Breakdown of Monthly Amenity Fees
 

Hi I have owned a villa for over 5 year now. So for the most part I have a general idea what the monthly amenity fee pays for. My wife and I will be looking at new home to buy possibility in the future in Fl. There's no guarantee it will be in the villages. Its not cheap to live in the villages even though they provide a lot . My wife doesn't play golf and I do very occasionally. She feels the monthly amenity goes a lot toward golfing . So I was curious if the CDD a general percent breakdown of the monthly amenity fee of how much goes to support golf, how much to the pools , rec. centers, community watch, etc.
Thanks

I am sure there is a budget somewhere, no sure if it is online. We do not golf either but the fee is not bad and covers the pools and everything you mentioned. Some say it goes to a lot of the landscaping flowers etc but not sure. Sorry it is not working out for you.

I don't know that there is an accurate breakdown anywhere. I suppose if you dig into the details of the district gov budget, and allocate parts of the income toward specific expenditures, you could come up with some ratio that would probably be inaccurate by some margin. But I do know that the only golf for which the amenity fees used are the executive courses. The championship courses (aka country clubs) are owned and operated by the developer and receive no support from amenity fees. Another major use of the fees is for the staffing, support, and maintenance of the recreation centers and Recreation Dept, which enable the existence of the thousands of clubs and organizations in The Villages. So even if you don't golf on the Execs, if you take advantage of any clubs, I believe you are getting your money's worth, in my opinion. I'm sure there are other things the amenity fees are used for (Community watch?) and perhaps others can clarify that point.

It costs $159 a month for our amenity fee. We don't have any HOA fee at all. Compare with the nearest trailer park, where you own your house, you pay rent on the land, PLUS you pay an HOA of at least $200/month, and they have a single pool, no golf course at all, and you can't take a golf cart to get anywhere other than around the neighborhood.

If $159 a month is "not cheap" then you definitely can't afford to live in the Villages. Our utility bills are low, our taxes are low (compared with other states), if you choose to work there's no state income tax at all.

What's not cheap? Dining out every night, and the costs of alcoholic drinks at the bars. Shopping only at Publix and Fresh Market, and never at Winn Dixie or Aldi or Sam's or Walmart.

Oh and the price of milk everywhere -except- Aldi's and Walmart. I mean - what in the Sam Hill is up with that anyway? Are cows a rare commodity down here or something? Almost $3 for a half gallon of just normal ordinary store-brand 1% - but I can get it for $1.49 at Walmart, that's their regular price.

Anyway - it's not "cheap" but it is affordable to pretty much anyone who has a pension, or a 401k, or Social Security. You can buy a beautiful 1100-square-foot manufactured home in the Historic section for around $115k, and for another $30k you can update and make repairs, and enjoy retirement. And yes that would be a pre-owned home. But if you check every day and call a few realtors, you can probably find a clunker forclosure for under $70k, raze it to the ground, and build a small, but new home for another $120k.

I suspect anyone would be very hard pressed to find a retirement community anyplace in the world where one gets more for the very reasonable amenity fees charged in the Villages.

For all the things that are available, The Villages is as cheap as chips (Aldis not Publix!)

Amenity Fee's are very reasonable if you are using the amenities available to you.
 

Pools, Golf Courses, Clubs, Beautiful Landscape, etc. etc. etc.

I Pay 162.00 per month, look around. Most Condo Communities collect $300 to $500 per month. You get a pool and some grass cut.

TV is a bargain if you are using some club activities.
Up north, my wife pays $80 to $90 a month for YOGA. In TV if you are a owner you pay Zero dollars for a 1 day a week Intermediate YOGA Class. In addition there are other YOGA classes available during the week for ZERO DOLLARS. A bargain. Look at the walking trails and the outdoor exercise equipment at the REC centers. A bargain.

The breakdown of TV amenity fees is not your answer…….you have to compare TV amenity fees (& amenities) to those other places ( include HOA & utilities). There is no place where you can pay fees for only what you’ll use.

I see everyone talking about a monthly amenity feeand that there’s no hoa fee. Where does the “bond” figure in

Here's information on the Amenity Fee

The Amenity Fee (part 1) and The Villages 7-26-2020 Construction Update - YouTube
The Amenity Fee (part 2) and The Villages 8/17/20 Construction Update - YouTube

Your wife's perception about golf's budget cost is very common, but wrong. Golf accounts for about 3% of the total expenditures of the combined amenity districts budgets.

Bonds are explained in this video

Bond Information and The Villages 5-30-19 Construction update - YouTube

While we're at it, here's the video about the Maintenance Assessment since that will probably be asked about next

Maintenance Assessment and The Villages 6-19-19 Construction Update - YouTube

As always, Don (GoldWingNut) does an excellent job of explaining things in his videos. And yes...for all you receive in return, the amenity fee is a bargain.

I think you will find the amenity fee is less than HOA fees in many other communities

I am always amazed at how much you know and how clearly you explain things. Thank you

Once I settled in, I got involved with making music, and now it takes up most of my time. Most of this happens at various rec centers. I haven’t had time to play golf even once. I have my own pool, so I haven’t been to any other pools. What do I get for my money? I get miles of manicured beauty (most from the landscaping and flowers and trees and golf courses, but also plenty from everyone’s hard work keeping their places looking nice). I get the safety of living in The Villages (probably the safest city of its size in the country). A lot of employees and volunteers make that possible. I get about a hundred miles of cart paths where I can tool around if I want to. I get access to endless activities, which is why I’m having the time of my life, even though I only participate in a dozen of them. I don’t know anywhere else in the country where I could do that. If I want to go out dancing, I can do it every night of the week, for free, instead of paying to dance in some bar or ballroom or wherever other people dance. (And I can get free dance lessons if I want to get better at it.) I could go on, but I definitely consider my amenity fee money well spent.

Some people will accuse me of drinking the kool aid but in general, once you add EVERYTHING together the costs are very similar (usually less than $100.00 per month} to other 55+ community’s and no other community even comes close to the amenities, friendliest and cleanliness of the villages. Please don’t tell me place X doesn’t have a bond because there is always another fee to replace it or the HOA is $350 per month. I’ve checked them all out, everyone is within $100 bucks a month

Here is the other side of the coin, it's a both positive and a negative. If you bought your home 5 or 10 years ago, you definitely got a bargain. However if you're newly what in the last one or two years then your housing price is at least one or $200,000 more did any of the other communities within 20 miles of The villages. I live in a community that's very nice with over 1,000 homes mostly stick build but yes some are modulars and we paid much less than the villages and there's still 27 holes of golf for those who want it two pools hundreds of activities and mostly of all nice neighbors. So you can consider it's a positive and a negative housing prices are way up in The villages and it's pricing some people out if they still pay mortgages or don't have the assets to out right buy a home

P.s.
 

And also if I don't have a 100 mi of golf carts paths, I don't need to buy a golf cart and have an extra large garage to put it in also so yes that's a positive and a negative so I can tell you for a fact and more people moving to my community from The villages then move out of the community to The villages

It’s not mandatory to buy a golf cart and it’s not mandatory to get a house with a golf cart garage.

Great explanation
 

We are newcomers and have asked many people, including our real estate agent to explain the bond. You have finally made it clear to us why the bond was different in most of the houses that we looked at.
We currently live in a four year old house with a substantial bond and must consider whether to pay it off or not. Our agent advised us not to, but we feel that this is our forever home.

There are cheeper overall communities. I think it's rather ignorant to say the average pensioner can live here. Remove the bond and the fact your in TV the same house could be 40-60 grand less. Most of us are here for the value we think we get. You can live cheeper but can you live as well. Good luck

You need to check at other places to see what it would cost you. You’ll see this is the best and least expensive. Also there are 2018 free clubs you can join

You get a nice clean hopefully crime free safe and quiet community to live in. This is paradise in my opinion. Well worth the fees established.

So, just curious, why are you posting on this website since you apparently like your community better?

The home owners (1200+) at Pennbrooke Fairways, off 44 in Leesburg, voted to secure a 5 year contract with Spectrum for high definition cable and 400 mbs wifi for $52 (taxes and fees included) a month. This is added to everyone's HOA monthly fee.

I'm tired of Comcast Xfinity here in TV and looking for viable alternatives. Oh how I wish.

Cut the. Cable
 

With a 4-k firestick a d $19/mth streaming service and get over 5000 channels. Including all local channels, all sports channels, all movie channels and much more. Ask me how.

and not mandatory that you live in TV.

If you don't live here, why should you care?

Oranges to oranges
 

Just a comment on comparing HOA fees to what you pay in The Villages. The HOA equivalent is the amenity fee PLUS the district assessment fee you pay on your property tax bill. Averaging the various district amounts plus the amenity fee runs to a little more than $350 a month.

Ohiobuckeye
 

I had an older gentleman that lives in the historic side, north side of 27/441 & he told me when he moved there 25/30 yrs. ago you could live like a millionaire, now you have to be a millionaire to live there. Yea, I know he was exaggerating but, I know exactly what he was trying say! As you get older & don’t use the amenities or 1 or 2 of them, $150. to $170. a month is month gets pretty expensive for some people when you’re on a fixed income.

How?

The bond is a totally separate fee imposed on new construction. The buyer can choose to pay it off monthly, or they can pay it off in a lump sum. If they pay it off all at once, then whoever they sell that home to, some day, will have no bond fee to pay. If they pay it off monthly, then the -next- buyer will pay whatever balance is left, or nothing, if there's no balance left.

Thank you, I knew someone had just done something on this. I just couldn’t remember who.

He sure does.

Not exactly. You don't pay off the bond monthly. It is charged annually on your property tax bill send out around November each year, at least it is in my CDD.

I agree. When we were looking in the Charleston area, amenity fees were as high as $500 a month for one recreation center. We get so much at The Villages for these fees. The clean up after a major storm is fast. Streets are cleared quickly. So many recreation centers with so many choices. When our daughter and family were visiting in April, it was cold, so we played ping pong, shuffleboard, and darts. We also went dancing at the squares.

$164 amenity fee vs $350 average HOA fee in Florida

Yea, my father paid $580 "condo fees" per month for a small 3rd floor 1 bedroom condo in South FL. It got him 2 golf courses and 2 pools and a room to play cards and 2 treadmills and LOTS more civilization outside his bubble. But he did have a automated gate pass under the hood of his vehicle and That alone was worth the extra $400+. :D

In the world of HOA TYPE fees, if nothing else here is a bargain, the $160 is an absolute bargain.

Edit: Of course he didn't have to pay $50+ a month to have his lawn mowed but he was required to pay $200/year to buy a "prepaid card" to use it in the one and only restaurant on their property which was opened 4 days a week for breakfast and 5 days for dinner!

We own a small 855sf condo in mpls. Fee is 352 we have a pool and hot tub. Grass cut, snow shoveled, water, and cable. I love the villages.