[Dgizzi]

Originally Posted by John41

We looked at Sun City Center, On Top of the World, Solavita a few others we can't remember and decided on The Villages for the quality, affordable CYV we bought and all the activities. But there are really two Villages, one North of 44 and one South so investigate carefully Turnpike noise, power lines, shopping and flood potential.

We bought in Monarch Grove. We wanted new house, new everything. People need to look all over. Don’t bas edit on what one person says. Turnpike noise isn’t bad for everyone and we are getting new stores and shopping and restaurants here by Monarch Grove. We don’t have flood issues. Now sure where that statement is coming from! Don’t knock down south of 44! It’s new and beautiful over here. I know of a few realtors in the villages buying over here cause of the new stuff.

[My Daily Run]

Has anyone checked out Rotunda West. I have a friend who visited with me here in The Villages and visited many 55+ and settled in Rotunda West...built a beautiful home and I know more home for your buck but wondering what it's like and what is around them... haven't been to visit yet

[B-flat]

Originally Posted by spk7951

Then last year we decided to explore leaving and searched throughout FL with an emphasis on fulfilling our original wish list. Our search ended when we found a spec home in OTOW with 8 of our 9 wish list items and that was it. Yes the lifestyle here is a bit more subdued then TV but that is ok as we have the house we wanted and are making new friends plus we are only 35 minutes from our many friends in TV. We do know that living in a CYV during the pandemic did not help matters we had a nice villa but with windows looking out at the wall of the neighbors home, a fence and another wall between the backsides of other villas we sometimes felt we were in a luxurious prison. Had we been in a home not a villa maybe our choice would have been different.

Counter point to a couple of previous posts, yes SR200 is very busy road but since moving here we have learned of the back road network that provides us quick easy much less traffic ways to get to I-75 or even beyond I-75 in a lot less time.
Also we do have golf cart access to shopping/restaurants albeit much less access than we had in TV.

Good luck with your search & decision.

We tried the Villages liked it owned a home for 2 years then decided based on a few factors including friends we made in Ocala 5 years ago it was time for a move. Yes it is more subdued in OTOW where we got a lot more house for the money. We purchased the same size home as our CYV in TV for less money than what we sold the CYV for this past November. We are on the 17th hole of one of the golf courses, corner lot. We pretty much lead a subdued life style anyway, so it fits our lifestyle. (different strokes for different folks).

We too know the backroads here and stay off SR200 when we can. Busy roads 441/27 is no bargain to drive either. Golf cart transportation? We can go to Publix, Walmart Food Store, Starbucks, Dunkin Donuts and restaurants on our golf cart. Granted TV has much more access to restaurants and stores via golf cart.

There's lots of new construction going on here at OTOW too. What has been an eye opener for us when welcome signs are put in front of homes about to be occupied by new residents there have been at least 7 signs that are welcoming families who are moving from The Villages.

It's all about personal preferences.

[Love2Swim]

I think many if not most retirement communities offer better bang for the buck in terms of home and building lot quality/pricing compared to The Villages. That said, we liked the number and variety of activities in The Villages, so it was a trade-off for us. We've been able to explore new hobbies and activities that we would not have had the chance to be exposed to in other communities. And we were younger when we retired here. As we age, and decide we need a more subdued lifestyle we may move. Already we hate the increase in traffic in the Villages that came as a result of population growth.

Originally Posted by Dgizzi

We bought in Monarch Grove. We wanted new house, new everything. People need to look all over. Don’t bas edit on what one person says. Turnpike noise isn’t bad for everyone and we are getting new stores and shopping and restaurants here by Monarch Grove. We don’t have flood issues. Now sure where that statement is coming from! Don’t knock down south of 44! It’s new and beautiful over here. I know of a few realtors in the villages buying over here cause of the new stuff.

Flood concerns came from a lot owner in Chitty Chatty. Much of the area South of 44 is filled in swamps.

Quote from New members forum below

"Surprise! The lot you bought and house you have planned are in a flood zone !
No one disclosed to us when we selected a pond lot in Chitty Chatty that this could be an issue. After our planning meetings, payment of 20 % we spoke with the bank about a mortgage and were told that we would have to carry flood insurance which DOUBLES our home insurance cost. We are very angry about this."

[Cookie Princess]

Originally Posted by My Daily Run

Has anyone checked out Rotunda West. I have a friend who visited with me here in The Villages and visited many 55+ and settled in Rotunda West...built a beautiful home and I know more home for your buck but wondering what it's like and what is around them... haven't been to visit yet

Where is that located? I have never heard of it. THANK YOU!

[My Daily Run]

Originally Posted by Cookie Princess

Where is that located? I have never heard of it. THANK YOU!

I believe it is in or near Port Charlotte...

[My Daily Run]

Originally Posted by Cookie Princess

Where is that located? I have never heard of it. THANK YOU!

I believe it is in or near Port Charlotte

[J1ceasar]

If you're a golfer and you like to be involved with other AAA personalities that speed too much then the village is perfect for you. If you want to overpay by 100% then the villages is for you. The fact is that the villages has 70,000 plus seniors having 70 square miles. That said the plus is they have 1200 clubs and activities if you're a people person. However off of route 27 and route 44 there are 10 much smaller communities with much friendlier people and housing they cost $100 or $200,000 less. If your parents want something to show off and they want to spend $700,000 they can certainly find it in the villages or if they want to spend $350,000 they can certainly find it in the villages also. You get what you don't pay for sometimes also by this I mean and if you would ask 90% of the people in any community do they swim in the pools they would say no. But they're there anyway

[J1ceasar]

If you're a golfer and you like to be involved with other AAA personalities that speed too much then the village is perfect for you. If you want to overpay by 100% then the villages is for you. The fact is that the villages has 70,000 plus seniors having 70 square miles. That said the plus is they have 1200 clubs and activities if you're a people person. However off of route 27 and route 44 there are 10 much smaller communities with much friendlier people and housing they cost $100 or $200,000 less. If your parents want something to show off and they want to spend $700,000 they can certainly find it in the villages or if they want to spend $350,000 they can certainly find it in the villages also. You get what you don't pay for sometimes also by this I mean and if you would ask 90% of the people in any community do they swim in the pools they would say no. But they're there anyway. The very main overriding advantage of the villages is that they have plenty of golf courses and that they have something called Court accessibility to virtually all shopping and medical offices where you don't need two cars or actually even one car but you do pay for it so again if your parents can afford it they'll probably like it but I find a lot of the people here are AAA personalities

[Terriy]

Originally Posted by coffeebean

I have been to On Top of the World in Ocala to visit family. IMHO, the feel of the community can not compare to The Villages. Must say, however, that you can get much more home there than you can here.

Remember though, The Villages is all about the lifestyle. On Top of the World is not about the lifestyle because there really is no lifestyle to speak of. Nada. I have not been to any other retirement community before we purchased here. We were sold the moment we drove along Buena Vista Blvd. at night.

Hope that helps.

I agree Coffeebean! I currently live in On Top of the World and hope to sell and move to TV. Life here is more geared towards the older folk. The sidewalks roll up at 8:00 and there is absolutely nothing to do or anything open after that time that's golf cart accessible.

[Bilyclub]

Originally Posted by Terriy

I agree Coffeebean! I currently live in On Top of the World and hope to sell and move to TV. Life here is more geared towards the older folk. The sidewalks roll up at 8:00 and there is absolutely nothing to do or anything open after that time that's golf cart accessible.

Yeah, that extra hour until 9:00 really matters.

[B-flat]

Originally Posted by John41

I think some of the lots in OTOTW are leaseholds so they would depreciate over time.

Not necessarily. We inherited a home from my aunt and uncle in OTOW we sold it made money on it. The next owner did some upgrades and sold it for more than she bought it from us for. We tried the Villages for 2 years and wanted a change, so we’re in OTOW> It’s a 100 year lease hold from the time the home was built on some of the homes here. Ours is 3 years old so we have 97 years left on it. We have no children and will leave the home to cousins but it won’t really matter they will profit from the sale of it.

[OrangeBlossomBaby]

Originally Posted by J1ceasar

If you're a golfer and you like to be involved with other AAA personalities that speed too much then the village is perfect for you. If you want to overpay by 100% then the villages is for you. The fact is that the villages has 70,000 plus seniors having 70 square miles. That said the plus is they have 1200 clubs and activities if you're a people person. However off of route 27 and route 44 there are 10 much smaller communities with much friendlier people and housing they cost $100 or $200,000 less. If your parents want something to show off and they want to spend $700,000 they can certainly find it in the villages or if they want to spend $350,000 they can certainly find it in the villages also. You get what you don't pay for sometimes also by this I mean and if you would ask 90% of the people in any community do they swim in the pools they would say no. But they're there anyway

You apparently have absolutely no idea what the Villages is, and are collecting obsolete information from limited resources, and filling in the blanks with stuff you make up.

1. The villages is over 125,000 people, a good chunk of whom are snowbirds, with many who rent the vacant homes owned by those snowbirds when the snowbirds are "up north."
2. There are over 3000 clubs, most of which are not exclusive to singles. There are a handful of clubs dedicated to singles.
3. There are homes for most budgets, including some in the low $100,000's. The lower end had prior owners, but they're available for sale. The person living in the $100,000 home will pay the same $164 (or whatever) amenity fee that the guy moving into the $2million home next week, each month, and be entitled to the same amenities that the guy in the mansion can access, for that monthly fee.
4. The Villages isn't a singular community. It is a series of smaller communities (why it's called the VillageS...not the Village), clustered together by a single Developer; a planned community of clusters. Basically, it's a small city or large suburban town (depending on your definition). Every town I've ever been in had neighborhoods. Each neighborhood had its own feel, its own personality. This is true for the Villages.
5. Rather than come here complaining about a place you obviously have NO actual knowledge of, maybe come visit. If you end up not liking it, at least it'll be because you actually discovered that you don't like it. Instead of not liking some fictional accounting of a place that isn't what the Villages actually is.

[JerryLBell]

We'd visited The Villages once or twice but the year we decided to get serious, we made a list of the things we were looking for in a retirement community and broke it down into "must haves" and "nice to haves". We also decided on a general geographical area that we wanted to live in. Doing research online, we were able to eliminate quite a few retirement communities and boiled it down to 8 or 9 top contenders. We spent several days on vacation one year visiting all of them and checking off which items on our lists each location did or didn't manage to have plus our overall impressions of the communities. On the way home (we were driving back up to North Carolina, our home for 20 years), we rules out everybody but The Villages. During that last visit, we'd also dropped in on a few open house showings of new homes and had found a model we really liked. When we got home, we searched for houses of that model, took virtual tours of them all and narrowed it down to one. And we bought that one and have lived in it for nearly 5 years now.

Others will tell you that the only way to do it is to rent a house here for a month or two and spend your time while here investigating villages within The Villages. You of course could also visit other communities altogether. Each approach will work for some and not for others. Perhaps we were lucky. If so, we wish you the same luck, whether you decide on The Villages or on one of the other communities you mention or sometimes else!