JN:

Have you looked at Tradition, FL, outside of Port St. Lucie off I-95? We looked there one afternoon on the way to The Villages when it was still starting up. It looks like there are nice homes there in the price range you mentioned. In 2008 when we stopped there, a part of the development had been set aside for a senior community but that section was closed, due to Levitz Bros. having gone bankrupt. I imagine that development has restarted since then.

We did quite a bit of looking in Port St. Lucie and thought St. Lucie West was another nice community, reasonably priced.

Thanks for the tip. We spent 2 weekend days there touring homes. The PGA Verano has a almost $400 a month amenity fee and is near Traditions. Traditions had gone bankrupt and was restarted building by another builder. I kind of got the feeling they went through a home crisis in that area because there is hardly any development of retail or anything close to Traditions, just empty land covered in sand. Every time I mentioned retail they pointed me to the one small shopping area and a Target. Our fav was PGA Verano but because of the lack of development and high fees we steered away.

You're right about Traditions being isolated. We moved to TV from a Delray Beach condo. Delray is a really nice town, but housing itself plus property taxes and insurance are expensive.