[bamafan]

Remember this: Everybody wants to move to Florida when they retire. Its been this way for a lot of years, where was the variable. Now there isTV in the mix and what have you got? A viable market. Slow yes, but viable.

[Barefoot]

TV sells the most inventory in Jan/Feb/March, so there is a busy time coming up!!
I agree many of the resales are overpriced and they will probably be taken off the market when the time comes to relist as the sellers aren't prepared to be realistic. There are many resales which are priced to sell, some with bonds paid, and they do.

These factors may just lead to a significant decrease in inventory, which equals stable prices.

Also, when comparing resales to new, many people neglect to add the bond to the purchase price to get a true price. We bought a resale with bond paid. Just be sure you're comparing apples to apples.

Good luck!

[sandi]

Just to let you know if you are thinking about buying new I was able to close a deal yesterday on a designer home not only with the 10% furniture deal but they sold the home with no bond attached. They said I saved over 20K. Don't know if this is on every home but it's worth looking into.

[GERALDINE]

Dear Barefoot at Last:

You are so right to encourage prospective new residents of TV to compare "Apples to Apples". Many "wannabees" are crying in their beer that resales are overpriced, but they're not doing their homework and making the TRUE comparisons you are talking about.

When prospective new residents are looking at new homes down here...they need to ADD on the price of the bond...which in the new areas is more that 2.5 times (and going up weekly!!) what it was in the "new" areas in 2005. This is a CONSIDERABLE amount of $$$. Yes, the price of new homes "looks" good and the incentives "look" good, but think about it...are the developers really going to give you something for nothing? Don't think so!!! Somewhere along the line...you're paying for it. Friends from up north recently purchased new in Duvall and had so many extra and hidden costs (all given impressive names) in their closing costs (Much more than we had 2 years ago) it was a joke...not to mention a $28K bond on a ranch home. By the time it was all said and done even they had to admit they had been "Taken Down The Road" and would have been much better off buying one of the "overpriced" re-sales they had looked a...which, in the end, turned out to be NOT so overpriced after all. We tried to tell them...but the "fairy dust" in the air plugged their auditory canals. Now they're making daily trips to Lowes and Home Depot to add all the things they didn't get with their NEW home and calling around to get landscaping, blinds, garage door openers, floor done in garage attic...all of which would have come already done in one of the "overpriced" resales. AHHHHHH as they say, hindsight is 20/20!!!!

Bottom line: Compare "Apples to Apples" as Barefoot at Last suggests.

[GERALDINE]

Originally Posted by sandi

Just to let you know if you are thinking about buying new I was able to close a deal yesterday on a designer home not only with the 10% furniture deal but they sold the home with no bond attached. They said I saved over 20K. Don't know if this is on every home but it's worth looking into.

EXCUUUUUUUUSE ME??? You bought a new house with NO bond attached, 10% in "Free" furniture and you only saved $20K? Someone is feeding you a line here. Bonds are running in the $25K to $28K now so someone sucked up a lot of your "savings"...if you know what I mean. Uh, maybe the bank in "closing costs"? It all goes into the same pot.

To other Village Residents: How can the developers sell homes with NO bond while the rest of us are paying them? I think I'll be doing some calling on this one. Maybe they'll take my bond back and reimburse me the difference???

[Atlanta0744]

The developer can sell for any amount he wants to, doesn’t matter what someone else paid for the homes before. What Sandi might of meant is the bond value was taken off of the selling price that would make more sense. You then have the option of paying it off with the savings. At least that was the deal made to me. The bottom line is we’re living where we want to be, right?

[poromo]

Sandi,
Did you buy a designer on the golf course or was it an interior lot? Since the golf course homes are so much more expensive than the interior homes, perhaps TV will pay for the bond in order to sell the house. Good luck and congratulations on your great deal!

[JohnN]

JKP - you bought your house for whatever you agreed. I'd be incredibly surprised if you accomplish much by calling the developer but good luck. They can sell houses today however they choose. And while I understand new homes don't have upgrades that resales may have, many folks want to choose that stuff based on their tastes, not the previous owners.

For my circumstances, it's still 50-50 whether I go new or resale. I'll see what's out there when I bring my checkbook.

[diskman]

johnn

jkp thinks a resale is the only answer. As I stated previously 'IT IS A BUYERS MARKET"
LARRY

[GERALDINE]

Diskman:

No way do I think buying a re-sale is the only way. You're all right in saying that "many" of the re-sales are overpriced and not necessarily in any way upgraded. All I'm saying is that anyone considering buying and moving to The Villages, needs to compare "Apples to Apples". ie: Look at a new house in the style you want and then look at a preowned in the style you want. Now set down and make a list of what the pre-owned has that the new doesn't have and compare, compare, compare...add up prices of adding things to the new and again, compare, compare, compare.( Also....have your real estate agent give you a list of the true closing costs you will be paying on the new house. In a lot of instances ( 2 friends who purcased since the "free" furniture thing came out) there are a lot of "hidden and unexplained" (ie: Admin fees, look-up fees, etc.) "funny" charges that show up on the final closing docs that could be a way to make up for what the developer is giving away in "free" stuff.

FYI...also, I checked with Property of the Villages and they said they are NOT selling houses with no bond attached. They said ALL CDDs...of which there are many in the state of Florida...MUST disclose the amount of the bond on any property sold. NOW...here's the catch...IF it happens to be a house or property that for whatever reason is not selling and is, perhaps in an undesirable location or style (I'm NOT necessarily referring to TV or to the person in this forum who said they bought a Designer with no bond so don't send me nasty emails!!) the developer COULD opt to pay the bond off for the prospective purchaser. They said, bottom line is that EVERY house comes with a bond attached but anybody can pay it off.

[diskman]

JKP
with you on the word compare. Any one who purchases a home must do a lot of comparison shopping. Compare models between the various ones the builder offers.
Compare a new to the same model used. Compare the costs, the room sizes etc.
Compare like models between new and used. The used homes have amenities you may or may not like,in colors you may or may not like & with yards you may or may not like.
However bottom line the USED RESALE IS USED and may not deserve the price being asked for a brand new home which you may want to pick the exact color, size amenity
therefore the resale house has to be priced right to encourage you to accept it as it is.[/color]NUFF SAID.
Larry

[JohnN]

Diskman Larry,

Also, a resale has a few years of use on the roof, HVAC, etc. plus the nailholes in the walls which the owners tend to overlook in their comparing to new homes. Little stuff, but important in it's way.

[diskman]

John you are absolutely right I forgot that item but, JFK is set in his ways he won't bend and so his house will be out there for a long long time.
Thanks for your 2cents :bow:
Larry

[LG]

Originally Posted by diskman

JKP
with you on the word compare. Any one who purchases a home must do a lot of comparison shopping. Compare models between the various ones the builder offers.
Compare a new to the same model used. Compare the costs, the room sizes etc.
Compare like models between new and used. The used homes have amenities you may or may not like,in colors you may or may not like & with yards you may or may not like.
However bottom line the USED RESALE IS USED and may not deserve the price being asked for a brand new home which you may want to pick the exact color, size amenity
therefore the resale house has to be priced right to encourage you to accept it as it is.[/color]NUFF SAID.
Larry

GUESS YOU HAVE NOT PURCHESED A NEW HOME IN THE VILLAGES... YOU DO NOT GET TO CHOOSE ANYTHING.. THEY ARE ALL SPEC HOMES. NO BLINDS OR FANS TOO

[chuckinca]

A newspaper article in today's Sunday paper says that "there's a lot of real estate amnesia out there" -

LA's market boomed thru the 80's until late 1990 and it took until 2000 (ten years) before prices matched those in 1990.

Houston's "Oil Patch" bust started in 1983 and took 14 1/2 years to recover.

Boston's technology jobs dried up and the real estate market was down from 1989 until 1998.

These are isolated events and probably don't apply to a nationwide long term market correction; but then again, its been nearly two years since the bubble burst with predictions of it continuing into 2009.