Real Estate in TV since covid19
 

I have been paying attention for the last couple months to houses for sale in the classifieds of our local newspaper. My observation for both The Villages and MLS listings is the same old houses are listed everyday. The same old perky million dollar producers and great views, won't last long, etc. but again same adds everyday. That seems to suggest nothing is moving. Anyone else observe this ?

I check my area - Pine Hills, Pine Ridge, Pinellas.....I do see a lot of repitition

I get notifications from Realtor.com when prices drop. There have been several substantial price drops lately.

There's one house in McClure that I started a thread on months ago that started out at $959,000. It's now $875,000..
Homefinder - The Villages(R) Homes and Villas for Sale

I know the house you are referring to. It is on Dadeo Place. It has 2 problems. One, it only has a 2 car garage and no place to park a golf cart. And, the houses on either side were sold for about half of the asking price. The price needs to be reduced by another $200-300 K.

That house is an anomaly. Look at the pics. It's a 2 car garage designer with outrageous finishes and a pool where the buyer couldn't close at the last minute.

Well selling season is here. With all the new inventory and the economy in the dumper, we shall see where prices head. If you took a 20% whack in your portfolio, you may not be thinking of relocating to The Villages right now....or if you want to trade up, your existing home may not be worth what you think

10,000 boomers reaching retirement age every day and they only need 6 of them to maintain their new home sales volume. With very few exceptions the only place you can buy a 2 bedroom villa for under $200,000 is in DeLuna on the power line. It also seems that there are fewer new homes being discounted and most of them are very near to the turnpike.

we're 2 who started at the wrong time,,, bought into villages last jan w/5-1 closing date,,, everything's fine til we fsbo our home & here comes the kung flu,,, magnanimously our seller agreed to cancel contract rather than defend in ct so we got 80% of deposit back.
we're still in atl north & prices are dropping here as well,,, thankfully we're no longer on mandated lockdown so we'll probably now see an increase in buyer traffic
if what vintage says is true, 10,000 boomers took the hit along w/the rest of us

Looks like the same houses are still for sale, not a good time to be buying and moving

Notice a lot of resales south of 44. Leaving so soon? Was it the penitentiary, the lack of connectivity or the feral hogs?

Slow??............maybe. Temporary??..........yes.


:shrug:

Did you see the gigantic closet in that house? Wow! And that beautiful covered and uncovered patio covered with travertine and the beautiful built in outdoor cooking area, and that amazing kitchen? It’s an astonishing house, though you are right about the garage being inadequate.

It’s hard to show houses right now. Open houses aren’t allowed. It’s hard to sell houses that can’t be shown. People who can’t travel are less likely to travel to The Villages to buy houses they aren’t allowed to see and enjoy amenities that are closed.

Also, for every hundred buyers who can swing $250,000 for a home, there may be only one willing or able to pay $875,000. It’s not that people wouldn’t like to have it. Actually, for that level of finish and that size, I’d say that were it not for the small garage, that’s easily a million dollar house. If you have the money.

Once people can travel and houses can be shown, the market will take off. Those who can wait a few months will do fine.

But, homes may drop 20%. Homes are NOT moving, and there have been price decreases. I expect that may continue for a couple months.

Been watching just the villages listings as we are still north for 2 years but open to buy before...anyways the used are listed for more than new. The new all located near turnpike. So my favorites have grown to double its normal size. I keep favorites of the houses I would be interested in. But also lack of connectivity is a big factor. Lots of houses in New area and only two places to get a beer. North I see houses which are overpriced. 400k for kissing lania and 500+k for anything with pool. 400 in New gets a lot fits a pool plus three full car garage and a year new warranty. Some with a water view too. But no shopping yet. No balance yet in price or what you get in last year. Year ago I would say new just because houses were not near highway.

A good metric to use is average days on sale. One for new homes in TV and another for preowned. Check with a reliable real estate broker.

According to Trulia there wer 270 homes and lots sold in TV between 3/31 and 4/30. That is 9 per day.

When looking South in newer areas remember to add the infrastructure bond to the price. These tend to be substantial. Many homes north of 466 have bonds paid off, or in amounts that are inconsequential

Also remember that older homes with bonds paid or lowered may be ready for new roofs, furnaces and air conditioners, they are not insulted as well as the new homes and don't have the wind rating of the new homes. It all balances out new or old so it just boils down to where you want to be.

Sold
 

So during the month of April 270 homes were closed on. So most of those homes were under agreement prior to this quarantine.

House behind us sold for asking price - $259,000 - 8 days after listed. Probably went for $140,000 new. It did include used golf cart. Nothing wrong with that deal.

Closing date
 

Likely the closing date on these homes (contract could be 60 days or older) and they were definitely resales not new ones controlled by Property of the Villages.

Because of Coronavirus fewer prospects especially for new homes as few people are flying in and very few using the “lifestyle program”. Sales will pickup when things open up perhaps next month or the following.

All homes built in Florida since the mid 2000 (after Hurricane Andrew) must adhere to the building code established where construction standards were raise to be able to withstand 1#0 mph force winds, a Cat 5 storm

You forgot the new have huge bonds that you have to pay adding another 30-80 grand to the cost of that new house.

Home Sales
 

I tend to agree with you and I also noticed the Feds are keeping the interest rates low and continuing to drop. I saw one rate 2.95 15 year fixed. That's incredible.

Ivys usually are 4/2. Looks like they spent a lot of money modifying this one. They should have enlarged the garage as well or instead, unless their lot size didn’t allow it. We have an Ivy as well and we bumped our garage out 4 feet in width and length. For a while we had two cars and a golf cart. Now we have two golf carts and a car. Also, although they got a larger walk in and a third bath out of one of their bedrooms, it cost them a bedroom. I think a 4/2 with a larger garage would have had more value for them than a 3/3 with that small garage, IMHO.

Villa in McClure just sold after 7 days on the market and went for the asking price.
When we were looking in 2019 and early 2020 we often saw a lot of the same houses for sale through TV and esp in the MLS for a few months at least. Even stopped looking for awhile cause was tired of the redundancy. But now most of those are sold and only a few were reduced in price. You'll see new listings as TV has more reveals in the new areas.

Sold or closed? If sold, what price? If most had to take a 10% cut or more in the price to sell, then that’s what the OP’s question is getting at I think.

Realtors get new people so excited that they don't have any idea how far you have to go for entertainment, then they have to buy another home & sell their present home for a loss. Yes, I know realtors tell everybody about how much profit they can make out of their present homes & some times you can, we did! But TV will sell a model like your's for thousands less, so it'll make it harder for you to sell yours. Homes will be tough now to sell but sooner or later it'll straighten out. But I wouldn't buy out by the turnpike right now but I'm sure the realtors are selling homes out there so cheap you can't resist it! Good luck!

From what realtors have told me, there are almost no buyers coming from outside TV. The Lifestyle Weekends have been shut down. No open houses either. I expect that when the whole COVID-19 virus shutdown is over, or at least lessened, sales will pick back up.

[QUOTE=stadry;1756526]we're 2 who started at the wrong time,,, bought into villages last jan w/5-1 closing date,,, everything's fine til we fsbo our home & here comes the kung flu,,, magnanimously our seller agreed to cancel contract rather than defend in ct so we got 80% of deposit back.
we're still in atl north & prices are dropping here as well,,, thankfully we're no longer on mandated lockdown so we'll probably now see an increase in buyer traffic
if what vintage says is true, 10,000 boomers took the hit along w/the rest of us[/QU

It may have been the right time. Home prices will keep going up. You'll only pay more next time if you choose to buy in TV.

New versus older
 

Resale houses to the north, most do have bonds paid, after 2000 they were built with hurricane standards, and now insurance companies are requiring new roofs for houses of 20 years or older. Lots of renovations as well. But it’s your preference.

Real Estate Same as everywhere
 

Let’s make a couple of clear observations.
How is real estate doing in the rest of the country during the pandemic.
Most importantly, who can come and visit the Villages right now? Most buyers are relocating retirees. They’d be hesitant to drive now from the NE, who wants to fly until this is over, why would you come for a Lifestyle visit when you can’t enjoy the lifestyle.
Once the pandemic is truly over, sales will go up. Quite frankly, they may skyrocket as all of those waiting to visit and buy will all flock down at the same time.
Those are my thoughts.

I hear the same thing from my sales guy who sold me my place in 2016. Also, late last year the developer started putting the hammer down on the sales people - they wanted more volume and were paying less commissions. A couple big name sellers left to go to other realtors - I heard they met the unfriendly legal counsel of TV that says they have a covenant not to compete for 2 years and 40 miles radius....

It did not say they were closed it stated only that they were sold. Also when we bought our home we closed in 8 days, it really doesn't take long to close on a home down here. Some of the homes might have been under contract in early march but my guess is that most of them were under contract after the quarantine. More than 25,000 people from the New York metro area have migrated to Florida since the quarantine as quoted by our Governor last week so the borders are not closed by any means.

These were both new and used homes sold by both TV and MLS agents and I have to revise my original figures. There were 270 homes sold between 3/31 and 4/21 that is only a 3 week period that is over 12 per day.

Monday May 4th I am closing on a home north of 466. It was on the market one day. Happy with the price and location. I am optimistic about the future.

Are there no realtors on this Forum that can shed some light on the state of Villages real estate?

You had no basis for a lawsuit. You got away with being a bully.

Real estate agents work for sellers, so any information they provide would be biased. I suspect that they are telling everyone that it is a great time to buy a house.