We really have it made here in the Villages and now I realize it so much more!
 

Our son lives in Boca Raton and I decided to do some checking at some of the cities North of him about an hour to see home prices for 55+ communities in Port St. Lucie about 20 miles inland. Through my internet searches I found a planned community called Traditions. I thought it was a mini Villages. Several 55+ Villages with different names building houses and each community has a regional recreation center in it. We toured the model homes, sat down with the realtor to go over costs and fees etc. We are in the $250,000 price range. The lot sizes very tiny, the garage space barely fit two cars but no room for any cabinets. Hardly any attic space. 2 bedroom with den so just two decent closets. 1400 sq ft. EVERYTHING was an upgrade. No ceiling fans, 6 foot sliders instead of the 4 panel we get, cheaper doors, badly constructed moldings, terrible landscaping with bright red mulch, streets hardly wide enough for 2 cars to pass, hardly any restaurants or stores to go to, no pharmacy nearby, hardly any doctor's offices nearby. The recreation center shared by other communities with people of all ages. Get this: HOA $434 per month! Plus $25,000 bonds.
The HOA included basic cable, landscaping, security alarm. None of the great things we get here. I think they had about 10 clubs to join but had run out of space at the rec centers for anyone to create a new club. Pool shared by families no separate adult pool. The list goes on and on.

By the time we were done we had spent the entire day there and were so ready to come back home to paradise. We really do have the best of everything here and now I love my home so much more I can't express how happy I am to have it and live here in our great Villages. Plus I forgot to mention the free golf! No such thing there!!! You'd have to drive quite a ways and pay top dollar.

OP, you hit the nail right on the head. We did our research prior to purchase in TV. Besides several communities in Florida, we even spent time in Arizona. There are a few places here in Central Florida that would be suitable (Stonecrest being just one) but there is nothing out there like The Villages. Fore.

And yet, thousands will refuse to even come to see TV because the reality here might not fit their pet rumors that fit their partisanship.

They'd prefer to be alone and behind closed doors, where nobody seems to ever come out of the condo, and where they'll wait 2 years for the condo board to do something about building/maintenance problems, but HOA fee increases are made amazingly fast.

I was lucky in TV was the first and only retirement community that I visited. Somehow, I just knew in my heart there couldn't be any place better than TV. IMHO

Obviously, it's not for everyone and so be it.

I got the feeling also that the HOA's would be going up. In the 8 years we have lived here I think it went up $5.00 one time. We are so lucky. Plus I trust that our property values will increase here. I didn't get that feeling there as if things has remained stagnant for quite some time and that the market there was COLD.

I am not a Pollyanna fan of the developers, but we love it here. TV is great, and it is our home now.

same here

The Villages is by far lifestyle and amenity-wise the best 55+ community yet built. The Village People (sorry, could not help myself) are the most active and social anywhere I have visited. The number of clubs, physical layout, pleasant and tasteful landscape design... The list could go on.

I just knew when my eyes saw how cared for TV is that we have found home. To hear all of you who live there already rave about the place makes it a little easier to bail out on the only place we ever have known. I just know the decision is solid....here we come in about two weeks. I looked at six other places in Florida and cancelled my other appointments when I found TV.

Nevermind.

Our oldest has traveled to 11 states to find their future retirement home. Each time they come to our house and say so far there may be some that are close be nothing that matches TV

I just returned from 3 days visiting the grandchildren on Long Island- had a
Wonderful time but missed our beautiful surroundings here in TV. As soon as
I left Islip airport and turned onto Vets Hwy- I was saying "oh boy, have to
Drive aggressively here". The pot holes, garbage on sides of roads, people
Trying to cut me off, horns blowing, no Palm trees, no colorful flowers on every
Corner, the list goes on & on...... There's no place like home- in TV!

We also visited Traditions in Port St. Lucie on our way here from the Boca area. It was an all-age community with a section reserved for 55+. At that time the 55+ section was closed off because the home builder (Levits, I think) had declared bankruptcy. The whole place was kind of depressing, not at all like TV.

And yet, do we really want/need thousands more to come to The Villages? I don't think so; let them stay where they're at or go to a different place and I'm sure I'm not alone with this thinking.

I didn't say I want thousands to come to TV. I was addressing how people prefer to listen to rumors when they and the rumor spreaders have never even been here.

It's the ignorance about TV that I was addressing.... Like the ignorance about thinking TV is condos with HOA.

We don't have condos and we don't have an HOA. All our homes are single-family and we own our house/villa building and lot.

We only pay a monthly Amenities Fee of $148 per month per household and increases are limited by being tied to Consumer Price Index. What we get for the Amenities Fee is the buy of the century.