Lovin' the Lifestyle
 

We took a ride south of 44 today (looked at a few open houses). It just boggles my mind how many houses are sold and people have moved in south of 44!!
With all those new residents, it really hasn't had a significant impact on my lifestyle. I am a priority golf member... and I am able to get tee times on championship courses (pretty much the exact time I ask for). I'm also able to get Exec. tee times (maybe a little later than I'd like but I still get them). I am able to get into restaurants. (Maybe COVID has some impact on that).
Bottom line? Still love it here. I'm not frustrated by any overcrowding. Let's see if things change with the snowbirds are here. But overall?? I'm pretty happy and still love it here.

Amazing activity here

There's really a lot to like about life in TV...

once there's a vaccine widely available everything will evolve to whatever the new normal will be and we'll all have "fun, fun, fun...'til daddy takes the T-bird away"

After 17 years here and an additional 100,000 residents we still love the lifestyle....Like most residents still do.

I think the "growth" tends to get over intellectualized.......but to each their own.

Not the friendly home town it used to be.

...

We're actually looking forward to being around people again. Living out in the country we can barely see our neighbors. I think as we get older having a sense of community means more to us.

We don't know what the "good old days" were like in The Villages so our baseline will be different from those that have been there for awhile. Either way, home is what you make of it. The people you surround yourself with make a huge difference. When we did our Lifestyle visit everyone we met were very nice. Even the New Yorkers were smiling.. :D

I agree. I think a lot of the negativity is the fear of what might/could happen (for example, turning all the squares into apartments). I think most people are pretty happy here.

You must live north of 44 somewhere as it's really friendly way down south.

Very friendly place to live. Sorry for those not experiencing the same joy!

Just wait until 60,000 plus new homes are completed.

And golf, unless they start building new executive and championship courses you can forget it.

Oh, they most definitely will change. All the inconveniences you mentioned not having will become very real when the snowbirds return. Last winter, many of our tee-time requests were denied. Unless we wanted to wait an hour or more, we had to eat dinnner at 4:30 or 8:00. Streets and stores were crowded. Long lines were everywhere.

The government can’t afford to build roads to handle the peak traffic. If we had enough businesses to handle the peak, many would not survive the summer drought. So, things are only adequate to meet the summer needs.

This would be a better place if it weren’t so seasonal. I’m not complaining about the maximum population. I would love it if the snowbirds stayed full time. If they did, there wouldn’t be so many empty storefronts in Brownwood and we’d have a much better variety of stores and restaurants. Want to see a COSTCO, Trader Joe’s, etc.? Stay year round.

We are already seeing an uptick and it’s only October.

Nothing different from any area the snowbirds live. (Ft Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando, etc etc). If you dont want snowbirds, move to the mountains in Montana

maybe friendlier
 

In some ways it may be friendlier - when we "fully open" my time was consumed with various clubs - constantly going from here to there
great clubs to be sure, but i think i was more busy than when i worked

now, i actually talk with my neighbors, and BTW i am way north of 44,
we may be socially distant, but the key word is social

I believe the issue of “more crowds and traffic” really depends upon where you are from. Sure, it does get busier here when the seasonal residents return, however this is nothing compared to the daily traffic we encountered up in the Boston area. Or even the Holiday traffic anywhere near any of our Malls.