[vintageogauge]

Originally Posted by JerryLBell

We did NOT move here from another retirement community. However, before buying here 4+ years ago, we researched a number of other retirement communities in the central Florida area, winnowed the list down to 7 or 8 and visited them all during one vacation. We had a very nice little checklist of what features we were looking for in both houses and communities and checked them all off and made other comments about what we saw at each community we went to. After visiting The Villages a couple of times previously, we were hoping to find "Villages Lite"; a community with everything we liked in The Villages but perhaps less overwhelmingly large (and this was before the big expansion south of 44!) and possibly a bit less expensive. We found some nice places but all fell short of The Villages in our opinion. We decided on the drive back home to North Carolina that we were definitely buying in The Villages and that one of the models we had toured on this visit would be the kind of house we bought. We did so, moved here immediately after retiring and have been living the dream ever since.

That's not to say The Villages is perfect in every respect or that it's right for absolutely everybody. It is neither. During our visits, we even met a few folks who had moved from The Villages to other communities. The most common reasons we heard were "The Villages is TOO busy" and "We just wanted a quieter lifestyle." For those folks, the quiet communities they were in, where you saw nobody at the (one) rec center, nobody at the (one) pool, nobody golfing at the (one) golf course and nobody walking in the neighborhoods was just what they wanted. That was exactly what we did NOT want, so we are here and they are there. To each their own.

One of our neighbors lived in The Villages, moved to another community (they have never told us why) and then moved back. Not sure how that counts for the original poster's question.

We considered other communities before buying here. To make it brief, there were no communities that offered the choice of models that TV has nor do they offer the amenities found in TV. As JerryLBell noted, the single clubhouses sat vacant most of the time, evenings there would be a few seniors either playing pool, darts, or friendly card games in the clubhouses, pot lucks seem to be the highlight of the week. The pools were always empty and people were not that willing to even say hello. There really is nothing down here to compare with TV unless you want a small community with small homes and not much to do.