New Home/Build Lot Prices Question
 

Are the prices for new home lots in the Villages going down in parallel to the market shift with existing homes? Thinking of building and wondering if a resale might be a better way to go financially. On the other hand, is it less expensive to build a new home if the Villages offers lower pricing than existing homes?

Location and variables
 

Location as well as many variables make your question loaded with ambiguity.

A new build with any view worthy lot, is top shelf. Lots start at a low of 130 k and can go over 200k. That is of course before your house is built or your bond is added at the end. Typically you would be in for at least 700 for a designer home. Transversely, non view lots with no room for a pool can be zero dollars.

If you want a preowned home south of 44, a typical 2000 square foot view lot home will run you at least 700k. Pools and improvements will drive that price up typically anywhere between 100 to 200 k and there is usually an additional bond.

Some view lots have had a price tags of over $200,000 we looked at one at $250,000. No worries on the larger lots, with a view, the least amount of names will be over 50. We lost on 15 lots before our name was #1. It was not the lot we wanted, but the house and pool fit.
We also continued to try for 5-6 different lots for the next month even though we knew we would loose $10,000

Dam, glad we bought when and where we did. We got our home, built on a view lot with privacy, with many improvements, room to build a large pool/birdcage, and no bond, all for $190K.

Our 5th, definitely not our last. I will say once you build a premier, it’s hard to go back to 8’ ceiling and 6’doors.
Unless we build or want to move north, to a preowned, there are very few 4/3.5 with minimum of 3000sf and a pool, is hard to find, without doing major Reno.

When and where are the key words here and for some reason you chose not to divulge that information, makes a reader wonder why.

Tophcfa posted 4-12-25 “our house is in Tierra Del Sol area, built in 1996. Building a house with a pool at build could be $190k. Depending on sf.
The no bond at building surprising. I thought homes near Tierra Del Sol had bonds, but could be wrong.

Building 29 years ago in 1996 is very different than 2025 new builds

2003?

2015, almost equally between LSL and SS, in the Tierra Del Sol area.

House was built in 1996 without a pool. Was sold back to the Villages around 2008 and got some significant upgrades before being resold. We bought in 2015 with no bond and added the pool/birdcage 1 1/2 years later (with many extra features) for $62K turnkey built by T&D. Total cost of home and brand new pool/birdcage $252K with no bond. Put on new roof ($14.5K) and got new HVAC system ($7.2K) last year. House now needs absolutely nothing except for a new hot water heater in a couple years. Actually, the house does need one critical improvement, we need to find a way to dump some northern responsibilities so we can spend more time there.

What year was that?

No one has answered the OP's question. I suggest s/he post a query in GrokAI as follows: Relative to The Villages, FL, are the prices for new home lots in The Villages going down parallel to the market shift with existing homes? x [dot] ai

All who posted gave appropriate answers. Some supplied the actual cost of a lot with a view. Others reminded not to forget the cost of the bond. All explained if a pool is wanted, there will be an added cost of $195,000 or possibly more.

Topcha bought a northern resale. He made renovations and added a pool. He believes this was the cheapest
route and is happy with his decision.

After looking at new homes, we too bought a resale. We have a beautiful golf course view. The former owner glassed in the lanai and added a/c. An enormous birdcage was also added to the home.

The bond was paid. We spent $35,000 on a new kitchen and floors. My nephew, a construction worker, remodeled both bathrooms. We now have a completely updated home. We too feel buying used is the best and cheapest way to go. Instead of paying a hefty $50,000 bond, we used the money to upgrade the home with higher end materials. We feel it was an even trade off. However, we save a little each year because we do not have interest to pay on a bond. Most importantly, we had no added expenses for a glassed lanai, large birdcage or landscaping. All three will be hefty additional amounts if purchasing a new build.

Once completed, I believe a new home with a view lot and pool is approaching one million? A friend who bought 3 yrs ago paid in the $750,000 range. But, her home is not a premier.

Btw: many resales have higher ceilings. Yet another hefty savings compared to purchasing a new build.

Our model base in 3 years has increased over $200,000+. Add $200,000+ for a view lot, stretch if possible (solid walls no longer allow some improvement). Add middle of the road fixtures, floors, countertops, third bath, T&D pool. We built with high er end ceramic floors, quartz, appliances, stretch 6’ garage, front bedroom, lanai, 3rd bath.
Our house today would be 1.3 mil or more, to build.

Its a very difficult question to answer. We bought in 2022 and noticed that the cost of new homes being built are higher as far as cost go when our model is compared with the new. The difference however, is many things that were standard in my home are now extras or not offered at all. Additionally, the "standard" quality of items that were the baseline are now much lower, so one would have to upgrade just to get to what all homes came with a few years ago.

So, as the cost of building supplies continue to increase, the price of homes seem to be slightly higher and thats with the reduction of the quantity\quality of things offered.

Edit: Examples are when we bought every room came with a ceiling fans where now just the fan cap is provided.

Why rely on AI when you can get many and varied opinions from this site?

I can only speak to our experience but we fully intended to buy a resale home in between (or slightly south of) the sixes. The MLS/VLS list prices seemed a bit higher than new but assumed that was because of location and upgrades. Maybe our requirements, such as a two car + golf car garage put us out of reach of a resale but the difference in prices was tough for us to get past. For considerably less money, even including the bond, we got a new (spec) home in what appears to be a great neighborhood, for considerably less money.

To maybe better to get to the point, at least for us, the spec home we bought was considerably less expense and had everything we wanted plus some stuff we didn't know we needed :) I would think building a home would be similar but it may be tough to avoid all the upgrades in the design process.

I live in a Designer and it has 10 foot ceilings.

Our designer plus our villa both have 10-foot ceilings. My friend built a premier and has to use a step ladder to do something to the front door. I think it's a security lock. But then, she can hardly reach to the bottom of her washing machine without one either. I don't get 12-foot ceilings. The place feels cavernous and echo-y to me.

But we've lived in 3500-square-foot houses and spent summers living on a 38-foot sailboat. I like living small.

I totally agree with this! We have lived in over 3,000 sq ft, 5 bedroom and 4 bathroom home. No thank you and never again. I think ceilings over 10 ft make a house feel cold and institutional but the good news is we all like different things or we'd all live in the same house. Living small frees up important things for me, like maintenance, heating, cooling and taxes. Our home now has less "stuff" and requires less from us but provides good living.

Buy a resale with way lower bond

Could not disagree more. Third home, first new build. Will not go back to buying a used home.

Our other designers had 10’, however not all ceilings are 10. Designers the lanai or garage are not 10’ ceilings. There will be a slope usually in the kitchen and some bedrooms. Sliders are 6’.

Premiers built today no longer have 12’ walls, but all interior and exterior walls are 10’, along with lanai, and garage walls.
The interior and exterior doors are 8’ along with all sliders. Windows are 6’, allowing more light from windows and sliders. We don’t have any interior echo, and our heat/cool is noticeably less that designer with 1100sf less

The most noticeable difference between a premier built in earlier years and today. No longer customized kitchen cabinets, or interior wall placements. Any electrical, and other basic upgrades must be made aftermarket.

Amen to that! Bought brand new here 2 years ago after selling our 50 y/o SoCal home that needed a ton of work done on it that we didn’t want to deal with at our age. Came here wanting a fresh start in a brand new home with no mortgage. We bought the largest veranda (4/3) with no view except the one we created with our landscaping, and no pool, but we are very happy and financially comfortable.

Also, highly regret our Yamaha gas 2+2 (rear facing) golf cart purchase and will likely be selling it soon. We bought an Atomic Cool Kart for the AC, but will still want an open cart for the cooler months so we’ll be buying a 2-seater eventually after living with just the cool kart for the summer.

New homes will often be competitive or cheaper than pre-owned, because they won't need a roof, HVAC, etc., and it seems those selling a pre-owned are very proud of them and want top dollar. In a new home, you pick every color, finish, design, etc. We have had some neighbors that build, live there the required 1 year, then flip the house for a nice profit, repeat. If you don't mind moving every year or two, they make good money; one neighbor got 75% above what they paid in a year. However, lot premiums are WAY up from what they were. Our preserve view lot was only a $39k premium, now there are no more preserve lots that I know of and unlikely to be for years. The new area water views were in the $150k range and golf views in the $200k range when the wife and friends did a tour. I thought it was nuts when and the largest Enclave lot was listed for $249k... guess not. Keep in mind the premium isn't the lot value; it's just the premium; Our tax appraisal has the lot at $160k. IMO, if wanted a pre-owned, it would be for the lot/view/location that I couldn't get with a new home without breaking the bank.

Thanks for the info!
 

Thanks so much for all your comments. They were really helpful. Based on what you've provided for information, I think we'll go with a new build in the newest section, though I am definitely worried now about how long it will take to get the type of lot we want. It doesn't sound like the Villages is taking a hit like the rest of the Florida real estate market, but I guess that doesn't matter if we know that the Villages is where we want to be. Our next step is to list our house and then we'll rent in the Villages during the lot selection and build process. Thanks again!

Additional Question on Info
 

Wow. That's crazy! I had no idea. Our realtor simply told us to know your top three lots going into the lottery. How long did it take you to get through the first 15 lots that you lost and finally get a #1 spot? I may need to add more time into my planning for when I'm ready to buy my lot for a place to rent during the whole build process. Thanks for any info.

Every week build lots are released. Your agent will know 24-48 hours prior. Should send you pic of the plots and actual pic of the lot. We actually had drone videos of lots.
If you know what model you are dead set on pic 1-5 or the number that fits your build. Then wait, a good agent will send you your #placement each time.

You also need to make a contingency plan on what you can do without.
We wanted a view no homes behind . Water, dry prairie
3 car garage, stretch 2 car+ golf cart

Not negotiable lot needed to accommodate Warbler(4/2) with 3 baths, 4-6’ stretch to Lanai, front bedroom, and garage. Room 12x 26’ pool

Took 3 weeks before we were# one on 15th lot we put our name on #1 (prior lots #2-56 on the list)
For 4 weeks after deposit we tried for 6-8 more lots, and 2 street of dreams homes.(#2 & #7) Was it stressful a little, but we owned 2 homes in TV, just not what would work for our change in lifestyle. When we got #15 I thought our agent was joking didn’t believe him

We didn’t get 3car garage, and pool just fit, with all stretch’s we wanted. So smaller lot than we hoped.

Yes if we would have gotten a lot after deposit we would have forfeited $10,000 deposit.

Lots for us were $100,000 to $220,000. That was 2021.

We never wavered on the model, or what we needed to stretch, and the pool.

Thanks so much for the information. That really helps.