A friend of ours moved here and heard her rave about the place. Did a 3 day lifestyle visit in December, 2011. Did another 3 day visit in July of 2012 with no plans on buying and as they say....the rest is history.

Husband retired last year, I just retired and will be moving full time end of November and we just bought our second home.

BTW our first home is for sale....2628 Thornberry Ave, 32162, Village of Duval. Great ranch home with bond paid. It's on Zillow dot com.

I LOVE it here. Yes it is lower paradise.:pepper2:

Toured south and central Florida in 1997. Drove by the Spanish-looking buildings on 441, turned around and came in to the sales office for the 45-minute trolley tour. Spanish Springs was still under construction and the tour was mostly on the historic side. Decided that The Villages, even as small as it was back then, was far nicer than other retirement communities. We told ourselves we would come look in earnest when we got ready to retire. A year later in March of 1998 we came back again, this time with appointments to see 7 or 8 other communities in the Ocala/Leesburg area. Nothing compared to what was here. Long story short we decided to sell our home and move to The Villages, years ahead of when we had planned to retire. It all looked like a lot of fun, almost too good to be true. Here we are, over 16 years later, just as much in awe of this place as we were when we bought our home here, when there were 16,000 folks who called The Villages home. We found it "accidentally" but watching this place develop and grow turned out to be the most fun of all. I wouldn't have missed it for anything.

We blame our dogs.
In 2007 we were looking for a retirement community that allowed two large dogs with no weight restrictions.
We came on a lifestyle preview, we fell in love and put in an offer. But that deal fell through.
Two months later we bought a villa, sight unseen (viewed it on the internet, purchased it through MLS).
We've never regretted our quick decision.

I had not heard of it until the spring of 2010. They don't advertise in No. Fla. I was driving home from school and I heard a story on NPR about this central florida community that escaped the recession. I googled it when I got home and showed it to my wife. We came down on a Saturday out of curiosity and fell in love with it. We have made five other trips (three lifestyles). We close on a home in Dunedin on Monday (I retired 10/01 and my wife in June).

A co-worker retired 6 years before me and she and her husband purchased here. My wife and I would take2-3 weeks off in February and would come down to visit with them. They would take us out on a tour of The Villages and we knew that this was the place for us.

I retired in July 2009 and my wife in January 2010. February 2010 we were back down in The Villages, bought our home and closed in March 2010 and as many posters said -- "The Rest Is History".

Convinced my brother-in-law and sister-in-law to buy last year and again -- "The Rest Is History"!!

We had selected home to buy in Fernandina Beach on Amelia Island and were previewing our daily life there and were coming up short after several days. We were at the hotel pool discussing our concern that it seemed dull. Happened to be talking to a then Villager who suggested we visit The Villages. They described it but came up real short in convincing us. Several months later we visited and were Highly impressed. Came back 6 months later and bought.

After reading this book I just had to visit The Villages.

A friend of mine knew she wanted to buy a retirement home in Florida, and she had heard about The Villages from a teacher colleague of hers. I came along with my friend to The Villages when she went on her initial house hunting trip in 2010. I was so intrigued and pleased by what I saw in The Villages from my first trip in 2010. My friend purchased her home in The Villages in 2010, moved down full time in 2011, and she is a happy frog.

I have been back to TV several times since that first visit in 2010, renting in a different village each time to get a feel of what living in different villages is like. My long term goal is to live in a place where I won't need a snow shovel, ice melt for the sidewalk or an ice scraper for my car. I certainly hope to make TV my home someday. It is a wonderful place!

We were getting work done on our motorhome at Alliance Coach in Wildwood.. While it was being repaired, they told us to take a ride and see Disney World for Adults, aka The Villages.

Long story short, we did, found our new house, sold the motorhome and never looked back. :wave::wave:

TV commercial and then sent for the DVD.

I was a flag twirler in our high school band and we made the trip to perform in Disney World in 1974 when I was a junior. Disney World looked very different 40 years ago and so did I :)

We had bought an ocean front condo Feb 2012, came to the Villages to see a Polo Match, stayed one night bought our house---moved in three weeks later, the condo was sold 6 months later

I knew I wanted to end up in FL after doing numerous house/cat-sitting stints for a family friend in Winter Park. As retirement arrived, the 55+ concept looked good. 55+ and Florida almost always brings up The Villages in conversation. We were not golfers so had never heard of TV. Several of our tennis friends knew people who had moved here. "So, where is it" .... "It's The Villages" ... "Where?" .... "It's a city unto itself". Did my web research, looked at a couple of other developments, this was the last stop on our 5 day Florida visit and the only place both of us liked. Came back that summer to rent in July just to sample the summer heat. Bought a house by July 7th. 8+ years ago and still loving every day here.

On the way to spring training baseball games. We left a day early intending to stop in Sarasota to look around as a possible retirement area. Had heard of The Villages so made a detour. It was late afternoon on a Sunday. Saw the sign for the Sales Center @ LSL, so thought maybe pick up a brochure out front. Oh no. They were open for business. Spent the night, toured with wonderful agent next day, and came back the following Friday. 1 year and several visits later we bought.

Good friends lived here and loved it.