Edgewood is the smallest of the three cities on the Conway chain — an incorporated city of about 2,758 people packed into roughly a square and a quarter of land on the chain's western side, with its own police department and city hall. Bear Team's office is a few minutes east of it.
Edgewood's water is the western end of the Conway chain rather than Lake Conway's main body. Lake Jessamine, at roughly 294 acres, and Lake Gatlin, at about 68 acres, both sit within the city, and canals connect them onward to Little Lake Conway and the rest of the chain. Nearly a fifth of the city's total area is water — 0.30 of its 1.54 square miles. The city runs its own building and permitting, code compliance, planning and development, business tax and residential waste services from City Hall, which for a place this size is unusual and is much of the reason people choose the address.
Location Context
Edgewood sits south of downtown Orlando along the South Orange Avenue corridor, west of Belle Isle and the main body of Lake Conway. The 2020 Census puts it at about 1.24 square miles of land plus 0.30 square miles of water. It is a genuinely separate municipality, not a neighborhood of Orlando: a five-member elected City Council serving staggered three-year terms, with the Council selecting its own President, and the Edgewood Police Department providing full-service law enforcement rather than the county sheriff.
Housing Overview
Edgewood holds about 1,239 housing units with a median build year of 1978, and its age profile is unlike either neighbour on the chain. Nearly 45 percent of everything here — 556 units — went up in the 1970s alone, the most concentrated single decade of any community Bear Team covers. It also kept building: about 16 percent dates from 2000 to 2009 and another 7 percent from 2010 on, so unlike Conway there is genuinely newer inventory inside the city limits. The other difference is form. Only about 61 percent of units are detached single-family homes, well below Conway's 91 percent and Belle Isle's 85 percent, which means Edgewood carries a substantially larger share of townhomes, condominiums and small multi-family buildings than either.
Detached single-family homes (about 61% of units)
Townhomes, condominiums and small multi-family
1970s homes — nearly half the city's stock
2000s and newer infill construction
Lakefront on Lake Jessamine and Lake Gatlin
The City of Edgewood
Edgewood is its own municipality, not a neighbourhood of Orlando — about 1.24 square miles of land wrapped around the lakes on the western side of the Conway chain.
Edgewood’s lakes are not Lake Conway’s main body, and that distinction matters when a listing says “chain of lakes.” Lake Jessamine, at roughly 294 acres, and Lake Gatlin, at about 68 acres, sit within the city, and both reach the wider Conway chain through canals rather than open water. Nearly a fifth of the city’s total area is water: 0.30 of its 1.54 square miles.
The city’s own comprehensive plan identifies access to Lake Jessamine at the Woodsmere boat ramp, and access to the wider Conway chain via the county’s Randolph ramp. Those are public access points — they are not the same thing as a right attached to a particular parcel.
In practice that makes access a property-by-property question rather than a neighbourhood promise. A canal connection is genuine access, but clearance, depth, and the route to open water have to be confirmed for the individual parcel — and confirmed against the boat you actually intend to keep, not a boat in general. Ask before the inspection period closes.
Dock permitting here is a two-stage process and people get caught by the first stage. Edgewood performs its own zoning review before an application goes on to Orange County, and if neighbours object it can end up in front of the City Council. Only after that does the county side proceed — Orange County Environmental Protection Division handles the environmental permit, and waterfront parcels fall under the Lake Conway Water and Navigation Control District, whose millage appears on the tax bill and is not a city tax. Budget for both reviews, not one.
A seawall is a heavier lift again: engineer-sealed plans, a county site inspection, and approval at a Board of County Commissioners public hearing, followed by a thirty-day appeal period, with the permit valid one year. That is months, not a repair that fits inside a contract.
What being your own city actually buys you
Edgewood runs more of its own affairs than its size suggests. Building and permitting, code compliance, planning and development, business tax and residential waste are city departments, and the Edgewood Police Department provides full-service law enforcement rather than the county sheriff. A five-member elected City Council serves staggered three-year terms and selects its own President. For a city of under three thousand people on roughly a square and a quarter of land, that is unusual, and much of what the address is.
The practical consequence for a buyer is that questions go somewhere different than they would a few streets away. Permits, code enforcement, zoning and planning are answered at Edgewood City Hall on Bagshaw Way, not at Orange County — the opposite of unincorporated Conway next door, where all of those run through the county. If you are buying a home with additions, a converted garage, a pool enclosure or a dock, the permit history lives with the city, and that is where to check before closing rather than after.
It cuts both ways. City review can be quicker and more personal than a county process. It also means a second set of rules on some projects, and on waterfront work the county still holds jurisdiction regardless. Confirm which government owns a given approval before scheduling anything.
Buyer Considerations
—Edgewood is its own city. Permits, code enforcement, planning and police all run through Edgewood City Hall rather than Orange County — a meaningful difference from unincorporated Conway next door, where every one of those goes to the county.
—The city's lakes are the western end of the Conway chain, not Lake Conway's main body. If open-water access to Lake Conway matters, confirm how a specific property's water connects: Lake Jessamine and Lake Gatlin reach the rest of the chain through canals, and what a given boat can pass through is a property-by-property question.
—Dock, seawall and shoreline work on these lakes still runs through the Orange County Environmental Protection Division, and waterfront parcels on the chain fall under the Lake Conway Water and Navigation Control District — whose millage appears on the tax bill and is not a city tax.
—With nearly half the housing stock built in the 1970s, roof age, electrical panels and plumbing materials drive insurability here more than square footage does. Get an insurance quote early in the inspection period.
—Because Edgewood kept building through the 2000s, a buyer comparing two homes inside the same small city may be comparing a 1974 house to a 2006 one. The insurance and maintenance picture between those is not close.
—Florida reassesses property at market value in the year after a sale, so a long-held Edgewood home's current tax bill is not what a buyer will pay.
Seller Considerations
—Edgewood's municipal status is under-marketed and it is a real differentiator — its own police department and city services, in a city of under three thousand people, is not something a Conway or unincorporated address can claim.
—If the home dates from the 1970s — and odds are close to even that it does — a current four-point inspection and wind mitigation report in hand at listing answers the question that most often stalls a contract on this stock.
—Sellers of older homes here compete against genuinely newer inventory a few streets away, which is not true in Conway. Pricing and presentation should account for that directly.
—On the water, assemble dock permits, any navigation district correspondence and seawall history before listing, and be clear in the marketing about which lake the property fronts and how it connects to the wider chain.
—Sellers buying again in Florida should ask about Save Our Homes portability early — it is capped, time-limited, and requires a separate filing alongside the new homestead application.
Nearby Amenities
✓Lake Jessamine (about 294 acres)
✓Lake Gatlin (about 68 acres)
✓Canal access onward to the Conway chain
✓Edgewood City Hall and Police Department
✓South Orange Avenue corridor
Transportation
✓South Orange Avenue
✓Hoffner Avenue and Holden Avenue
✓State Road 528 (Beachline Expressway)
✓Interstate 4 via downtown Orlando
✓Orlando International Airport — about 20 minutes
Market information is provided for general education, may change without notice, and should be independently verified before making real estate decisions.
Curious About Edgewood?
Ask us anything — property types, timing, or how this community compares to others you're considering.
Conway is the unincorporated southeast Orlando community built around the Conway Chain of Lakes — about six miles from downtown, seven from Orlando International Airport, and the area Bear Team Real Estate has worked from for four decades. Our office sits on South Crystal Lake Drive, inside it.
Detached single-family homes (about 91% of units) · Lakefront and canal-front homes on the Conway chain · 1950s-1980s homes on established lots
Belle Isle is its own incorporated city inside metropolitan Orlando — roughly 7,000 residents wrapped around the Conway Chain of Lakes, with more of its area under water than on land. It has been Bear Team territory for four decades.
Detached single-family homes (about 85% of units) · Lakefront homes on Lake Conway and Little Lake Conway · Pre-1940 homes — the oldest stock on the chain
The City of Orlando is a municipality of about 320,000 people inside an Orange County of roughly 1.47 million — which means most addresses that read “Orlando, FL” are not in the city at all.
Historic bungalows and frame vernacular homes · Downtown high-rise condominiums · Mid-century ranch homes
