Why didn't you retire "in place"?
 

Just a question for those that have made a permanent move to TV, why didn't you retire in your former location?

I'm more curious as to why you didn't stay as opposed to what attracted you to TV. Perhaps cost of living, weather, etc.

Personally I moved because of the weather. The winters finally beat me down. If it wasn't for the brutal weather up north there is nothing here, either in Florida or TV, that would have made me move south.

Lol, I only moved 140 miles. We moved here for the lifestyle

Demographics.

Gracie was not in my home town.

:)

first move was to be near grandchildren, mistake the grow too fast. second gere mistake numbertwo health problems no support. third back to wher we started soon.

Because I lived in Upstate NY. Enough said.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

We moved for several reasons in 2004:

Golf

Many, many activities (forgot to include many doctor
visits in the brochure, though, as the major activity
)
Close to family

Brutal Texas Panhandle winters

Husband's disability

I still love Texas, but have no desire to move back. It was hard leaving friends and the familiarity of "back home" (food, neighbors, etc.) Love to go back to visit occasionally, but here to stay! Love our home here, location, neighbors, and close friendships we have made. It's great to be able to have more close contact with our kids (always be your kids), just not THAT close, though. :1rotfl:.

Activities and the people. 'Most' close in age and it's more like the world we grew up in...at least inside the bubble.

Winters in Canada are cold. :cold:
But summers are great. :MOJE_whot:
By purchasing a modest house in The Villages, we're able to spend time in both locations.

By "summer", I assume you mean the temperature gets up to 12F, the snow is only 3 feet deep, and you can strip down to 6 layers of clothing:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Because I lived on Long Island and our pensions didn't provide us any extras. Living here is a breeze and we can travel when we want. Oh yea no SNOW and Cold weather either.

Well said.

But I'll add:

648 holes of golf(with more to come) 12 months a year vs. 18 holes for 5 months

No Snow

100+ pools open 12 months a year that someone else maintains, as opposed to my own pool that was open for 3 1/2, spent more time working on it than using it, and cost more to maintain each year than my TOTAL amenity fee here

Winter high temps in the 60's and 70's as opposed to the negative single digits

No Snow

Hundreds of activities year round

Some of the nicest people in the world

No snow

We lived in high-tax, exceeding liberal Minnesota. Colder than a witch's.

We love it here. Both of us are so much happier. :a040:

No snow, no ice
Couldn't afford to live in NY in anything approaching the level of comfort I have here.

Actually this is our second retirement location. The first was near family & friends. After a few years, family & friends were elsewhere. The people in the neighborhood were 30 years younger with young kids and other factors long out of our focus.
Weather had nothing to do with it. We actually like cold snowy days better than hot muggy days.
The idea of a more active, like stage open environment was the biggest factor for us. Been here less than two months and already met a number of really good people.

Not full time yet, but golf is the reason.

Sent from my SM-G930V using Tapatalk

We're from Michigan. It's a beautiful state and I loved it there, but we were tired of cold weather. Also, we love to cruise. Now we can cruise without paying airfare.
Kept our summer place in Michigan for the first year, but didn't go up cause we were so busy here so we sold it.
If we do go up, it's only for 5 or 6 days. Didn't need a summer place for that. :D Sooooo, in 1999, said see ya Michigan.

We are native Texans but the last 10 years before moving here we were in North Georgia.(moved because of husbands work and stayed on 8 more years because it was beautiful and we made great friends) I guess that move made us accustomed to being away from family. We go back to Texas (DFW area) for 6 weeks every year. The traffic is unbearable, things are not close and convient and living in a "normal" neighborhood leaves very little opportunity to socialize. The family is always on the go and we spent all of our time driving up and down the interstate to participate in their activities. Here we have a calm, quiet and active life of our own. And yes, even with Snowbirds here, there is no traffic.

Exactly! We too are from Michigan, Clawson, Troy, and Port Sanilac. We are in Port Sanilac now, and it's for sale.

Weather, year round activities we like, explore a new State, closer to cruises, short plane ride to PA if we need to go there, new friends while keeping old friends (funny how they spend more time in FL these days, more activities for grandkids at the moment. Another factor is where we lived before was all the same, every year activities were determined by dates and weather....got boring. We lived there for 69 years and knew every road, every place to eat, every entertainemt venue. Good weather was from June to mid Sept then sucked the rest of the year. Our friends were friends for the same amount of time and all of us fell into the same routine.....it was time for a change. We have been here for 3 years.

Weather was not a prime factor for us because what you lose in winter you gain in summer. Both in my home town in Central New York and my adopted town southwest of the Twin cities living was easy from May through October.
We the Twin Cities and loved loved their Winter Carnival

We began looking for a retirement community in 1999. I had settled on living in Charelston SC until I researched their tax situation. Never gave Florida a glance until I researched taxes.

I will let you know when/if I actually retire. Why am I here?

• I was able to keep a job I enjoy and work remote
• My Dad was here
• I hate temporary greens during Massachusetts winters
• Stacking 2+ cords of wood was getting old (or was that me)
• I could not do the things I enjoy in the cold/sleet/snow. I can do those things in the summer heat.

I likely forgot others...

Will I retire here? Time will tell...

Weather here is definitely better than most months in the far, northwest Suburbs of Chicago. Our taxes were quadruple the amount here. Covenants in our (originally) very nice neighborhood were not being enforced and it became so lax that we had above-ground swimming pools being built in violation. The violent crime rate in the whole area is still increasing rapidly, in spite of the very strict "gun control" laws. Final straw was the ever-increasing flow of illegal immigrants. Most of the complaints about The Villages are petty in comparison to what we endured while watching Illinois property values erode. We had never considered The Villages, or any place in Florida for retirement, but in 2009 we happened to hear about TV and came for the "lifestyle" program. After one more visit we were hooked. We miss the closer proximity to our families, but find that the great people here compensate for that. Now, visits with family are more special to us and it seems that we have the best of both worlds.

Demographics- Certain areas were being destroyed.
Snow
Golf all year
nice people

Same here and the taxes and fees were even more fun than the weather and the heating bills [ 9 months of the year ] !

And the above was only exceeded by the privilege of living in a
totalitarian Nanny -State run by communists who prey on those few who actually work .

Lived in Sarasota for 25 years. It is a beautiful area with beaches and shopping but I was looking for an active adult community. I moved to The Villages 2 years ago and absolutely love the choices of activities and the wonderful people we have here. I feel very safe here and appreciate how well the grounds are taken care of. Love the Bubble!

We moved to Tampa in a corporate move 20 yrs. ago.

Moved out of Tampa because:
Traffic
Crowding
High taxes
Families, not many retirees
Not as much to do

Would never go back to NY or NJ.

The snow/ice/cold of the winters and the volatile springtime weather with the threat of tornadoes. Besides, both of us love to play golf.

Well it cannot be taxes, they are higher. It can't be weather, it's worse. It isn't cost of living - it's more. It's not geographical considerations, FL is flat, and well, boring.

Demographics, not being marginalized. Activities trump everything.

I moved because the pollution in Houston was effecting my health. Still really miss Texas.

The wife and I have wanted to live in an active retirement community since visiting her mother in Sun City West (outside of Phoenix), Arizona 25 years ago. So even if we'd stayed in North Carolina, we would have moved. However, we weren't finding anything in the Carolinas that matched the scale of Sun City West. Everything we found had one small rec center with perhaps a pool table and a couple of meeting rooms, one small pool, maybe a 9-hole golf course and not much else. The list of activities for the month could usually fit on a single page that was tacked up to a bulletin board. We considered moving to Arizona for about a nano-second but both of us hate staying in the desert; it's just to hard on our sinuses, eyes and skin. We weren't sure where we'd end up until a friend told us of visiting a former neighbor who had moved to this crazy place called The Villages. We stopped in during our next Florida vacation (a place we'd vacationed many times but somehow never considered retiring to) and fell in love with the place almost instantly. We researched and visited several other active retirement communities in north central Florida and nobody came close to what we found here that matched our desires. Sure, we could have gotten a slightly bigger house and/or yard for perhaps less money elsewhere, but these were barely-active retirement communities where The Villages is a hyper-active mega-community. It's not for everybody, but it's sure for us!

Cold no more
 

I came from Upstate NY....close to the Adirondacks. It was cold, rainy, run down and a Democratic state. Need I say more??

We knew we wanted warm and to live in Florida. Never dreamed it would be The Villages but so glad we live here. Truly blessed.

Same here, but 180 miles west on the thruway from you.

Also someone mentioned "high" taxes here, I hope they were being sarcastic. My NY property taxes were just under $15,000. My home here is assessed more than twice as much as NY, but taxes are $4,400 PLUS a 4% discount for paying in Nov. NY income tax, up to 9.5%, here, 0. Then there are so many more "hidden" taxes in NY, like $15 to cross the Verrazano bridge. I WIKE it here.

If I could have still been able to maintain our boat we would still be living & cruising on it, there is a drop dead beautiful Hatteras 58' LRC, for sale--starting to have second thoughts--in the old days 1 day in the engine room 2 days on my back, now it would be a week on my back

Hi Kathy, my wife and I grew up in Clawson and raised our 2 daughters there, retired to Lewiston but after 1 winter started in the Villages. in 2010. Just sold our home in Lewiston. Closing on Juy 31. :) Good luck with your sale!!

The Chicago area is alive the end of May
until the beginning of September. The Lakefront, neighborhood festivals, art fairs, the Cubs (and Sox), and the suburbs mirroring the city with a number of events. Never a dull moment....until the end of September. The tables come in and the entertainment stops, and then it's time to enter the winter doldrums.

When working you get through this and hope for an early Spring. There was no way we were going through that period retired. My wife and I retired the middle of November 2009 and were here before December. Never a dull moment.

Sent from my VS995 using Tapatalk

We moved here from San Diego. Yep, San Diego. Might have the best weather in the country. Old joke is the best job in the world is a weatherman in San Diego. Every day is "Nice".

However, between taxes, cost of living, traffic, strident "immigrant" rights advocates and gang activity, it was time to leave. A former neighbor of mine said he could exist in San Diego in retirement, but moving allows him to really live in retirement.

We looked a several places, but most had a golf course and a rec center only. Once we saw TV, the choice was easy.

I grew up, lived and worked in Miami, need I say more?.

Income and real estate taxes on the financial side. Cold winter months on the weather side (hot months are better than cold). Old home basement and two stories. Thus probably would move at some point even if just down the street.

We are from Miami. We move for lower property taxes, lower homeowners insurance, and no traffic. Taxes and insurance were together was about 1000.00 dollars a month some of you paid a lot more but that's to much. Also golf, pickle ball, and softball what more could you want?