Meadow Woods, FL (32824): A Buyer’s Guide to a ZIP Code With Six Different Housing Markets

What “32824” actually means as a search

32824 is a ZIP code, not a neighborhood boundary. The Census ZCTA covers somewhere between 47,000 and 58,000 residents, depending on release year, stretching across Meadow Woods, the Wetherbee and Taft areas, and unincorporated Orange County reaching toward Osceola County. Real-estate portals typically draw a tighter “Meadow Woods” polygon around roughly 30,000 residents concentrated near Landstar Boulevard. Confirm which definition a source is using before comparing its numbers to another.

Is 32824 the same thing as the Meadow Woods neighborhood?No. 32824 is a larger Census ZIP boundary; “Meadow Woods” as locals and portals use it is a smaller area within that ZIP, centered on Landstar Boulevard.

The 2026 school closure buyers need to know about

Orange County Public Schools voted March 10, 2026 to permanently close Meadow Woods Elementary, folding its roughly 660 students into Southwood Elementary or Wyndham Lakes Elementary starting fall 2026. The closure was one of seven across the district, driven by a roughly 9,000-student enrollment drop over three years, with affected schools operating near 40 to 50 percent capacity. The last day of school for these campuses was in late May 2026.

Before closing, Meadow Woods Elementary posted 45% math and 43% reading proficiency, with a below-average GreatSchools rating. Cypress Creek High School, the zoned high school for most of the area, shows 36% Algebra 1 EOC proficiency against 63% for Orange County and 60% statewide, chronic absenteeism between 30.9% and 56.4% in recent years, and ranks 420th of 844 Florida high schools. It’s also mid-rezoning with Lake Nona High School under a separate board action.

The district needed the building’s operating cost, not its test scores, to change: enrollment, not academics, drove this decision.

Which school will my child attend now that Meadow Woods Elementary has closed?OCPS’s published plan sends former Meadow Woods Elementary students to Southwood Elementary or Wyndham Lakes Elementary; the exact assignment depends on your specific street, so confirm against OCPS’s current attendance-zone tool rather than an old listing.

Is it safe? What the numbers show, and what nobody publishes

Crime-index aggregators built from FBI Uniform Crime Report data put Meadow Woods’ violent crime index at 33.7 against a national average of 22.7, and its property crime index at 41.4 against 35.4. Framed as odds, that works out to roughly a 1-in-390 chance of violent-crime victimization, 1-in-75 for property crime, and 1-in-63 overall, based on 2023 FBI data.

No government agency publishes a Meadow-Woods-only or 32824-only crime rate. FDLE compiles Uniform Crime Reports by reporting agency, and unincorporated Meadow Woods falls under the Orange County Sheriff’s Office instead of the Orlando Police Department, so any figure labeled “Orlando crime” describes a different jurisdiction.

Anyone comparing a specific address should query the Sheriff’s Office’s own incident map rather than a ZIP-wide average.

Housing by subdivision, not by ZIP code

Meadow Woods isn’t one product. Four subdivisions with independently published MLS data show how far the range runs.

Sawgrass Plantation, built by Park Square Homes between 2007 and 2021, shows how fast this market moves: its August sales volume rose 300% year over year while its median sale price fell 32.2%, from $485,000 to $328,900. Across named subdivisions, HOA dues generally fall between $50 and $450 a month; a handful of communities like Jackson Park run gated with tighter covenants, while others carry no HOA at all.

How much are HOA fees in Meadow Woods?Anywhere from roughly $23 to $450 a month depending on the community, with gated subdivisions like Harbor Lakes and Jackson Park typically running toward the lower end and newer amenity-heavy communities toward the higher end.

Who this ZIP code actually fits

Census estimates put 32824’s population at 63 to 64% Hispanic or Latino, the highest share of any nearby ZIP code, with sizable Puerto Rican and broader Caribbean and South American representation. Median age runs 35.8 to 38.4 depending on the data year, younger than both Orange County and Florida overall. Median household income sits between $79,169 and $84,841, per-capita income near $34,000, and poverty around 7.5 to 8%.

In practical terms: Spanish-language service is the norm rather than the exception at nearby retail and medical offices, and Latin American grocery and dining options are a genuine local amenity. Buyers who want a bilingual, majority-Hispanic community will find it here; buyers expecting a typical Central Florida suburban demographic mix should adjust that expectation before touring.

Getting around: the Turnpike, the Greeneway, and a schedule gap

SR 417, the Central Florida GreeneWay, runs east to west through Meadow Woods and connects to Florida’s Turnpike and Orlando International Airport. SunRail’s Meadow Woods station sits at 120 Fairway Woods Blvd and, per the timetable SunRail publishes, runs Monday through Friday only, with no weekend or major-holiday trains. Transit-aggregator data puts the first weekday departure around 6:04 AM and the last around 11:19 PM, though that figure isn’t SunRail’s own published timetable and should be checked directly. LYNX Route 18 connects at the station. Verified drive times to specific destinations like Lake Nona Medical City or downtown Orlando weren’t available from an independent source for this piece; treat that as an open question rather than a filled-in estimate.

Does SunRail run on weekends from the Meadow Woods station?No. SunRail’s schedule confirms weekday-only service, Monday through Friday, with no trains on Saturdays, Sundays, or major holidays.

Renting it out: the yield math from two Census numbers

Dividing the ZIP’s Census-reported median gross rent, $2,014 to $2,057 a month depending on the release year, by its median home value of $398,114 produces a rough gross rental yield near 6.1 to 6.2% before taxes, insurance, HOA dues, and vacancy. That’s a calculation from two independently sourced Census figures, not a published third-party yield estimate, and it’s a ZIP-wide blend: a $328,900 Sawgrass Plantation townhome and a $635,000 Lake Preserve house won’t yield the same. No independent source for days-on-market trend or year-over-year appreciation was found for this piece.

Is Meadow Woods a good area for rental investment?The rent-to-value math suggests a gross yield in the low-to-mid 6% range before expenses, but that figure is a ZIP-wide average; subdivision-level rent comps are needed before underwriting any specific address.

Common mistakes when evaluating this ZIP

• Treating the ZIP median as a subdivision price. $398,114 is a blended, all-property average; individual subdivisions above run from $328,900 to over $635,000.
• Assuming no HOA. Most named subdivisions carry one, ranging from roughly $23 to $450 a month.
• Skipping the current school-zone check. Between the elementary closure and the Cypress Creek/Lake Nona high school rezoning, the assigned school on an older listing may already be wrong.