Quote:
Originally Posted by Dan9871
Sun City FL has about 10,000 residents and the Villages has about 130,000 residents...
|
I never realized Sun City was so small. I grew up in St. Petersburg and I've always heard about the place. It started in 1962 and is a short drive from either Tampa or Sarasota/Brandenton, and only 10,000, that alone would make me wonder.
I remember in 2010 back in Baltimore when I was getting ready to take a lifestyle visit here in TV, I was talking to the branch manager of my bank, who was in his 50's. He said he had just bought a house in Sun City. We talked some and he said he paid $300K, I thought to myself that seemed awful high nine years ago. He also said his HOA was $350 a month, which he was already paying, again I'm thinking to myself that is high.
In 2011 when TV broke ground south of 466A in Bonifay a majority of the new homes were selling in the $200's, many in the low 200's, and that's correct, every home south of 466A has been built since August 2011. In fact Pine Ridge which was built as late as 2015, we looked at several new homes the $210K to $230K range. We purchased a new masonry CYV in 2011 for $158K just north of 466A in Tamarind Grove. At that time, prices here were very good, especially when compared to Sun City. Unfortunately now for a buyer, supply and demand in the established villages has caused prices to really escalate.
Think about it, home construction in TV really didn't kick off until the late 80's when Gary Morse moved down here to help his father. You've 10,000 from 1962 and 130,000 from 1989. TV is basically in the middle of nowhere, not between Tampa and Sarasota. The only real geographic feature that helped was the closeness of I-75 and the Florida Turnpike. Otherwise, there's no big city, no beaches, no anything, so Gary Morse had to create an environment that buyers would see was of great value in their retirement years.