The Villages - Where to start ? (middle-class, for sale, to rent)

[beach43ofus]

Some great posts here...I've leanred a lot. Thx all

[Ghaati]

Originally Posted by logybogy

Standard siding in FL on nice homes is hardiboard or concrete stucco (south florida). Hardiboard is cement siding that lasts 50 years and resistant to fire and termites, insects. Vinyl and wood siding are for cheap homes.

Most people move to Florida #1 so they don't have to experience winter and snow and for tax reasons. No state income tax is glorious if you are rich and sitting on lots of cap gains in your investment accounts. Any social activities are a bonus.

No state income tax is pretty nice if you work for a living too. The downside is that the money you save by not having state income tax deducted from your paycheck doesn't really cover the cost of living increase. Rents are high, comparatively here. Home sales prices are more cost efficient but younger folks just starting out, or people who've come from cities where they've been renting rather than owning, won't have much capital to invest for a downpayment on a home.

[NextExit40Miles]

Originally Posted by beach43ofus

Healthcare there seems weak...bad hospital, so most wind up driving the 1.5 hrs to Orlando for healthcare.

I came to the same conclusion and believe the negatives out way the positive. A community designed to appeal to an older group with poor healthcare is a non-starter to me. The Villages is very appealing in many ways but without a descent healthcare system in place it's hard to justify a move there. Should one come down with an illness later in life having to travel over an hour is unacceptable. They need to step up their game. The first order of business for a 'retirement' community should be healthcare.

[Ghaati]

Originally Posted by NextExit40Miles

I came to the same conclusion and believe the negatives out way the positive. A community designed to appeal to an older group with poor healthcare is a non-starter to me. The Villages is very appealing in many ways but without a descent healthcare system in place it's hard to justify a move there. Should one come down with an illness later in life having to travel over an hour is unacceptable. They need to step up their game. The first order of business for a 'retirement' community should be healthcare.

They DO have a decent health care system. Their main problem is with their EMERGENCY care at their hospital. Emergency departments are notorious for bringing down the quality raking of any hospital, and the Villages's ED is really not equipped to handle the influx of snowbirds who show up at the ER.

They have The Villages Health, which IS a decent health care system. They also have dozens of private practice physicians and groups scattered all around, in addition to Urgent Care centers and satellite emergency rooms. There's also the Leesburg Hospital, around 20-30 minutes away from most of the Villages. Orlando South is around 40 minutes from most of the Villages, less from some parts of it.

There are specialists of all stripes, outpatient surgery centers, mental health centers, cancer centers, alternative medicine centers, accupuncture and chiropractic centers, heart health centers, dieticians and nutritionist centers, dentists and periodontists galore.

"The hospital" is one hospital of several, and their bad rating is PRIMARILY from their emergency department.

[rjm1cc]

Originally Posted by NextExit40Miles

I came to the same conclusion and believe the negatives out way the positive. A community designed to appeal to an older group with poor healthcare is a non-starter to me. The Villages is very appealing in many ways but without a descent healthcare system in place it's hard to justify a move there. Should one come down with an illness later in life having to travel over an hour is unacceptable. They need to step up their game. The first order of business for a 'retirement' community should be healthcare.

Try OTOW in Ocala

[NextExit40Miles]

Originally Posted by Ghaati

They DO have a decent health care system. Their main problem is with their EMERGENCY care at their hospital. Emergency departments are notorious for bringing down the quality raking of any hospital, and the Villages's ED is really not equipped to handle the influx of snowbirds who show up at the ER.

They have The Villages Health, which IS a decent health care system. They also have dozens of private practice physicians and groups scattered all around, in addition to Urgent Care centers and satellite emergency rooms. There's also the Leesburg Hospital, around 20-30 minutes away from most of the Villages. Orlando South is around 40 minutes from most of the Villages, less from some parts of it.

There are specialists of all stripes, outpatient surgery centers, mental health centers, cancer centers, alternative medicine centers, accupuncture and chiropractic centers, heart health centers, dieticians and nutritionist centers, dentists and periodontists galore.

"The hospital" is one hospital of several, and their bad rating is PRIMARILY from their emergency department.

Thanks for your input Ghaati. Since the hospital is having a hard time handling the number of people are there plans to build another ? I would think for a community that has a number of older residents healthcare would be a priority.

[NextExit40Miles]

Originally Posted by rjm1cc

Try OTOW in Ocala

RJ, what healthcare system covers OTOW ? Do they have their own hospital ?

[Ghaati]

Originally Posted by NextExit40Miles

Thanks for your input Ghaati. Since the hospital is having a hard time handling the number of people are there plans to build another ? I would think for a community that has a number of older residents healthcare would be a priority.

There is a stand-alone Emergency center on the southern end of the Villages, various medical centers, another hospital on 441 to the south in Leesburg, another hospital in Ocala. There are also several Urgent Care centers, though they don't run 24/7 like the EDs do.

There's no point in building MORE, when they can't get enough people to work for the ones they have.

The ER at the Villages Regional has no problem "handling the number of people." Not sure where you got that information. They just don't have a very high quality ED.

They do, however, have a LifeStar helicopter at the Villages Regional, which many hospitals around the country don't have at all.

[NextExit40Miles]

Originally Posted by Ghaati

The ER at the Villages Regional has no problem "handling the number of people." Not sure where you got that information. They just don't have a very high quality ED.

Maybe I misunderstood, I took what you had said (below) about the 'not equipped to handle the influx of snowbirds' as meaning they couldn't handle the volume of people that went to the ER. So then it's really about the quality of care, is that correct ?

I would think if this is a known problem, the residents of TV would make it clear that questionable quality was unacceptable.

Originally Posted by Ghaati

the Villages's ED is really not equipped to handle the influx of snowbirds who show up at the ER. They just don't have a very high quality ED.

[Ghaati]

We do tell them it's unacceptable. But the hospital isn't owned by the Villages. It's a UF hospital (University of Florida). None of the medical groups are "owned" by the Villages, EXCEPT "The Villages Health." And that's sort of an HMO or all-inclusive entity with a couple of locations and satellite departments scattered throughout the Villages.

Remember please - The Villages isn't a small community. During snowbird season, there are over 150,000 residents. There are thousands of employees who work in the area - from Sam's warehouse to Walmart to Petco and Best Buy, to the little boutique shops in the town squares, plus the actual Villages corporation which owns the bank, insurance broker, mortgage broker, the homes they build (until the homes are sold to their first resident), the property all the town squares sit on and all the buildings in those squares, the parking lots, etc. There are hundreds of landscape companies that services the assorted residents and common properties, some under contract, some just "that guy who I pay $50 every other week to mow the lawn".

The Villages is around 70 square miles of homes, businesses, stores, medical facilities, recreation areas, walking trails, golf courses, set across the corners of three counties, taking up pieces of half a dozen towns. And just like any random three counties and half a dozen towns with highways and major roads and commercial districts running through them, they have everything people need.

But during the busy season, lines are longer, traffic is denser, wait times for emergency care are higher, quality of care is lower because the hospitals only have "x" number of doctors working for them, and they now have to help "y" number of people. In the summer, they have fewer people, a lighter case load, and can get more done.

But if they hired more doctors and hospital staff JUST so they could handle a higher case load in the winter, the staff would be unemployed in the summer because they're simply not needed when there's a low case load. There aren't a lot of doctors and nurses willing to risk that.

That's just basic business 101, it's not anything "bad" about the Villages, it's a phenomenon whenever you have an area that has seasonal high populations. Nantucket, the Keys, the ski resorts in the north - they all experience this to one extent or another.