One neighborhood, and it makes the opposite trade from almost everything else in Lake Nona: more house, fewer amenities, lower carrying cost.
Meritage Homes built one Lake Nona area neighborhood: Fell's Landing, on the southern edge of the area at the Orange and Osceola county line. Meritage was founded in 1985 in Scottsdale, Arizona as Monterey Homes by Steve Hilton and William Cleverly, took the Meritage name in 1998, and trades on the New York Stock Exchange as MTH. It is now the fifth-largest homebuilder in the country and delivered its 200,000th home around its fortieth anniversary in December 2025. Fell's Landing homes run roughly 2,500 to 5,000 square feet and were built with spray-foam insulation, low-E2 vinyl windows and low-VOC finishes. The neighborhood has no community pool or clubhouse, no CDD, and unusually low HOA dues for the Lake Nona area. It is fully built out, so these homes trade as resale.
Almost every Lake Nona neighborhood sells you an amenity package. Resort pool, clubhouse, fitness center, trails, sometimes a golf course and a gate with a person in it. You pay for that twice — once in the purchase price and then every month, forever, in dues and assessments.
Fell's Landing does not do that. Meritage built a small neighborhood of large houses with a dog park, a shaded tot lot and a gazebo, and stopped. No pool. No clubhouse. No CDD. The dues are low because there is almost nothing to maintain. Whether that is the best deal in Lake Nona or a dealbreaker depends entirely on who you are, and that is the whole story of this builder here.
Which Lake Nona neighborhoods did Meritage build?
One: Fell's Landing, at the southern edge of the Lake Nona area on the Orange and Osceola county line.
It is off Narcoossee Road, entered on the right just before the Boggy Creek light heading south. Small — on the order of eighty homes — and finished, which means the only way in now is resale.
| Neighborhood | Product | Meritage's role |
|---|---|---|
| Fell's Landing | Single-family, roughly 2,500–5,000 sq ft; spray-foam insulation, low-E2 vinyl windows, water-efficient fixtures, low-VOC finishes; many homes with private pools; some backing a central pond | Sole builder; neighborhood is built out and resale only |
Who is Meritage, and where does the name come from?
Meritage started in 1985 as Monterey Homes in Scottsdale, Arizona, and took its current name in 1998 from a wine term for a Bordeaux-style blend.
Two Arizona State graduates, Steve Hilton and William Cleverly, founded it building upscale homes in Scottsdale. The company went public through a reverse merger in 1997 and has traded on the New York Stock Exchange as MTH since. The rename to Meritage was deliberate: the word describes a blended wine, and the company chose it to signal a blend of design and construction rather than a founder's surname.
Two strategic pivots since then explain what Meritage builds today. In 2009 it made energy efficiency a company-wide focus rather than an options-list item. In 2016 it shifted toward entry-level and first move-up buyers. It is now the fifth-largest homebuilder in the United States, operating in twelve states, and it delivered its 200,000th home around its fortieth anniversary in December 2025.
Fell's Landing was built after the first pivot and before the second, which is why it reads the way it does: serious energy specification, but square footage well above what an entry-level builder puts up.
What does the Meritage energy package actually mean in Florida?
It mostly means the building envelope is tighter than a comparable home of the same age, which shows up in the cooling bill more than anywhere else.
The features are specific and checkable: spray-foam insulation, low-E2 vinyl windows, water-efficient fixtures, and low-VOC carpets, finishes and paints. Meritage has built to ENERGY STAR certification as a standard across its homes rather than selling it as an upgrade, and the company introduced net-zero energy homes in Arizona in 2011.
In Central Florida the envelope is the part that matters. Cooling load is the dominant cost, and a tight envelope with good glazing does more for a summer bill than any appliance package. It also tends to hold the house quieter and steadier room to room.
Two honest caveats. First, an envelope built in the early 2010s is a decade-plus old now, and the equipment inside it — air handler, condenser, water heater — has a much shorter life than the insulation. The energy story on a specific home is only as good as what has been serviced or replaced. Second, spray-foam construction changes how a house breathes and how an attic is inspected; make sure your inspector is comfortable with it and ask specifically about attic ventilation and moisture.
Why does Fell's Landing have almost no amenities?
Because Meritage put the budget into the houses instead, and the low HOA dues are the direct consequence.
What is there: a fenced dog park, a tree-shaded tot lot, and a gazebo park area, with some homes backing a central pond. What is not there: a community pool, a clubhouse, a fitness center, a gate.
The math is straightforward. Amenity centers cost money to build and more money to staff, insure, resurface and replace, and those costs live in your dues and in reserve assessments for as long as you own the home. A neighborhood with a dog park and a gazebo has almost no reserve exposure. Compare the packages yourself on the neighborhood amenities chart and then compare the dues.
Whether this is a bargain depends on your household. If you would use a resort pool three times a week, you are giving up real value. If you have your own pool — and many Fell's Landing homes do — and you were never going to set foot in a clubhouse, you are buying the same Lake Nona schools and location without paying for a facility you do not use.
Which county is Fell's Landing in?
Orange County — the Osceola line runs just south of the neighborhood, which is a convenience, not a jurisdiction change.
This trips people up. Sitting on a county line makes St. Cloud and Kissimmee an easy commute, and buyers reasonably assume that proximity comes with Osceola County taxes or Osceola County schools. It does not. Fell's Landing is Orange County for taxes and falls under Orange County Public Schools for zoning.
For a household with one commute into Osceola and one into Medical City, that combination is genuinely useful, and it is the single best argument for this location. School assignments are set by OCPS and can change, so confirm zoning for a specific address rather than assuming from the neighborhood; our Lake Nona schools guide is a starting point.
Did Meritage build anywhere else in Lake Nona?
No. Fell's Landing is the only one.
Meritage is occasionally credited with homes in Randal Park, which is a mix-up worth clearing. Randal Park was started by David Weekley Homes and M/I Homes and finished by Mattamy Homes in 2019. Meritage was not one of them.
If you are searching for Meritage homes in the Lake Nona area and finding results scattered across neighborhoods, you are likely looking at listings that mention the builder for a different reason, or at homes elsewhere in the Orlando metro. Meritage builds actively across Central Florida; inside Lake Nona it built here and nowhere else.
What should you check before buying in Fell's Landing?
Check the age of the mechanical equipment and the roof, then confirm the assessment and the school zoning for the exact address.
Equipment first, because these homes are now in the window where the original air handler, condenser and water heater are at or past typical service life. The envelope may be excellent and the equipment inside it tired, and those are separate line items in your budget.
The roof matters more here than it would have five years ago. Florida insurers underwrite hard on roof age, and a home from the early-to-mid 2010s is at the point where roof age drives both premium and, in some cases, whether a carrier will write it at all. Get the roof date before you get attached.
Then assessments. Fell's Landing is marketed as having no CDD and its dues are low, but do not take either from a listing remark — districts can cover some phases and not others and amounts reset annually. Our CDD fees explainer covers how to pull the figure for a specific parcel.
Meritage in Lake Nona: pros and cons
What works. This is the most square footage per dollar in the Lake Nona area, and it is not a close call. The energy specification is real and above what most builders were doing when these homes went up. Carrying cost is low: no CDD, minimal dues, nothing shared to assess against later. Many homes have private pools, which for a lot of buyers is the amenity that actually gets used. And the county-line location gives you Orange County schools and a genuinely short drive into Osceola.
What does not. No pool, no clubhouse, no gate. For families who want a neighborhood social hub, this is the wrong place, and no amount of square footage fixes it. The neighborhood is small — roughly eighty homes — which means very thin comp data; one distressed sale can move the perceived value of the whole street, and there may be no recent comparable sale at all when you go to list. It is on the southern edge of the area, so you are further from Lake Nona Town Center and Medical City than the interior neighborhoods. And the homes are old enough now that roof and equipment age are live issues in every transaction here.
Our take. Fell's Landing is one of the clearest value propositions in Lake Nona, provided you are the right buyer for it. If you want a big house, a private pool, low monthly carrying cost and Orange County schools, and you do not care about a clubhouse, it is hard to beat. If you want neighborhood amenities and a community calendar, buy somewhere else and do not talk yourself into this one on square footage. The thing I would push hardest on is the small size: with roughly eighty homes, appraisal and pricing both get harder, in both directions. Go in with your eyes open about that.
What the neighbors know
The dog park is the social center here, which is what happens when a neighborhood has no clubhouse and a fenced green space. People meet there, and the central pond loop is where the evening walk happens. It is a smaller, quieter version of community than Laureate Park's events calendar, and residents who chose this neighborhood generally chose it for exactly that.
The other running topic is the drive. Everything in Lake Nona is up Narcoossee Road from here, and residents have opinions about the timing of the Boggy Creek light. In exchange, they are minutes from St. Cloud, which for a household with one commute heading south is the whole reason they are here.
Official sources
- Meritage Homes corporate site
- Meritage Homes company overview and history
- Meritage Homes (NYSE: MTH) company profile
The inclusion of businesses, individuals, groups, associations, and links on this site does not imply endorsement by the site owner.
Thinking about Fell's Landing? With a neighborhood this small, knowing what has actually sold and when matters more than usual — and I can tell you the roof and equipment picture before you fall for the square footage. Call/Text David Myers at 407.801.3286 or use the contact form.
Frequently asked questions
Which Lake Nona neighborhoods did Meritage Homes build?
One: Fell's Landing, on the southern edge of the Lake Nona area at the Orange and Osceola county line. It is a small single-family neighborhood that is fully built out, so Meritage homes there are available only as resale.
Does Fell's Landing have a CDD?
Fell's Landing is marketed as having no CDD, and its HOA dues are unusually low for the Lake Nona area because the neighborhood has almost no shared amenities to maintain. Confirm the assessment on the specific parcel before writing an offer rather than relying on a published list. See our Lake Nona CDD fees explainer.
Is Fell's Landing in Orange County or Osceola County?
Orange County. The neighborhood sits directly on the county line, with Osceola County beginning just to the south, which means it is convenient to St. Cloud and Kissimmee while remaining in Orange County for taxes and for Orange County Public Schools zoning. Zoning is set by OCPS and can change, so confirm assignments for a specific address.
Why does Fell's Landing have so few amenities?
It was built without a community pool or clubhouse. Amenities are limited to a dog park, a shaded tot lot and a gazebo park area. That is the trade: the money went into square footage and the energy package rather than into a shared amenity center, and the low HOA dues reflect that there is little to maintain.
What energy features do Meritage homes in Fell's Landing have?
Homes there were built with spray-foam insulation, low-E2 vinyl windows, water-efficient fixtures and low-VOC finishes and paints. Meritage has built to ENERGY STAR certification as a company-wide standard rather than as an upgrade. On any specific home, ask what has been maintained or replaced since construction, because equipment ages even when the envelope does not.
