If you search for pre-owned homes that are 20 years old, I would venture to say that you will find that the bonds are paid off. If you add $38K to the price of the home, you will almost double the price of the same home price of those outside of the Villages. Charging for infrastructure separately is like giving you the price of a home and telling you that the cost of plumbing is a separate charge, or the price of electrical wiring is a separate charge. BUT, if you want to live in the Villages you will pay whatever you are willing to pay to live the "lifestyle." To some, $38k is nothing and to others it is a deal breaker.

We just bought a designer in Chitty Chatty. I guess we got lucky as our bond was only $37,300.00.

Just a thought, the last car we bought in 2016 cost us $48,000.00. That makes the bond seem a little smaller. :)

I believe that Florida Law should be amended to relfect "asking Price" plus all liens that the seller will not pay at settlement or prior. Any other method is somewhat fraudulent in my mind. Total consideration is the Real Price . Sales people don't like this kind of disclosure.

The bond definitely looks small compared to the RR Cullinan which runs upwards of $350,000 plus tax of course. Or you could settle for a Bentley Bentayga if the Cullinan is too rich for your blood.

The Save Our Homes Act (SOH) only permits the assessed value of homes of Florida residents to increase per year a maximum of the Consumer Price Index increase or 3% whichever is less. So over time, the disparity in assessed values (and property taxes!) between the homes of Florida residents and out-of-state residents has, and will continue, to get worse; this is especially true when the property assessor doesn't increase the market value of houses each year as prices go up, but rather combines it all into a huge increase in market value in just one year like the 15% market value increase last year by Sumter County.

If a Florida resident sells his house to an out-of-state resident, the assessed value of the house will immediately rise to the market value for the new owner. Even if the out-of-state resident later becomes a Florida resident, he is out of luck; he will never get his house down to the assessed value that the seller had.

If the homeowner (doesn't matter whether or not he is a Florida resident) sells the house to a Florida resident, the Florida resident can transfer the SOH benefit from his old house to reduce the assessed value of the house he just purchased.

Unlike most states, the Save Our Homes Act is a great way for Florida to stick it to out-of-state homeowners in order to keep taxes down for residents and to insure that non-residents pay an increasingly disproportionate share of property taxes as home values rise over time.

But the lease is only $6500 a month

I think of the 'bond' as part of the Taxation of the property. It is in fact listed and paid with your property tax. I would never consider the bond as part of the cost of the property any more than I would consider the Tax part of the cost or 'basis' of the property. Paying the bond in full is akin to pre-paying your property tax for the next 30 years. Who would do that? Bonds have become a popular way for developments to create better infrastructure. The villages is not the only place you will find Bonds being used for this. We recently moved here from California where we had something called 'Mello Roos' that applied to many, many development areas in Southern California. Same concept as Bonds here in Florida. Personally I would never pay off a bond any more than I would pre-pay Property tax. Should you choose to sell the property its not likely you would recoup the money you put into paying the bond. If you were going to live in the home for the 30 years of the bond's lifetime then it could make sense to pay the bond to save the interest you would pay but few here would make that stretch of time.

Regarding your assertion that you would not be able to recover the bond payoff when selling the house, what data do you base this statement on? Regarding interest, the bond is amortized as a 30 year mortgage which means most of the interest is paid in the early years. After 10 years, you will have paid about 50% of the total interest. You do not have to stay in the house 30 years to save substantially on the non-deductible interest of the bond. Regarding trying to conflate property taxes with the bond, your total bond payments will be more than 2x the original bond principle. If I could prepay my property taxes for the future at 50% today, I would certainly consider it. Before paying off the bond, it is worthwhile to consider how the funds that would be used to pay off the bond are currently invested and the after tax return versus the saved non-deductible interest.

I agree, take two similar houses, one for $250K bond not paid, another for $275K bond paid

which one do think sells first?

I say the $250K home

Any buyer with half a brain would realize that the higher selling price for a house with a paid off bond also results in lower annual carrying cost for the house since they don't have to make a bond payment. There is no free lunch.

I spoke yesterday with a Villages sales agent. She said almost all of the new patio villas carry a 15,000 bond.

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Ahh....if I was now buying and the bond was an extra $38k...yep, deal breaker

Many buyers are minimally aware of the cost and description of the bond up until the time they examine, or not, the closing documents. The bond should be posted front and center so that any prospective buyer will engage with the broker in a thorough conversation regarding it.

A realtor showed us a place on a swamp and called it premium waterfront... we laughed.