We rented for 4 years to decide what and where we wanted. happy now close to everything and quiet Forsyth Villas

Bingo !!!!

I overheard a Sales Representative at Sawgrass Sales Office say to some folks that your 5th purchase here is your free one. He must have missed 2008 and what followed

I would think that high income people would be more apt to move several times because they can afford to.

Move so friends and family can't find you!!! 😂

I don't know anyone here that has moved 3 times here and I have lived here for 23 years in the same house and lost 2 spouses. I worked in the Villages for 16 years, so know thousands of people here. I think that it is an urban myth that the average Villager moves three times. We looked over our Designer home plans for 2 years making all the changes we wanted before having our house built and honestly I still love my home. It took us over 2 years to find the perfect lot with no one behind and one that would stay that way. Do your homework, don't rush into anything, pick your location well and there will be no desire to move. My home has gone up just under $400,000 in value in 23 years. Not a bad return.

My rules
 

I had 2 rules it had to have a 2 car and golf cart garage and be above hwy 44 but not too close to hwy 42. This will let you get to lots of activities, shopping and restaurants in about 20 min in a golf cart.

Same for us except 46 years of marriage. Ironically, it’s our biggest (4/3) home out of the four. We raised our three kids in smaller homes in SoCal. They all love to come visit us because they have the whole guest suite to themselves, lol.

100% agree. I always thought people who said villagers average 3 moves was bs.
My neighborhood was built in 09, and the majority on my street are original owners.

Ist home, PV for me. 2 months later met the love of my life, needed more garage space.

2nd, designer with 3 garage stalls for 1 car and 2 gc.

Exactly what we did too! First house was a ranch and we were part time for a year. Decided to move here full time and bought a designer and the added a pool and hot tub. Lots of work with that every month. So after 8 years in that home, we sold it and bought a very nice villa and now we do not have all the work to do with the pool and hot tub. Travel is very easy now! Love it.

It’s something I never understood. Buying, selling, and moving is stressful, time consuming, expensive, and a pain in the butt. We did much research and home shopping before making such an important decision to insure we bought a home that would fit our long term needs and be one and done. In my opinion it’s much easier buying pre owned homes as at any given point in time your options are significantly enhanced. Best of luck with your very important decision.

Yeah, I think this is the scenario I'm in. I bought last summer and probably overpaid a little for the place I bought, but I also sold my place in Minnesota for a great profit and was able to reduce my mortgage down here significantly. I don't think I could swing that again.

I think if you can find an area you like you should be OK. For example, if you like the quiet, then you don't wanna be right on a busy road like Morse, Buena Vista, or the turnpike and you wouldn't want to be too close to a rec center (Pickleball courts) or town square. I remember I was looking at a cheaper place on El Camino Real that backed right up to the road, which can get pretty busy. After I bought my place I would regularly drive on El Camino Real and noticed a sewer smell close to the location of the other house. Turns out there's a sewer plant nearby. Really glad I didn't buy that place.

From my observations, the north part of the villages has less traffic. This is probably because as the villages goes south, it gets geographically wider, which means more homes, more people, and more traffic. That's not necessarily good or bad it just depends on what you like.

The north (north of 466) is more like regular neighborhoods with mature oak trees, whereas as you go south it's more palm trees and resort-like.

Lastly, and probably most importantly, it's very easy to get distracted by aesthetics of the villages while looking around (because it's all so beautiful) and you can end up missing the little things in a specific location that could turn out to be really important for you later on. I suspect that accounts for at least some of people who move multiple times.

I agree it was very emotional going from a vacation home for profit and a long term home for investment and a vaca/retirement home that worked for 9 years. :1rotfl:

After full time for a year, we just wanted to be with neighbors our own age. So we moved south, for a different lifestyle. Which works well for us, the only emotion I get is when our Wednesday golf group has 7a tee time at Silver Lake.