Nonsense. Gen X (the generation following the Boomers) is almost as big in number as the Boomers (62.5 million vs 71.6 million) and they have plenty of money (1.1 million per household vs 1.2 for Boomers)... They (along with Millennials) are also set to inherit $86 $TRILLION in wealth...

They are now just starting to retire (they are the children of the older Boomers...)

Huh, after high noon it's pretty easy to find loads of empty courts. Before noon you might have to wait in line up to 15 minutes before getting in a game.

Biggest risk wont happen for a generation and a half. 50 or 60 years.

Middle class
 

There are fewer middle class earners as time goes on. Eventually, there will be only lower and upper class earners. Many reasons for this, computers, jobs going overseas, union busting, to mention a few. The Villages may have to split into lower and upper class housing.

What exactly is there to do for an alpha male or female doctor in this rural part of Florida? Don’t you think the best and the brightest would want to work where there are 5 star rated hospitals like Boston and NYC and career opportunities for their spouses and communities filled with younger people listening to bad bunny, The Weeknd, or Drake. Where would they find that within 10 miles of TV?

They Won’t
 

They won’t and aren’t continuing to make old people the way your paradigm suggests.

Less children, larger socioeconomic gaps, climate changes and new desires defy the thought.

Lots of speculation of what The Villages will become after most of us are long gone - not something most of us need to waste a lot of time focusing on - get out there and enjoy what we have now!

No if you remember the impact fees were not approved. They have trouble getting doctors for the existing hospitals so why build more under staffed hospitals. Medical care will be the bursting point when 250,000 live in The Villages with the existing medical infrastructure.

Exactly right!! My wife and her friend are beginners and practice about 1pm at Lake Miona rec center. Courts have never been full. Same with Odell rec center

They have video games in some rec centers now, lol

Certainly it’s really feasible when you can buy 18 acres from leesburg for example In 2021, the city approved the sale of an additional 18 acres to The Villages for $366,800, each acre can handle 4 homes (.25) add the $40k impact fee at 5% interest that alone is over $100k x 4 for 20 years.. just don’t tell anyone its a HOA fee and everyone will believe you.

Can't agree with you regarding size of TV relative to smaller communities. Pickleball courts, golf courses, rec centers, softball fields, Town Squares, etc. These are often full at some locations at certain times. Like during scheduled or reserved/preferred times. Busier in season of course. Of course, fewer courts or courses gives also means fewer people to play with. Similar to rec centers, golf courses and the like. One huge benefit is that there are always multiple activities available near you, and at all levels and ages of play. Indoors or out. Exercise classes, dancing, mah jong, creative arts, cards, bocce, and on and on. Beginner? NP. Experienced? Improve your skills? NP. People to meet from all over the country, and elsewhere? Same. Continually maintained to be clean and beautiful. And there is always a softness in commercial development until demographics are promising to new businesses.
Im not saying TV is perfect or ideal for everyone. If you want a quieter life, perhaps less expensive, maybe the size of one of the Villages here- if you find one set of PB courts, and a pool, one rec hall with occasional activities or classes, maybe a golf course or maybe not, a more comfortable lifestyle, I can understand that. Not being cynical, I mean that. People sometimes leave here for exactly those reasons. The Del Webb's are really nice and very successful.
Just saying there is a huge difference between us and them. Thats all.

The $40k has nothing to do with an HOA. Every state I've ever lived in required developers to install infrastructure (roads, water, sewer, electric, etc.) for a development. That USUALLY gets factored/added into the base price of the house. In TV, it is debt attached to the land that you don't have to finance or pay up front. One way or another, EVERY homeowner always pays the cost of the infrastructure. Here it's just split out into a bond. I prefer this way, since I don't need to pay up front for it.

Looking at the planned areas is gonna one big big place The Villages Land Co. has submitted master plans for three areas totaling 1,620 acres of the Villages of Southern Oaks development to the Wildwood Planning and Zoning Board. The plans for three areas were recommended for approval and will likely be taken up by the city commission alter this month.

Wildwood added 5,664 acres to the Southern Oaks area last year, nearly doubling the number of permitted homes to 49,339. The number of permitted homes often is higher than the number actually built. Condominiums and apartments also are allowed in Southern Oaks.

If all permitted homes are built, Southern Oaks would nearly double the size of The Villages, which currently has about 65,000 homes.

And ?? You’re still paying a fee like I said just tell them it’s not a HOA and they will believe.. see how happy you are to pay..

Are you a Villager??

Very well said!! TV isn't for everyone. My wifes sister lives in Del Webb in Ocala. They like it, but we thought it was boring as h*ll there. Not a lot going on compared to here.

We're still amazed at all the things you can do here to stay active and have fun everyday.

As far as the op asking about it being sustainable? I think it is for sure.
Who knows what the next generation will do when they retire. Our thinking sure changed as we hit our late 50's and starting thinking about what we wanted to do when we retired.
Before that TV wasn't even on our radar. We were having too much fun as empty nesters.

Imo, there will always be people wanting to move here for the active lifestyle it provides.

I would say the Villages is sustainable until we get hit by a hurricane. The last one was a close call. Many of you will say "it will never happen." Tell that to the 1300 residents whose homes were destroyed by the tornado in 2007. IT CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE.

And after the tornado……The Villages moved on.
What is your point?

we certainly did move on with the villages help . That had crews cleaning up the debris in my yard as soon as it got light , they had security at the entrance to my street , they made sure there was a place for all the insurance claims people. , there were counselors if you wanted to speak to one , a food truck came by everyday and had all kinds of cleaning equipment if you needed it and my home was rebuilt in a timely fashion with no cost to me at all . I realize fema and my insurance company were responsible for much of it but the villages had a big role in keeping everything going and my insurance claim guy told me that the villages was on top of them to get these claims paid promptly , so when you needed them they were there. I was in the big hurricane that hit Punta Gorda , I was lucky and had little damage but many around me did ,you were on your own with little help . I realize that that was massive damage but I have a feeling if we had a bad hurricane the villages would perform much better to our needs then other places , yes it good business for them but so what

I think there have been three hurricanes that have passed by since I moved here. I haven't heard of any real issues from them.

The Villages has been around for at least 30 years. I have heard of two storms in all that time, a tornado in 2007 and a hurricane in 2017. The tornado caused considerable damage to the homes that it hit. The hurricane caused flooding in some tunnels and power outages in the older section. Two storms in 30 years where only one of them caused considerable structural damage doesn't seem too bad to me.

Perhaps IT CAN HAPPEN ANYWHERE but I like my chances right here.

40K impact fee??
 

You must be talking about the bond and not an impact fee. The bond is paid by the resident and will be on your yearly Real Estate tax Bill unless you pay it in full. An impact fee is paid by the Developer.

If we get hit, insurance rates will most likely skyrocket Outsiders will no longer consider the Villages a safe place to live. Home sales may suffer. Some residents may leave because they lost their homes and have no desire to stay.

The question was about sustainability. Each time there is a hurricane in the Gulf, I ask myself, what if? I cross my fingers and hope for the best. A hurricane would cause property damage but it will be the side effects that may last for years. Not trying to scare anyone. It is just something I believe could ruin the Villages. Hopefully, that day will never come.

They are talking about the bond but implying it is an HOA fee. For some reason they want to insist we have an HOA.

I may get some of this not quite right:
- Infrastructure (roads) in new development areas are typically paid for by the developer with the costs rolled into the home prices
- Roads to connect to new developments and road improvements to support the additional traffic are paid for by the County with some of the cost covered by impact fees.

In the Villages, we do things differently:
- Infrastructure is still paid for by the developer but the costs are not added to the home price; instead, they are allocated to each of the homes as the bond.
- Roads to connect to new developments are sometimes paid for by the developer and then sold back to the County.
- Road improvements to support the additional traffic are paid for by the County. There is a road impact fee but a recent study found it to be inadequate. An attempt to increase the impact fee worked out poorly.

You seem to be a person who livesin Florida, and is afraid of what may or may not happen due to weather related issues. Must be a horrific toll on your health and wellbeing.

We have so many tornadoes and bad weather north, you have a plan for everything. Yet don’t worry or even give it a second thought, other than at least with this damage we’re going to get a new____________(fill in the blank). Here in Florida I figure if house is damaged I will get a chance to fix the couple things I did wrong when we built the house.

I have zero room, to worry about weather, or in your case believe ruin in the Villages, and not sleep at night because that day may come.

I have only met one person who literally lives in fear everyday in TV, whenthe sky looks like a storm. Good thing they retired early, because health has already deteriorated, from an active healthy person to walking skeleton, won’t sleep because storm could happen at night, in less than a year.
Hope you have someone to help you through your worry.

The OP question was about the sustainability of the Villages. I believe a hurricane could ruin the Villages. Do I worry and lose sleep over it? No! I have properties up North. If my home is destroyed, I will rebuild and choose if I wish to stay. I WAS MERELY GIVING MY OPINION ON THE SUSTAINABILITY OF THE VILLAGES. Sorry, my answer rubbed you the wrong way. However, I will not change my opinion. A hurricane most likely will ruin the Villages.

We can agree to disagree on this. We're from Indiana where tornadoes are expected at some point. We just had one hit 15 miles from our home last spring. 6 people died.

But they took it in stride and started rebuilding. Just like people would do here.

Actually, we're in the safest part of Florida according to NOAH.

Sorry to hear that. No one wants a natural disaster to strike their community. You can rebuild but you never forget. I did not mean to strike a chord. Best wishes to all your loved ones in Indiana.

There lot moles in this area of Florida…

It's all good! Your comment didn't bother me at all.
I was just saying that people accept the risk for the most part. I know we do. Just part of life's journey.

Truth is, neither of us know the answer. lol

I don't see why the threat of a hurricane, or the actual event, would impact the long term viability of The Villages any more than it would a place like Charleston SC, or Jacksonville, FL, or any of the other large metro areas in harm's way. In fact, hurricanes weaken significantly once they hit land. While the impacts of a large storm do affect inland communities, they are significantly mitigated by distance from landfall.

Charleston, Miami, Ft. Myers, New Orleans, just to name 4 of many, have all had catastrophic direct hits from powerful hurricanes, yet they sustain. Why would TV not sustain in the aftermath of a storm that had travelled a minimum of 40 miles over land before reaching it?

Maybe to ease your concern a little, being over 100 mi from either cost, we're in the lowest risk for severe damage in FL.

When a hurricane threatened FL recent years, the power companies staged thousands of repair crews and equipment just south of Eastport.

Florida energy companies prepare for hurricane season | wtsp.com

On a 65-acre site in The Villages, you can find enough trailers for 2500+ workers to sleep in, more than 100 mobile generators and thousands of utility poles ready to be put up.

“The site is a year-round staging site, an area they typically set up so crews can respond to areas hard hit by a storm, a crucial part of what companies like Duke Energy do come hurricane season."

Our oldest has a stilt home on barrier island NC. It is always a mandatory evacuation for storms. So far house has water flow through stilts but no damage. He keeps hoping for new roof but no luck.

If he doesn’t worry about every storms head to his house, I defiantly wouldn’t worry about the small percentage of damage in TV. But worry doesn’t stop all things destructive

But it’s not
 

I don’t get it that fee is used to develop every amenity you use
roads, sewers, street lights, utilities then they charge you a fee to actually use the facilities It pays for the recreation buildings, pools and executive golf courses. So call it what you like if that makes you feel better. You are STILL paying for everything.. ps most new home builders don’t add a huge fee for the roads and stuff they build it comes out of their profits..

HOA fee: Homeowners association fee. Periodical (monthly, annual) fee for operating and maintaining amenities and common areas. Sometimes also pays for landscape maintenance of every unit.

Amenity fee: Periodical (monthly, annual) fee for operation and maintenance of the amenities. May pay for landscape maintenance around amenity facilities but does not pay for work at common areas or individual unit.

CDD Maintenance fee: Annual fee (at least for us) that pays for maintenance of infrastructure and common areas within the CDD. Does not pay for work at individual units (cutting of my grass is all on me)

Bond: One time fee (though amortized over 30 years) to pay for the buildout of the initial infrastructure. Does not pay for any maintenance at all. I don't believe the amenity facilities (pools, golf courses) were funded from this but I could be wrong about that.

So yes and no. Yes, the builder pays for it but no, the builder does not lose money on the effort. The price of the home is increased to cover the cost of the infrastructure while still returning a profit to the builder. In the case of the Villages, prices are kept artificially low by assessing the infrastructure costs as a bond rather than an additional $40K on each home.

Cost living climbing everywhere especially in Florida. IMO there will be time villages CDDs will have to make some cuts where they’re over spending? But, I’ll probably be gone by that time. It’s really hard to stop spending someone else’s money. :22yikes:

So does every other builder make a lower profit margin or do they just increase the price of the house to cover it?

Business Models
 

I can’t imagine a business model designed to take less than 15% for home construction.

P.S. Most new home builders roll that cost into the price of their new homes...

When/if the day comes for the developer to exit it won't be to the residents. Makes no financial sense. It will be to a large corporation.