Moving From The Villages
 

My husband and I are considering moving from The Villages to another active adult community in Florida. Medical choices and various other reasons are influencing our decision. I would like to know if anyone has any information on other communities that they have firsthand knowledge of and could they share their information with me as far as location, amenities, pricing, etc. Thanks!

Just Google retirement communities.
What you will get are all the ones everybody passed over.
Good luck

AGREE.

Merry Christmas Bogie. AND a Happy and healthy New Year to you and yours.

Our Villages friend moved to Plantation. Not that far from here, and she loves it there!!

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We also have a home in the Plantations of leesburg. Much more laid back community.

Smaller but we do have 3 pools 3 recreation centers,3 hot tubs and 2 golf courses, tennis pickle ball sauna and steam baths ect ect..

Golf cart paths so your not in the roads, but not out of the Development. Gated and armed security gates. You don't get in and if you do visit with persmission from a resident, you need to show your license and tag.

As far as medical....Leesburg is close but the Plantation is actually located in Okahumpa.....funny name, south of Leesburg.

Also so close to the villages for all the food and entertainment.

Cheaper to buy and maintain. HOA is $90. No bonds or maintance fees. low taxes with us being in the county. Houses on the golf course start at $240 right next door to us and only 9 years old.


No king here...residents own and run the development... with a very active home owners association.

Check it out. you never know.

I think she wants out of the area. LRMC isn't any better than TVRH. Ocala would be a good choice but the only community I have heard about is Top of the World and I've only heard bad things. The trouble is, any good hospital is probably near a bigger city and traffic is an issue. Sebring is a nice city but 27 is the only access and traffic along 27 is horrible, unless you are used to it. Clermont has good access roads. I'm looking for senior housing for Mom & I around Debary/Orange City. Good luck. I hope people give you some good ideas.

Sometimes the grass does look greener
 

the OP frames the thread "Moving from The Villages. Perhaps it should read Moving to......

I can only speak for myself but moving at this time in my life appears problematic. In the past we moved often but then I had an occupation to replenish my savings, a corporation that paid expenses and a financial environment where selling a home was profitable.

So if I did decide to move it have to be to a place I really felt was worth the tradeoff and that takes a lot of planning in my mind.
I have to be able to make a killing on my home, which appears unlikely here because this place has been overbuilt and the market favors buyers at this time

Florida and the states surrounding have been deluged with people moving from the north. Taxes are greater in the surrounding states and Florida appears to be the one state absent snow.

So where in Florida does one move??? That's my meaning of moving to....... I would have to be excited for very specific/unique reasons to be moving to and certain that I would ostensibly be better off

I opine others can decide

If the OP is mainly interested in medical facilities, she may wish to look at Jacksonville.

Jacksonville, FL Active Senior Living Communities

If TOTV allows my link, it is a fully comprehensive list of retirement communities all over Florida. Maybe she can find something there that would meet her needs.

Note to OP: You do know that if you can use a computer, you can find anything in the world, much easier than waiting for answers on here.

Every place is good and every place is what you make it.

I've been thinking about this post and have, rightly or wrongly, come to the conclusion that there is more to this original post than meets the eye. If I was not happy here, or needed something that was not available here, the last thing I would do is come to TOTV for help on moving OUT, moving IN yes, but not moving OUT. This website is made up of people who are really happy living here and do not have any interest in moving elsewhere. So what is the underlying problem OP?

I love TV, but not for everyone. Good luck on your move.

For my 2 cents worth
 

RE: market favors buyers
We of course heard the same thing when we sold our previous home.
The first question is PRICING the home you wish to sell. The brokers will play the GAME of telling you they will get you far more than it is worth. Their goal is simply to get the listing-that will tie you to A CONTRACT FOR SIX MONTHS. Initially a NEW LISTING is like a new toy for a kid all the brokers want to play with a new toy but they like a kid go to look for the next new toy. I've been through this game TWICE.

If, you are buying one and selling another if homes are either expensive or not YOU ARE ON BOTH SIDES. If, you get more for yours you will pay more for what you buy.

The fellow I play golf with just moved from a nice designer home in the Village of Lake Deaton to a log cabin in the hills west of Ashville, NC. He loved it here for the 4 years they were here, they even moved once from a cottage in the Village of Largo, however his wife wasn't happy.

If I were to leave here, it would be for Heritage Pines. It's about an hour and half southwest of here on the Hernando County Pasco County line, on the south edge of the town of Spring Hill. My parents retired to Spring Hill in 1983 and were there for 20 years. It has everything you want and that community is finished building. It's gated, and it's a real gate, we tried to go in ourselves to look at homes a couple of months ago and were denied. Prices are extremely lower, beautiful single homes on the golf course for $150K to $200K.

Heritage Pines Florida | Hudson, FL | 55places.com Retirement Communities

https://www.55places.com/images/community/16_ipwe.jpg

.........

If medical is what your primary interests are.

We have a home in west Pembroke Pines Florida, smack in between Miami and Ft Lauderdale. get on HWY 27 and drive south for 4 hours.....or take the turnpike and your there.

We have some of, if not the best medical facilities in the country. Cleveland Clinic in Weston, 2 miles away, Baskim Palmer Eye in Miami, and way too many more to list. Memorial hospital has 5 locations in the county and some of the best care anywhere and has won many awards for there facilities.

Best weather ever, hardly ever goes under 70 in winter and in the summer with the ocean breezes it is always comfortable. In the villages there is no breeze and to us it always feels much to hot.

Pembroke Pines is a extremely well run city and takes great care in planning. We have been here 19 years and will probably own this home till the end. Just can't bring ourselves to sell. they also just established public transportation to our side of town which probably wasn't necessary...but is out there. Senior care and transportation is available and we see the senior buses at the walmart all the time..

We have FPL for electricity and broward county facilities and compared to Lake county, the costs to live here are so much cheaper. Home prices are on average lower for what you can get up in the villages...

Century Villages is big here and in 5 other cities surrounding...all still in Broward County. There are also many more Golf communities adult only and all ages.

When we first moved here, watching Miami Vice...we thought the worst....but that is not so...we are in the subburbs and the crime is low.....probably comparing size wise ....the villages crime is the same.

So if medicine is what your after....Broward county has it all and if they don't Dade county will.

Check it out...

I understand why op asked for advice here. There are people who lived in other retirement communities, and chose to come to the villages. Who better to ask than those who have resided elsewhere. Believe it or not not TV is not for everyone.

OP our oldest bought in the Plantation. They love it. Even though they visit TV, it was just not right for them.

My wife and I were impressed with Del Webb Ocala when we were considering a future move. Better than Top of the World for us. We decided to buy a smaller home and stay put in Colorado for the foreseeable future, but if we were to move to Florida a few years down the road Del Webb Ocala and the Villages would be our top two choices. Del Webb has a preview stay program where you can live like a resident for 2 or 3 nights and you have dinner with a resident host if you want to test it out.

Do you mean Stone Creek? That is SW of Ocala on Rte 200 near Top of the World. I know a few people who have gone there and played their golf course. It's a very nice course, but then again, you have local outsiders coming into your community and playing your course and taking teetimes. In TV normally only guests of a Villager can play on our courses. If you don't play golf, then it doesn't matter to you. I'm actually very impressed with what is called 'New Tampa'. There is no retirement community, but it's in the Wesley Chapel, Lutz and Land O lakes area of North Tampa. We've been to the shopping mall called Wiregrass, its very nice there and they seem to have everything.

https://www.delwebb.com/homes/florid...ne-creek-12357

Love the look and the feel of Wesley Chapel we frequent that area as it feels like a real place/community vis a vis TV vacation destination theme park feel

We lived in New Tampa for 17 years.
It does have lots of restaurants and shopping.
It also has lots and lots of traffic!
Bruce B. Downs was 2 lanes each way, now 4 each way.
We were paying a lot of taxes also.

For medical care it is around the corner from Moffit Cancer, Pepin Heart, and hospitals.

I loved it there but would never go back.

I've lived in S. Florida since 1953. I lived in Hollywood just east of Pembroke Pines for 14 years and got to tell you summers are far from comfortable. Higher humidity then central Florida and those breezes feel like a hair dryer.

On Tampa Bay is nice, but the massive crowds all winter long will drive you crazy. Have friends who moved to a del Webb south of Tampa. Most places offer a few nights stay to see the community, would be worth the trip.

I lived in a city that was rated #1 in the nation for a number of consecutive years and the result was that this beautiful place ended up encapsulated in 4 lane concrete. it broke my heart. My friends now tell me the city is no longer the same and i would be disappointed if I went back

This is a story repeated across this nation as it has in New Tampa and one that will soon become The Villages story. We moved here 10 years ago and moving about from golf course to town square was indeed a treat. The Villages has better than doubled since our move here 10 years ago and all that comes with it.

some will chide "well your one of those that claims Í got mine and I don't want you to have yours "........... no mine is a recognition that the people governing such places simply don't know how to manage or get too greedy and such places become a victim of their own success.

Recall the Oregon governor's claim back in the 1980's please come visit our state but then go back home

its not a matter of good or bad its just reality and we adjust

At my age, if I wanted to move away from here, I would be doing my homework. First I would have to figure an area where I would like to go. Look up the hospitals, find places online & go and visit them. Can't imagine coming on a TOTV to get opinions of other places to move to.
At most of our ages, it's a big thing to move. I can't imagine starting over again. Of course, that's just my opinion.

I don't have to worry about moving some where else because the other half has told me he will never leave here until he is carried out in a box!!!

I also think the way TV is built helps us to some extent. We have the ability to use the entertainment facilities if we wish, but we can then leave it all behind and go back to our quiet little villages. Of course, I do live North of 466 which is probably very different from the new Villages, some of which I have never even seen.

We wintered for 10 years on the Gulf in the area from St. Petes to Clearwater. We loved being on the water, both the intracoastal and the Gulf, but the winter traffic was horrendous. Plus, the cost of the winter rentals was so high that people came down for just a week or two so you had a transient population who were only there to party. Then would come Spring Break and that I never, ever, want to go through again.:shocked: Although, my other half enjoyed the nubile young bodies in intsy teeny weeny bikinis!

We also love the Villages. Been here 16 1/2 years. Can't even imagine living anywhere else.
I chuckled when you said "carried out in a box". I told hubby we should talk the Villages into building a cemetery. Then I wouldn't have far to go. LOL :1rotfl:

We met a gentleman yesterday here in Green Valley, AZ that after 38 years in Bend, OR the city had morphed into something he no longer liked. They like Green Valley with its 20k of residents. GVR (Green Valley Recreation) has set TV as and example to try emulate. My favorite color is still green, not brown..

No one has mentioned the cost of homeowners insurance in this thread, but it is a hefty consideration if you are thinking of moving to a coastal county. In Florida, the wind premiums in coastal counties are prohibitive plus you have to consider the age of the dwelling. If you purchase a home built before the building codes changed, (which happened post 2004-2005 hurricanes), and live in a coastal county, your homeowners insurance could be roughly ten times what your premium is in The Villages.

We know. We lived in Pinellas County before and after the hurricanes. More than five miles from the Gulf of Mexico. House built in the 80's. We left in 2012. For a comparable home value to TV, the year we left, we paid over $10,000 in homeowners insurance and $6,500 in property taxes. We live in a newer home now and our premium is a little over $1,000.

I am free to visit a coastal county any time I want to. I just don't want to pay for that privilege anymore.

I was standing in the line at one of the drink huts at Lake Sumter Landing on New Years Eve and tried to strike up a conversation with the guy in front of me. What a grump! He had on a cap with a Fraternal Order of Police logo. He said he could not wait to move out of The Villages this year into a GATED development. He ranted on he had been here 5 years and had his house robbed several times. Yeah, right. He then went on to say this is not a gated community and just anyone can come in by pushing a gate button. Who didn't know that when they bought here - especially a retired cop? He then said he wished he had been home when someone broke in so he could have shot and killed them.

I was just thought to myself as I was walking away with my double Rum and Coke, I hope that guy moves away - FAR AWAY!

Similar thing happened to me when I first moved here. I was waiting to get into Line Dancing at Laurel Manor and this woman unloaded on me about how much she hated TV, could not wait to get away etc. etc. I had been here about two weeks and must admit it was a bit unnerving to hear her going on and on.

I think I met this "lady" eight years ago. I was at LSL, she had been in TV for five (5) years and hated it. She said there were too many tattoo's and fat people. :1rotfl::clap2::1rotfl:

I'm not sure whether you are kidding, but you got the right time line, but I really don't remember what the rant was about just too many people and too crowded and how her husband loved it here and would not move! It was a bit disarming because I was still floating in the TV fog they spray over you.

unfortunately..................a true story

we live on the water...lake? west pembroke close to weston...so maybe thats the difference?

As someone told me the other day, the people you run into here who are grumpy, bitchy, complainers didn't turn that way once they moved here. They have always been miserable and always will be.