Understand Longwood before you commit to an address
Longwood is seventeen thousand people in central Seminole County, one of the oldest settlements in the county and the only one with a genuine nineteenth-century historic district. A cluster of frame buildings around the old railroad depot, which is now a SunRail station. Its typical home value of about $460,000 is well above the Seminole average. Figures are the same two indexes measured the same way in all 24 municipalities here, on Florida's rules including the homestead exemption.
The cost of living in Longwood, and what a home costs
Two calculators on Florida's own rules: monthly compounding and the month private mortgage insurance stops, and the closing costs this state actually charges.
Rent or buy in Longwood
Whether buying here beats renting, and the year it turns over. The insurance line, which in Florida decides it, is a figure you can edit.
Mortgage calculator
Monthly compounding, the 30-year fixed loan, the private mortgage insurance a low down payment triggers, and Florida's documentary stamp and intangible taxes on the loan itself.
Then work out whether Longwood is the right part of the metro
No neighborhood guides for Longwood yet. What is here instead is the whole metro on one comparable footing.
All 24 municipalities around Orlando
Every municipality in the four counties side by side on typical home value, the millage adopted, and the rate a homesteaded buyer really pays.
Compare the metroThe 24 towns around Charlotte
The same two Zillow indexes for the same month, in a metro where the effective tax rate runs about six-tenths of Orlando's and insurance a little under six-tenths as much.
Compare the two metrosOrlando, neighborhood by neighborhood
The one municipality here with sourced guides rather than a single row of figures, including the first pages on this site to price a community development district assessment.
Explore OrlandoWhat buying in Longwood actually involves
Longwood charges 5.50 mills, among the higher municipal rates in Seminole, but its total of 16.30 is mid-table because the county's unincorporated fire and road MSTUs do not apply inside the city. A buyer's effective rate of 1.48% on a $460,000 house is a bill of about $6,800.
The city is really two: the historic district and the surrounding older streets, which are walkable to the SunRail station and price at a premium for it, and the larger 1970s and 1980s subdivisions to the east and west, which are conventional Seminole suburbia. The SunRail station genuinely works for a downtown Orlando commute if your hours fit its timetable, and does nothing at all if they do not.
The historic district is small and genuinely old by Florida standards, which means wood-framed houses over a century old alongside post-war stock a few streets away. In this insurance market that difference is decisive, and it is worth getting a quote before falling for the porch.
The city is compact and bounded by its neighbours on every side, so there is very little new construction and the market turns over slowly. What changes here is mostly renovation and infill, both of which run through a city process that is stricter inside the historic district than outside it.
Moving to Longwood: check these before you commit
- The SunRail timetable against your actual working day, since the service is peak-oriented.
- Historic district rules if the property is inside it, which constrain exterior work.
- Wekiva basin septic requirements, which apply in parts of this area and are stricter than the state default.
- An actual insurance quote on any pre-war wood-framed house, before agreeing a price.
- What the city permits on infill and renovation, which differs inside and outside the historic district.
Longwood levies 5.5000 of the 16.3034 mills charged here; the rest is Seminole County, the school district and the water management district, none of which the city council sets.
Sourced, dated, and separated from the guesswork
Every Longwood figure below is cited, stamped with the period it describes, and editable, because a number for the whole city rarely describes your purchase. Appreciation and investment returns are assumptions rather than facts, and they are labelled that way. Read the methodology for how the line is drawn.
- Prices, rents and tax rates: published statistics and the official schedules.
- Nothing here is a lender quote, a pre-approval or financial advice.
Where the Longwood figures come from
- Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI), all homes, mid-tier, smoothed and seasonally adjusted: city file, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A typical home value for the 35th to 65th percentile of each municipality's market, computed on one method across all twenty-four, Year-over-year change to June 2026, which is negative in twenty-two of the twenty-four, The same series and month the Charlotte metro pages use, so the two American metros can be read against each other
- Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), all homes, smoothed: city file, June 2026 · Zillow Research · retrieved Supports: A repeat-rent index of asking rents across the whole rental stock, single-family homes included, Municipality-level rent measured on one method across the metro, for twenty-three of the twenty-four
- 2025 Final Millage Rates · Orange County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Orange County general at 4.4347 mills, the library district at 0.3748 and the St Johns River Water Management District at 0.1793, School state and local levies totalling 6.449 mills, Municipal rates from Windermere's 3.7425 to Eatonville's 7.2938, A published total against every mill code, including Winter Park's 15.3615 on codes 2, 4 and 6, Maitland's 16.3055 on code 6, and Windermere's 15.2311 on code 35 and 15.4839 on code 75, A blank library column on every Winter Park and Maitland code, which is what puts both municipalities outside the district
- Special taxing district information: the Orange County Library District's boundary · Orange County Library System · retrieved Supports: The district's boundary is Orange County exclusive of Winter Park and Maitland, each of which operates its own library, Laws of Florida chapter 99-486 as the enabling act behind it
- Final 2025 Millage Rates, fiscal year 2025-26 · Seminole County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Total millage by taxing authority for every Seminole municipality, from Lake Mary's 14.3929 to Casselberry's 18.1808, School required local and discretionary levies totalling 5.2490 mills, The county fire and road MSTUs, which apply in the unincorporated area and in some cities but not others
- 2025 Final Millage Rates · Osceola County Property Appraiser · retrieved Supports: Kissimmee at 17.4114 mills and Saint Cloud at 17.8989, School levies totalling 5.3060 mills across required local, discretionary and capital, Dozens of separate municipal service taxing units in the unincorporated county, from 0.13 to 12.42 mills, which is why an unincorporated Osceola address cannot be given one rate