The Villages is #1 - fastest growing metro area
 

May we live in interesting times - and places!

The Villages, Florida, was fastest-growing metro area this decade: Census Bureau | Fox Business

From the article...

Earlier this year, fintech company SmartAsset rated The Villages as the U.S. city where senior citizens are most financially secure, thanks to an average senior retirement income of $65,995 and a low poverty rate for seniors of just 4.4%.

And last year, Experian announced that residents of The Villages had the best average credit score of any community in the U.S.

Too bad everyone can't just enjoy what we have without having the negative nellies.


:ho:

Well if we all benefitted like with lower property tax, given how much must be raking in now… you’d get a lot more people cheering.

Well, that didn’t last long.

Lower taxes! LOL fantasy land.:) In 35 years I own property on average taxes goes up 90% of the time and if they do go few dollars down, they get it back the next year.

The property tax on present homeowners was increased in part to build roads for this new construction. Now it is built and selling well and…. ?

I hate taxes just as much as everyone, but lower taxes usually means less services.
At the end of the day the same people that are complaining about taxes, will be the loudest voices complaining of declining services.

Who said Negative Nellies???? Our tax increase amounted to about $200 per year. I pee away that much going out to dinner 3 times. Nothing to worry nor complain about.

I saw this information yesterday in the New York Times. But IS The Villages actually a metro area? What is being included in the area? I don’t think it’s just The Villages. I think it is including places like Wildwood, Lady Lake, Leesburg, Summerfield, Oxford. Maybe these days it is including Taveres and Mount Dora and even Ocala, or is that its own metro area?

Here is part of what Wikipedia says about “Metropolitan Area,” and it increases my uncertainty about The Villages being a real metro area:

“ A metropolitan area or metro is a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories under the same administrative jurisdiction, sharing industries, commercial areas, transport network, infrastructures and housing.[1] A metro area usually comprises multiple jurisdictions and municipalities: neighborhoods, townships, boroughs, cities, towns, exurbs, suburbs, counties, districts, and even states and nations like the eurodistricts. As social, economic and political institutions have changed, metropolitan areas have become key economic and political regions.[2] Metropolitan areas include satellite cities, towns and intervening rural areas that are socioeconomically tied to the urban core, typically measured by commuting patterns.”

Where is our “urban core” that is “Densely populated”? The Villages is like a giant suburb with pleasant gathering areas and a ring of restaurants and stores. Where is our industry? Or is taking care of us the industry? Lots of people make a living taking care of us. Wikipedia lists a population density here (in 2010) of 1670 people per square mile. By contrast, New York City in 2020 had a population density of almost 28,000 per square mile. The Philadelphia metro area has a population density of almost 12,000 per square mile.

The Villages MSA is just all of Sumter County

The fact that The Villages continues to grow, and the Developer continues to develop, simply means one thing...there are TONS of people who want to move here. It also means a certain small percentage of those folks moving here are going to complain about everything, and anything. These are the people who would complain of indigestion if they were given a free meal. They would no doubt be complaining no matter where they lived.

I have yet to meet a single person who confessed to having a gun held to his or her head to sign papers to move to The Villages. All of the information regarding tax rates, fees, utility costs, cost of living, etc is readily available to anyone who wishes to do even a modest amount of research. And please don't start on the well-worn diatribe about the "greedy developer." I, for one, am very happy that the developer is making a profit. That is why they are in business, and that is what will allow them to continue to provide us with this wonderful place we have chosen to call home.

No, I do not work for The Villages. We are simply a couple who made an informed decision to move here, and have been very happy with that decision. There are many more coming, and I am happy for them, and hope that their decision fulfills their retirement dreams. If someone is truly unhappy about being here, houses are selling like hotcakes, and no one is holding a gun to your head making you stay.

Rant over. Be happy, be healthy, be safe...enjoy life!

I agree ... Unfortunately there are some people who will complain no matter where they live..
If they are not happy then find somewhere else to live..

Many only wish they were able to live like this... At this stage of live it is more about trying to be a bit more grateful then hateful

REALITY-It has always been so. People want and think, demand, rationalize anyone BUT THEM should pay for it.

We are ex New Yorkers. We left behind a 6% state tax, a 3% city tax, 10,000 real estate tax on a 1200 sq foot home, electric rates almost twice what we pay here. I cringe when I see posts from New Yorkers, people from Chicago, Los Angeles, New Jersey, Hawaii etc who want to change Florida into what they ran away from

We all tend to fixate on one thing but not the whole picture. INFLATION. We sold our home for 6x what we paid for it. WOW. Reality the cost of everything, except stuff based on computer chips has gone up at least that much. The other day looking for some hardware, I discovered that I have some coffee cans first of all they were a pound not 13 ounces and they are marked ninety-eight cents. I remember pizza at .15 a slice and for another .05 you could get a small soda.