Historic District Update
 

They are really building a lot of homes over here. At first, it was all two and three bedroom cottages. Now they are branching out. I don't know if it's The Villages building them or homeowners having them built but there are several different categories of homes being built.

There is a courtyard villa that is on the water in Silver Lake. Recently a number of patio villas have popped up. There are also several designer homes. This is an Iris 5 under construction at the end of my street.

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There's no rhyme or reason where different homes are being built so this will be very different looking when all these homes are finished. You might see a patio villa next to a giant designer home. One thing for sure is that it's not going to have cookie cutter look that so many villages have.

One Courtyard villa? Where is it? Thanks

Three Cheers for Diversification on The Historic Side!
 

Silver Lake is one of my favorite executive courses.
Noticed a home torn down at the corner of Del Mar and Santos. Waiting to see what goes up

I was told the Developer was buying up these homes...was told?

Actually the "cookie cutter" look is one reason I bought here. People are alone are different enough for me. Books are mostly the same, cars, planes, bikes, clothes, shoes...etc. It's the inside that matters most.

It would look odd if the courtyard villa with walls was in the middle of regular houses not sure that I would be happy about that.

I was told The Villages is buying up these homes or they are offering the current owners a deal to tear down the existing manufactured home and building a stick built house. There are some great lots over there and many of the homes over there are coming to the end of their useful life. However, it will take many years for that area to transform.

It's on the corner of Silver Oak Ave and Kim Lane.

I'm pretty sure that the owners had it built. The plans called it some other kind of villa, but it looks like a courtyard villa but it doesn't have a wall around it.

One of the great things on this side is that if you get a lot, you can build anything you want on it. You can use any builder that you want as well.

And don't forget that lawn ornaments are allowed there :beer3:

O. Ok. That makes sense. No wall.

After the flooding and other hurricane damage I assume it will accelerate the "gentrification" of the historic side.

If insurance offers you x dollars to repair a manufactured home, it's a better financial decision to sell the land or build a new site built.

There are several different things going on. One is that when a house goes up for sale, The Villages will often come and make an offer on it. At first, they were paying asking price and sometimes even higher just to get the ball rolling. By the time I decided to sell and buy one of the new homes, there offered about 30% below market and eventually about 20% below. I sold it on my own.

When they buy a house, they remove it and, if it's in decent condition, they donate it to Habitat for Humanity.

They then do one of two things. They either build a new house on the lot or they sell the lot.

Additionally, they have worked out deals with some people where they remove their house and build a new one for them. In these instances, the homeowners have contacted The Villages. The Villages is not soliciting people to do this. If you own a home here and are in the market for a new home, they might suggest it as an option.

There is at least one other builder making offers on homes and building new ones on the lots.

Some people are contacting other builders to remove their manufactured home and build a new site built one on their lot.

There are also several people who have removed their older manufactured home and replaced it with a new manufactured home. These are actually very nice. I'm seeing less and less of this since The Villages began building lower-priced two bedroom cottages and patio villas.

I think that a lot of people are under the misconception that the lots here are bigger. I think that they look bigger because the homes are so small.You can go on the Lady Lake Assessor's website and see the actual size of the lots.

This would not be the first courtyard without walls built there.

Where are the others? I don't recall seeing other courtyard villas over here. I'm not saying that there are not any, I just don;t recall seeing any.

I have seen several designer homes though.

Two years ago they listed one on Bonita (I believe). I was curious so we slepped over to check it out. We drove up and down the street looking for it. I googled the address and sure enough it was a courtyard without walls.

The no walls threw us