Why does TV move only to the south? What's restricting building N, W, E?
 

Just curious why building is south only.

I'm sure there are established homes N, W, E.

But TV could offer a good price for the land?

At what point do you think TV developers will run out of land south, and then come back to the north?

It's the only way to connect to Disney.

No snow to the south.

Availability of large pieces of land.

Could it be that the land N, W and E is already developed?

I suspect that the developer wants The Villages to remain connected - ease of getting to all of the golf courses etc.

Having just one way over 441/27 (the bridge) would limit that, although it would provide incentive to get permission to cross that road at street level

My guess:
Political: Amenable County commissioners.
Physical: Major roadways and towns

The northern limit is Rt 42 and Marion county. There is some growth into Marion but only as far as 42.

The western limit is 301 and Wildwood. While Wildwood has annexed some of the land the Villages is built on, I don't know of a case where the Villages has displaced a large number of existing Wildwood structures.

The eastern limit is 441, Leesburg, and Lake county. The Villages started east of 441 in Lake county but then grew west of 441 in Sumter county. There is still some growth into Lake county but it mostly appears to be the small areas to the south of Lake Denham and north of the Turnpike. It will be interesting to see if growth continues south of the Turnpike in Lake county.

The southern limit appears to be the next highway that needs to be crossed. 466, 466A, 44, Turnpike, and now 470 have been crossed. The next hurdle will be 48. The town of Center Hill sits on 48 but that could become the next Middleton.

50 comes after that and Sumter county begins to narrow. At that point there would be only a little bit of Lake county to cross to get to Disney but the Villages knows how to work with Lake county. Also a little over a year ago the Central Florida Expressway announced work on 516 which would connect from 419 near Disney to 27 near Lake Adain south of Clermont. While 516 wouldn't stretch all the way to potential Villages land in Sumter county, it still gets better than half way there.

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They were concerned about the snow belt.

West of 301 south of Wildwood is blocked by railroad crossings and I-75 that is mostly going to be commercial and industrial growth that has already started. I foresee the next generation concentrating more and more on commercial and industrial growth and don't even want to think what traffic will be like then.

I've heard it said by a real estate agent that the Villages already owns enough land in the south to build homes at the current rate for the next 15 to 20 years. He says they own as far south as you can see from Eastport. I have no easy way or desire to check that claim, but they do for sure own a lot of land.

It would be impressive if the Villages Development Corp was able to build and sell 3000+ new homes/year for the next 20 years. But, will the demand for the villages going forward be strong enough to exceed that? Given the steadily increasing number of real estate listings, and the increasing time on the market, I doubt it.

So I think one thing that may limit development to the North, West and East is that the villages already has already bitten off as much as they can chew to the south.

I don't know that they ever sold 3000 new homes per year, over the last several years I believe they were selling 5 to 7 new homes per day. They will continue to sell them as I still remember being told by a Villages agent "where else can you buy a matching brand new home with a full warranty for less than a pre-owned home". A lot of people say well pre-owned homes have lower bonds, have made improvements, etc. but I still would choose a new home in a new neighborhood over a pre-owned and I think that is why there are so many pre-owned homes on the market for 3 to 6 months or even longer.

That's possible. Trouble is if you live in the northern section it's damn near impossible now to get a tee time in the southern courses because the southern end residents don't want to even try to get any of the northern courses.

According to the budget letter submitted by the county administrator each year, these are the numbers of single-family building permits issued:
2019: 2,727
2020: 2,797
2021: 3,882
2022: 3,708
2023: 1,300
2024: As of August 2024, appears to be an increase over 2023

Not all single-family homes were built in the Villages but many of them were. The budget letter giving a total for 2024 should be available in the July/August timeframe.

Marion County
 

Marion County is a hard no on the Villages developing. Ocala wants nothing to do with a potential takeover of government by Villagers. A mistake clearly staring Wildwood straight in the eyes.

The tee time computer system does not have the artificial intelligence to know whether requests are from North or South residents. Maybe open up your time and course requests to include more opportunities.