You'll get as many different opinions as there are people who post here. Here's mine:
Don't buy brand new, unless you're buying on an empty lot or tearing down an abandoned foreclosure in an established area. Reason: New areas are unproven. Landscaping isn't mature. I mean if you don't mind looking at nothing but houses and saplings for the next five years, I guess - okay? Zero shade trees for at least five years, because that's how long it takes for saplings to become shade trees.
Most stores aren't built yet. You might have to spend the next couple of years driving out of your area to pick up a quart of milk when you run low between grocery shopping.
Yes I know this is sinkhole country. But there are sinkholes caused by natural ground collapses, and sinkholes caused by overdevelopment, or poor workmanship, or lower standards for pipelaying. There have been more of these in the southern areas of The Villages than there have been in the northern areas. Regardless of what caused it, that's just how it is. The Historic section (east of 441 up north) has had maybe 3 little ones in the past five years. Nothing that closed down the whole street, none that have caused property damage, and none that had to divert traffic to road detours. All of them, to my knowledge, were limestone crumbling around sewer pipes in the road, causing 2-4-foot holes that could be repaired in a day.
Personally, if you want a newISH home, you might be better off closer to 466A. Another upside to that, is that while someone else has been owning the home, they've also been paying the bond. So your responsibility for the balance of the bond will be much lower, than buying a new-construction home in the south. SIGNIFICANTLY lower, since the bond fees have gone up over the years. Paying off a $8,000 bond balance vs. paying a new $25,000 bond is a big deal, and the bond is NOT included in the listing price of the home.
On the Historic side, there is no bond, and never was any bond, because it was originally a trailer park and the county can't impose a bond on a developer for rolling in a mobile home and putting it down on cinderblocks. But MOST of those old mobile homes are gone, replaced by luxury double-wides, and some site-build (constructed) homes. There are also a couple of empty lots for sale. Landscaping is mature, traffic is minimal, one of the pools has a jacuzzi hot tub, there are rolling hills so it's not all flat, we do have "standards" for how our property has to look but mostly it's just "neat and tidy" and well maintained, and you can still give it your own personal touch with lawn ornaments and what not. Ours is a very walkable area, even though there are no MMPs or sidewalks except right in front of the rec centers and at Paradise Park. Every store you need/want is within 5 minutes by golf cart, the hospital is across the street, the fire department is next door to the rec center. Two exec golf courses, 1 country club with a restaurant and an 18 hole golf course, two community pools, one family pool, one country club pool (with a waterfall and a jacuzzi), two rec centers, a dog park, archery range, softball fields - no "kissing lanais" or cookie-cutter houses, that's all my idea of a Florida paradise.
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