[Lisanp@aol.com]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

The developer does not control the CPI but he does control the amenity fees

I did read, did you? The amenity fees are tied to, and raised (or lowered) by, the CPI the month of the original purchase date of the property. The developer sets the amenity fee at the time of purchase, not thereafter.

[Dr Winston O Boogie jr]

Originally Posted by jimdecastro

When I was looking at TV, I asked my Dad about a month before he died about its size as a concern. His answer (paraphrased).

"It is not a 100,000 people in a city, it is 50 or so communities. You will know many of yours but not many 2-3 Villages away. In West Islip, you don't even know the guy down the block. Put another way, I lived in Brooklyn. But I didn't grow up in Brooklyn - or even Williamsburg. I grew up on Stockholm St."

Wise Man.

I always think of The Villages in that way. Most people use the rec centers, pools, tennis and pickle ball courts, softball fields and golf course in their area. People from the Spanish Springs area normally would think of going to Brownwood unless there is something extraordinary going on there. People south of 44 generally don't go to Spanish Springs Town Square. Everyone seems to stay in their Village or at least their area. It's exactly why although The Villages is approaching 150,000 residents it still feels like a small town.

Before anyone disagrees they should consider whether they've lived in a city of 150,000 people or even 100,000 people. Believe me, it's much different than what we have here.

[Bill14564]

Originally Posted by Lisanp@aol.com

I did read, did you? The amenity fees are tied to, and raised (or lowered) by, the CPI the month of the original purchase date of the property. The developer sets the amenity fee at the time of purchase, not thereafter.

So you mean the amenity fee I am paying was set by the developer then increases by the CPI? And the amenity fee you are paying was set by the developer and the increased by the CPI? And the amenity fee that will be paid by a new purchaser has been set by the developer and will then be increased by the CPI?

So it seems the amenity fee is “set by the developer” but not controlled by the developer.

EDIT: And then there is the decision to implement an amenity fee deferral rate by the VCCDD and SLCDD (as the RAD and SLAD upon recommendation by the AAC and PWAC). Some might consider that to be developer control of the amenity fee as well.

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by SusanStCatherine

Why are Premier homes no longer being built? Why are custom Designer homes now limited to very few options despite a huge new design center in Brownwood?

Good question and it has a twofold answer about the designer homes. As I have predicted in my video #122 there will be premier homes later this year in Dabney. As for why they stopped after the Conservation Trail area, hard to say but looking at some of the areas like DeLuna, Richmond, StC, StJ, and Hawkins, there were not a lot of good/desirable locations for the premier homes.

As for the designer homes, here goes.
Reason #1 - there were a handful of designer homes built in the last 18 months that have stressed the system with long design timelines and because of the level of customizations longer than average construction times. This has led to isolated homes still under construction in villages/areas that were otherwise complete. This led to difficulties of access and parking of construction vehicles and because of their isolated nature, inefficient manpower usage. To remedy this they've reduced the customizations allowed to get the crews all working in the same areas and not be spread across 4 or 5 villages.
Reason #2 - many of the designer homes that were heavily customized and riveled or exceeded some premier homes. I've personally taken pictures of no less than 5 homes over 3000sqft and one over 4000sqft in the last year. With the release of premier homes coming and their higher price tag, allowing extensive customization of the designer homes (at a lower overall price) would erode the number of potential buyers of this new offering. Lowering the limits for customization for designer homes now raises the demand for premier homes. A business decision was made.

[Goldwingnut]

[QUOTE=rustyp;2197719]

Originally Posted by LuvNH

The canary in the coal mine will be when the flowers go to a semi annual change Vs quarterly. Be astute.

What does this have to do with the developer? The CDD board of Supervisors would make that decision and the developer would have no say in the matter. With the exception of 2 supervisors on CDD13 all the supervisors in CDD1-13 are residents and not developer appointed (oops - Land Owner Elected).

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

By the way, there is no HOA in the Villages.

But I do wonder which CDD pays for the flowers. If each of the numbered CDDs each pay for them directly then fine. If the PWAC / SLCDD then that's a different story.

The flowers are paid for through 4 basic avenues:
1. around the amenities - postal stations, gate houses, pools, rec centers - from the Amenity Funds (SLAD & RAD)
2. in common areas like the traffic circles on Morse & BV, and other major thoroughfares - this comes out of the PWF south of 466, north of 466 from the CDD1-4 individual budgets.
3. areas such as cul de sac, villa entries, and other minor areas in the individual CDD - directly from the CDD budget
4. town square areas - these are paid for by the maintenance assessments on the buildings (the occupying tenant businesses), these assessments are 10 to 12 times higher per square foot of floor space than is paid by the residents in the CDDs

Item 1 - you pay for from your monthly amenity fees.
Items 2 & 3 - you pay for from the residential maintenance assessments included in your annual property tax bill.
Item 4 - you pay for out of the costs for every dinner, drink, dress, and bobble you purchase when you do business in the town squares.

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Bill14564

So you mean the amenity fee I am paying was set by the developer then increases by the CPI? And the amenity fee you are paying was set by the developer and the increased by the CPI? And the amenity fee that will be paid by a new purchaser has been set by the developer and will then be increased by the CPI?

So it seems the amenity fee is “set by the developer” but not controlled by the developer.

EDIT: And then there is the decision to implement an amenity fee deferral rate by the VCCDD and SLCDD (as the RAD and SLAD upon recommendation by the AAC and PWAC). Some might consider that to be developer control of the amenity fee as well.

Once you purchase your home - new or resale - the amenity fee thereafter is adjusted by the CPI adjustment - this is both good and bad, good in that it helps keep up with inflation and rising costs, unfortunately the CPI is a political football in Washington and what is used to determine it and the methodology to calculate it is tweaked and a regular basis by politicians to meet their agenda and spin. It never keeps up with the true rising costs. The SLAD and RAD budgets must live within these CPI adjustments to their revenue, even as they fall short of the actual rising costs of running the amenities. There is no discretionary adjustments allowed under your deed restrictions, contrary to what many think. This continued shortfall was one of the reasons that the deferral rate was not renewed - yes it had to be renewed each year by the AAC/PWAC/SLAD/RAD, it was never a perpetual cap as many believe. Had it not been removed the two amenity districts would have been cumulatively over $20M in the hole this year (drawing down repair and replacement reserves).

The developer owns all the amenities south of 44, it is a business unit for them, and like any business has to maintain it books and budgets in a profitable (that's not a dirty word) condition. For them, the amenity fees have to cover utilities, maintenance, staffing, supplies, repairs, taxes, an amortized construction cost, and of course a profit. This a real-world cost determination not the fantasy that Washington's CPI adjustment magically determines. So each year the assess their costs and determine a prevailing rate that is necessary to meet the financial goals, this is the adjustment we see come out every January that applies to all homes sold following its effective date.

For the SLAD/RAD budgets, this developer adjustment to the prevailing rate is a huge plus as it acts as a reset that helps to overcome the shortfalls of the CPI adjustments as I discussed above, each time a home is resold.

I explain most of this in my videos https://youtu.be/RDjafwcRtQg and https://youtu.be/EsFulbLR32w


As a side note, when/if the developer decides to sell the amenities to the CDD, what was once profit and taxes in the budget becomes the money that pays off the bond used to purchase the amenities from the developer.

After the PWAC was given the responsibility of the amenity budget for 466-44 I did some pretty complex calculations and financial projections on cost to build and operate the amenities and recovery of costs to finally achieve profitability. Based on the information available at the time, current cost, and adjustment to previous costs for inflations, I calculated that it took between 12 and 15 years from delivery of the first amenity until the business unit actually turned an annual profit and nearly 20 years to achieve a net profit. This is because the costs are incurred before the revenue from the home sales in the new areas start to come in. An example of this is the approximate $4M it cost to build the Fenny Rec Center complex which was opened at about the same time the first homes were sold, the revenue the first few years because of the few homes fell way short of actual expenses and is only just now starting to achieve a net profit for this one property however the entire area south of 44 is still operating at a net loss (based on my previous calculations).

These amenities are of course an investment, one that pays off handsomely in the sales of homes and ultimately in the sale of the amenities to the CDD. When will they sell the amenities to the CDD, had to say but a best estimate would be about 3-5 years after the last home is built north of 470 the amenities between 44 and 470 would be sold to the Eastport commercial CDD. Yes, this is pure conjecture on my part, it's based on the timing of the two previous amenity sales to VCCDD and SLCDD.

Last thought, the desire to implement a deferral rate again by some members of the AAC was pure folly and little more than political pandering by some board members. The implementation would have cost the AAC millions, not just in the first year but in all successive years as each year there would be the recurring shortfall each year with no way to make up the deferred revenues - they didn't get a pay raise, but prices still went up, they don't get a double pay raise the following year, so the shortfall still exists. Fortunately, most of the PWAC saw through the folly of this idea and dismissed it. Had this been approved by AAC and PWAC (it would require both to approve, one cannot approve and the other disapprove due to stipulations in the governing establishing documents), both the VCCDD and the SLAD are staffed by intelligent businessmen (ignore gender inference if you must) and they most assuredly would have disapproved it as they are still ultimately responsible for the amenities and budgets.

[Goldwingnut]

There are other posts in this thread that I'll respond to in new threads as they are deserving of the distinction to be addressed separately. I'll tackle these after the Spring Thing happening on Saturday (3/18) at the Polo fields, when I have some free time to address them (stand by for the next chapter!).

[rustyp]

/////

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Dr Winston O Boogie jr

I always think of The Villages in that way. Most people use the rec centers, pools, tennis and pickle ball courts, softball fields and golf course in their area. People from the Spanish Springs area normally would think of going to Brownwood unless there is something extraordinary going on there. People south of 44 generally don't go to Spanish Springs Town Square. Everyone seems to stay in their Village or at least their area. It's exactly why although The Villages is approaching 150,000 residents it still feels like a small town.

Before anyone disagrees they should consider whether they've lived in a city of 150,000 people or even 100,000 people. Believe me, it's much different than what we have here.

"it still feels like a SMALL TOWN" - Well, NOT to me, because a small town does NOT have mega-traffic problems and constant wrecks on the roundabouts. Yes, compared to NY and Philadelphia the traffic may be less, but it is still BAD. Traffic congestion here is BAD! There are NO 2 ways about it.
.........Many senior residents are FORCED to drive even though they have lost the eyesight and reflexes to drive PROPERLY. This IS a big PROBLEM - that has a solution. And that very solution has been talked about and screamed about many times on past FORUMS.
.........The solution is simply............GIVE US MASS TRANSPORTATION.......!!!!!!!!

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by WoodshopMark

You missed the point. Even after the CDD assumes responsibility the developer still owns the:
Three squares
The bank
The Villages Health
Hotels
Many restaurants
Championship golf courses
Water company
Jacobs
Pool construction company
Shopping centers
Sawgrass Grove
Controls the schools
The dump
The list goes on....

Tell it like it is ! Great post !

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by huge-pigeons

Great post from goldwingnut. You are correct spinner1001. Things aren’t going to fail overnight or anytime soon. When you have people leaving California/NY/Oregon/NJ/Illinois and many others and a lot of them moving here, we will be growing for the foreseeable future.
As for development plans, you don’t wake up 1 morning and say we will start building in this new area. It takes years of planning, surveying, permits, building the infrastructure and so on before the 1st house can be built.
As for never thinking of moving south of 466, we just moved here and we didn’t even consider anything north of 466a and we ended up in the southern most part. We know several people that have moved from the old section of the villages to the south and the people we know that live south of 44 that are selling, they are all moving into a newer home in either Richmond or Newell. There are so many more benefits living in the southern sections compared to the older sections.

Like fewer mature trees, close proximity to a Federal Prison, Turnpike noise, greater traffic, a bond to pay off, and lots of dust and noise from the busy construction crews. Yea, that sounds like a paradise made in heaven to me.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Bogie Shooter

Seems this is no different than many other parts of the country.

Statistically speaking, women tend to live 7 years longer than men - and be 5 inches shorter.

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by G.R.I.T.S.

The moment the Developer says they're done, EVERYONE topples.

It isn't sustainable. At some point, the structure will crumble.

So I’m guessing you’re planning to sell to avoid this? Values are good, even in the historical section. Might be a good time to cut bait.

That IS an interesting warning. However, I am NOT SURE it is TRUE, because there was no explanation and PROOF that it was TRUE. Just a statement of opinion left out there floating in opinion space ????????

[jimjamuser]

Originally Posted by Velvet

I understand that some people bought in TV to retire to a quiet community for the rest of their lives. For some it’s not going to happen. TV promotes activities, fun etc not so much geriatric care. Just look at the layout. Then the population. Not everyone expected huge growth and the good and bad that comes with it. People appreciate the more and higher quality service, better choice at stores and good restaurants. For these events there has to be sustainable numbers in the population. But, it comes at a cost, more traffic, more line ups, more like the big city.

Some of the big city services are lagging in TV, for example, sidewalks and public transportation just to name two. And the city of TV is oriented towards the younger people, in my opinion, the ones who buy the houses. The ones who will play golf, softball, water volleyball. The houses are built to accommodate aging, one level, bars, wide doorways etc. But in practice you can only stay here if either you are independent or if you become dependent, you have a caregiver. Often it is the husband that becomes dependent as the wives tend to be younger. We have many widows in TV, single older women. They can leave, find independent or nursing care especially if they can’t drive. I suppose there could be a larger effort made to keep these people. More services. Build more independent care etc so they could stay with their friends who have now become their “family”. But that would perhaps not be quite as lucrative.

Yes.............and create more MASS TRANSIT.