55+ Communities (Middletown, Camden: loft, square footage, income)

[elizamary]

Originally Posted by sanddollar

Hi Folks,

My name is Jonalyn and I live in southeast Michigan, land of unsold houses. haha

I just happened to find this forum today and am pleased as punch. We had already made the decision to move to Summer Meadows as soon as we sell. (We dumped our plan to move to Florida after all the hurricanes drove up home insurance premiums through the roof.) Like you, Eliza, we found it by accident last May when we visited our son and family who live in a sub just down the road from you. I can't remember the name, but it's a couple miles on the left going toward Felton.

I also want to thank Charlie for all the great research he has posted! It's been invaluable and has also cemented our desires to move to SM.

The only problem is that since Eliza is telling everybody how great it is, there won't be any lots left when we finally get our house sold. Hahahaha...just kidding.

Somebody mentioned the $415 monthly rent/activity fee. Is that still the fee for the "preferred" lots (i.e., the ones along the edge with no back neighbors and the ones by the pond)? I assume the fee for the other lots is still $380 something, right?

Eliza, is the new Acacia model up and ready to look at? We are driving down to visit our kids in late October and plan to do another look/see. The Acacia is what we want to buy. Last July when we stopped in to see how things were going, we were able to see a new Acacia (already sold) being set up over by the pond. It was gorgeous inside, laminate floors, fireplace, crown molding, etc.

While we were there in July we asked Debbie about putting some $$ down to hold a lot until we could build. Unfortunately the rule is first to find the lot, put the $5K for deposit, then immediately start the process of ordering the home. Unfortunately we are not able to have two houses right now.

We know about NY taxes. Michigan isn't quite as bad, but they are up there. We used to live in Massena (up on the St. Lawrence), and even in farm/dairy country up there, taxes were high. We are looking forward to saving money in Delaware.

Hubby is retired AF and we love the idea of being so close to Dover AFB. He's also retired GM employee (see me for a discount on a new you-know-what LOL). We spend winters in Florida doing volunteer work, but one of these days we won't be traveling as much in the motorhome. So..living near one of our kids (the other lives in Binghamton, NY) sounds a whole lot better than living out in Michigan by ourselves.

I am looking forward to reading more posts in this forum. You all sound like a very friendly bunch. Maybe we'll be neighbors some day.

BTW, Eliza, has Marta come up with some fun activities yet? When you see her, tell her I remember how gorgeous her house is. Say hi to Miss Debbie, too, and that we'll drop in late next month.

Jonalyn from Michigan

Hi Jonalyn..........Nice to meet you. My dad was from Muskegon Michigan.

W are a friendly bunch here. I really wish I had found this forum before when we were on the hunt. Although, it all worked out for us but it might have saved me some frustrating and time consuming days.

Marta has great ideas the problem is most people are not interested in the activies.
We did get a group together for arts and crafts Wed making cards. That is my little hobbie. I enjoyed that.
she planned a Lua a few weeks back and they had a great time with hawian decorations and food.
We also had a birthday party for the birthday people. It is fun to get together and catch up with everyone that goes to these events.
Excerise is also one of our activities. We had sit down excersises the other day. Great for people who can't stand too long or at all. My hub has parkisons and he found it ideal.
I'm learning a lot from Marta, her ideas are never ending.
Most fo the summer, we were busy enjoying the pool. Best summer I had in years. Just retired in Feb and went to heaven.
I will surely tell Marta and Debbie you said hi

The model should be done by Oct. If it is the one I'm thinking of, they are working on it as we speak.

just for your information, since your Hubby is a retired AF, some of the stores give discounts to military.

Neither my hub or I have been to DE before. So when we moved, there was lots of fun exploring to do.
When the warmer weather started, Bill and I went to the beach. I had sent Debbie an email and said we were off to play in the sand. She said, "girl, your a mess." She is so funny.

As far as the lot rent.............I am not sure what they are asking now. I know what I pay because we bought in Sept 2006. I'm sure they are going up like everything else. Best thing to do is call the office to find out for sure.
Yes, there are preferred lots and they are more a month. I suppose it is nice. you have more privacy at one end of the house but we wanted to keep the cost down. After all, the lot rents will be going up, no doubt about it.
It is not just southerm meadows, all of them are going up. You will not find one that won't raise the rent in a few years.

Sure there will be lots next year. Sounds like you are buying in a perfect location.

Good luck,

[elizamary]

Originally Posted by JoycieM

Hi Jonalyn,




Also, a quick note to Charley....the houses in Wild Meadows are manufactured. I called down there with another question and in our conversation, it was mentioned that the homes were manufactured. No matter. In fact, I actually prefer it!

And now a matter of great concern....I wouldn't have to change my support to another football team, would I? That would be a deal breaker!

I thought they were manufactured homes. Charley seemed so sure and there for a moment I thought well maybe.

Wild meadows is a nice community and the homes are humungous and gorgeous.
Southen Meadows gave us a better bang for our buck and that is what we were looking for.
there were 4 on our list, bon Ayre, Barclay farms, wild meadows and Southern Meadows. Believe me...........was an extremely tough decsion.

[Charley]

Well then I must be losing what's left of my mind. I was there watching them build the homes. When I was first there, the models were completed, along with a few of the houses, and many others were in different stages of completeness. Now it's possible that maybe they are factory-built modules that are manufactured off-site, delivered and assembled on the property, but I know that they were in different stages of readiness with workers performing a variety of tasks on each one.

Charley

[elizamary]

Hi Charley,

Not to worry, you may have been having a senior moment. LOL

Not sure what they do at Wild Meadows but here in Southen Meadows the homes are brought from the manufaturer and set up on site. Then the build the garage and add the other peak on the roof.
The garage is not manufactured so maybe it is the same way in Wild meads.
Just a thought. I have them every once and a while. hehehe

[YAB2002]

Would someone who lives in Southern Meadows tell me what the ground rent is? I have called the office twice and am getting no response. Not very customer oriented. . . .

My hubby and I live in Baltimore, MD and are looking for affordable housing in the near future and accidently I stumbled on Southern Meadows website. Looks like something we would be interested in. Any information anyone could give me would be most helpful.

Thank you.

[Charley]

I don't live at Southern Meadows but the ground rent is $415 per month. The rent is capped at the greater of 5% or 1.5 times the CPI (Consumer Price Index) for the initial ten year lease term.

I'm quite surprised that you did not get a response from Debbie. When I did a site visit there last month, I asked her everything imaginable ... and some questions that might or might not have been appropriate. She answered every one of my questions with absolute candor and even went so far as to give me a copy of the ground rent agreement for my review. She was impressive in the amount of information she was willing to share with me.

I saw 14 55+ communities last month. There are four in which I would live, Southern Meadows being one of them. As far as being "customer oriented", Southern Meadows was absolutely the best!

Hoping this helps,

Charley

Charley

[sanddollar]

To YAB2002, try sending a note to Debbie via email. She has always been great about answering my questions.

SouthernMeadow@i-realty.com

[elizamary]

Originally Posted by YAB2002

Would someone who lives in Southern Meadows tell me what the ground rent is? I have called the office twice and am getting no response. Not very customer oriented. . . .

My hubby and I live in Baltimore, MD and are looking for affordable housing in the near future and accidently I stumbled on Southern Meadows website. Looks like something we would be interested in. Any information anyone could give me would be most helpful.

Thank you.

Hi Yab........Did you leave a number where you can be reached when you called.
This is so unlike Debbie not to return your call. She will be in the office Monday from 12 to 5.

My understanding is the ground rent is going up so I don't know what the it would be if you are purchasing a home in Southern Meadows now.

Charley would know better than me. We live in Southern Meadows signed for a home in Sept 2006.

Also, you can email her at the web address sanddollar provided.

She will get back to you, I am totally sure.

[JoycieM]

I am not sure I understand the lot rent, Charley. What do you mean by a ten year lease term? I was told by Debbie that lot rent would stay the same for 2 years and then increase which would be for the next two years. This is the pattern that was explained to me. Correct me if I am wrong but do you mean the lease would stay at $415 for ten years with the initial contract upon buying your home?

Thanks
Joycie

[Charley]

Originally Posted by JoycieM

I am not sure I understand the lot rent, Charley. What do you mean by a ten year lease term? I was told by Debbie that lot rent would stay the same for 2 years and then increase which would be for the next two years. This is the pattern that was explained to me. Correct me if I am wrong but do you mean the lease would stay at $415 for ten years with the initial contract upon buying your home?

Here's my interpretation - and I could be wrong - so I'd suggest checking with Debbie to be sure:

The lot rent is $415. Southern Meadows can raise that every year if they want to do so. For the first ten years of your lease, they can raise it as high as 5% above the prior year, or one-and-one-half times the consumer price index, whichever is higher.

So, next year, let's just say that the CPI is 3%. 1.5 times the CPI would be 4.5%. 5% is higher and therefore they could raise it to $435.75.

If the CPI is 4%, 1.5 times to CPI would be 6% which is higher than 5% and therefore they could raise it 6% to $439.90.

About the CPI: The government usually lowballs the CPI because that is the basis against which they calculate increases to Social Security payments and the higher the CPI, the higher they have to increase Social Security payments, so the suspicion is that the CPI is kept articificially lower than the actual increase in consumer prices. (This according to CNBC).

I hope this helps but I also really recommend checking with Debbie just to be sure. Again, my interpretation could be incorrect and I wouldn't want to mislead you.

Charley