Florida Vacation Home Managers Association . This is THE vacation home management organization in Central Florida.

3. Be wary of any rental company exclusively requiring a cashier’s check or Western Union wire transfer for reservation transactions.

4. Although not required, a high quality internet site for any prospective rental company does provide you with some insight of their legitimacy. Many scammers do not invest the time or effort to develop a quality website for vacation home rentals.

5. Verify the company you are booking with is licensed, bonded and insured and ask for verification.

6. Pay by credit only to protect yourself if there is a problem.

Would You Pick This Orlando Vacation Home Community?

Or Would You Rather Stay in One Like This?

In conclusion, Central Florida offers the best and most advanced vacation home management companies in the world. Be sure you book with one by doing a little research and enjoy a great community. See our community reviews on the right hand side of the page.

We’ll continue to cover the Orlando vacation home market with a candid and objective approach. We have expanded our coverage from Orlando/Kissimmee to vacation rentals in Davenport and Clermont as well. You’ll find some very nice accommodations in these areas which are accessible to area theme parks and attractions.

Orlando is perhaps the world’s most popular spring break destination. Spring break (March and April) in Orlando is full of high school marching bands, student sports groups and most popularly families.

Up to a third of all American families travel during spring break and Orlando is most often top of the wish list.

Orlando is very popular in spring break with high school student groups. There are a hundreds of high school band competitions, tournaments and parades in Orlando during the spring break period with thousands of students coming from across the country to compete and perform in various musical forums.

Orlando is also very popular amongst student athletes with numerous spring break sporting activities and competitions in the area held through various high profile organizations such as the AAU ® also based in Orlando. Many such events are held at major sporting venues such as Disney’s Wide World of Sports ®.

Vacation homes have always been popular with the family market, but are becoming more popular with student groups as some vacation homes are able to sleep up to sixteen persons and can easily provide an economic alternative to hotels.

As you plan your spring break, consider all the conveniences and benefits of an Orlando vacation home.

Bella Vida is a gated and guarded vacation home community located approximately 6 miles from the Walt Disney World Resort ®. It is located behind Medieval Times.

Although located a little further out than some communities relative to Walt Disney World ®, the quality of the community is of the highest caliber. Check out our Video Review of Bella Vida Resort and interactive map below.

View Larger Map

Make plans to attend and enjoy the wonderful weather this time of year. The best place to find team schedules is on the site www.floridagrapefruitleague.com. Keep in mind that dates and times for each of the teams playing are still tentative. The other treat for spring training fans is the fact that several WBC games will also be played in the area in early March. Panama, Venezuela and the United States team will be playing either the Astros or Braves locally.

Consult our blog for reviews and ratings for many of the area vacation home communities which will most certainly make your accommodations more pleasant than a cramped hotel. Make a Kissimmee vacation home your family oasis for Florida spring training accommodations.

Vacation home rentals in Kissimmee have stabilized the area along the US 192 corridor. It has been no secret that the southern arm of the Orlando Florida metropolitan area tourism market (otherwise known as Kissimmee) has struggled over the years to increase its share of the transient hotel market. One lone spot has been the increase in vacation home accomodations in the area.

Bankrupt hotels have been commonplace, and now more shockwaves are moving through the hotel industry in the US 192 corridor. The Orlando CVB recently reported that hotel revenue on the west side of US 192 was down as much as 52%+/-  in November 2008 compared to last year. On the bright side, some of the better performing hotels are off much less, but still down roughly 15% according to our inquiries.

The one bright spot for Kissimmee (Osceola and Polk counties) over the years has been the explosion in popularity of the vacation home market over the last decade. Fortunately or unfortunately, depending on how you look at it, Orange County (“Orlando Proper”) has been slow to embrace the vacation home concept, and there are relatively few vacation complexes in this county.

Kissimmee vacation rentals offer an economically viable alternative to hotels for about the price of a typical hotel room with your own private pool in most instances. Such homes are suitable for many families, and even some groups visiting the Orlando area. Larger vacation homes can offer as many as seven bedrooms and can sleep as many as 16 +/- people. This has allowed many of the US 192 restaurants and businesses adjacent to the larger vacation home communities to stay afloat. For Kissimmee community reviews and ratings, please consult our blog posts area.

Let’s be clear, no one can predict the future. If we could, we wouldn’t be writing a blog. This post is  just an opinion. DISCLAIMER. As with any economic opinion, take it with a grain of salt. The authors of this blog are not professionals and do not give out professional advice.

The Orlando vacation house market has been hit hard, especially for many buyers who purchased vacation homes around the years 2005-2006. Prices have dropped in some vacation home subdivisions over 30% from their peak 2 to 3 years ago. For the metro Orlando area as whole, prices appear to have dropped. Click HERE STATISTICS(1).

There are arguments that prices will continue to DROP(2):

Vacation houses are much harder to finance than primary homes, and in the current market even primary homes are now hard to finance (2A).

Foreclosures are piling up. As people struggle with their primary home mortgage, they may give up their second homes.(2B)

There are large inventories (2C).

A few vacation home subdivisions struggle with upkeep of resident exterior areas. Vacation home managment struggles to keep this under aesthetic control for vacationers.(2D)

Banks will begin to compete against each other to sell foreclosed homes, and this could negatively effect vacation home pricing (2E)

Tourists are cutting back big time on Orlando (2F).  Thus, the demand for vacation rentals is also dropping. This means that owners have less income to pay the current mortgage which increases the risk of foreclosure.

In a depressed economy, the last thing people often want to do is buy a vacation home, but the first thing they may want to do is sell if they own one (2G).

Homeowners unable to refinance their vacation homes (they may owe more than the home is now worth) might let the home foreclose if they are unable to modify the loan terms (2G1)

When the world is facing an economic crisis (2I), discretionary items such as vacation homes are no longer in demand. If the USA enters a severe recession, the demand for some vacation home products could dry up.

There are arguments that prices will STABILIZE(3):

It would appear that the rate of price decline in some subdivisions is SLOWING(4) down, but prices are still dropping.

Some subdivisions are making the transition from primarily a short term rental market to subdivisions that cater to full-time owner occupiers as the prices drop, and the vacation homes become affordable relative to regular homes.

The government is reacting on a massive scale to solve the problem(4A).

There are some SIGNS(5) that the number of home sales has been increasing.

In conclusion, vacation homes in the Orlando and Kissimmee area face a unique set of circumstances that has allowed for significant price drops from their peak prices over the last 2 to 3 years. Forecasting the future with absolute certainty is an impossibility.

Subscribe to our blog for in depth graphical analysis and forecasts scheduled to be released next month. Click here to subscribe.

As always, please consider the people writing this post/bog to be unprofessional and incompetent at all times. Due to your own due diligence at all times use an Orlando appraisal company, real estate attorney and other professionals accordingly.