[Love2Swim]

A friend just sold her house near CR 466. She sold it quite quickly, and said the real estate agent told her there is a big market for pre-owned homes in central Villages due to location and smaller or paid off bonds. Note - this was from an outside real estate agent, not a Villages salesperson.

[Timothyimitchell]

I am seeing a very large premium in the villages between the 466's. I would say 10%. Most of the pre-owned homes currently for sale our North and east.

[Skunky1]

$38,000 bond plus a 25% increase in Real estate tax. Maybe the amenities are not worth it! Might want to consider a preowned home. Village real estate agents try to sell the point that the $38,000 isn’t part of the price. What a bunch of malarkey

[Ginsanders]

No bonds allowed in Lake County, that why we bought where we did and love it.

[Challenger]

Originally Posted by KEVIN & JOSIE

Bonds have escalated to 38K on new homes. Would this be a deal breaker on a new home purchase, or would you consider it just the cost of living in The Villages and enjoying the active lifestyle?

Again, and again, and again. The total cost of a home purchase = Asking price + any other liens attaching to the property. End. Real Estate sales people will often try to convince you otherwise. EX . Purchase price $250,000 , bond balance $15,000 , Total price paid for home = $265,000 (Trust me). Purchase price $250,000 , no bond , total consideration (price) $250,000......

[biker1]

Not exactly. Your "real estate tax" has several components: the county tax, the school tax, the water management fee, the fire department fee, the maintenance fee, and, unless you have paid it off, your bond fee. The county tax went up about 25%. The other components were essentially unchanged. Since the county tax is, at worst, about 50% of your total "real estate tax", the increase in your "real estate tax" is about 12%. If you haven't paid off your bond, the percentage increase is less than that since the fixed bond payment is a substantial chunk of the total "real estate tax". This may not be true if you aren't homesteaded.

Originally Posted by Skunky1

$38,000 bond plus a 25% increase in Real estate tax. Maybe the amenities are not worth it! Might want to consider a preowned home. Village real estate agents try to sell the point that the $38,000 isn’t part of the price. What a bunch of malarkey

[La lamy]

Not sure if anyone can answer this, but here goes: if you buy a property that has its bond payed off, bulldoze it and rebuild, will there be a bond slapped on it again?

[cmj1210]

My home is only 3 1/2 yrs old and we are paying 23K. That’s quite an inflation in 3 1/2 yrs.

Originally Posted by John_W

It's the price of inflation. In January 2012 a new designer home bond was $24,000 and you could get a masonry spec designer home with tile floors, 2 car garage, stainless appliances and granite counter tops for $250K. I knew the original buyer of this home and it's about 100 yards from me, he moved to a golf course lot on Havana and sold the home two years later for $340K in 2014. It has resold 2017 for $359K.

If price is your determining factor, I would still buy a resale even though they have gone up, the bond has to be lower than $24,000 and you would be in the established Villages. This particular home is 2050 Odessa Circle in Tamarind Grove. 3-1/2 miles form LSL and 3-1/2 miles from Brownwood. Here's the home when it was listed in 2017. To give you an idea of distances, this home is 14 miles from Fenney.

2050 Odessa Cir, The Villages, FL 32162 | Zillow

Now, to give you an idea of a home that is actually on the market now. This 2012 built masonry designer home in Tamarind Grove sold new for $245K. It's now for sale for $399,900. I don't know anything about this home, other than it's for sale now.

2319 Newburn Ln, The Villages, FL 32162 | MLS #G5028653 | Zillow

[dnkjourney1950]

District 13, Unit 44 has a bond of $43K.

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by Ginsanders

No bonds allowed in Lake County, that why we bought where we did and love it.

You are mistaken, pine hills and pine ridge have bonds, both are in lake county.

[Goldwingnut]

Originally Posted by La lamy

Not sure if anyone can answer this, but here goes: if you buy a property that has its bond payed off, bulldoze it and rebuild, will there be a bond slapped on it again?

No. Once the bond is paid, it’s paid.

[diva1]

I would buy a well located resale home and know that $38,000 would be plenty of money to make any changes and upgrades I wanted. And the house would be in a superior location.

[LeeM]

Be sure to take into consideration that there is interest on the bond - that adds a substantial amount to the bond price.

When it comes to buying a home with a paid off bond, a lot of purchasers don’t register what a substantial difference it makes. And we know people who paid off their bond and didn’t recoup the money in the total sale price vs similar homes without the bond paid off. But, if you don't pay off the bond you are stuck paying Interest.

Regardless, I would not pay a $38000 bond to live in one of the newer areas as they are not desirable areas to me. I think the value is in other areas that have lower bonds. But it is what you want. It may be worth it to you.

[Guitarman1951]

All I can say is WOW!! We paid $18k 14 years ago and thought it was ridiculous. $38k, no way, wouldn't be worth it to live here. Considering the huge tax increase and reduction in the assessment to the Villages for new home infrastructure cost, the bond shouldn't go up like that. They will be pricing themselves out if business at this rate.

[villagetinker]

It appears there is some misinformation here. The bond is normally paid MONTHLY at the agreed upon interest rate over a period of typically 25 years. As noted on a previous post the interest rate was what we considered high, you can NOT deduct this off income tax (even if you itemize), so we paid it off after 4 years. My point, this is NOT an up front cost, it is an ongoing monthly cost unless you decide to pay it off. You can get a full accounting of the cost from your agent or online.
Regarding another question above, if you bulldoze the house and rebuild, NO there is no additional bond applied, the bond is to cover the infrastructure of the development.
We did not consider the bond a deal breaker, as it was just an additional monthly expense.
There have been several threads on this subject, and several people suggested getting a home equity loan to cover the bond, this will generally be at a lower interest rate, but you need to be careful if interest rates go up.
Hope this helps.