Thinking about your current hometown. What do you like about where you live? Do you want to be in the center of your town? Or do you wish you were more convenient to shopping? Maybe closer to major roadways & highways? After all, once you are settled in, this becomes your hometown. Being able to easily get to conveniences may be more important than nightly music, boutiques & bars!
Come down & check it out! You’ll love it! Good luck!

With any IMPORTANT decision, information over load is a common, a normal state of affairs.

Realize it is all a matter of OPINION. Add to that what I call decision bias. I did that, my decision was/is the best. That applies to all.

They have the villages trial. They rent you a new property at reasonably low cost. We had a PLAN, we had TIME. We did that three times, over three years. The old expression and there are many with the same wisdom-measure twice and cut once.

Assuming there is more than one involved. I would suggest writing your thoughts down and then switching lists and discussing in. Writing things down makes people think and eliminate emotion. LOCATION, LOCATION, LOCATION. My wife has a license, she drives a golf cart and does it well. I don't know why but she will not drive a car. I would not be happy dropping her off for the this club, or that club or whatever. Where we are,
we have three grocery stores, two with in roughly 3 miles. The third is ????? about 9 miles and she/we go by golf cart. We have the library and government offices three miles away. Three pools, a walk to one of the larger rec centers and a mile or three to several more. Everything is a compromise including budget.

Yes, prices are going up. For many, assuming you have a home you will or have sold to move here, that too is or has gone up. The increased cost here is of set by the cost of staying where you are. Many forget or ignore that reality.

I used to think the same way about the age thing, but first hand experience has proven otherwise. We live between LSL and SS and in the last 6 plus years I have observed a significant change in our neighborhood. When we moved in we were the youngsters in a rather old neighborhood. The aging related housing turnover has been rapid. Our neighborhood has transformed into a relatively young age relative to other parts of the Villages, and we are now about average to slightly older in our neighborhood. With the rate of housing turnover, in a few short years, the North of 466 area could be one of the younger age populated areas within the Villages.

I agree. Unless you actually experience it, you won't get the "feel". Rent one for a month and really visit as many open houses as you can. To each their own.

Take the bus
 

There are tour busses that highlight each section. I took the bus and toured the different sections and settled on the Lake Sumter area. Why. 22 minutes by golf cart to Spanish Springs, 25 minutes to Brownwood. 15 minutes either way by car to major chain shopping. Home Depot, Lowes, you name it. Do you golf? 30+ courses available by golf cart under 30 minutes, most under 20. I can enjoy all 3 town center by golf cart. Regional rec centers are 10 minutes from me. Doctors offices, dentist, chiropractors, drug stores, all about 10 minutes by cart. I agree with one of the posters. You have NO idea until you come here and experience it.

Plan to come down at least twice, for a week or two.

Rent in different areas. Travel around, see what you like about different areas.
Hard to judge variables based on the internet. For example, some of the places around Brownwood are probably close to the turnpike, but you can’t hear the traffic.

Have to agree on the renting comment. Ours is a later in life marriage and we moved here from Tampa and Orlando with a lot of history and knowledge on TV. But we did not make the more serious decisions on what type of house to buy and in what area until we actually lived here for 90 days.

We rented a Villa by Colony just north of 466A (new construction back in 2013 was just south of 466A) , and my wife went to work while I spent the morning on the computer and the afternoon driving by the most promising. Then on Saturday we would get with our realtor for actual tours. Market was about as hot back then as it is today so we never had a long time to think about any house which is why you need to be here to make any real decisions on the house and location.

In the first month, we looked at what activities we liked (tennis, country club golf and polo for example) and thus decided that we wanted north of 466 first and between 466 and 466A second as we liked the older areas and have never regretted it -- probably because we took out time making the decisions on what house and where.

I have a shop off of property for my car hobby (no TV homes we can afford support 7 cars), but other than that, our designer in Chatham is great for us.

Just the thoughts of one 8 year resident.

You can't understand or appreciate The Villages until you've been here. Don't overthink this. Once you're here for awhile and with a good Villages Representative you'll have a much better appreciation of the community. Believe me the good Representatives do not pressure you. Then if you want you can go home and do additional research. It will make a lot more sense.

It's hard to go wrong with your choice of Villages. The developers have made great efforts to make it an active retirement paradise everywhere. If extraneous sound is a concerned you may want to not be near railroads (west side), pickleball courts, town squares (music finishes at 9 though), and yappy dog neighbours. The north has more mature trees, the south has more nature trails. But as it has been said, take your time, visit all around for a month and you'll figure it out.

Having not visited yet I'm curious what about Fenny makes it too noisy. Can't be the turnpike. What about the location of your friends home makes it noisy?

Noise is a major concern of mine and until I visit all I have to go by is looking at a map and speculating on what might be a problem.

Having said that I've lived near Logan airport for 20 years and I barely notice the planes unless they are flying right over head.

Brownwood is nowhere near the turnpike. SR 44 runs on the south side of the Brownwood Town Square, but I'm not familiar with any houses that are close enough to 44 to hear traffic. US 301 is too far away to hear traffic as well. North of Brownwood, on the extreme west side of TV there may be an issue with train whistles.

This place is so large that forums like TOTV cannot begin to describe it. Definitely come for a visit and take in as much as you can, but better yet, if feasible, rent for a month or 2. I bought my house on the 4th day of my lifestyle visit, but I was already familiar with TV---my brother, my niece's in-laws, and an employee all lived here. I wouldn't advise that for a neophyte.

Fenney is not noisy. Come see for yourself.

There are just too many variables. Visiting is the key to your choice. Eventually 470 (which was renamed Central Parkway recently) will be the “halfway point”. But who knows? We just moved to Citrus Grove because of amenities that have been confirmed (hospital, Eastport, Eziel, Sawgrass, etc.). But I have to tell you, I am very concerned about the lack of retail and chain restaurants down here. Hopefully when Meggison and 470 meet that will open up some retail to the east…

March/April next year.

You are right, if you buy south of 44, in time you will be in the middle of the villages. Look at the developers map and it shows the boundary lines of the villages and it’s much farther east and south compared to now. Check out Golden Wingnut YouTube videos on what areas are being developed now and in the next couple of years. There are no secrets, they start grading the new areas a couple of years in advance. We live in St Catherine south of 44 and according to the videos, work has started many miles east of the dead end road near us which is probably 2 years out before homes being sold