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THe Lighthouse was good too, can't rem. where it was though. I think we got vouchers for a place called The Veranda for breakfast but it's since been closed. I think the local paper now reports golf cart accidents but that wasnt always the case. Lots of roundabouts. An interesting place to visit.
The Lighthouse is in Sumter Landing. If I remember correctly it had some pretty good food. Along the dock near the Lighthouse there are sea turtles that come up to see if anyone will give them food.
I find The Villages to be too cramped but the deal breaker was when we found out we couldn't build a fence to let our dog out to run and go potty. The Villages does have lots of amenities but I am not interested in most of them. For what you get I thought they were overpriced. 3 years ago we ended up buying a 3 bed, 2 bath, 1900 Sq ft house on a canal with a dock on an 8000 Sq ft lot for under $170k. The back yard was already fenced and there are no HOA fees, taxes are quite low. We can take our boat out whenever we want, we are 6 minutes from the intracoastal and we are only about 1 mile (as the crow flies) from the ocean. We have only spent about $20k on improvements but I estimate we could get at least $240k now. I don't think that can be said about the Villages. There are plenty of uncrowded restaurants and plenty to do here, dozens of parks and walking trails everywhere. We are going to an air show next week.
I find The Villages to be too cramped but the deal breaker was when we found out we couldn't build a fence to let our dog out to run and go potty. The Villages does have lots of amenities but I am not interested in most of them. For what you get I thought they were overpriced. 3 years ago we ended up buying a 3 bed, 2 bath, 1900 Sq ft house on a canal with a dock on an 8000 Sq ft lot for under $170k. The back yard was already fenced and there are no HOA fees, taxes are quite low. We can take our boat out whenever we want, we are 6 minutes from the intracoastal and we are only about 1 mile (as the crow flies) from the ocean. We have only spent about $20k on improvements but I estimate we could get at least $240k now. I don't think that can be said about the Villages. There are plenty of uncrowded restaurants and plenty to do here, dozens of parks and walking trails everywhere. We are going to an air show next week.
There is an allure to the Villages. It is well kept and neat. The town centers have nice stores and restaurants. There are a hundred miles of golf cart trails that can be used by bicyclists. The bottom line is that you are right. There are better deals near the water. The houses there have become quite over priced for something carved out of the Florida jungle.
When I attempted to discuss what we are discussing now my ID was deleted from the Villages forum. Before they deleted my ID there my opinions filled seven pages of angry responses.
no idea why anyone would choose the Villages over so many other better places to retire in the Southeast.
Hmm, when I'm 65, do I wanna retire in the Villages or Asheville NC? Do I wanna be surrounded by beautiful mtn views? Nah, I'll take being around a bunch of old cranky retirees who play golf in 95 degree weather
Not all seniors are cranky and not all like to play golf in muggy high temps. The Villages def. has a certain appeal (esp. for golfers) but it's not for everyone - there's a slew of activities and events ppl can go to. Like many places, it's a nice place to visit (which is why we went on the life-time visit and got a feel for how it w/b to live there). We have dogs but no fences wasnt a deal breaker - understandably for others w/ younger active dogs, it may be. We have friends who moved there and other friends who moved away for different reasons (they loved it there but moved away to be closer to family). To each his own, I guess.
Health care is a big issue. There is a lovely hospital and I understand that, since we left, they have added a cancer center connected with Moffett in Tampa. However, with this huge population of older folk, there was no heart unit in the hospital. They merely triaged you and sent you elsewhere. When I threw out my back, I had to use family connections to get into the University Hospital in Gainesville to have surgery. The docs in the Villages mostly don't speak very good English and, frankly, aren't very good doctors or they'd b somewhere other than the Villages. In fact, the Gainesville hospital caused my husband's kidneys to collapse by not monitoring meds that he was on. We had to move to NY to get the care he needed (a transplant). His nephrologist in the area told us that, if we wanted him to survive, we needed to get him out of Florida. I maintain that the only qualification for a doctor's license in FL, and especially Central FL, is being able to sign your name. I went for a endoscope, once, and when I got home from the doc's clinic, discovered that I still had a catheter in my arm. That doc was later arrested in NY for drunk and disorderly on a Delta plane and for trying to take a hit on his partner.
.
I lived near Tampa and had experience with a tumored adrenal gland, which caused high blood pressure
and had been treated by a nephrologist near Washington D.C, where I moved from, with medicine. Every tpe of blood pressure pill available was prescribed, yet the pressure was still not being controlled. I moved near Tampa and started seeing a Tampa nephrologist, who suggested that I have the offending adrenal gland removed at Tampa General by the surgeon who had introduced laparoscopic surgery to the area. That was the smartest decision I ever made and I came to view the physician I had left in D.C. as something of a jerk, for trying to avoid, at tremendous costs, what was a fairly routine surgery. I did further research and discovered that Tampa General performs a lot of heart transplants and that their survival rate is the highest in the country - far ahead of the Cleveland Clinic which has advertised their transplant expertise. Anyone, such as this poster, who claims Florida doctors are incompetent, is himself totally out of touch. I laughed uncontrollably when he said he had to travel to NY for decent medical support. I notice a distinct and consistent tendency for Northerners to feel superior, apparently because they disagree with the lifestyle of those living in places like the Villages. I lived in gated community near Tampa and had, on either side of me, couples from Boston, Mass. Cannot say very many positive things about either and was glad to leave the community. In fact, nearly all of the residents were from someplace other than Florida, often from the northeastern U.S. My view was that all gated senior communities, whether they be in Florida or in Maryland or in Timbucktoo have similar negatives that I cannot tolerate, but those negatives have nothing to do with the politics of the inhabitants. I found political talk to be practically non-existent. One thing I learned - don't talk politics or religion or automobiles - a good way to get into fistfight.
However, the investment you make at The Villages could buy you a privilaged life in Panama or Costa Rica, or any designated safe Expat community in Mexico. Healthier food, natural juices and cheap labor, and the freedom of less rules and more relaxed lifestyle, not to mention a high abundance of beautiful, slim & feminine women not readily found in the U.S. Sadly, most Midwest and NE retirees simply don't know this.
..
And fight the Mexican drug lords all the while? Mexicon is in near revolution (again) and sucks and who would ever want to live on the equator in Panama or Costa Rica, the latter having become criminally infested by outsiders ?
[quote=Tonyafd;35731668]I visited the Villages on three separate occasions with an open mind toward buying a house.
1. I found the political atmosphere overbearing and imposing. The Tea Party dominates area politics. FOX radio plays from speakers on main street in Sumter Landing. Democrats invite speakers, but they will never speak in the "Town Squares". The Republican "brain trust" Sarah Palin spoke to a crowd of 30 thousand in 2008. There is a special display case at Barnes and Nobles in Sumter Landing where all of the books are from "mental giants" like Limbaugh.
If it's "overbearing" (yeah, right) I'd say you have a sensitivity or ack of diversity problem
My advice - go somewhere else,but don't criticize the folks at Villages for having thier own views.
So it seriously bothers you that a female GOP spoke there 7 years ago? Amazing!
2. If one of your kids need to come and live at home because of a divorce or layoff, that's not possible.
This is a common rule for senior gated communities, not unique to the Villages by any means.
I happen to agree with the rule
3. There was no price list for options that could be included in the house. There were fees and bonds that drove up the monthly cost of maintenance.
In Florida, beware the CDD. This is NOT unique to the Villages. I have no clue about your price complaint.
4. The price for block was 9K more than frame. What, no reduction for the wood that was saved?
NOBODY would knowingly build a frame house in termite heaven Florida. And why do you apparently believe it costs more to build a stick house? They build stick houses because they are CHEAP.
5. Spanish Springs banks were of no help in providing information about area foreclosures.
You can easily find foreclosure information from many sources.
7. Where is Costco, Trader Joes? An hour away in Orlando?
Wouldn't bother me - I never set foot in Trader Joes or Costco
Below is a website that goes into additional detail:
[url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/11/06/the-villages-florida_n_2076715.html]The Villages' Democrats Find Second-Rate Citizenry In A Billionaire's Republican Kingdom[/url]
I would NEVER cite anything posted at the unreliable Huffington Post website. By
my count, their errors are outnumbering their facts about 2 to 1. Nothing they
pubish about global warming is ever even remotely correct. You'd think simply by
random accident that they would occasionally touch base with reality.
I visited the Villages on three separate occasions with an open mind toward buying a house.
1. I found the political atmosphere overbearing and imposing. The Tea Party dominates area politics. FOX radio plays from speakers on main street in Sumter Landing. Democrats invite speakers, but they will never speak in the "Town Squares". The Republican "brain trust" Sarah Palin spoke to a crowd of 30 thousand in 2008. There is a special display case at Barnes and Nobles in Sumter Landing where all of the books are from "mental giants" like Limbaugh.
If it's "overbearing" (yeah, right) I'd say you have a sensitivity or ack of diversity problem
My advice - go somewhere else,but don't criticize the folks at Villages for having thier own views.
So it seriously bothers you that a female GOP spoke there 7 years ago? Amazing!
2. If one of your kids need to come and live at home because of a divorce or layoff, that's not possible.
This is a common rule for senior gated communities, not unique to the Villages by any means.
I happen to agree with the rule
3. There was no price list for options that could be included in the house. There were fees and bonds that drove up the monthly cost of maintenance.
In Florida, beware the CDD. This is NOT unique to the Villages. I have no clue about your price complaint.
4. The price for block was 9K more than frame. What, no reduction for the wood that was saved?
NOBODY would knowingly build a frame house in termite heaven Florida. And why do you apparently believe it costs more to build a stick house? They build stick houses because they are CHEAP.
5. Spanish Springs banks were of no help in providing information about area foreclosures.
You can easily find foreclosure information from many sources.
7. Where is Costco, Trader Joes? An hour away in Orlando?
Wouldn't bother me - I never set foot in Trader Joes or Costco
I would NEVER cite anything posted at the unreliable Huffington Post website. By
my count, their errors are outnumbering their facts about 2 to 1. Nothing they
pubish about global warming is ever even remotely correct. You'd think simply by
random accident that they would occasionally touch base with reality.
Your response was a good example of why you are where you are and the OP is where he is. Something for everybody but not the same thing.
This has been one of the most entertaining (and maybe the most scary) threads I've ever read on this web site. And all from a thirteen word original post back in 2011. Proves there's a LOT of opinions about that screwy place. I would never in a million years want to go there even for a visit, (and to be brutally honest, just having The Villages in the same state that I live in is frightening and humiliating at the same time) but it's fascinating to read about it. Sort of like that old surreal television series called The Prisoner, but maybe on some sort of brain deadening drugs that cause meanness and viciousness or something. I feel you would have to be truly certifiable to even THINK of living there from what I've read here. And maybe that's the attraction. Birds of a feather and all that stuff. It's reassuring to be around like people just like you, who think just like you....or else!
Last edited by smarino; 03-29-2015 at 08:26 PM..
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No fences allowed
