Moving to Lake Nona: A Relocation Guide for $1M+ Buyers

Lake Nona's median sale price was $703,660 for the three months ending August 2026, according to Redfin. Inside the gated golf community at its center, the median sale over the past twelve months was $2.45 million, according to Homes.com. Both numbers are Lake Nona. They describe two different places.

That gap is the reason this guide exists. If you are relocating to Central Florida with a budget of a million dollars or more, Lake Nona will be on your list. What the brochures leave out is which village your budget actually lands in, what the tax bill looks like in year two, and which "Lake Nona" addresses are not in Lake Nona at all.

I'm Nicole Mickle, a Central Florida relocation and new construction specialist. I have worked in this industry since 1996 and spent 23 years running a closing company, so I read a community the way a title agent does: by the plat, the district, and the tax bill. Here is Lake Nona read that way.

What is Lake Nona, and what does a home there cost?

Lake Nona is a 17-square-mile master-planned community in southeast Orlando, developed by Tavistock Development Company around Medical City and Orlando International Airport. The median resale price was $703,660 for the three months ending August 2026, according to Redfin, with a median of 61 days on market. A $1 million budget buys roughly 2,900 to 3,800 square feet in Laureate Park or Isles of Lake Nona. Custom homes in Lake Nona Golf & Country Club list from about $1.7 million to $20 million.

For context, the Orlando Regional REALTOR Association reported a metro-wide median of $400,676 in August 2026, with 64 days on market and 4.9 months of supply. Lake Nona as a whole runs at about 1.75 times the metro median. The golf club runs at about six times it.

Which Lake Nona neighborhoods fit a million-dollar budget?

Four villages matter at this price point: Laureate Park, Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, Laurel Pointe, and the 2022 to 2024 builder communities, Isles of Lake Nona and Summerdale Park, that are now resale only. Eagle Creek and VillageWalk sit on the edges of the master plan and come in below $1 million more often than above it.

Laureate Park is the largest village, about 2,700 homes at build-out on alley-loaded lots of 30 to 50 feet, with a Village Center, a residents' aquatic center, and gigabit fiber bundled into the HOA. The average sale over the past year was $855,261, with 82 days to sell, according to Bex Realty's October 2026 figures. Custom builds on the larger lots reach $3.3 million.

Lake Nona Golf & Country Club is the guard-gated community on the lake itself, built around a Tom Fazio course that opened in 1986. Homes.com puts the twelve-month median sale at $2.45 million, the average home at 5,129 square feet, and the median lot at roughly half an acre as of October 2026. Membership is not required to buy there. It is required to use the golf course, clubhouse, pool, fitness center, and tennis.

Laurel Pointe is Toll Brothers' gated enclave of about 124 homes off Luminary Boulevard, finished in 2025. Resales have run $1.55 million to $3.3 million for 3,000 to 7,100 square feet on quarter-acre to two-thirds-acre lots, per Nona Orlando Properties (August 2026).

Isles of Lake Nona (Pulte) and Summerdale Park (Craft Homes and Dream Finders) went up from 2022 to 2024 on 50- and 60-foot lots and are sold out of new construction. Resales averaged $723,700 in Isles and $817,467 in Summerdale over the past year (Bex Realty, October 2026), with the largest plans listing near $1.3 million.

If you have not settled on Lake Nona yet, the neighborhood quiz sorts Central Florida's master-planned communities by what you need. Windermere vs. Lake Nona vs. Winter Park weighs the three against each other, and Horizon West versus Lake Nona covers the other side of town.

What does $1 million, $1.5 million, and $2 million buy in Lake Nona?

At $1 million to $1.3 million, you are buying a four- or five-bedroom home of 2,900 to 3,800 square feet, almost always in Laureate Park or Isles of Lake Nona, based on active listings in October 2026. At $1.4 million to $1.95 million, the same villages give you 4,000 to 5,400 square feet, often with a garage apartment or a pool already in. Above $2 million you cross into Lake Nona Golf & Country Club and Laurel Pointe, where homes run 4,500 to 8,000 square feet and the lot is finally bigger than the house.

What you do not get at any of these prices is acreage. The largest residential lots in the master plan are the half-acre to three-acre sites in the original golf club sections; the Cromwell section on the south shore opened in March 2024 with quarter-acre to half-acre lots from $3.875 million. If land matters more than walkability, Windermere and the custom-build lots I work with are a different conversation.

Is there still new construction in Lake Nona?

Yes, but less than the builder websites suggest. As of October 2026, the only new single-family homes selling inside Tavistock's master plan are in Laureate Park, where David Weekley, ICI Homes, Craft Homes, and Dream Finders are building the current phase from $545,990 to about $957,000 base price, and in Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, where the club's approved custom builders are working the Cromwell section and the "Soho Collection" of 3,800 to 7,000 square foot residences. Toll Brothers' Alora, three-story townhomes from $499,995, is the other active community.

Isles of Lake Nona, Summerdale Park, and Laurel Pointe are sold out. Pulte's Estates at Nona Sound, priced from $639,990 to about $1.05 million with no CDD, is five minutes away on the Narcoossee corridor, but it is not inside Lake Nona.

The pipeline is real, though. In June 2026 Tavistock announced plans for the next 426 homes in Laureate Park, and in March 2026 the Orlando City Council approved a 380-acre community development district, Dowden Central, to fund the roads and parks for future phases. I work directly with the Orlando builders, so my clients hear about a release before the sign goes up. The Lake Nona new construction page tracks what is open now.

What do HOA dues, CDD assessments, and property taxes cost in Lake Nona?

Budget three line items, not one. In Laureate Park, the 2026 single-family HOA assessment is $535.63 per quarter, and $225.72 of that is the telecommunications fee for the community's gigabit fiber. You cannot opt out of it. On top of that, the Greeneway Improvement District's FY2027 assessment runs from $715.73 for a 30-foot lot to $2,703.90 for a 110-foot estate lot, and it arrives on your property tax bill, not your HOA statement.

Property taxes in Lake Nona are City of Orlando taxes. The city held its operating millage at 6.65 mills for the 2026 tax year, and the combined rate on 2025 bills in most Orlando tax districts was about 18.09 mills, per the Orange County Property Appraiser. On a $1.2 million taxable value, that is roughly $21,700 a year before the CDD. The real monthly cost of a $1 million home in Orlando walks through the full payment. Florida's homestead exemption removes up to $51,411 of assessed value from most levies in 2026, and the Save Our Homes cap holds your assessed value to 3 percent growth a year once you are homesteaded. My post on property taxes on new construction explains why the first year's bill on a new build is not the real one.

Insurance is the third line. Insurify's September 2026 data puts the average Orlando premium at $5,256 a year for a $300,000 dwelling, and the number scales with the home. Most of Lake Nona sits in FEMA Zone X, with AE pockets near the lakes, so pull the flood map for the specific parcel rather than assuming.

One date-stamped note. On November 3, 2026, Florida voters decide a constitutional amendment that would raise the homestead exemption substantially, with a slower phase-in for people who are not Florida residents by December 31, 2026. If you are reading this before the vote, ask me how it affects your timing.

How long is the commute from Lake Nona?

Orlando International Airport is about six miles from the core of Lake Nona, 10 to 15 minutes by car. Downtown Orlando is 18 to 25 minutes via SR 417 off-peak and 35 to 50 minutes in the I-4 rush windows. Walt Disney World is 30 to 35 minutes via SR 417, Universal about 30 minutes via SR 528, and Cocoa Beach about 50 minutes east on SR 528.

Brightline runs from the airport's Terminal C to West Palm Beach, Fort Lauderdale, and Miami in about three hours and ten minutes. In September 2026 Brightline's parent companies filed for restructuring, and the company said Miami-to-Orlando service is not affected. The Tampa extension has no funded timeline. Inside the community, Move Nona's autonomous shuttles run fixed routes daily and are free to ride, and more than 40 miles of trails connect the villages.

One thing to check in person: airport flight paths cross parts of Lake Nona, and the noise varies by village and by time of day. Stand in the backyard at 8 p.m. before you sign.

What is Medical City, and why does it matter to a homebuyer?

Medical City is the roughly 650-acre health and research cluster at Lake Nona's core, anchored by Nemours Children's Hospital, the Orlando VA Medical Center, the UCF College of Medicine, and HCA Florida UCF Lake Nona Hospital. It matters to a buyer because it is still growing. Nemours is in the middle of a $300 million expansion due by 2028. AdventHealth's new Lake Nona hospital is scheduled to open November 30, 2026 with 95 beds and room for 295. Siemens Energy signed a lease for more than 242,000 square feet of office and plans to move about 3,000 employees in 2027.

I do not promise appreciation, and I will not. What a deep employer base gives a homeowner is a resale and rental market that does not depend on tourism. Disney's 60-acre Lake Nona campus, cancelled in May 2023, is the reminder that corporate plans change. The hospitals have not. My earlier post on Lake Nona Medical City covers how the campus came together.

What do relocation buyers get wrong about Lake Nona?

Twenty-three years on the closing side taught me that the surprises on a file are rarely about the house. They are about the paperwork around it. These are the five I see most on Lake Nona purchases.

The address. "Lake Nona" in a listing does not mean the property is inside Tavistock's master plan. ZIP 32827 is the core. ZIP 32832 and parts of 32824 include Eagle Creek, Storey Park, Nona Sound, and other communities that use the name. Some are excellent. None of them are in the Laureate Park HOA, on the Lake Nona fiber network, or served by the Move Nona shuttle. Know which one you are buying.

The CDD. A community development district is bonded debt that built the roads and ponds, repaid through an annual assessment on your tax bill for up to 30 years. It does not appear in the HOA figure the listing quotes. Ask for the district's adopted assessment schedule and the bond payoff date before you compare two homes.

The year-two tax bill. When you buy from an owner who has been homesteaded for years, your first bill reflects their capped assessed value. The following January, the property resets to market value, and the bill can jump by thousands. Run the number on your purchase price, not the seller's bill.

The club. At Lake Nona Golf & Country Club, the house and the membership are separate transactions. The club does not publish current pricing, and the most recent published figures I have seen, from 2023, put a golf membership at $145,000 initiation. Contact the membership office before you fall for a fairway view.

The "sold out" sign. Isles of Lake Nona and Summerdale Park have closed out their new-home sales, but those homes are only a few years old and still inside the builder's structural warranty. A near-new resale there, with the landscaping grown in and the kitchen already upgraded, is often the better buy than a lot release across town. New construction versus existing homes covers how I weigh the two.

Where do residents eat, and what is there to do in Lake Nona?

Lake Nona's dining anchors are Canvas Restaurant & Market, on the water at Laureate Park's Village Center, and Bacán and Nami inside the Lake Nona Wave Hotel, both recognized by the MICHELIN Guide. Lake Nona Town Center adds Chroma Modern Bar + Kitchen, Park Pizza & Brewing, and Boxi Park, the shipping-container food park with a dog park and a stage. Lake Nona West, the 54-acre retail district that opened in July 2026, brought Target, Barnes & Noble, and Total Wine, with Nordstrom Rack, Sephora, and Cañonita's 9,300-square-foot flagship following through early 2027.

For the rest of a weekend: the USTA National Campus and its 100 courts are open to the public, Lake Nona Performance Club is the 130,000-square-foot fitness and wellness facility near the Town Center, Nona Adventure Park runs a cable wake park and inflatable aqua course, and the free Sculpture Garden beside the Wave Hotel holds works by Botero and Henry Moore. The Lake Nona Farmers Market runs the first and third Wednesday evenings at Laureate Park Village Center. Moss Park, the county park on Lake Mary Jane, is the closest thing to wilderness.

Two closures since this guide was first written: Drive Shack's Lake Nona venue closed in June 2026, and Veg'n Out has closed. The best restaurants in Lake Nona post goes deeper on dining, and Lake Nona events covers the calendar.

Ready to talk about Lake Nona?

You now know more about Lake Nona's tax bills and district lines than most of the people selling there. The next step is a conversation about your budget, your timeline, and which village fits. Schedule a conversation with me and bring the listing addresses you have been saving. I will tell you which ones are actually in Lake Nona.