Winter Garden is a city of 48,063 people (Census Bureau estimate, July 1, 2025) in Orange County, Florida, west of Orlando on Lake Apopka. The City describes it as a former citrus town established in 1908. The 2020 Census measured 16.28 square miles of land inside the city limits.
The name reaches well past the city. ZIP code 34787 puts a Winter Garden mailing address on much of Horizon West, a larger area to the south that is unincorporated Orange County. A home there pays county taxes, uses county utilities and follows county zoning, whatever the envelope says.
Homes and neighborhoods
The city has 17,326 housing units (ACS 2020-2024). About 69 percent are single-family detached houses, 9 percent are attached homes such as townhouses and 13 percent are in buildings of five or more units. About 66 percent of occupied homes are owner-occupied.
The median home was built in 2004. About 65 percent were built in 2000 or later and about 15 percent before 1980. The Census Bureau’s median value of owner-occupied homes was $476,000 for 2020-2024, which is a survey figure and not a sale price.
Downtown is on Plant Street. The City’s redevelopment area takes in the Downtown Historic District, East Winter Garden and the East Plant Street corridor out to State Road 429, and the county’s subdivision map shows plats around downtown recorded from 1907 into the 1920s.
Larger subdivisions inside the city, by the county’s subdivision map and the Census Bureau’s city boundary, include Stoneybrook West (about 700 acres across its plats), Hickory Hammock (platted 2014 to 2016), Waterside on Johns Lake (2014 to 2020), Black Lake Park, Twinwaters (2015), Bradford Creek (2014), Covington Park and Courtlea Oaks. The shopping center Winter Garden Village at Fowler Groves is in the city too.
To see what is listed now, search homes for sale in Winter Garden.
search homes for sale in Winter Garden
The city and Horizon West
Orange County describes Horizon West as five mixed-use villages and a Town Center surrounded by greenbelts, about 20,704 acres in all, under a concept adopted in 1995. The county names them Lakeside Village, the Village of Bridgewater, Town Center, Village F, Village H and Village I. None of it is inside the City of Winter Garden.
By the county’s maps, Hamlin and the Orlando Health Horizon West Hospital are in Town Center, Summerlake and Summerport are in Bridgewater, Waterleigh and Story Grove are in Village H, and Watermark and Lakeshore Preserve are in Village F. Hamlin, Waterleigh and the like are subdivisions, not villages.
The Census Bureau counts Horizon West as a census-designated place, with 58,101 residents at the 2020 Census. Its 23,809 housing units have a median build year of 2014 and a median owner-occupied value of $562,200 (ACS 2020-2024).
To tell which side of the line a home is on, search the address on the Orange County Property Appraiser’s site and read the “Municipality” line.
Property taxes in Winter Garden
Florida taxes a home on its assessed value less exemptions. A homestead exemption takes $25,000 off for every taxing authority. A second exemption, on assessed value above $50,000, takes off about $25,000 more for every authority except the school district; it is adjusted for inflation and was $25,722 for 2025 and $26,411 for 2026.
Save Our Homes limits the yearly rise in a homesteaded home’s assessed value to 3 percent or the change in the Consumer Price Index, whichever is lower: 2.7 percent for 2026. Without a homestead exemption the limit is 10 percent a year, and it does not apply to school taxes. A sale ends the seller’s cap, and the home is reassessed at market value as of the next January 1, so a buyer’s bill can be much higher than the seller’s.
| Taxing authority | 2025 millage |
|---|---|
| City of Winter Garden | 4.8565 |
| Orange County | 4.4347 |
| Orange County Public Schools | 6.4490 |
| Orange County Library District | 0.3748 |
| St. Johns River Water Management District | 0.1793 |
| Total | 16.2943 |
In unincorporated Horizon West there is no city millage. The county adds 2.8437 mills for fire and emergency medical service and 1.8043 for unincorporated services, and the total is 16.0858, or 16.1366 where the South Florida Water Management District levies (0.2301 mills), as it does in Hamlin.
As a worked example, take a homesteaded home in the city assessed at $450,000 in 2025. School taxes apply to $425,000 and come to $2,741. The other taxes apply to $399,278 and come to $3,931. The total is about $6,672 before non-ad valorem assessments. At 16.1366 mills in Horizon West the same home owed about $6,609.
The notice of proposed taxes (the TRIM notice) is mailed in August. Bills are mailed by November 1, with a discount of 4 percent for paying in November, stepping down to 1 percent in February, and taxes are delinquent April 1.
CDD and HOA fees
A community development district (CDD) borrows to build roads, drainage and parks, then repays the bonds through yearly assessments that appear on the property tax bill as non-ad valorem lines.
Stoneybrook West is in one. The Stoneybrook West CDD’s adopted budget for fiscal year 2026 lists a yearly assessment, for upkeep and its 2018 bonds together, of $366.82 to $1,074.31 per home depending on lot type; a 60-foot lot is $693.47. To see whether any other parcel is in a district, open its record on the Property Appraiser’s site and read its tax bill.
Homeowners association dues are set by each association. Florida law requires an association to issue an estoppel certificate within 10 business days of a request, stating the regular assessment and anything owed (section 720.30851, Florida Statutes). We can request the association’s documents for a home you are considering.
Short-term rental rules
In the city, the zoning code says an accessory dwelling unit may be rented by a standard residential lease and that short-term rentals of it under 30 days are prohibited (section 118-1310). For a whole house, ask the City’s Planning and Zoning Division how it treats stays under 30 days in that home’s zoning district before you count on rental income.
In Horizon West, Orange County’s code applies. The county’s Zoning Division states that short-term rental (stays of 179 days or less) is permitted only in commercial and industrial districts or in planned developments that expressly allow it, that single-family transient rental (under 30 days) is permitted only in the R-3 district, and that both are prohibited in every other zoning district. Horizon West has its own planned development codes, and the Town Center code has its own use table (section 38-77.1), so ask the Zoning Division about the parcel.
Renting an entire unit more than three times a year for under 30 days also requires a vacation rental license from the Florida DBPR, and stays of six months or less owe Florida’s 6 percent sales tax plus any county surtax and Orange County’s 6 percent tourist development tax. A home’s zoning and its association documents both have to allow the rental.
Schools
Orange County Public Schools is the district for the city and for Horizon West. School zones go by home address, so look up each address on the district’s Find My School page. The district notes that results do not show rezoning approved during the current school year.
Utilities
The City provides water, reclaimed water for irrigation, sewer, stormwater and garbage service, on one bill from Utility Billing at City Hall. Residential base rates effective October 1, 2025 are $9.59 for water, $13.72 for sewer and $24.87 for garbage. Household trash is collected twice a week, and yard waste and large items once a week.
Electricity is Duke Energy. Natural gas is the Lake Apopka Natural Gas District, a public utility founded in 1959 with Winter Garden as one of its three member cities. In Horizon West, the county’s service map shows Orange County Utilities for water and sewer.
Getting around
From City Hall, OpenStreetMap routing puts downtown Orlando about 16 miles and 24 minutes away by State Roads 50 and 408. The Magic Kingdom toll plaza is about 23 miles and 38 minutes by County Road 535 and State Road 429, and Orlando International Airport about 26 miles and 40 minutes by Florida’s Turnpike and State Road 528. These are times without traffic, and real times vary through the day.
State Roads 408, 429 and 528 are toll roads of the Central Florida Expressway Authority. Its cash lanes closed on September 30, 2025, so tolls are paid with E-PASS or another accepted transponder, or by Pay By Plate invoice.
SunRail has no station in Winter Garden. LYNX lists Link 705, the West Colonial Drive and Winter Garden circulator, and NeighborLink 812, a reserve-a-ride zone in Winter Garden that runs Monday through Saturday.
Flood zones and insurance
FEMA’s flood map puts parts of the city in a Special Flood Hazard Area (Zone A or AE), around its lakes. Search any address on FEMA’s Flood Map Service Center before you make an offer.
Citizens Property Insurance, the state-created insurer, requires flood coverage on its wind policies for homes in a Special Flood Hazard Area and for dwelling coverage of $400,000 or more, and on every such policy from January 1, 2027. Citizens also says a wind mitigation inspection can qualify a policy for discounts.
Parks and things to do
- The West Orange Trail is 22.32 miles of paved trail from the Lake County line through Oakland, Winter Garden and Apopka. Winter Garden Station is at 455 East Plant Street.
- The Winter Garden Farmers Market runs every Saturday from 8 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Downtown Pavilion, 104 South Lakeview Avenue.
- Newton Park, 31 West Garden Avenue, has the city fishing pier and a pool.
Nearby guides: Windermere, Orlando and Clermont.