Question about Village of DeLuna
 

Researching TV and its villages - I have had a realtor sending me listings for a while and I could kick myself because I loved one back in 2022 and lost it. Properties were then going over asking.

Anyway, I just viewed one in the Village of DeLuna - 1400 SF - 3/2 - which is fine built in 2022. Contemporary which I like. It is block which we like better. The home is around $370K but there are homes in the 700 - 800K range also.

The home backs to another house and it's not on a main road.

Wondering why the price difference? The 749K home is only 800 SF bigger. No pool.

Is this village in not such a good location? It is Sumter so it's not Marion County.

What is a cottage home? I don't think this is one of them.

This sounds like a 'kissing lanai', make sure you investigate if this is the case. Depending on the design of the neighborhood, you could be less than 20 feet away from your neighbor when sitting in your lanai.

The price difference maybe a jump to a designer home.

You can view cottage homes on TV websites, to compare floor plans. We have owned cottages, (used to called ranches) compare the difference is the product inside at build. Cottages are only frame, like PVs.

Designer can be block or frame. Block at new build used to have a $10,000 up charge. Now that walls are poured, I haven’t compared cost difference.
You really need to walk the models. Kissing lanai most of the time isn’t your best choice, therefore less cost. Our cottage the neighbors behind was not only little off, but would just walk into the lanai for multiple visits every single day. It’s hard to be polite sometimes

I saw another listing that used "kissing lanai" and I wondered what they meant - thank you!
On this listing, it says it is a Basswood Designer Home 3/2. Built in 2022 so not old.
It looks a good distance from the home behind it.

Most homes I see in the 300s have vinyl siding and we do not want that.

I'd also love to add a pool but that's a dream right now. I would swim laps.

Some parts of DeLuna are very near to the turnpike and route 301. There is going to be a lot of commercial development on 301 just across from DeLuna, traffic will be bad as will the noise. The southeast section of DeLuna is your best bet. Don't buy blind.

Thank you! That makes so much sense and I was reading some threads about the turnpike noise which would be concerning.

We have hurricane impact windows in our current home in South Florida. Several benefits are the wind protection, security and the noise. You cannot hear much from outside. Are hurricane impact windows allowed in TV?

DeLuna...T.Pike or "Kissing" Lanai...
 

I feel your pain...I chose the T.Pike over the "Kissing" Lanai for the same reason....Wikolia@Village of DeLuna...

Don’t trust pictures when it comes to “looks like lot of space between homes” camera angle and camera lens can make 10 ft look like 30 ft. See it in person. Might be something else out of camera range that is adding to lower price.

I live in Deluna and are a lot of great sections with no road or turnpike noise, but definitely do your due diligence. The proximity to the turnpike and 301 as well as the direction your lanai faces all have an impact. That being said, we did stay in a rental in a more northern neighborhood and the road noise from the main Villages arteries (Morse, Meggison) were a factor as well.

The best advice I can give is to not buy a home that backs to any non-Villages property. What today may be a farm or just an open field could be a development or a 7-11 tomorrow.

Due your due diligence on kissing lanais as well. In my little section of Deluna there are three streets of homes with kissing lanais. One street is maybe 20 feet between lanais where the other is easily 60+ feet. There is no "standard" separation. You need to see in person or get someone without an agenda to send you realistic pictures.

The Marion vs Sumter county is a non-issue...and when talking about the Villages you also have to consider Lake county since TV spans all three. From a county tax perspective, Sumter is the cheapest but parts of TV are in the city of Wildwood so there is an additional tax. I personally wouldn't let taxes be a driving part of your consideration.

Feel free to DM me if you have specific questions about a home section, need pictures, etc. Deluna is one of the largest villages, so comments about turnpike noise, pylons (electric towers) are isolated to small sections of the village.

There are also Pylons in DeLuna. We saw a beautiful designer house, huge corner lot, but pylons under a 100’ and in clear view - BIG no for us. Other lots had wonderful views - of the pylons!

We ended up in Chitty Chatty which is ideal for us, close (walking distance) to shops and rec centre. 2 miles to Sawgrass, 4 to Brownwood or Eastport and 6 to Lake Sumter. Centre of everything really. The big plus though the preserve and the abundance of nature we see, plus over 15 miles of walking paths, something unique to this are. Have a look at Bradford, & St Catherine’s as well if you like walking… or Marsh Bend which also has nice walking paths and is central

A second thought, everyone says about noise from traffic, but no-one mentions noise from wildlife! Insects and birds can be very loud at night, my neighbour used to watch TV in his lania but gave up and now watches indoors as he had to have the volume high to it over the sounds of nature ������
I love the sounds of nature - but then I live in London so am used to traffic - it’s nice to hear something different.

The two homes you mention are very different. You’re comparing a 3/2 1400 sq ft no golf car garage home with a 4/3 2200 sq ft veranda with golf car garage. The verandas are very popular because of the privacy walls. I live in a block designer about 0.35 miles from the turnpike and the noise doesn’t bother me or my wife but your sensitivity may be different. The noise varies significantly in different weather conditions (temp and wind direction). The home you are referencing is a little further away.

There are some large power lines in that area, might want to check if home is close. Also, not a great location for golfing. Close to Marshbend is a plus and close to 301 and the turn pike are good.

Lot of price cutting going on, market is relatively soft and this is the right time of season to buy

All new homes here are built to current code. That means built to withstand 150mph winds. We are so far inland that by the time hurricanes reach us their winds are knocked down. We are located where coastal people come when there is a hurricane. We are also the place where Duke Energy does all the staging for the state when a hurricane is approaching. There is usually over 800 electric lineman trucks staged on the south side of The Villages.

Price difference is the square footage. The homes in the 2000 sf up start in the $650K to $750K range. Add a pool and you are in the $900 to $1.2M range. Pool construction costs running today at $150-$200K range.

If you like maturing landscape that will need replacing, houses and commercial buildings that will soon need paint, lots of traffic and big-box stores, and older houses, and older... well, everyone and everything, then yes! Absolutely! The north is ideal for you!

I would suggest you visit The Villages and explore the various areas. Also, only you can decide what size home and what features are important to you.

I’m almost willing to view pylons, to have no neighbors behind & knowing nothing can be built there. Plus it the grass is maintained.

I do not want to see a pylon near my house. We call them Iron Giants. Chitty Chatty houses are not selling fast now because they are located near the new Walmart. One thing that I do not like about Chitty Chatty is that there is only entrance into this village by car.

Well, that's interesting. So there isn't a prison, Coleman, south of 44, the bonds aren't higher, taxes aren't higher and there is no traffic in the new areas and the landscaping south of 44 will never need replacing or the buildings need painting? Huh.

The poster was simply pointing out everything to take into consideration, I didn't see her telling the OP to only buy north of 44, just providing content for thought.

BTW, those south of 44 spend a lot of their precious time trying to get to the "big box stores" and those older floor plans and lot sizes may be desirable to some. But to make their choices, they should have all the details so they can decide what to choose. Neither location is a bad choice, just different elements to consider.

^ absolutely agree with this, but that is not the posting history of many, including the one to whom I was responding. You are correct - there is a reason that Henry Ford's choice of car colors is no longer. Different people have different wants, needs, abilities, preferences, etc.

Visit
 

I second this recommendation. We came down two winters from Michigan and rented for a few months. We rented in different places and discovered where we wanted to be. Highly recommended.

And at that one entrance, it is dangerous to turn left.

There are plans for a roundabout at that entrance. Don’t recall the timetable.

That will make for a nice long detour during construction.

Not even close to true.

I visit friends Chitty Chatty regularly. It is not a dangerous left turn - unless your driving skills are lacking in which case many left turns are dangerous.

Back up the turnpike
 

I have a home in Deluna that backs up to the turnpike also bought a huge backyard, about 60 feet to the wall. I'll take Turnpike noise over a neighbor 15 feet away in my backyard any day.!!!
It's a veranda model so the yard is fenced in and it's huge, probably unusually large. I put in a big pool and waterfall. The turnpike noise is something you can get over, more of a background noise except during the winter months when the leaders are off the trees. And I'm hard or hearing anyway.lol
Yeah 301 will be a mess for a long time and who knows what's going on the other side. They're actually supposed to put a roundabout in at March Bend & 301 which is lunacy

Might want to check your odometer, I think it’s broken!

Yeah, I do not like to turn left without the aid of a traffic light or a roundabout, but I would never turn left onto a 4-lane road like Morse.

When we moved here 9 years ago, we chose to buy a house in Osceola Hills so we would never have to turn left to leave our neighborhood.

I used to live there. It is very dangerous. The cars driving on Morse Blvd are driving very fast. No reason to gaslight the poster.

Do not compare a South Florida house to a TV house
 

South FL houses are built to withstand hurricanes to CAT3, or even CAT5. I moved from a house in Naples to a TV Designer house... no comparison. I'm not sure replacing your windows with hurricane windows will be good enough to lessen outside noise. The walls don't even compare. Doors open in instead of out. Garage doors are flimsier. I can go on and on.

Every home we have owned, the front entry doors opened in. I've never seen a front entry door open out. Think about this........visitors ring your door bell and you come to the door to let them in the house. You open the door in so you don't hit anyone standing in front of your door waiting to come in. Even the home I grew up in on Long Island, the front door opened in.

ResQme is describing homes built to withstand Cat 3-5. Yes is correct about how doors open for those built to withstand extreme winds.
South Florida doesn’t care about their door opening for company. They want the door Not to Blow Open during event. Only way to do that is open to outside. Guessing you haven’t spent much time in south Fl.

Our doors open out in Miami, and Marathon, (both stilts) with no second thoughts on what’s outside the door except the wind trying to blow it in. Family condo in Madeira Beach 100ft from shore on Tampa Bay doors open out. The house on Barrier island in NC not only do doors open out, it’s concrete stilted pylons, with walls that tilt open allowing surge water to empty into rear retention pond.

Most of the houses in SWFL have doors that open out. They cannot get blown in by hurricane winds.

DeLuna is pretty far from the prison, over 10 miles away.

The bonds in DeLuna are higher than homes built 10 years ago, but quite a bit lower than anything built in the past couple of years. My bond in DeLuna was $30k, most places newer than DeLuna including some Villages built 2 years ago are closer to $50k or higher.

I think the primary factors have been described well. It really is based a lot on the location and desirability of your property. There are homes for sale in Deluna at almost every price range. There were a couple that were listed over 1 million and sold I don’t know for which amount But they had lovely locations.

If I’m not mistaken, there are over 1600 homes in DeLuna, not that we notice any sort of a crowd, but you will obviously see many choices for sale.

There are powerlines in Deluna, but they’re isolated to one location so again if you look at power lines, you would pay less.

As someone else described, if you choose to live near the turnpike, you pay less.

We very much like easy access to the Waterlily Bridge to Brownwood, 15 minute car ride to the Eastport area and quick hop on the turnpike.

301 isn’t fun but neither is the parking lot at Publix in Magnolia Plaza because it is the closest grocery store for all of the people in the new areas who will be waiting awhile. So 301 gives us access to pop up to multiple retail choices.

I’m in DeLuna too and we have no view of pylons/power lines, and the turnpike is a non-issue indoors and in our lanai (single pane windows). We hear a light noise off in the distance that sounds more like wind blowing when we’re outside. Some days depending on the wind direction or atmospheric conditions it’s so quiet outside you’d never know the turnpike is nearby. We love the convenience of driving out the 301 gate and being at the turnpike onramp is just 5-6 minutes for our trips to Disney, Costco, TJs, and other southern destinations. We have a ton of walking paths too. With this said there are definitely locations in DeLuna and other nearby villages where there are power line views, and homes very close to the turnpike.

Not once in 2.5 yrs south of 44 have we driven far to shopping areas except outside of the villages down south to Orlando area. We buy almost everything online at Amazon or other sites. We hate shopping in crowded stores so we’re happy to not be near any of that. To each their own.

Our bond on our DeLuna veranda home bought in Dec 2022 is $37K at 3%. It’s about $2K annually with our property taxes. We don’t mind because we paid cash for our home after moving here from SoCal where we had a $2K monthly mortgage. $2K annually is much nicer than $2K monthly. Even our property taxes and overall cost of living is better than SoCal.

We lived in South Florida for twenty four years. Our front doors opened in. I'm finding out from this thread that doors opening in are not hurricane resistant.