[villages07]

I think they have been building concrete houses for awhile.... but there was always a mix of concrete and block; I'll have to pay more attention to the newer areas to see if they are exclusively or majority poured concrete. I asked about this once and an agent (or builder) said they were pretty comparable as far as wind/storm protection goes. I'm not sure if there are any other functional differences between poured concrete vs block construction.

As to the new models, I checked out each one of them in the past week. Assuming I haven't mixed up the names, the Iris is the same interior layout as the gardenia/camelia, except that the golf cart garage comes standard but is between the garage and front door (not on the outside of the garage). This allows the model to be built on a smaller 90ft wide lot.

The Lily looks very similar to the Lantana on the outside but has a few interior modifications. The agent at the open house says that it is only about 40 sq ft smaller inside than the Lantana but it felt smaller than that. The breakfast area was smaller; the entrance to the master bedroom was at the far end of the living room with no corridor leading to it; the lanai seemed smaller too. The open house they had was on a small interior lot and had very few upgrades but was advertised (after discount) at $218K which seemed like a very low price for a "lantana-lite" house. Interesting, indeed, what they are doing with these new models.