I live in Hawkins. The road noise is mild on some days/nights and loud on others. It depends on the weather that given day.

During the day, you don't really pay any attention to it.

During the evening, if you sit out, it can be loud at times.

Sometimes, inside the house, you can hear the din of road noise.

It doesn't make me want to move, but if I knew last year what I know now, I might have looked at other Villages and pre-owned.


I live 1/2 mile from Turnpike.

I live 1.25 miles from Saw Grass.

I'm really interested to see if Saw Grass will be a nightly music venue. There are so many homes adjacent, that the road noise might be a mild concern once the venue opens.

Here's one thing I learned about the new construction homes near the turnpike. I've been searching for months for an existing or new spec home and just finally gave up searching for now.
Starting last year with St. Catherine, then Citrus Grove, Cason Hammock, Hawkins and now St.John's, TV would release several homes a day for sale. If you are actively working with a sales rep you get the list sent to you. If you're interested in buying one on the list, the rep has to place a 3-hour hold on it for you. If your rep is the first one to "hold" the listing you pay a deposit and close in 30 days. Most sell the same day they are released. Then, just DAYS after these listings go "pending" I would see a new post in TV rental FB group with "Be the first to rent this brand new home! Available in April."
Looks like a good majority are being bought up by investors for rentals. :(

There are three things some realest agent, and some salespeople that cannot hide.
 

One is a lot of smoke and mirror comments, 2.agrussive sales tacts.3. tell you what you what to here. That is why you should do your due diligence before you any home any where.

Few and far between days are spent sitting on lanai Too hot. Too cold. Too buggy.

I thought lanais in TV are screened.
Screened-in patios, or lanais, are fully enclosed with aluminum framing and screens. The screens prevent pests such as mosquitoes, wasps, no-see-ums, and other insects from entering the patio and bothering you while you are sitting outside.

Yes they are enclosed by screens but our western exposed lanai gets too hot in summre and too cold in winter.

As a result we converted to a Florida room with double E glass to make it livable all year round.

Grew up near JFK airport and lots of times we had to listen to planes taking off and landing. No way do I buy a house near a major highway.

Would go to the area at various times of the day and listen and listen and listen.

There's a constant hum. Plus the tractor trailers with it's joyful noises.

That is definitely a factor as well. My wife and I are newly retired as well and age is a factor. (62 & 58).

We can see the highway from the house, and the noise is not a problem most times, just low background noise if out front watching a softball game. BUT I can hear the trains at night through closed windows in Marsh Bend, and I could hear that noise every morning as a kid from the railroad 3-4 miles away. just the click and clack . . and I have no problem with it. . .

its a personal preference, so please do your personal research at your location, which gets hard as you might need to camp out to get the various times of day and commute versus weekend, summer versus winter

We actually looked at a house in Pine Ridge and it was very quiet with hardly any noise. All looked good until we saw what the taxes were. Once we pay the higher price the taxes be actually be higher than we are paying currently in upstate NY on a 37 acre property. I'm not sure if Lake County taxes are so much higher but we were shocked.

Did the previous owners take homestead exemption - will you? Will you establish FLA residency and pay FLA state income tax rate vs NY rate?

Yes. We would live in Fl and use the homestead exception. But after you add in the bond and amenity fees it's more than we can afford. We had always assumed that
the FL taxes would be much less and then when you add in the additional Villages fees it would pretty much be a push to what we are paying now.
We assumed about $1200 a month without a mortgage and that is doable.
The home we were looking at was on Pope Pl and the current taxes are $7200 without the increase after the sale. That is what we are paying now in NY. We understand that FL expenses are bit a less.
What is the Homestead discount a year?

Also check the cost of the bond for those houses south of 44 compared to homes north of 44. It's another sneaky 'tax' that people are willing to ignore.