You may want to consider working with a Realtor and focus on pre owned houses without a bond

We could not afford to buy our own house right now. The days of selling your house up north and moving to Florida into a cheaper house and pocket the profits are long gone unfortunately.

Flgagg, I noticed you were at Elgin AFB and that’s some of the reason I’m quoting you. I have a long time friend who lives in the area of Eglin. His neighbor sold her home thinking she could take a bit a geographical cure so to speak. Turns out she cannot find another home nor could she even afford to purchase the home she sold last year. Your examples of your friends I believe is happening more often than not in 2021.

I wasn't making the point that nobody is buying a house as a monetary investment, I was asking specifically if that was the intention at this point. Who knows how buying anything right now will work as a monetary investment? Not me, not you, not anyone.

My point was that if buying now, at the current prices is affordable, and one has reached the point in life where quality of life is more important than getting a bargain, one shouldn't beat themselves up over not having done it 2 years ago, because that train has left the station. Certainly, however, if buying a home now feels like "throwing one's money away", one shouldn't do it.

I wish I'd bought Apple stock when my dad suggested it to me about 20 years ago. I didn't. That doesn't mean it wasn't a good buy 12 years ago, or 8 years ago, or 5 years ago. You can only do what makes sense to you right now, and not agonize over opportunities missed because you didn't have a Stu's crystal ball, (which by the way, he says is broken now anyway).

In south Florida the home prices then plummeted as high as 50%. In TV the hit was only 10%.

The Prices of Homes are CRAZY!
You can feel that, but the solution is NOT to wait, unless you think prices will be less later. Current trends indicate The Villages is increasingly popular. If you buy now, you are likely to be very happy with the value of your house in subsequent years. I am a new home owner here, and have no regrets.
Pres

Lancaster? Pa?

I have friends who had sold their Lantana on a cul-de-sac in Mallory for full price in July, 2020. The new buyers had to move back north and listed the house about three weeks ago.They had 11 showings and 3 offers on the first day. They sold it for $165,000 more than they purchased it for 18 months ago!

If this is an example of the pricing of homes in The Villages, it would seem prudent to wait until supply caught up with demand before deciding to move here.

The dog must have written this. He doesn't have spell-check on his computer. LOL

Prices in the Villages only seem to go up. Granted this rise is a bit steep. If you are sure you want to buy here, know the area you want to live, you probably shouldn't wait. Good luck.

Not long gone for me up north. Sold my condo for $1000 per sq foot and some homes here can be as low as $130 per sq foot. Huge bargain and no snowstorms!

The chief way people afford houses here is buying them ten or twenty years ago. Then, if they want to move elsewhere in The Villages, as their home has gained in value, maybe even doubling, they can afford the upgrade. Lots of people come here and pay cash for homes because they sold their home elsewhere after owning it a couple decades and had a lot of equity to put on a new home.

Or say you are married, and you and your spouse each earned $75,000 a year, and combined, you now have $5,000 a month in Social Security. If you also have a couple hundred thousand in home equity, you can afford most houses in The Villages with a mortgage. Or say you are single and have $3,000 a month in Social Security and a pension of $2,000 a month. Again, if you have owned a home for years and have a lot of equity, you can afford most homes here.

If you are single and have $2,000 a month in Social Security and no home equity and no pension or investments, then it would be very difficult to live here. There are plenty of people here who live on that, but they moved here years ago and live pretty frugally. Also, a lot of people take jobs as, say, waitresses or check-out clerks or guards at the gates or at the front desks in recreation centers. Many clear $1,000 to $2,000 a month that way and enjoy the activity and meeting people. Some do that into their eighties.

You do realize there are plenty of other Senior communities besides the villages? Just four miles west of Brownwood is a perfectly wonderful place called Pennbrooke Fairways with 27 holes of golf. 1200 homes and the people are very nice. Homes here are anywhere from $150,000 to $300,000. You don't get free call for life but you save $100 to $200,000 on a house and the HOA fees include cable and internet which will save you another $1,000 a year at least.

Buy
 

The thing about TV is that there will always be people retiring. It’s nonstop and it keeps TV in demand. In 2008 sales slowed, but prices didn’t really drop much. If you want to live here, you buy now. Our new houses closes escrow early July. We bought it on a zoom call walk-thru with our realtor, who notified us within 2 hours of it going on the market. You have to be ready to move FAST! When we finally made it here and saw the house we bought, it was even more beautiful than the pictures! However, that same floor plan increased in price by $60K, just during the 6 months we have been watching the homes here. We almost were priced out of that floor plan and had to stretch our budget in the end to get it. The great thing about newly built homes in TV, is the price is the price. No haggling. If you buy a resale home, be prepared to go way over asking price to get in a bidding war.

Most living here did not buy "as an investment"...

They bought a place to spend their "golden years" in comfort and in the lifestyle they wanted...

If your house appreciates, what are you going to do with the money? Other than give it to your kids/grandkids?

Last I checked, I've never seen a Brinks truck in a funeral procession...

Buy what you can afford, let the market do what it does...