[April23]

Hello! First post for me as I begin to investigate TV. What is a bond? What is an assessment? Does every house have one? I see homes for sale that say "bond is paid" but will it come back ever? Thanks for your insightful information.

[retiredguy123]

Basically, the bond is a one-time payment to construct the infrastructure (roads, utilities, etc), for the community. The money is borrowed and each homeowner pays his/her share over 30 years, but it can be paid off early. Assessments are annual payments to maintain the infrastructure, including the fire department. Assessments never end.

[villagetinker]

Originally Posted by April23

Hello! First post for me as I begin to investigate TV. What is a bond? What is an assessment? Does every house have one? I see homes for sale that say "bond is paid" but will it come back ever? Thanks for your insightful information.

As noted above, the bond is used to cover the initial cost of the infrastructure associated with the house. In general, every house has one INITIALLY, but you may find some resales with the bond paid off, and no it does not come back. Also as noted above the maintenance assessment is for the continuing maintenance of the infrastructure and possible new additions as determined by the local CDD.
ALL new homes will have bonds. We chose to pay ours off as it CANNOT be deducted from IRS taxes and the interest rate was high enough to be annoying.
Now to make your life more confusing some locations have two (2) taxes, county and city, this occurs mostly in the newer sections south of route 44, city locations would include Wildwood, Leesburg, Fruitland Park, and possibly others.

[April23]

Do assessments fluctuate? Some years higher some years lower? Are they tax deductible?

[retiredguy123]

Originally Posted by April23

Do assessments fluctuate? Some years higher some years lower? Are they tax deductible?

Yes, they fluctuate. No, they are not tax deductible, unless the house is rental property.

[Altavia]

Here's a nice video from GoldWingnut that explains bonds.

https://youtu.be/nGwf7AcmyEI?si=CDck30iVzJgtU3Ho

Bond payments from the Developer's Point of view

Amenity Fee
https://youtu.be/RDjafwcRtQg?si=Jda6HCsebWEt2kyS

[retiredguy123]

Note that the bond payments and the assessments are billed by the county on your annual tax bill. But, these are not property taxes and the money does not go to the county. They only appear on the tax bill as a convenient collection method.

[CarlR33]

You should start with a Villages Realtor and do a lifestyle visit, The realtor will explain all in great detail while showing your around..

[Bill14564]

There are three bonds/assessments/fees you need to think about:

1. The Bond which, as described, is your portion of the roads and infrastructure for your area. A previous owner may have paid this off.

2. The annual maintenance fee. This pays for ongoing maintenance of the infrastructure. This may be increased occasionally.

3. The monthly amenity fee. This pays for staffing of the Poole, rec centers, gates, and community watch. This is paid monthly on your utility bill.


None of these are tax deductible.

[Altavia]

Originally Posted by CarlR33

You should start with a Villages Realtor and do a lifestyle visit, The realtor will explain all in great detail while showing your around..

Village Reps arrange Lifestyle visits.

Do not depend on Reps or a Realtor for reliable information, do your research.

[Rainger99]

Originally Posted by April23

Hello! First post for me as I begin to investigate TV. What is a bond? What is an assessment? Does every house have one? I see homes for sale that say "bond is paid" but will it come back ever? Thanks for your insightful information.

From districtgov.org

What is a bond?
The infrastructure of the District in which you live was built with tax-exempt bonds. The bonds are repaid with monies collected in the annual tax bill sent out by the County Tax Collector’s Offices and appear in the Non-Ad Valorem section of the tax bill as “Bond Debt Assessment.”

You may pay off your bond assessment in full at any time; however, you are not required to pay off this assessment in advance.

To find out the exact payoff figure or for any additional questions, please contact the Bond Team at 352-751-3900.

[SIRE1]

The best description I ever heard of a bond, is this. In traditional subdivisions the builder has to put in roads, sewers, water, etc before they start building any houses. As the houses are built, the builder prices the house to cover all of their expenses (the roads, sewers, water, building materials, labor, etc) PLUS their profit. The total is then the list price of the house.

In The Villages, the developer chose to separate those expenses and sold bonds to raise the money for the initial infrastructure (e.g. roads, sewers, water, etc). These costs were divided by the number of homes being built and that is the bond. The cost of actually building the actual house plus profit is the asking price for a new home.

So, in effect, the asking price for a new home in The Villages would be less than found elsewhere, since those homes would already include the infrastructure cost included. Sneaky, but that is the way the developer chose to run their operation. So in addition to asking price of a home, you ALSO have the pro-rated bond amount to pay for. You can either include the bond payment in your monthly bill, or pay it all at once and never have to worry about it again. But don't think you will recover the bond cost when you sell your home. Your asking price is usually being based to compare with a new home asking price which doesn't include the bond.

[Goldwingnut]

Here's the link to the entire list of videos I did on the Bond, Maintenance Assessments, and Amenity Fee. While some of the number shown have changed the information is still valid. With the announce purchase of amenities in CDD 12 & 13 it is becoming obvious to me that it may be time to review and renew these videos in the coming year, the information hasn't changed dramatically but the numbers need to be adjusted and most certainly the underlying video footage has changed tremendously since the original videos were made over 5 years ago.

The Villages Information/Fees Videos - YouTube

[Ash Marwah]

You pay for infrastructure like roads, sewer etc. as Bond payment and Bond Maintenance payments. Initial Bond on houses in TV range from $25,000 to $50,000 on top of the price of the house. Bond Maintenance in hundreds of dollars continues for the life of the house.

[sharonl7340]

Originally Posted by Ash Marwah

You pay for infrastructure like roads, sewer etc. as Bond payment and Bond Maintenance payments. Initial Bond on houses in TV range from $25,000 to $50,000 on top of the price of the house. Bond Maintenance in hundreds of dollars continues for the life of the house.

We bought a pre-owned home and our bond on a 6 year old house when we bought was $10,000. We are only about 2-3 miles from Brownwood, between CR466A and SR 44. Our assessment went up this year because our fire department service went up 100%.

If you buy in the new area, your bond is closer to $50k than $25k. Our maintenance was $276, bond was $672, fire district fee was $321. All of those are in your yearly tax bill.

Now you have an idea of those costs as well. BTW, we have a patio villa. So if you get a bigger house those assessments would increase.