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My husband is 55 and and I 52 - we don't golf, play tennis, etc. - do you think a couple of northerners (from NJ) would fit down here? Love the looks of the place (from the website) and seems reasonably priced. Just wondering if anyone has any input on this community.
Also - do you know if pets are allowed? We have a 9 year old chocolate lab that is a pile of mush and our "baby" - couldn't possibly go anywhere with him.
Any info you could provide would be great. I guess I'd like to know especially if we'd be the "kids" - nothing against the retirement crowd, but I'm not ready for 100% walkers and wheel chairs - sorry - please don't flame. Just being honest and looking for answers...thanks in advance
See my post in the other thread, but I will re-cap here.
First, I am in my 40's, and have no financial interest whatsoever in The Villages, so here's my honest opinion, having gone there with my father to just look around and have lunch.
This is definitely an active adult community. It caters to retirees that play golf and lead an active lifestyle. It has a very nice "village-like" down town area. There are pleanty of other activities outside of golf and tennis.
52 is a little young for the villages; I'd say that typical residents range in age from 62 - 85. I'm sure there are many people there that are both younger and older than this, but it is for people who are retired. Most people in their 50's aren't retired and if they live in Central Florida, they need access to Greator Orlando for their jobs. The Villages is just out of reach as far as any possibility of a reasonable commute to the Orlando area on a daily basis for work.
People seem to come from all over the country to live in The Villages. If you are considerning moving their, and if you are retired, perhaps you should take up golf or tennis? Could be fun.
My husband is 55 and and I 52 - we don't golf, play tennis, etc. - do you think a couple of northerners (from NJ) would fit down here? Love the looks of the place (from the website) and seems reasonably priced. Just wondering if anyone has any input on this community.
Also - do you know if pets are allowed? We have a 9 year old chocolate lab that is a pile of mush and our "baby" - couldn't possibly go anywhere with him.
Any info you could provide would be great. I guess I'd like to know especially if we'd be the "kids" - nothing against the retirement crowd, but I'm not ready for 100% walkers and wheel chairs - sorry - please don't flame. Just being honest and looking for answers...thanks in advance
Go back to their website. The Villages has a vacation package called lifestyle trial. They rent you a house with a golf cart and bicycles. You are both young. Go there several times before you make a decision. I was there three times before I decided to buy elsewhere. As far as politics is concerned, your reaction to FOX radio playing on main street in Sumter Landing will give you a clue as to how you will fit in.
There is a thread called "The Villages -- why did you leave?" Read it. I a copying and pasting my post. Don't do it:
Edit Status
Join Date: Apr 2013
9 posts, read 2,088 times
Reputation: 10
I have to respond to this thread. I lived in the Villages for 5 years, from 2003 to 2008. On the plus side, we had a really beautiful house and, when we moved there, it was relatively well-priced. We actually liked the convenience of nearby shopping, but if you want to really shop, you need to drive to Ocala. You also need to drive to Leesburg or Ocala of you want to work. The sales pitch is that there are lots of jobs, but there aren't and the ones that there are pay about $8 to $10 a hour. I actually started quite a fuss down there because of some of the claims our sales person made about job availability. I was told that they had to take it out of the pitch because of my complaint, but I don't believe it.
We moved there when I was 55 and my husband was 60. We were much too young for the place. I had nothing to talk to anyone about until I threw my back out. Then everyone was happy to share their aches and pains. When we were there, there was an unspoken rule that ambulances did not use sirens because they were afraid that they would scare people off if we knew how many people were taken away.
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 also have to talk about the (lack of) culture in the area. Golf and drinking is what the place is all about. Another sales pitch is that more alcohol is consumed on the property than on all the college campuses in FL. If you want to see a decent show or a museum, you drive 90 miles to Tampa or 70 miles to Orlando. We always said of all of the acts they booked in the venues in the Villages, that it signified that their career was over.
One more thing and then I'll stop. If you hated high school cliques, you will hate the Villages because the friendships there are very clique-y. We went to a Baby Boomers' event once, and it was quite clear that we had been seated at the unpopular kids' table.
We are actually thinking of moving back to Florida, now, but I would not set foot anywhere near the Villages. BTW, did you see the arrest, a couple of weeks ago, for a 60-something woman and a 49 year old man who were having sex in one of the town squares? Yeah, Villages people are pure class.
There is a thread called "The Villages -- why did you leave?" Read it. I a copying and pasting my post. Don't do it:
Edit Status
Join Date: Apr 2013
9 posts, read 2,088 times
Reputation: 10
I have to respond to this thread. I lived in the Villages for 5 years, from 2003 to 2008. On the plus side, we had a really beautiful house and, when we moved there, it was relatively well-priced. We actually liked the convenience of nearby shopping, but if you want to really shop, you need to drive to Ocala. You also need to drive to Leesburg or Ocala of you want to work. The sales pitch is that there are lots of jobs, but there aren't and the ones that there are pay about $8 to $10 a hour. I actually started quite a fuss down there because of some of the claims our sales person made about job availability. I was told that they had to take it out of the pitch because of my complaint, but I don't believe it.
We moved there when I was 55 and my husband was 60. We were much too young for the place. I had nothing to talk to anyone about until I threw my back out. Then everyone was happy to share their aches and pains. When we were there, there was an unspoken rule that ambulances did not use sirens because they were afraid that they would scare people off if we knew how many people were taken away.
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 also have to talk about the (lack of) culture in the area. Golf and drinking is what the place is all about. Another sales pitch is that more alcohol is consumed on the property than on all the college campuses in FL. If you want to see a decent show or a museum, you drive 90 miles to Tampa or 70 miles to Orlando. We always said of all of the acts they booked in the venues in the Villages, that it signified that their career was over.
One more thing and then I'll stop. If you hated high school cliques, you will hate the Villages because the friendships there are very clique-y. We went to a Baby Boomers' event once, and it was quite clear that we had been seated at the unpopular kids' table.
We are actually thinking of moving back to Florida, now, but I would not set foot anywhere near the Villages. BTW, did you see the arrest, a couple of weeks ago, for a 60-something woman and a 49 year old man who were having sex in one of the town squares? Yeah, Villages people are pure class.
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All I can say is ditto!!! Lived there for 3 years and didn't golf, live for happy hour or buy into the developer's obsession with Fox and right wing politics. I am rather apolitical, but it got to the point that every major event booked in the town square was a political pundit (Hannity, Carol Rove, etc.) or developer chosen politician Sarah Palin, Rick Scott, etc. Enough already!
If you want to live in a gated bubble, read the Developer's Happy Daily Newspaper, don't care about good health care or nearby cultural events, and always wanted to live in the Truman Show, this is the place for you!
Last edited by UL885; 07-23-2014 at 10:01 PM..
Reason: sp
Go back to their website. The Villages has a vacation package called lifestyle trial. They rent you a house with a golf cart and bicycles. You are both young. Go there several times before you make a decision. I was there three times before I decided to buy elsewhere. As far as politics is concerned, your reaction to FOX radio playing on main street in Sumter Landing will give you a clue as to how you will fit in.
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All I can say is ditto!!! Lived there for 3 years and didn't golf, live for happy hour or buy into the developer's obsession with Fox and right wing politics. I am rather apolitical, but it got to the point that every major event booked in the town square was a political pundit (Hannity, Carol Rove, etc.) or developer chosen politician Sarah Palin, Rick Scott, etc. Enough already!
If you want to live in a gated bubble, read the Developer's Happy Daily Newspaper, don't care about good health care or nearby cultural events, and always wanted to live in the Truman Show, this is the place for you!
The Truman Show part I love about the place. A political place, of either side, I can do without. We chose to pass on it because it seemed like a novelty and would get old and stale after a while, it is not coastal and the homes seems expensive for what you get.
For me....I am not old enough to live with the over 55 who think they need to be in an over 55 neighborhood. I retired at 62, turned 65 this year but work part time to make fun money and get a discount on clothes)
I like having kids around playing outside and visiting with us. I like having young neighbors. I like having friends of all ages. And secondly I would think moving to Florida to move anywhere without a beach would be a waste of time. I would miss walking on the beach most days and still have time to do so much more.
For me....I am not old enough to live with the over 55 who think they need to be in an over 55 neighborhood. I retired at 62, turned 65 this year but work part time to make fun money and get a discount on clothes)
I like having kids around playing outside and visiting with us. I like having young neighbors. I like having friends of all ages. And secondly I would think moving to Florida to move anywhere without a beach would be a waste of time. I would miss walking on the beach most days and still have time to do so much more.
Check out some of the gated family communities in Venice. We don't get freeze warnings down there and the trees are not all fan palms.
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