It sounds like you have some time before you are wanting to make the move so that could work well for you. I would do as others suggest and rent a few times to learn about the areas. Look at them during the current "off season" as well as during the winter to see if that impacts your analysis.
I would also suggest you try to determine what is important to be close to. For some it is a square and I know some that go very regularly. We are young as well, got lucky and could early retire, and have been here a year. When we moved, we were going to a square every night! We still go usually at least once a week, mostly to hear the variety of live music.
For us, golf and recreation is important so we looked for an area that had easy access to multiple rec centers, including those with sports pools, as well as both executive and championship golf course. We did not want to wait 5 or 10 years before that was close to us as these are our best years. Wanted instant access.
Re the age ranges, for us it is a non issue, for a number of reasons. We play in sports groups (water volleyball, pickleball and softball) with some who are in their 70's. We routinely are paired with golfers who can be 15+ years older than us. We enjoy all of that. We also play some of the same sports with those who are closer to our age and can find as competitive of groups in any sport that we want.
We are parts of several social groups who tend to have younger members and we enjoy that as well. Also, we have met a number of couples who are similar to our age when we have played golf who we have connected with and go get drinks, dinner and play board games from time to time with.
In our village, there is a good variety of ages. We tend to prefer smaller groups of close friends that we hang out with the most and some of those have come from the above and some from our neighborhood, and across different ages.
S0....decide what is most important to you, spend various times exploring a variety of areas and not rely solely on opinions here (everyone's style is different), make your decision and enjoy the good life!
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