I believe those days of accumulating and capturing high equity are gone for many of us given the slow recovery and I am not addressing speculative buying which help create the housing bubble. a village resident pays for the infrastructure, the land and the housing unit. How much above costs for each is something we will never know. Like a casino, the house always gets the better of the deal and is always the big winner

For the first time in 30 plus years, The Villages will have to front the money for the infrastructure when they commence building in Fruitland Park. There will be no bonds attached to these homes for them to use to get reimbursed.

It will be interesting to see if people will be willing to pay $500,000 plus for a designer home.

IF you wanted to sell your home in The Villages and move elsewhere, chances are you would make a very nice profit.

Sure, the Developer made a profit. No problem with that at all. You can make a profit, too.

My house appraised for 50k more than what I paid 3 years ago. I like owning a home in the villages, better than in Illinois where my house is worth half of what I paid.

Hi Gracie: you bring up some valid points. But whether we are defining mark up or margin the fact remains its high. Retail jewelery has a mark up of between 800% and 1000%. People pay those prices and some think nothing of it. Neither my wife nor I are fond of jewelry so the mark up to us is obscene.

It is one thing to describe a person as a good businessman but when does good transcend into greedy? To be sure the Developer tightly controls all of his operating costs, the costs of building and the cost of inventory and shifts monetary burdens when possible. These homes may vary somewhat, but basically they are all the same block units. My wife keeps reminding me its location, location location but what if you are not as enamored with location as others then what's that worth to you?

Essentially I am one of those individuals who never goes overboard over anything or anyone because it translates to me as not clear thinking.

Personally speaking, Yes I like TV. yes I believe it is pretty and clean. Yes I like the people. Yes I like the fact that there are many things to do. Can one find these same things elsewhere Yes. Do I view TV as Disneyland No.

This all brings us back to my original point people pay a high premium to locate here and the Developer in fact openly promotes that very fact by stating people are buying a Lifestyle. And my second point is in comparison to other locations what is TV Lifestyles worth ?

I am expressing an opinion not advancing an argument

Personal Best Regards

But it is hard to watch the value decrease.[/B]

Don't know where you're getting your numbers but my house is worth at least %10 more then I paid for it back in June of 2013!

I agree with most of your statement rubi, but the greedy question doesn't resonate with me. The Morses may be greedy, I can't see inside their souls, so I cannot know. However, when it comes to real estate I can't see the use of the word greedy as relevant. Real estate is probably the most pure economic transaction anyone can make. The value of real estate depends totally on what the market will bear, what a willing buyer will pay a willing seller. I can't blame the developers for ASKING whatever they believe they can get for their property, and if willing buyers can't be found in a reasonable timeframe, they will have to discount or otherwise incentivize. There is no question they have hit upon a successful formula as their prices and the demand, dropped far less during the downturn than almost any other place in the country. I still am astounded that in either 2010 or 2011 they sold ONE PERCENT of the new homes sold in the ENTIRE COUNTRY.

Ed, I agree with you 100% on real estate being all about what the market will bare. And I never begrudged the developer making as much money as he could if we were willing to pay. But I left The Villages 3 weeks ago knowing how everything, and I mean everything is done in a quick and efficient manner so it makes me wonder why I am still sitting here 3o some days after closing and still waiting for a refund for my passes and overpayment for utilities. Holding someone's money is greed in my book. No it's not a lot, hardly worth worrying about; however, speaks volumes to me.

I agree. The supply has gone up and at the current time the demand is down; therefore we are seeing discounts on existing homes. Greed will not drve a market unless there are willing buyers. We retirees are usually too smart to be duped.

I'll say. We have a lot of real estate transactions behind us, most of us. I was very skeptical when we first made a visit here some will remember my first posts as to what the developer was like and was he on the up and up because I sincerely doubted that any place could be THIS good.

Now I cannot praise this place and all the processes associated with it enough. It is my feeling that it is run better than any like size municipality in this country. I am constantly amazed by the order and neatness and the constant painting and cleaning of structures here belonging to The Villages.

I could go on and on, and have gone on and on, but for me, this is the very best time of my life. The worry and work that used to be my life is in the past and I can share time with my peers; enjoy them, argue with them, debate with them, laugh with them, eat with them, learn with them. As someone's adult child said; This is a college campus without the pressure.

Over the years I have read threads just like this saying that sales were falling off and that the developer was in trouble..always at the same time of the year.

But in the awful downturn in this country in the past six or so years, at the worst the country was seeing, The Villages at one time was selling TEN percent of all the homes sold in this country.


NO. I don't work for them, never met them. I just think they do it right.

55+ communities, especially TV are unique in retaining and increasing their value vis a vi regular working neighborhood communities like in the NE corridor. The only concern I have is that as prices climb into the $350K - $500K average range it prices many baby boomers out of the market decreasing the potential buying pool. After all not everyone is in that top 10% in wealth, assests or income to be able to afford higher priced homes.
Can we experience a housing bubble in TV? I don't know but the housing market in the US is still shaky and people have lost a lot of equity and money which they may never recoup - that also impacts the pool of people who would like to sell and move here.
Then again this builder knows more than me about his market and has a successful track record thus far.

To me and mine, this is PARADISE........let the naysayers leave. Some never get tired of complaining. :crap2: