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Originally Posted by DiviAruba
I thought I had everything figured out for moving to The Villages. I had to wait for my divorce to go through to buy a house. It went through last week and I am now rethinking if I can afford living in TV.
What is scaring me is homeowners insurance and car insurance. I have a place in MA that I can register the car, so that would make the insurance much cheaper. I am in N Ft Myers and homeowners and car insurance has jumped in price since Ian. Have the prices also gone up for insurance in TV?
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I’d be surprised if car insurance in The Villages isn’t cheaper than in Massachusetts. We are old, so there are plenty of fender benders and scratches, but car theft is rare. House insurance has gone up, but it’s not cheap in Massachusetts, either, especially if you factor in that people there tend to have larger and more expensive homes. Real estate/school taxes here are much less than in some states and more than in others. I have friends in New Jersey who pay four times as much per square foot for taxes as I pay.
Housing in The Villages is more expensive per square foot than houses outside The Villages within an hour’s drive that aren’t in retirement communities. However, while there are many parts of the country where decent housing is much cheaper (half or less), there are many places where a home of similar age and build quality (though perhaps larger) is much more expensive. Move here from metropolitan Boston, Chicago, Denver, New Jersey, New York, Philadelphia, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and you may find the housing delightfully affordable. My dad and sisters live in Denver. A house there similar to what I have here would cost at least twice as much.
Of course, the larger the house you buy here, the more it costs, including taxes and insurance. A great many of us downsize by 50% when we move here.