[djplong]

Let me start by saying I stumbled upon this place completely by accident. I saw a "Wired" magazine article about souped up golf carts that mentioned The Villages. The article also mentioned how the cart path were integrated into the development so that you didn't always NEED a 'regular' car to go food shopping or to Wal-Mart/Target/etc. That led me to The Villages website and that eventually led me here and I've been devouring a lot of the information here for two days, registering earlier today.

To be honest, this is sounding almost in the "too good to be true" categories. I'm "only" 47 but I'd long had a dream of retiring to Florida (specifically somewhere around Clermont) but gave up on it due to circumstances I didn't control. Well, a few years ago, that circumstance decided to leave (and NOW she's thinking about moving to FL to be with her boyfriend - go figure).

So here I am, a programmer (I've been writing websites for the USAF lately) with retirement well out on the horizon and suddenly I find myself engaged to an incredibly outgoing, wonderful person who LOVES the idea of The Villages. All of a sudden I find myself wondering if maybe I can pull this dream out of the ashes, dust it off, polish it up and make it happen.

I find myself with a few questions that I haven't seen much of in wandering around the site so I thought I'd ask them here.

Everything has a cost. Divorce has almost wiped out my retirement and has me pretty much mortgaged-out so no early retirement for me. I make a decent income but I'm probably going to have to work long beyond 65 to be able to afford the lifestyle down there. What is the job market like - relatively speaking as it's not great anywhere these days. I mean, Florida has a reputation for service, tourism and retail jobs. I know there's some IT (Information technology) in Orlando, Tampa and Miami, but those are a bit of a haul for daily commute.

"Community Standards". In another thread, I saw people talking about how they considered a van in a driveway to be "an eyesore". Now, I live in a town of 20,000+ next to a city of 85,000 in Southern New Hampshire about an hour's drive northwest of Boston. I don't mean this to sound insulting, but one of the things I've never liked about developments is the aristocratic attitude that sometimes seems to permeate. Now, mind you, I also hear how wonderful the neighbors are. I guess what I'm saying is that I'm a bit concerned about being in a "Stepford" development. I haven't lived under covenants or deed restrictions (other than zoning laws) for 25 years. the fact that I'm even CONSIDERING The Villages is a testimony to all the great stuff I've seen and read about in the past 48 hours. But I *do* worry about HOAs run by people who don't have to work who have nothing better to do than try to run everyone else's life. My finacee lived in a condo in Wilton NH where one woman took her daily walk with a notepad in her hand so that she could mark up every minute "violation". I lived in a condo where I wasn't allowed to have a bicycle on my balcony. I'm not anxious to relive that kind of experience. Am I overreacting?

Something more practical - are there decent credit unions there? I have a thing against banks - mostly because I don't like paying for obscene executive salaries and, with a credit union, the shareholders are the depositors so the money goes back to 'the owners'.

I'm looking at the very real possibility of selling my house some years down the road to do this (mortgaged out at the moment but I've put a lot of money into this house in the 3 years since my ex left so it should recover nicely, in time). My fiancee also has a house and some land that would hopefully keep us with a low mortgage due to appreciation (we hope) over the next several years.

I never thought I would have such an about-face concerning developments and such. But this place seems to have "something" that I can't explain. It'd be nirvana for my fiancee. This is the woman who had over 60 people show up for a recent birthday party - and New England isn't exactly known for big social circles.

I don't know if I would have to wait for retirement or if I could eventually move my career down there (I work for a defense contractor at an air base in MA). But after seeing The Villages' website and the message board here, it's something I'm seriously looking at.

Any other websites or resources I should look at? (It's not like I don't know Florida weather - I lived in Miami Beach when I was little and just spent a week-plus vacation at WDW in July/August)

Thanks in advance (and sorry for being so wordy)