My parents retired in 1984 in a community called "Timber Pines", which started in 1983 by U.S. Homes. It's located on Hwy 19 in Spring Hill, Fl, that's about an hour north of St. Petersburg. If you've heard of the place with the mermaid shows called Weeki Wachee Springs, that's 5 miles north of the entrance. It's a completely walled community with staffed gates. Visitors must get a gate pass from a resident or they don't enter, it's very secure but yet very inexpensive.
It's much smaller than The Villages, I believe 1200 acres, about 2000 homes and 2 golf courses. I stayed there for about six months in 1989 and it was pretty nice, you could drive your cart on the streets and golf was free with your HOA fee.
I believe it had built out about ten years ago and only resales are available. I was considering retiring there until 2003 when I received my first Villages' DVD in the mail. If your on a tight budget, you get more home for the buck. All the homes are constructed with masonary and you can find villas in the low 100's, but actually single family homes are 90% of the community. I've checked Hernando County realtor's sites recently and have found many nice 2 BR 2 BA 2 Car homes in the $130K to $160K range in Timber Pines.
When I was growing up in St. Petersburg in the 1960's and 70's, U.S. Homes was one of the largest developers in Florida. Since Timber Pines was finished I don't see them anymore, they maybe fell on hard times. They used to have a 7 story corporate headquarters off Hwy 19 around Palm Harbor.
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