[rsmurano]

Hartford for car insurance and umbrella. Cost depends on age and make of cars, age, driving record, and # of miles you drive each year. USAA was a close 2nd. AAA was a close 3rd. Last August, my home insurance didn’t go up for a year old home.

[Gpsma]

Originally Posted by blueash

If you have a car that "lives" in Florida, it must be registered and insured in Florida. It does not matter if you also have property in Massachusetts. This issue is not whether your homeowner's would pay, rather whether your auto insurance will deny coverage if you falsified the main location of your car.

Check with your insurance agent as YMMV

My brother in law works for auto insurers. He told me that once an insurer accepts you and collects the premium they are obligated to pay a claim even if you lied on your policy application. Once they find out you lied they can try to collect the higher premium or just drop you.

[Joe C.]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

Does the Villages build new homes with wind mitigation?

Yes. They were doing it prior to the state making it part of the building code.

[Yellowrose]

Originally Posted by DiviAruba

I thought I had everything figured out for moving to The Villages. I had to wait for my divorce to go through to buy a house. It went through last week and I am now rethinking if I can afford living in TV.
What is scaring me is homeowners insurance and car insurance. I have a place in MA that I can register the car, so that would make the insurance much cheaper. I am in N Ft Myers and homeowners and car insurance has jumped in price since Ian. Have the prices also gone up for insurance in TV?

Please compare the cost to live here by which county you chose to live in. The Villages covers 3 counties. Each will be different in the cost for; house insurance, car ins., cost of the house, taxes, bond on the house & utilities. Sumter County has the lowest prices for all the above. Lake Co & Marian County are higher. Know which county before you purchase & compare prices in each county.

[GaryKoca]

Villagetinker is right. Ours went up $600 and it is a 2015 house with no issues. The Florida hurricanes, roof scams, and general inflation are the causes. And these are statewide premiums, so the fact that the Villages have not directly been effected by the hurricanes is not really the issue.

[Malsua]

Originally Posted by MandoMan

1. Steel straps at each roof truss end, properly nailed, that attach trusses to top plates and studs much more securely than a couple nails. They really do help prevent roofs from being pulled off by a hurricane. They are easy to install during construction, though it costs at least $200 in materials and several hours of hard labor. Much harder to install them when insulation is in place, and may not be done adequately.

2. Correctly installed plywood or USB sheathing on top of the roof trusses and under shingles. This means that most of the sheathing nails installed with pneumatic nailers actually penetrated the trusses and that the number of nails per 4x8’ sheet is according to code. Back when Hurricane Andrew hit the Miami area, doing colossal damage, studies showed that much of the damage was due to roofs being pulled off because the trusses were just toenailed to the top plates and because many sheets of plywood roofing were secured with 4-8 nails that actually penetrated the trusses (instead of the now required every 12” in the middle of the sheet and every 6” along the edges. Properly secured roofs tended to survive.

3. Higher quality shingles (sometimes called architectural shingles) instead of cheap ones, which are easily blown off in high winds. Good ones are thicker and stick to each other better. They also cost quite a bit more, though installation cost is the same, more or less.

A wind mitigation inspection costs about $100, takes only a few minutes, and includes photos. If your house passes, it can save you $500 a year on your insurance. Money well spent. Ideally, don’t buy a house that doesn’t pass. Fixing it after the fact is expensive.

I perform wind mitigation inspections. I am licensed, insured and certified to do so and run an inspection business here in TV.

You've got it mostly correct, there are a few more things.

The type of connection: toe-nails, clips, single straps, double straps
The type of nails for the deck to truss connection. 6d or 8d. There is also a new standard for a thicker ring shank nail, but it's not entirely clear if insurance companies are factoring that in or not.

There is also impact protection. Most of the newer homes that I perform win mits on have additional hurricane bracing on the garage doors. I would say this started in TV around 1998 or so. The oldest homes don't have it. There should be a pressure rating sticker or ASTM rating somewhere on the door.

You can also have impact rated glass and entry doors. I have yet to find any of that here in TV, but I have seen it near the coasts although I have not done any Wind Mits out that way on either side of FL. Further, you can have hurricane rated shutters of various types, again, I've not found that here in TV.

Most homes built after 2004(2002 in some jurisdictions) already have a wind mitigation discount built into the insurance as that is when the Florida Building standards changed. That said, not every insurance provider will provide the discount without the inspection, so be sure to ask your agent. If it is not included, get a wind mit done, it's worth it.

It takes a little more than a few minutes but usually under an hour and it requires some time in the attic but well worth it for the discount.

[golfing eagles]

Originally Posted by DiviAruba

I thought I had everything figured out for moving to The Villages. I had to wait for my divorce to go through to buy a house. It went through last week and I am now rethinking if I can afford living in TV.
What is scaring me is homeowners insurance and car insurance. I have a place in MA that I can register the car, so that would make the insurance much cheaper. I am in N Ft Myers and homeowners and car insurance has jumped in price since Ian. Have the prices also gone up for insurance in TV?

Please don't take this reply as too harsh or critical:

If the make-or-break factor in contemplating the affordability of moving to TV is the difference in homeowner's and car insurance (if any), then you can't afford to move here.

[MX rider]

Originally Posted by EdFNJ

Interesting. Also in a 2/2 in Amelia from 2009 and we are (have been) paying ~$900 from Travelers thru Villages Insurance with full (max) coverages including 10% ded sinkhole. Next renewal is in July of this year. We'lll see where it goes from there. Last July it went up by under $100. Previous (original) owners had new roof put on around 2014 under original home purchase warranty due to a recall of some sort. MANY homes here roofs were replaced in ~2014 for that recall. Maybe that made a difference.???

Yes, I'm sure having the original roof is costing us a bit more than you. Even though they came out and inspected ours prior to writing our policy.
Plus we have all our other insurance here in Indiana. They said if we bundled our insurance with them our rate would drop.

[dhdallas]

If you are thinking that maybe you can't afford TV, then you can't! It's like the saying about alcohol. If you ever wonder whether you are an alcoholic then you are. Fees and utilities will always be increasing so if you can barely afford it now, you won't be able to afford TV in a year or two.

[Remembergoldenrule]

Sounds like you need to consider a house that is reasonable and comfortable. A patio villa is what we decided on and we live here full time. Cost of house upkeep it a lot less and we have more time for fun. We just got tired of the two house situation. We were spending too much traveling back and forth and worrying about other place when here. Plus cost of keeping up two places. We have considerable more money to enjoy with one house especially since we for patio villa.

Colony has big master bedroom and guest room has enough room for queen bed and crib or cot for grand child we also have pullout sofa for grand kids. Dining room big enough for tabl with six chairs and nook has for more chairs. Living area big enough for seating six to eight. You get the idea. Place for car and golf cart. Here is link to one like ours. Cost of upkeep is a lot less too.

1458 Olympia St, The Villages, FL 32163 | MLS #G5067386 | Zillow

Next, you need to think of all your costs.
You have a place in MA. How much are you spending on this place? Taxes, insurance, maintenance, utilities, etc. Doyou have a car there too with all the upkeep costs for it? What do you do there for social and fun?

If you become a Florida resident, you will have no taxes on your income, your property taxes will be lower with a cap on any increase each year. If you live here full time then you could use the money from the sale of MA place to pay cash and probably have money left over to live on.

We have 56+ golf courses, 180 clubs, pickle ball, putt put, Numerous pools, biking, and more to keep you busy and meet friends. There are also a lot of volunteer opportunities. Grandpa camps for kids to have things to do when visit.

Take quality of live in consideration along with finances.

Good luck.

[hrenner]

What you save on taxes will pay for insurance.

[midiwiz]

Originally Posted by DiviAruba

I thought I had everything figured out for moving to The Villages. I had to wait for my divorce to go through to buy a house. It went through last week and I am now rethinking if I can afford living in TV.
What is scaring me is homeowners insurance and car insurance. I have a place in MA that I can register the car, so that would make the insurance much cheaper. I am in N Ft Myers and homeowners and car insurance has jumped in price since Ian. Have the prices also gone up for insurance in TV?

Ft Myers isn't the entire state of FL. Also unlike these others my home owners insurance hasn't budged at all. it's only 1400 a yr. it really depends on who you use. as a rule I don't buy anything that the villages is associated with, nor bank either. To compare to a place that just got wiped by a hurricane is insane at best. you also don't want you car registered in MA it's less expensive down here. Where your car is tagged changes a lot of things.

[Peachbelle]

Originally Posted by DiviAruba

I thought I had everything figured out for moving to The Villages. I had to wait for my divorce to go through to buy a house. It went through last week and I am now rethinking if I can afford living in TV.
What is scaring me is homeowners insurance and car insurance. I have a place in MA that I can register the car, so that would make the insurance much cheaper. I am in N Ft Myers and homeowners and car insurance has jumped in price since Ian. Have the prices also gone up for insurance in TV?

Best way to check and see who is writing Homeowners insurance in FL is to go to the FL Dept. Of insurance website:
CHOICES: Homeowners Rate Comparison Tool
Also realize some of the carriers listed (i.e.) Liberty Mutual are not writing new business in FL. Best rates will be if you can get a group rate by belonging to something (i.e. AAA, credit union, associationmembership, college alunmi, union, etc.)
We are moving to TV and just purchased one using above means. We thought the rates were very good. Ours is about $2500/yr.

[rjorem]

Originally Posted by charlieo1126@gmail.com

in what place in Massachusetts did you find car insurance cheaper than living in villages ? A Boston guy would like to know, compared to rates my friends pay up there it feels here like I’m getting it for free ( thank you State Farm )

In Massachusetts, I switched from being with State Farm for 20 years to Hartford insurance. It was either through AAA or Aarp. I saved quite a few hundred dollars doing that. I spoke with State Farm to see what they could do, and they said Hartford was a good deal. Good luck. I am a Massachusetts resident.

[Ski Bum]

Originally Posted by wisbad1

What is wind mitigation?

Specialized hardware and fasteners (nails) used in a prescribed way to help hold the roof on in high winds. I think every home is built that way now.