Some on this site are saying TV housing has appreciated as much 100% in a year. Certainly the dollar has not deflated by 50%.

Footnote - today's stock market was invented in Amsterdam in 1611. The first commodity bubble was tulips. Owning tulips bulbs was a status symbol for the rich and famous. The demand for bulbs went crazy. Investors buying and selling without ever taking procession of a tulip bulb. One particular kind of bulb sold $76000. In 1630 people started to loose interest in tulip bulbs plus the horticulturists were developing bulbs as fast as possible (increase supply). In 1630 it took a mere 6 weeks for the tulip market to crash and loose 90%. Suddenly tulips were no longer accepted as a financial instrument.

So why the story - I'm tired of these 10 cent millionaires here in TV brag about the value of their IRIS, GARDENIA, Etc. It is meaningless and like tulips they don't take houses in the supermarket in exchange for food.

We LIVE by the choices WE make. As far as bonds, in the old days people would could build a treasury bond ladder. Treasuries were secure and paid the rate of inflation plus 2%. You paid federal tax on the interest so you had zero risk and were mostly even after paying the federal tax. Those days, that option does not exist for us. CPI is 8% treasuries are paying. last time I looked 1.7% and that is before TAX

Everyone's finances are different. Truth, REALITY, many do not understand what they have, what they need and their level of risk. Average? You can look up the national debt clock. TRUTH I need to collect my courage to look. As I recall the average American has 10,000 in savings and owes 85,000. That is actually OLD, As stated I've not look in along time. People in the Villages are not AVERAGE.

As far as BONDS. A bond fund that pays more than, normal investment grade bonds,
is invested in some lower grade bonds, some bond that mature in 100 years and are leveraged-they borrow against bonds they hold to buy more bonds. Far more risk than many realize they have taken on.

As said, we live with the choices we have made. Sale of a stock, a bond, a home etc, you are buying it from someone who has chosen to sell it. The Villages started as a trailer park. Homes are now selling on a regular basis for half a million. No one is right all the time. You increase your money, your wealth by being right more often than being wrong.

So tell these nice people that they don't know what they are doing.
https://www.talkofthevillages.com/fo...8-post145.html

There are people who can manage the scenario quite nicely, pocketing the excess premium and sitting and waiting for better prices. .

your history is irrelevant to the point of excessively high valuation currently

Yes, and then the bottom fell out in 2008. People walked away from their homes because they now were worth less than what they purchased it for. I couldn’t believe that wouldn’t just wait until the market came back around, which it always did. I bought in 2000 because the prices were going up so fast. I couldn’t afford to pay any higher so I took the plunge and sold my condo and bought a single family again. That was up north.

It's not just here the prices going beyond what we thought was possible....Cape Cod(MA.) is seeing the same thing.....something purchased in 2019 and add $200K to the price and not because someone added a pool or even painted a room....just what is happening. In the case of Cape Cod prices had always been lower than other towns nearer Boston.....maybe it was time for them to catch up....another place to retire to....opps....not so much now.

During the housing bubble burst starting in 2006 I was living in Newport Beach, CA and driving a Porsche. The same dealer also sold and serviced Bentleys. I remember taking my vehicle in for service and seeing a dozen or more Bentley convertibles sitting out front in their overflowing lot. Although I had noticed one or two Bentley convertibles in the lot before there had never been nearly this many. I asked my service manager why there were so many. He said "Oh, those are the mortgage brokers' cars." Mortgage brokers back then in CA were raking in hundreds of thousands of dollars per year and of course their income dried up so they were forced to turn in their leased Bentleys. lol

In October 2009 I first visited The Villages. Prices had come down some off their peak. I heard tales about how a few years before The Villages had set up a couple of tents to accommodate all the prospective buyers as a feeding frenzy was on. If this source is correct TV sold 4,263 new homes in 2005. That translates to almost 12 house a day, a new house every 2 hours 24/7. The Villages New Home Sales: 2003-Present | Inside The Bubble

That was due to the "sub-prime" mortgage fiasco. People with zero credit history were being given mortgages and when prices went up, they took the equity out of their homes and were SHOCKED when they couldn't pay it back...

Most people who were simply "under water" just waited it out, paid their mortgage and were fine...

15-16 years ago was also the beginning of the huge wave of "Baby Boomer" retirements...

Some houses have appreciated almost 100% in the last few years. That is how much I was offered for my house, but it is a moot point as I don’t plan to sell for some time. Your house is worth what people are willing to pay for it.

They lowered the price to $688,500.

Many 2/2 Courtyard Villas esp. south of 466 are going for the high $300's lately! A 3/2 CV just went pending at around $700K in Amberjack.

The millage rate will be adjusted if assessments go up just as back North. - I hope

Once the rampant speculation ends, and the collapse and taxpayer bailouts come, the Federal Reserve will once again say that no one could have possibly seen it coming, and its endless stream of cheap money was not at fault.

The shifting of the tax burden from Florida residents to snow birds will accelerate because the assessed value of a Florida resident's home can only increase by a maximum of 3 percent per year while the sky is the limit for a snow bird's home.

That depends upon your definition of "snowbird".. a resident of Florida can spend a lot of time out of state, and maintain their residency, and hence, get the benefit of homestead exemptions.