We were pretty much in the same situation. Not everyone can afford to pay cash to live in TV. But it has been the best move we've ever made.
:bigbow::bigbow:

Yep we must be just stupid because we don’t owe anyone anything except the tax man unless my wife took out a loan that I don’t know about :bigbow:

The procedure and terms for cutting a house in The Villages has been the same for decades and are non-negotiable. If you want to buy a house here you do it The Developer’s way. If that’s not acceptable to you, look for someplace else in Florida. They’ve sold about 65-70,000 homes the same way.

It was definitely required. And they wanted it within 5 days. As for first time home buyers, there certainly could be if you haven’t owned a home in the last 3 years.

We did the same. We could payoff our mortgage at any time, but I’d rather keep it invested.

I think Tom Selleck said it best....

We did the same. Was only getting 1% on saving and pay 2% on mortgage. Saving has only what need for six months bills and rest put in safe investment current getting better than 4%. In other words I’m making money buy using the bank’s money each month. Plus if I want to make home improvement or special trip of high value don’t need to asking for a loan.

Not being critical of what anyone else would do, but being deep into retirement, I would never buy a home where I could not pay 100% cash.

Bought used and used MLS. I don't like dictators.

We bought our first home in Florida in 2008, which would be our winter home. I applied for a mortgage so I would not have to sell investments or close out CD's. Two different mortgage companies would not give us a loan (credit rating 815) because I did not have a job or regular monthly income. We had enough liquid assets, all provable, to buy the house 11 times. I lost all respect for the intelligence of mortgage companies.

“This is not your father’s Oldsmobile”
 

Things are not like they once were when the standard good advice was to have a paid off house in retirement.

There are many people who have dependable cash flow from investments and pensions. As long as that cash flow is solid, I can understand why taking out a mortgage could be a good decision.

Borrowing is so cheap right now and has been for years. Cashing out long term investments to buy a house might not be the best move for retirees anywhere — not just in TV.

There are a lot of buyers who come to TV with cash-in-hand from selling a paid for house somewhere else. Slapping it all down on the new place is what a lot of them choose to do.

But there are others who take a close look at their overall financial picture and decide if they want to do something else with all that cash — like a big down payment and invest the rest or just sit on it for a while to see what happens.

As long as a borrower knows that a mortgage obligation can always be met, it can work out well to borrow some cheap money. A lot of people decide to do that because they know they have the assets to be able to pay off the mortgage any time they want to. . .

So let’s not engage in any mortgage-shaming, OK?

A lot of those mortgagors in TV could write a check for a house if they wanted to. They know where their money is and what it is doing and have made the decision accordingly.

Of course, a paid off house is a good thing, too. It’s just that the old rule can safely change for some in this era of cheap borrowing — as long as they know that they are not risking the roof over their head.

Boomer

"Buffet was talking real estate because he recently put the Laguna Beach home he bought for $150,000 in 1971 on the market for $11 million. The $150,000 price tag was pretty steep in 1971 – it would translate to about $900,000 in today’s dollars – and Buffet took out a mortgage to buy it. 

Buffet explained that he took out a mortgage for about $120,000 to buy the home and spent that same amount in cash to buy Berkshire Hathaway stock. If he gets close to his $11 million list price, Buffet will make nearly seventy times what he spent for the Laguna Beach house. But more importantly, his decision to get a mortgage and use his cash differently, paid off even bigger.  

Here’s what Buffet told CNBC: ”I thought I could probably do better with the money than have it be an all equity purchase of the house. I might have bought 3,000 shares of Berkshire or something like that… so that’s [worth] $750 million [today].” "

From: What does Warren Buffet think about 30 Year Mortgages? | Total Expert

The required down payment on a newly built house in the Villages is 10% to enter a Purchase & Sale Agreement. Not at closing.

It all depends on your "comfort" level not sleeping well or a constant uneasiness is no way to live, reducing one standard of living at this point in life is cause for depression. On the other hand as many have pointed out all the financial advantages , taxes, appreciation of a single family house argue for some level of leverage and investing the difference ,, but first and foremost your comfort level