[collie1228]

I like to look at available homes on the TV website once a week or so, just to keep in touch with what's new and current pricing, and noticed today that all of the discounts have now been removed. The last discounts standing were on the Cabana Villas, and even those have now been removed. Must be the market has recovered enough for TV to go back to full pricing on virturally everything built. It's funny, the Cabana Villas now say "You Save 0!". You would think that a marketing juggernaut like The Villages would have caught that at the time they made the change. I guess it's good news that the market is recovering (at least in TV), but for those of us who will be in the market in the next couple of years, we probably missed an opportunity to save some money. Timing is everything!

[kb8tpw]

There is a post or two here about the limited number of units that qualify for the 3% reduction, I think until 31 Jan 10. It is outlined in the latest Villages V-Mail. Limited units in 4 villages I believe. The accross the board savings ended however on 31 Dec 09.

[bluedog103]

Originally Posted by collie1228

I like to look at available homes on the TV website once a week or so, just to keep in touch with what's new and current pricing, and noticed today that all of the discounts have now been removed. The last discounts standing were on the Cabana Villas, and even those have now been removed. Must be the market has recovered enough for TV to go back to full pricing on virturally everything built. It's funny, the Cabana Villas now say "You Save 0!". You would think that a marketing juggernaut like The Villages would have caught that at the time they made the change. I guess it's good news that the market is recovering (at least in TV), but for those of us who will be in the market in the next couple of years, we probably missed an opportunity to save some money. Timing is everything!

Some TV sales reps notified their customers that the discount was going away. Ours did not. Had it not been for TOTV we would have lost out on the discount. We already had a deposit on a lot so they knew we were buying something.
I read a post here that the discount was going away. That was on Dec. 15. I called our sales rep on the 16. He verified that it was ending on Dec. 31. He didn't say why he didn't notify us. On the 17th I arrived in TV and signed the contract and paid our down payment the following day. Whew, that was one busy trip.
Our closing is on March 4

[Russ_Boston]

By my count there are still over 15K homes to be built. Price is price, location is location. Discount lures will come and go even in good markets. I doubt that we'll see the 2006-7 home rush again before build out.

Just my opinion.

[bluedog103]

Russ, I think you're right. Business is business.
We were ready to build and were planning on travelling to TV in early January to finalize everything so it wasn't a big deal. I would have been P.O.d if I'd missed out on the discount by a couple of weeks because I wasn't notified. I'd asked the rep to let me know of any changes and in the past he let me know when the discount was changing.

[JimJoe]

I have a question.. have the prices of new homes on thevillages.com really gone up?
OR..
is the regular price now listed the former sale price?
In fact there are still villas listed with 3% reductions.

[cwnavy1]

I visited the first week of January and spoke to MLS realtors, Villages agents and FSBO folks. The MLS realtor said the prices went up because the snowbirds were coming and there was a better chance of selling at a higher price to them. He felt that discounts would once again be in place later in the year if the housing situation has not significantly changed. Just for helping the discussion along.

[l2ridehd]

I have tracked selling prices in TV for 3 years. Both new, resale, VLS and MLS. The prices are going up and have been for about 6 months. I have a complex formula I go through where I end up with a price per square foot, one for the lot and one for the home. My data is current through the end of November so the new non discounted prices are not yet included. There is a definite trend with final sales price moving up that started last July or August. I would expect that once the new home prices start to show up in the data (takes 30 to 60 days after closing) that I will see an even sharper rise to the curve.

However, I also agree with Russ. I would not rush out to buy because the discounts were removed. Buying even a couple months before you were planning to and getting the couple months added cost of interest, taxes, and all the other monthly costs, off set any savings you may have received. The cost to own a 250K home in TV runs about 2.5K per month. PITI plus utilities and support services. That does not include lost income on the down payment. So add another $200 a month for that. A 3% savings on a 250K home would only be about 7.5K. So that savings is lost by buying 2.3 months early. And I would believe that would hold true for both lower and higher cost homes. New and pre-owned.

[collie1228]

12, you make an excellent case. For me, the greatest thing about this forum is the ability to hear from people like you who take the time to dig out the info and do the math, then share the results with with others. Thanks for the summary of your analysis.

[jinker]

12ridehd is your data available anywhere? if not would you list your sources and "complex formula" to determine the cost per sq ft?

[l2ridehd]

It is not an exact science. I use the county web sites as they list the selling price, the sq footage of the home and the lot, assessed valuations and from the footprint you can see if there are added things like birdcages. I throw out the top and bottom 5% because once you look at the information there are things that you know something strange happened. It was sold furnished, had a new Lexus included, was sold to a family member, etc. I focus on only designer homes as that was what I was buying. Then go back to the listing because there are many many things that impact price. Over sized garage value of 20K, golf car garage 18K, granite 6K, all tile floors 7K, birdcage $22 a square foot, and many others. So take the selling price, take a percentage based on lot vs building valuation (even the county assigns higher value to premium lots), always use selling price vs assessed value, only use the % from valuation to determine the split, divide the home value by square footage, divide the lot value by square footage and you have a price per square foot. I built a spread sheet with many columns and formulas and it works for me because I built it. I shared it with another person once, but because they didn't build it, they had a 1000 questions. I would build my own if you think the process will help you.

As I said, not a science. But very valuable when looking at new homes to know what to pay, and very valuable to see trends.