Rent:
This is a note on Archstone's web-site - "availability and pricing is in real-time and can change daily." YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! Can you say, LOTTERY'!! During the 60 to 90 day period when available units are posted on the Archstone web-site, the prices may fluctuate from $5 up to $100 dollars. Units on the 1st floor are typically about $10 lesser than units of the same size on the 2nd floor. Prices for Units of the same size in different buildings with a couple of days difference in availability dates may be posted with different amounts. March & April seem to be the best times to move in.

Poor Retention Track Record:
Buildings with the highest turnover - Bldg. 311, 219, 236, 256 and 207.
People have various reasons for leaving however, the former
community manager even sited the majority of the reasons
within the past year were due to financial issues. The
bursting of the real estate bubble hit Florida hard. The
drop in home values and the reversal of the apartments going
condo caused most apartments to make fire-sale type offers to
get people to rent with them. When folks started leaving
Archstone at a higher rate then usual to take advantage of
the lower prices in other apartment communities, Archstone
had no chose but to lower prices. However, most incumbent
residents did not realize they were being asked to pay more
to stay. In some cases, the reduction in price ranged from
$60 - $120/month for incoming residents verses what existing
residents have to pay for the same size unit.

Utilities:
There is no metering system in place to measure your actual
water and sewage usage; they rely on an industry accepted
standard called RUG to calculate your fair share. A formula
is used, which among other factors, includes the total consumption
increases and/or decreases for the community. So, the company
that issues the water, sewage & trash bill is not a utility company.
It is simply a vendor responsible for calculating your contribution.
The buildings are not well insulated. Although the air handlers were
replaced in 2006, the outside air conditioning units and related
plumbing are old and inefficient. If you have an issue regarding
your electric bill even when you believe the increased consumption
is a direct result of the malfunctioning HVAC system, the office
staff becomes defensive and tries to make you believe it must be
something you are doing to cause the problem.

Visitors/Guests:
In the lease agreement, it clearly states that guests should not
stay longer than 7 days, yet people moved in and stayed for however
long they desired. In many cases, office management was aware of
these "live-ins" because these people had the audacity to call or walk
into the office to complain and transact other business. Why should
you care' These additional people inflate the overall cost of the
water bills and they exacerbate an already overcrowded parking condition.
Parking is the big HOTBED issue for the buildings (i.e., Bldgs. 311, 219,
312, and 207) with assigned parking. Some residents have two vehicles.
There is only one assigned space per unit. Visitors just park
wherever disregarding the assigned numbers on the stumps. Some real
heated words have been exchanged; nasty angry notes placed on cars
and door-to-door knocking to hunt down the culprit who parked in an
assigned space! The most extreme action taken was a resident had a
visitor's car towed off the parking lot!

If you are seriously considering moving here, hopefully my review will
help you make a more informed decision. I also wanted to avoid the
commonplace issues,such as, loud neighbors, roaches, and staff personality
issues, etc. I would not recommend Archstone Altamonte Springs as a
place to call home for more than one year.

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