Smart to purchase home now or wait?
 

We plan to relocate to TV in about two years upon my retirement, will be 68 at that time. Anyone who can provide any comments regarding if it is better to purchase a residence now or wait would be much appreciated. A few additional questions also for anyone's comment:
1) Rental Income: We were advised by TV realtors a home could be put into a rental program in the interim. As we were driving around the villages Dec of 2016 saw many "for rent" signs plus rentals via internet sites. Is the rental market really that strong where one could anticipate rental income?
2) Appreciation of current homes: Do you believe the value of current homes are appreciating that fast where it would be beneficial to purchase now? As there seems to be a lot of home for sale in TV plus I saw reduced prices for the new homes offer by TV realtors.
3) Resident Turnover: What is the approximate turnover, such that what percentage of residents decide annually to relocate out of TV.

Thank you for any comments, also thanks for the great hospitality during our brief visit.

Man makes plans & God laughs--get your ducks in a row asap--lost 5 close friends this year--the youngest was 61--if you can afford to retire now do it--can't imagine what 2 more years will do for your retirement-its what you put in in the beginning ,not @ the end that really counts

If you have a specific area that you are interested in, I would suggest buy now, hire a property manager, and rent until you get ready to move. Do a search on this site for renter/renting (and variations) and you will find additional background information.
I have not seen any announcements with regard to additional homes in the immediate area to the existing villages. There are new homes going up in the village of fenny, about 4-5 miles (by car only) to Brownwood, and there are rumors of additional land purchased in the area of the turnpike for possible expansion. Since you have already visited, you have an idea of the lay of the land and probably some idea what you want, so keep an eye on the new and for sale to see if you find what you are interested in. Who knows, you may retire early, and then you could be all set.

I will say that if you have a furnished home you can rent for about $4000 or more during the season. The rental demand is high for the 4 month season then drops off dramatically during the off season.

The newer homes are further away from everything and at 68 do you want all the added expense of a new home. By buying resale you can get move in ready in an area closer to everything that makes the villages a good place to retire. Appreciation of resales is loosely tied into new home construction as long as they are there prices appreciate slower.

Depending on the house and location, it is quite easy to rent out your home during the high season of Jan/Feb/March. The shoulder months are a little harder - Nov/Dec and April. Those months would rent at a reduced rate. The off season, May, June, July, Aug, Sept and Oct are much harder to rent out and get a much lower price. The closer to one of the square and grocery stores, etc the better and easier to rent out. I had terrible luck with the property managers. They easily rented the house out during the high season but didn't even try during the shoulder or off season. They also overlooked damage to the house, gave back the security deposit and as a result, it cost be several thousand of dollars. It is easier to do it myself, although more work, and I get it rented almost year round.

I agree. My opinion..........in the scheme of things, housing values now vs. two years should not be a driver. The key is, Location, Location, Location. Not sure if you have the location, or if you need another visit. Must also decide if new vs. used matters to you. We purchased new prior (couple years) to moving to TV, but we decided not to rent out our home. I might be weird about it, but I did not want strangers in My Home.

Regarding "turnover"...........not sure if anyone has factual stats on this. My guess, not much turnover, more people buying their second or third home within TV.....but not exiting TV.

Good Luck with your journey.

If you want a new home, it would be wise to start looking now. Two years from now their may not be much left, other than Feeney.

In my opinion, it makes no sense to buy and rent the house out for 2 years. There will be plenty of houses for sale in 2 years, or whenever you want to move. No one can predict what the appreciation will be. Owning a rental house is great for the rental company, but not so much for you.

depends on what you want. Resales will always be here, If you want new on a golf course, then there are 16 available and they are all villas

Since the areas north of route 44 are pretty much built out, I would not be surprised if the price of resales will start to increase dramatically.

In two years the mortgage rate will be significantly higher than it is right now-if you have to have a mortgage, you'll get much less of a house than you can get right now @ cheaper $$--just saw a financial report about mortgage rates

all the new homes in Fenny are built and ready to put on the market....They need paved roads in and out and there ready to sell.

There will never be an end to the new homes....I speculate more than 10 years out with all the new farm land they purchased.

i vote wait.....renting in the summer is difficult for the majority of landlords.

We had the same idea earlier this year. We were told renting would be no problem ! What a joke! As of December 1st there were 875 rentals available. Realtor are told to push Hometown Property Management! Our house was put in the pool after spending $$$$ in August. As of Dec 1st only March was rented! They rent their own properties before anyone else's.we have found they are over building which is causing a lot of empty homes. Watch out for expensive Bonds when buying. They add $200-400 extra money per month for 15-20years. Look for pre-own with bond paid.

Since 07 ( preowned base patio villa $149,000) have watched the market on homes bought our first new PV in 2010 $127,000. Cottage in 2012, then retired to a designer in 2014. For us it was about garage space. Yes we bought while working, didn't matter about space it was a vaca home, but once we brought stuff down we needed bigger garage.

We purchased in 2005, had a rental manager for ~ 5 years. I was able to retire in 2010.

Buttonwood did not exist in 2005.???

I read through all the posts and agree with Most of them. Here is my take.
1. Rentals- the only way to go is post on the villagers homes for rent website and rent it yourself. I have a designer in the south end and it is rented every month through March of 2018 (yes 2018) except June, July, and August. I am definitely cash flow positive. I agree that LOCATION is huge. I am 10 minutes by cart from Brownwood and walking to 2 pools. We have a watch service that is private and cleans between renters. PM me and I will give contact. DO NOT USE rental services -they charge 20% and eat up all your profit. It costs about $6000 a year not including taxes to keep up the house.

2. Nobody knows if they will have more houses built besides Fenney. So everything is a gamble. I will say that houses that are in good locations are in high demand and prices are going up. I don't see any price appreciation on anything north of 466, so if you want to buy up there, no problem. If you want a designer in Hillsborough or Gilchrist, buy now.

3. Lost of new people coming to the villages, or waiting to come to the villages - not many leaving. Demand will always be there. It is an awesome place.
Ed

As far as I know, real estate values have gone up here every year since the beginning of The Villages. I would expect them to keep rising.

Usually the best time to buy real estate is right now. In addition, you have the option of buying something and renting it out until you're ready to move either paying off your mortgage or making some money for yourself. You can use a rental service which takes only about 20% and relieves you of all the headaches of doing it yourself. This is especially attractive if you re not down here. You can also use The Villages who rent homes for lifestyle visits. There are a lot of options.

Normally location in real estate is everything. I don't se it as being very important within The Villages. Every area is attractive and home values continue to increase.

People are coming in and out constantly. Most of those leaving, unfortunately, are leaving permanently. There are always homes becoming available. In addition, it is said that the average villager moves three times so homes become available in that way as well.

But everyone is different and only you know what you really want.

Disagree
 

There are plenty of houses on the market and the new houses are not selling so quickly. TV are slashing prices on specs.

I really don't get it, this exercise in people trying to square root their lives. I always look as my house as a consumable, I enjoyed using it, and if I made some $$, I was lucky. Most of us are on the north side of sixty & the south side of 80.-Don't worry about $$'s , for most of you, it will be your heir's problem not yours. get here enjoy yourself & don't worry about real estate roulette--there will be lots of $$ to be made in the next few years , in other venues

Timing and circumstances will help you decide:

People have lost money on real estate in The Villages. If you bought in 2007 (high tide) and sold any time prior to 2015, you most likely lost money. In 2015, real estate in The Villages had appreciated back up to 2007 prices.

Since 2011 prices have been on a steady uptick. If you bought in 2011 for 162K it would be worth 228K today. The forecast for the area is an increase of 2.1% for 2017. That is more return than a bank will pay on your savings(1%), but it is less than what they are charging for mortgage interest currently(3.62%).

If you have enough for cash purchase and are planning on retiring it MIGHT make sense to buy now. I say might because only you know what you are comfortable with (IE; would you still have some cash on hand as a cushion in case something comes up?).

Good Luck in your decision!

I would like to add one point.
We purchased three years ago and we have had good success in renting it out during the season.
We have been using the house ourselves during April and November.
This has been awesome, wonderful weather, less folks around and solid rental money on top
of all that. I dont think we will loose money on our house, but as another poster mentioned, I dont care.
I hope this home will be the last i live in!

I can help give you some simple rental advice if u want to try renting on your own. You will be able to rent more than just March. PM me for more info if interested. Rae

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This is just about word-for-word what I was going to post.

Buy now, if you want to to have a place to vacation. Don't rent. We enjoyed buying new. We did. We sold the new home after snowbirding for four years and bought another new home five years ago. Worked for us.

I don't like other people using my house. We didn't use a home management company and nothing bad happened. The next door neighbors who were friends were given our keys.

That is our experience.

This is completely false. Apparently you haven't driven down there lately or looked at the aerial pictures recently posted on TOTV.

Realtors from outside are not interested in brand new homes because they are not allowed to sell them.

You are right as usual.

For my view-
Not sure why you are considering buying now and moving in in two years. IF, you currently own a home and feel that prices will or are rising in the villages, if you check you will find that your current home is going up as well. So in two years you will get more for your current home and pay more for a home in the villages-a wash.
My wife wanted new and I wanted a resale. My logic was that a resale would cost less. Based on our looking that did not seem to be so. On a new house you need to be aware of the BOND. On our home it is roughly 20,000 so if you buy a home for say 350,000 YOU ARE ACTUALLY PAYING 370.000.
If, you are wondering-OF COURSE SHE GOT NEW. There are pluses to buying new. Main one is that everyone else in the area is new so you do not need to break into established cliques.
I recall one of the brokers saying the average person in the villages moves three times. FOR ME THAT IS SIMPLY NUTS. i would suggest you take your time and do it right ONCE.

Smart to purchase home now or wait?
 

Well, with the potential of another 8K homes to be built south of 44, I would predict home prices here will stay flat and may decline given the developers ability to set the going price. Add to that, Gen X'ers that may not want this lifestyle and forget about the millenials ! The baby boomers have driven this market up and with our incremental passing will be driving it down.
No need to pre-purchase before retiring...IMHO

My advice is to buy when you need to buy. You cannot predict the future and it is difficult to take proper care of a home long distance. Oh, and retire as soon as you are able, if you don't like it you can always go back to work.

We drove down and in. There are many houses in various stages of being built but I agree fully with your comment. We had assumed things would be further along. They may have some models open soon and houses for actual sale but we are still at the very early stages.

As an aside, maybe it was just us but we felt the build quality was a bit below what we were used to seeing. For example, all the garage doors we saw on designers were white - not painted to blend with the exterior colors. Trim such as base was painted with the wall colors in every house we were in and none was painted white, much less gloss white, to contrast with the walls.

The Villages has purchased 2,327 acres of land along the Florida Turnpike near the Okahumpka Service Plaza.

If you read the lead article on the other web site, I don't think there will be a shortage of property to buy, in fact prices could get a whole lot cheaper!

Yes, this is why Morse, a multi billionaire who developed the most succesful community ever, is buying more property.

Because he thinks prices for his homes will go down.

One of the best posts I've ever seen here.
Wait , wait , wait and before you know it it's too late.

We purchased 2 yrs before we could retire and did not want to rent out. We purchased because at that time (10 yrs ago) the home prices were going up $7,000 every 3 months. I think prices have reached a peak so personally I would wait, buy resale centrally located. You will get Fabulous upgrades in some homes, some bonds paid off. Lots of perks in resales

Best to buy now, before the buildout is complete.....which will be when The Villages reaches Cuba and Canada.....LOL!

A great re-sale, block stucco court yard villa in the Village of El Santiago with the new Rec Center.

***NO BOND***, lots of updates, including new HVAC March 2016.

Great for snowbirds, investors, or your full time forever home. Great active friendly community.

Open house Thurs 5 Jan 2017 11am - 1pm

Further details & pics at this link
1136 SANTA CRUZ DR, THE VILLAGES, FL — MLS# G4835781 — ERA

First Beware of these items

West facing outdoor areas like a lanai are unusable in the hot summer afternoons.

If gas cooking is important get to know where it is available. Only in some locations North of 466A.

Know what your bond costs

Know what county your property is in and get to know their financial situation.

Decide what you are going to do once you get here. Squares, golf, etc. Location is so very important and the Center part of The Villages is in demand.

Make sure you understand what it costs to live here. Know your budget before you come.

If you come here and have to work you will be disappointed in the pay offered for most jobs.

We purchased in 2010, rented it for 2 years, prior to moving here full time. There was a major shortage of long term rentals . We were lucky. Things have changed. I would research this carefully before you assume it will be easy to rent your place out. Seems like 3 BR 2 BA placed 1500 to 1800 rent for $1500-$1600 per month. Someone else may have more current figures.

One advantage of buying and not renting is you can come down and visit more often if you want to furnish it.. You may be able to buy a houseful of furniture form someone that bought a furnished hose and wanted to bring their own.

Hope this helps but take all the necessary time to think this thru.

if you wait a few more years ,you can have Disney world frontage........................

I purchased 2 years before retiring. I rented for one month to KICK THE TIRES. I bought in first 2 weeks. BTW - My Designer HADLEY Golf Course View available JAN 2018 - Pics on request moss2494@gmail.com