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Windermere Downs: Older Homes, Larger Lots and the Renovation Question
Windermere Downs is a community of 204 homes built from 1973 to 2021, with a 2026 median county value of $753,200, and because most of its homes date from the 1970s and 1980s, the key decision for many buyers is how much renovation a home needs.
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Buying or Selling in Windermere Downs
Windermere Downs homes for sale offer something increasingly rare in Windermere: established lots near Lake Down at prices below the area's median. Our agents help buyers weigh condition against price, and help sellers show the updates that justify theirs. Next door, our Lake Down guide covers the lakefront plats.
Windermere Downs Section by Section
- Original plat: 93 homes, built 1973 to 2016, median build year 1979, 0.41-acre lots, median $743,090. Nine homes front Lake Down, on lots of about 3.5 acres, at close to three times the plat's typical value.
- First Addition: 74 homes, built 1983 to 2015, median $729,190.
- Phase 3: 32 homes, built 1991 to 2021, on one-acre lots, median $946,205.
Renovate or Rebuild
Older homes on good lots raise the same question again and again: renovate or start over. Our agents help you compare the asking price plus likely updates with recent sales of updated homes, and, where it applies, with land and new-home values nearby. We'll help you line up the inspections and contractor estimates that answer it for a specific house.
What a Windermere Downs Home Costs to Hold
Sections fall in two tax districts, at 16.3894 and 16.1366 mills for 2025. Applied to 2026 county just values, a new owner's property tax before exemptions is roughly $11,000 to $14,500 a year for the middle half of homes, and 176 owners currently have homestead exemptions. Only the nine Lake Down lots touch a FEMA special flood hazard area. For school assignment, enter the address in Find My School.
For Windermere Downs Sellers
Buyers will price in every original system. List what you've replaced, with dates and permits, and we'll compare your home with sales of similarly updated homes, not with the community's least updated ones.
Also see Windsor Hill, Westover Club and the Windermere neighborhood comparison.
The Own Luxury Homes® Perspective
In Windermere Downs, the price of the update is part of the price of the house.
Windermere Downs' median home was built in 1986, and its median 2026 county value, $753,200, is well below Windermere's $983,220 median outside Horizon West. Only three homes have been built since 2015, so most buyers are choosing between renovated and unrenovated originals.
A lower-priced Windermere Downs home is a good value only if the cost of the work it needs still leaves you below the price of an updated one. Get estimates before you finalize an offer, and compare the total with updated sales, not with the listing next door.
Windermere Downs Questions
When were Windermere Downs homes built?
From 1973 to 2021, with a median build year of 1986, according to county records.
Are any Windermere Downs homes on Lake Down?
Nine homes in the original plat touch Lake Down, on large lots.
How big are Windermere Downs lots?
The median is 0.45 acres; Phase 3's lots are about one acre.
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 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®