[Cliff]

There are lots of interesting responses to this topic. I hope you are able to see the thread running through them all which should tell you that, not too many years ago, we had an opportunity to have a home built here to our exact specifications after spending three or four days with a Village home designer. In order to make a few more bucks, and take this wonderful design ability away from the prospective homeowner, they now build homes and say "Take it or leave it. Someone will buy it." Happy Villager can tell you how wonderful it is here but take it all with a grain of salt. Her expectations may not be as high as some of us. If you have been here for 5+ years, you had a taste of the good life. People coming in now are being led to the traugh and told to feed. I am much happier here in my designer home than I was in New England shoveling snow and trying to find the money to buy winter heating oil. But, in New England, I did not feel like I was dealing with the "Company Store". After a while you realize that the Villages has fingers in every facet of your daily life. They build the homes. They decide on how much you pay to enjoy life here. They own the bank that loans you money and fights to get your savings. They raise the prices of golf at their whim and try to convince you that you need the increase in prices. They charge so much for leases that business owners come and go regularly because they can't make enough money to pay their leases. Lots of things going on here that "snowbirds" and "prospective owners" will never realize until they put their money on the line and BUY. After a year or two, the new buyers can sit back and complain like the rest of us while we enjoy this little bit of paradise. Bella, did you play at Melody Hills?