The Villages - #1 in Credit Scores in USA
 

Oh tkret, I cannot tell you how this makes me proud.

Not surprised at all.

It pays to work hard, live within your means, and make sure the bills are always paid before buying non-essentials on credit.

It's evident here in TV that this is how most people got here, to this beautiful place.

My son lives in Los Altos CA and I sent it to him. Thanks Tkret for posting.

My new home is #1 and my old home was #9. Not bad!

Thank you tkret. That list fascinates me. What surprised me the most is that a large percentage of the 99%ers are 55 and over active adult communities. To me this demonstrates that the people who reside in them have worked hard, paid their bills on time and lived prudently for years - probably most their lives. Many of the other 99%ers are high end but not super exclusive communities. I have lived in two of them myself and have relatives and long term good friends in several others.

Congratulations to The Villages and the Villagers who have worked hard and played by the rules to achieve this very remarkable feat!

Yea! We're the best, as well as the oldest!

Doesn't surprise me....we are different kind of folks here. And very blessed!

What surprises me the most and, should be a concern of everyone is how Wallethub was able to obtain all these credit scores.

Now that is a great statistic,

They are talking about the Developer:D

Rubicon- I think his is 850 - somewhere up in the stratosphere. ;)

This really does not surprise me at all. A city of around 100,000 comprised mostly of seniors, retired from other parts of the country, have ample money to move full time or snowbird for 6 months equals lots of former income. Add in the intelligence - in most cases - of how to budget and maintain their money.

However, such a national story MAY bring an influx of the scam artists who want to separate us from our money.

Be careful!

Your last paragraph is very appropriate. We have quite a few scam artists now. Great reminder.

I wonder if the score was calculated to include the bail dollars paid by the sponge children that live with the parents, that are druggies, shoplift, DUI, drunk and disorderly, and B&E specialist.

Don't you have to have an income, buy something and pay it off on time to have a credit score?

If mom pays a bond for her son Aldrugo, if the bond is over $1,000 it usually cost 10% of the bond. For example, if bail is set at $20,000, the premium would be $2,000. So depending on how you numerically analyze it you could say mom has increased her credit score. This is a line of credit. If Aldrugo goes to Mexico mow would be required to pay $20,000 and loose the $1,000. If she fails to pay the $20,000, that would hurt our Villages's credit score.

If you follow the on line newspaper you will see this is an everyday credit ratings enhancer.

Sorry guys. I just caused our score to go down. I closed a savings account, transferred the money to another account, redirected the direct deposit to the new account, and my score dropped ten points.

The rating doesn't surprise me; lots of old people with lots of money who worked, saved and managed their lives with a sound purpose. It's easy to guess that just by looking at all the "money managers", "wealth advisors", annuity sellers, and stock sellers hovering in and all around The Villages. :mmmm:
And, more bank buildings than even Walgreens and CVS stores!

That was my first thought, also. Then I remembered all of those TV commercials advertising free credit scores. I'm guessing somewhere in the fine print everyone agrees to their information being made available. Nothing is for free. Money is only one way of paying a cost in this communication age.

I can not afford credit I have to pay cash.

If you had used an offshore bank account this would not have happened.

Now see what you've done! ;)

Hi Sandtrap: I agree. And, well I tried with my post to deflect attention from us with the would be scammers by citing study reflected the Developer and not The Villages but some folks here just love to show off.:Do

Seriously speaking I prefer low key and do not like to bring attention to myself. Also I question the study because one of the richest cities in the country is Rochester, MN and it did not even make the list. I lived in the city adjacent to Edina, MN, which made the list, the city in which lived was listed as the best city to live in the country year after year after year by Money magazine. Its nice to get this type of publicity but it is not necessarily true because the criteria are either too subjective or improperly weighted and to me its nthing but "fun facts"

Finally to all you scammers ought there I'm poor! do hear me I'm poor!

Born in Westchester County, NY, and at that time Scarsdale had more millionaires per capita. They moved to a town called Larchmont and Larchmont become the richest town in Westchester County. I am suprised Scarsdale is 14th.

Moved from Ct and Darien was always thought of as a rich town. My old city didn't make the cut. Oh Well!

There will always be people who are trying to separate you, from your money!!!

Always be alert!

I doubt any individual has to worry about where these community average credit scores are obtained.

My first guess would be thru insurance rating bureaus of the locales.

Yep.

Hm, interesting. I lived for a time in Winchester, MA (#13), went to high school in Belmont, MA (#27), have family that live in Reading, MA (#25) and now I live in The Villages (#1).
--
Bob C

Some Billionaires have lousy credit scores- I have a personal friend who owns over 200 auto dealerships and other holdings- he had to repossess a Gulfstream Jet from Coca-Cola.

Can't divulge , the stories about the multe-millionaire-debt beats-- they try to get free lunches by out lawyering people

One is not "all".

There are few if any billionaires in TV besides the developers, who aren't getting any "free lunches" from the smart villagers that form that average credit score for TV.

Any clue as to what level of lending is needed to buy inventory for "200 auto dealerships and other holdings" and pay interest on all that?

They used TransUnion data. This is a quote from the Methodology section cited on their website:

"In order to identify the cities with the highest and lowest credit scores, WalletHub’s analysts compared the average credit scores of residents in each of 2,570 U.S. cities as of September 2015, based on TransUnion data. A rank of “1” corresponds with the city with the highest credit score. With regard to our sample, please note that “city” refers to city proper and excludes surrounding metro areas."

https://wallethub.com/free-credit-score/#methodology

I'm not sure that this is about residents' credit scores. I think it may be about the developers' credit scores. Am I right or wrong?

Thank you for that. Reviewing the list of over 2500 cities was quite interesting.

I think these credit scores have a little bit to do with where people came from. I'm from the mid west & the far East, N.Y, Maryland, Delaware, ect.ect. lived spent there money differently & they spend differently her too. So it doesn't surprise me about the stats. I always said, buy on NEEDS, not WANTS.