[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

You have 19,000 posts so you are very familiar with the Villages. The purpose of the post is to provide information to those people who aren't that familiar with the Villages. There are a number of posts where people are surprised by the bond. This post is for them.

I checked the bonds in Lake (I think it was the Enclave) and the bond is about $5200 a year. That is a bond of 72,000 and 5.47%. I also checked some homes in Eastport. The highest that I have seen is about $3600 - most are around $3,000.

Easy enough to check……….

[bilcon]

Originally Posted by Maker

There is also a yearly service fee above and beyond the bond cost. Factor that cost onto the bond. It is a significant additional amount percentage.

I don't see any service fee on the tax bill. It just says the yearly amount for the bond for my unit.
The maintenance fee shown has nothing to do with the bond.

[Decadeofdave]

Only looked at homes for sale with no bond. It was one of the parameters given to the realtor.

[JoMar]

At my age, made no sense to pay it off. Lot of vaiables in that decision.

[BrianL99]

Originally Posted by bilcon

I don't see any service fee on the tax bill. It just says the yearly amount for the bond for my unit.
The maintenance fee shown has nothing to do with the bond.

You are correct, there is no "fee".

Unlike the usual municipal government many of us are used to, CDD's are different.

When you buy in The Villages, you pay your usual local & county taxes + you pay a "bond" that paid for your infrastructure + you pay a "maintenance fee", which is essentially the same as the portion of your taxes you'd pay to your city/town for infrastructure maintenance.

[4$ALE]

Originally Posted by bilcon

I don't see any service fee on the tax bill. It just says the yearly amount for the bond for my unit.
The maintenance fee shown has nothing to do with the bond.

Originally Posted by BrianL99

You are correct, there is no "fee".

Unlike the usual municipal government many of us are used to, CDD's are different.

When you buy in The Villages, you pay your usual local & county taxes + you pay a "bond" that paid for your infrastructure + you pay a "maintenance fee", which is essentially the same as the portion of your taxes you'd pay to your city/town for infrastructure maintenance.

I'm afraid you are both wrong. The Bond Amount on your tax bill is made up of 1. PRINCIPAL 2. INTEREST 3. ADMIN. FEE

Have either one of you ever looked at your amortization schedule online? It's all there.... right where Bogie said it was.

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by 4$ALE

I'm afraid you are both wrong. The Bond Amount on your tax bill is made up of 1. PRINCIPAL 2. INTEREST 3. ADMIN. FEE

Have either one of you ever looked at your amortization schedule online? It's all there.... right where Bogie said it was.

He is correct. I am attaching an amortization schedule which lists principal, interest, and an administrative fee. Over the course of 30 years, the administrative fee is $6552.

Not a huge amount but it adds up.


https://www.districtgov.org/departme...nit%20144V.pdf

[CoachKandSportsguy]

CDD 12 $1,917 bought in 2019

on a resale, the key is to look at the expiration date of the payments and the amount left.

Good question to ask before any TV purchase

[Altavia]

I get people don't like debt but - Bonds are not personal debt. They do not impact your credit rating. The interest is not deductable.

If you need to borrow to purchase the property, they effectively reduce the amount you need to borrow compared to including the bond cost in the price of the home.

The true cost of a bond is the difference between what you can earn on the money vs the bond interest. E.g. If the bond is 5% and you can earn 4.5% with a CD, the differences is just 0.5%

They carry with the property. Paying them off risks not getting the funds back when the property is sold.

Life is full of twists and turns so be careful assuming you will never need to sell your home.

[BrianL99]

Originally Posted by 4$ALE

I'm afraid you are both wrong. The Bond Amount on your tax bill is made up of 1. PRINCIPAL 2. INTEREST 3. ADMIN. FEE

Have either one of you ever looked at your amortization schedule online? It's all there.... right where Bogie said it was.

I don't have a bond, so I don't have a bill to view. I did look it up and you're right, there is an Admin Fee for Bond Management, I wasn't aware of. I thought the poster was referring to the "maintenance fee", but I stand corrected. Thank you.

[CoachKandSportsguy]

Originally Posted by Altavia

They carry with the property. Paying them off risks not getting the funds back when the property is sold.

Sure you can get your funds back. . if the sale price of the house less commissions is greater than the cost of the house plus the bond, you get the bond back. . at average rates of house appreciation, its about 5-6 years. . you just don't get as much back in total, which is the confusion. . but if you have no reason to move, and i get that moving can be unpredictable, if you have the money, paying it off just reduces your annual cost of ownership, and freezes up more disposable income from other fixed income sources

[tophcfa]

We bought our house in 2015 with a bond balance of zero, so we have never paid a penny towards a bond or an administration fee. I found it interesting when we purchased that the prices of homes didn’t seem to reflect the outstanding bond balance in any meaningful way. Based on that, I wouldn’t recommend paying off the balance early and if purchasing a pre owned home I would seek out homes with little to no outstanding balance, all other things being equal.

[asianthree]

Didn’t need any transparency, have know bond amounts on every house we looked at since 2007. It was listed on the TV fact sheet then

2010 $879.00

2012 $919.00

2014 $1425.00

2022 $2088.00

We make more money on our investments than the % of bond.

[jimhoward]

I just bought a new house in shady brook. The bond was just over $40k. The interest rate is around 5.5%. I was surprised it wasn’t more.. It’s easy enough do the math and the payment comes out to $3300 or so (plus or minus a couple hundred bucks).

I didn't see any lack of transparency. They tell you the exact bond amount, the term and the interest rate. The payment just falls out.

I doubt I will pay off the bond early because the bond has little effect on the market price if you sell. It perhaps should but it doesn’t seem to. It affects the market size as some people won’t accept bonds and some people mentally add the bond to the price which steers them away from newer homes. But those people are few. A bond free home may sell fast, but it doesn’t seem to sell for more.

Financially keeping or paying the bond is about a wash as the return on money invested elsewhere is similar to the interest rate on the bond.

So I plan to just keep the bond and pay it every year.

[asianthree]

Originally Posted by Rainger99

Some threads say that the Villages is not that transparent about bond payments on new sales and that people are shocked when they get their first tax bill.

I have been told that bonds in the new areas are very expensive.

I bought new in 2021 and pay about $1,000 a year.

New house in 2021 and only $1000 a year bond is impressive on a new house south of 466a. In 2010 we were just under $1,000 that was in Pennacamp near LSL.