Retirement Community Choices
 

Is it just my impression or have others noticed a startling number of retirement communities, with a variety of amenities and prices, springing up all over Florida and beyond? A difficult choice to be sure. A show of hands: Has anyone moved here from other existing retirement communities?

Awesome question. Would also be interesting to hear from anyone who left or is considering leaving TV for some other community.

Kinda like Malls...Build one The town managers loved it all this extra revenue coming in..Then they get bright idea hey lets developers build 3 or 4 in retrospect how did that model work out.
Another example
Like having a Lowes across the street from a Home Depot.Or Best Buy across from Circuit City Now you have 2 stores struggling instead of one that's prospering...The American way

Here's 704 in Florida on one site.

https://www.55places.com/florida

The best example of that, is Walmart. Everywhere there was a Kmart a Walmart opened within a mile. The Kmart's are no longer.

Gee imagine if anyone addressed the poster’s question of did you move here from one of the other communities

Wouldn't want to start THAT trend:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

Shocking I know

That would be as bad as people actually using facts and sources

Nooooo who do something like that ?

Awful. They should kick those people off TOTV and make this an unsubstantiated opinion only zone:1rotfl::1rotfl::1rotfl:

We did NOT move here from another retirement community. However, before buying here 4+ years ago, we researched a number of other retirement communities in the central Florida area, winnowed the list down to 7 or 8 and visited them all during one vacation. We had a very nice little checklist of what features we were looking for in both houses and communities and checked them all off and made other comments about what we saw at each community we went to. After visiting The Villages a couple of times previously, we were hoping to find "Villages Lite"; a community with everything we liked in The Villages but perhaps less overwhelmingly large (and this was before the big expansion south of 44!) and possibly a bit less expensive. We found some nice places but all fell short of The Villages in our opinion. We decided on the drive back home to North Carolina that we were definitely buying in The Villages and that one of the models we had toured on this visit would be the kind of house we bought. We did so, moved here immediately after retiring and have been living the dream ever since.

That's not to say The Villages is perfect in every respect or that it's right for absolutely everybody. It is neither. During our visits, we even met a few folks who had moved from The Villages to other communities. The most common reasons we heard were "The Villages is TOO busy" and "We just wanted a quieter lifestyle." For those folks, the quiet communities they were in, where you saw nobody at the (one) rec center, nobody at the (one) pool, nobody golfing at the (one) golf course and nobody walking in the neighborhoods was just what they wanted. That was exactly what we did NOT want, so we are here and they are there. To each their own.

One of our neighbors lived in The Villages, moved to another community (they have never told us why) and then moved back. Not sure how that counts for the original poster's question.

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Michael, anyone who's lived in Florida for a while cannot help but notice "a startling number of retirement communities." They've been "springing up" for decades!

I have lived in two other Florida retirement communities before the Villages - one on the west coast (Tampa area) and one on the east coast (Ft Lauderdale area).

Florida has a large number of such communities consisting of mid-rise apartment buildings, with lots of amenities and activities, but nothing like the Villages. Those were the communities I lived in. Most were built in the 1970s and '80s and are well maintained with attractive landscaping. They are very affordable. You can still get a semi-remodeled two bedroom unit in the mid $100Ks. But since they're relatively small with no yards, and fairly old, I don't think they would appeal to most people looking to buy in a place like the Villages.

I basically lived there temporarily, "below my means" until I decided for sure what part of Florida I wanted to live in and what I was looking for in a retirement community. I ultimately decided on a third retirement community in southeast Florida, this one with single family homes built in the 1970s, and another home in the Villages. I bought both of those in the last year. I guess timing is not my strong suit.

"or considering"