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Lake Down, Windermere: Homes Around a Butler Chain Lake
The homes around Lake Down in Windermere are spread across more than a dozen small plats rather than one community, and their lots and build eras vary so much that each plat behaves like its own market.
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Buying or Selling Around Lake Down
Homes on Lake Down in Windermere, and those a street or two back, range from 1940s lakefront homes on small lots to new estates in Lake Down Reserve. Like-for-like comparisons are hard to find here, so we build them plat by plat for buyers and sellers. Communities with their own pages on the lake include Sunset Bay, Harbor Isle, Marina Bay Estates and Windermere Reserve.
The Plats Around Lake Down
- Lake Down Shores: 48 homes, median build year 1979, 1.34-acre lots, median $1,642,245; 27 lakefront.
- The Lakes: 59 homes built 1984 to 2003 on one-acre lots, median $904,745.
- Lake Down Crest, Cove, Village, Woods and Hollow: about 80 homes, mostly from the 1980s and 1990s on one-acre lots, medians from the mid-$600,000s to just over $1 million.
- Downs Cove Camp Sites: 11 homes, median build year 1947, on 0.37-acre lots; 10 lakefront.
- Down Point: 13 homes inside the Town on median lots of 3.79 acres, all lakefront.
- Lake Down Estates, Bayshore Estates and Windermere Oaks: small plats inside the Town, mostly lakefront.
- Lake Down Reserve, Windermere: seven homes built 2021 to 2025 inside the Town.
Fifty-seven homes in this group are inside the Town of Windermere; the rest are in unincorporated Orange County.
What We Check on a Lake Down Home
Our agents confirm the plat, lot size and frontage on the county record, ask for dock permits, and compare the home with sales from the same plat or, when there aren't enough, from plats with similar lots and frontage. We explain each adjustment in writing.
Tax Districts and Flood Zones Around the Lake
Plats around Lake Down sit in four tax districts, from 15.4839 mills inside the Town to 16.9894 in one county district, for 2025. A new owner's property tax before exemptions runs roughly $13,000 to $31,500 a year for the middle half of these homes. All but one of the lakefront lots touch a FEMA special flood hazard area, so ask about flood insurance early on any lakefront home here. Check schools for an address in Find My School.
Selling on or Near Lake Down
Because each plat is small, your price may rest on a few sales. We gather them, show you how we'd adjust for frontage, lot and age, and prepare the dock and survey records lakefront buyers ask for first.
See our Windermere lakefront guide and Windermere Downs.
The Own Luxury Homes® Perspective
Around Lake Down, the plat sets the lot, and the lot sets the price.
Lake Down's plats were recorded decades apart, and it shows. Downs Cove Camp Sites' homes, with a median build year of 1947, sit on 0.37-acre lots; Down Point's sit on 3.79 acres. Both front the same lake, yet a buyer comparing them is comparing different products.
Around Lake Down, compare a home first with its own plat, then with plats that share its lot size and frontage, never with the lake as a whole. The right three comparable sales here matter more than thirty from around the chain.
Lake Down Questions
Is Lake Down part of the Butler Chain?
Yes. The Orange County Water Atlas lists Lake Down, about 900 acres, as one of the 13 chain lakes.
How many homes front Lake Down in this group?
About 120 of the 306 homes in these plats touch Lake Down, according to county maps. Communities with their own pages, like Sunset Bay and Harbor Isle, have more.
Are Lake Down homes in the Town of Windermere?
Some are. Fifty-seven homes in these plats, including Down Point and Lake Down Reserve, are inside the Town; the rest are in unincorporated Orange County.
A Private, More Intentional Beginning
Tell us about your decision
Tell us what you are buying or selling, where, the approximate price range, your timing, and what matters most.
Speak with a local real estate professional.
Discuss your goals, the property, the market, and the questions that will help you decide how to proceed.
Choose your next step.
Take the time you need. There is no obligation to move forward.
Sources:
Orange County GIS, parcel data (2026 tax roll); Orange County GIS, recorded subdivision plats; Orange County GIS, hydrology (lakes); Orange County Water Atlas, Butler Chain of Lakes; Orange County Property Appraiser, 2025 final millage rates; Orange County GIS, FEMA flood zones; Orange County Public Schools, Find My School. Checked October 2026.
Figures: homes with a Windermere site address outside the Horizon West planning boundary, from Orange County parcel data; values are county just values on the 2026 tax roll, not sale prices; medians. Tax estimates multiply each home's 2026 county just value by the 2025 final millage for its tax district, before exemptions and non-ad valorem assessments, and are rounded. Flood counts are homes with at least 1% of the lot in a FEMA special flood hazard area (zones A, AE or AH) on the county's FEMA layer.
Reviewed by Ryan Brown, Licensed Real Estate Broker and CEO, Own Luxury Homes®