THE Villages OK? (Orlando: live in, shopping centers, safety) - Ocala - Florida (FL) -Marion County - Page 8 - City-Data Forum

JuanitaF · 07-09-2010, 01:48 PM

Thanks AnonChick. After I posted about the CDD, I thought that might be the bond. Good to know it's not an additional fee. As for the water, sewar, phone, electric, etc., etc., etc., you would have those fees anywhere, right? I mean you don't have to pay for a land line telephone if you don't want one, your other utilites will vary according to your personal usage, same as anywhere you live, and there will always be taxes and insurance. So, if I am understanding correctly, the only extra fees, over and above just living anywhere else, not in a structured community, are the amenities and the bond. Our sales rep told us the bond was a way of passing on the cost of the infrastructure without adding it to the price of the house. AGAIN...IF I understood correctly, whenever you build a house, or buy a resale, somewhere other than TV, that is just part of the sales price. As for $135 per month for all the golf you can play, not to mention all the other activities, I'm really liking that. We're thinking it might not be the best real estate deal we ever bought, since you can pick up property all over Florida so cheaply right now, but we're ready to give a shot, renting for a while.

staywarm2 · 07-09-2010, 05:28 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JuanitaF

Thanks AnonChick. After I posted about the CDD, I thought that might be the bond. Good to know it's not an additional fee. As for the water, sewar, phone, electric, etc., etc., etc., you would have those fees anywhere, right? I mean you don't have to pay for a land line telephone if you don't want one, your other utilites will vary according to your personal usage, same as anywhere you live, and there will always be taxes and insurance. So, if I am understanding correctly, the only extra fees, over and above just living anywhere else, not in a structured community, are the amenities and the bond. Our sales rep told us the bond was a way of passing on the cost of the infrastructure without adding it to the price of the house. AGAIN...IF I understood correctly, whenever you build a house, or buy a resale, somewhere other than TV, that is just part of the sales price. As for $135 per month for all the golf you can play, not to mention all the other activities, I'm really liking that. We're thinking it might not be the best real estate deal we ever bought, since you can pick up property all over Florida so cheaply right now, but we're ready to give a shot, renting for a while.

Don't forget there may be a golf cart fee if you don't own your own and a path fee if you do. Plus, I believe there is a charge for some classes.

Check out the property tax rate, as well. In many, many areas of FL, property taxes are exhorbitant.

JuanitaF · 07-09-2010, 07:57 PM

staywarm2, Thanks for the response. There is a fee for the cart (no idea $$), and we haven't been able to tell from the literature exactly what there is a charge for, and what there isn't, but we can figure out there are a lot of activities that are no charge. So even with cart fees, golf will be a bargain, and we can choose to join, or not join, the activities with a fee, or just stick to the freebies, of which there are many. I have also been impressed with the responses from posters here who actually live in The Villages. Funny, as you get a little older, and your priorities change....even 5 years ago, we would have run screaming from such a community, but now...??? Thanks to everyone posting. I am really enjoying, and getting an education from, this thread.

Oakback · 07-10-2010, 01:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnonChick

CDD = Community Development District. It's a tax term to identify what the Villages is. The $170 bond is what they're talking about. The "CDD Bond" was audited back in 2004 by the IRS, there was some legal trouble, it was resolved. There are other fees by the way. I have a package from them that they sent me this year, so it's probably current. Here's the full estimated cost of living, based on a $250,000 home with the homestead exemption.

$135.00 amenities fee
21.00 sewer
36.00 water
168.00 gas/electric
18.00 trash
40.00 basic phone (yeah who has that?)
53.00 basic cable TV (basic? are you kidding?)
100.00 insurance
240.00 average taxes
150.00 development district assessment (that's the CDD bond)
---------

$961.00 total per month, including basic phone and cable and no internet service. On average. Not including mortgage

Big expense. HUGE expense. That's almost what we pay in mortgage now.

Where I'm living (Suburbs of Maryland) my monthly expenses ( not including mortgage ) are more than $961.00.

And it doesn't include golf, amenities, raking leaves, snow removal, and long commutes.

AnonChick · 07-10-2010, 04:09 PM

We're homeowners (not in a fee-imposed community, just plain old normal people who live in houses on parcels of land on public streets in the burbs). I don't think we even pay half that much, including taxes and insurance, if we were to spread out our yearly "homeowner costs" out to monthly payments. We'd end up having to pay almost double just in fees alone, to live in the Villages. Paying extra for trash? That's what our taxes pay for. They also pay for snow removal on the street, and leaf collection in the fall. Our sewer tax is a once-yearly expense that I believe is around $80 per household.

I'm not about to pay extra for the privilege of having someone do what I'm already paying for them to do, in a state that pretends green razor blades are grass, where if the said razor blades don't kill you when you try walking barefoot in it, the fire ants will..where the closest thing they have to a mountain is a city dump, and where there are exactly two varieties of autumn-changing leaf trees, and 400 varieties of identical-appearing palms. Especially when I have a choice between people older than I am, or kids on vacation.

staywarm2 · 07-10-2010, 07:07 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Oakback

Where I'm living (Suburbs of Maryland) my monthly expenses ( not including mortgage ) are more than $961.00.

And it doesn't include golf, amenities, raking leaves, snow removal, and long commutes.

Remember, the $961 is based on a $250,000 house in The Villages--not a big house at all. Depending upon how many sq. ft. you presently have in MD, maybe your expenses would be less if you had a small house like in The Villages. One has to compare apples to apples.

FLdyingfast · 07-11-2010, 11:39 AM

It's a nice 10 square miles, but DO NOT leave into the ajoining areas as poverty and joblessness is vast and the general lay of the land is nasty. When you are in the stores and squares, people seem frantic and unhappy. And yes we also heard of the STD and high suicide rates as we are friends with some of the area physicians and hospital staffs. They even have an underground "golden shoe" club where you wear these shoes to a night on the town and "pick up" a friend for the night (classy). Florida is dying slowly (some say quickly), and there are other nicer places to seek out for the money. I am moving soon myself. Good luck.

FLdyingfast · 07-12-2010, 08:57 AM

People, before buying somewhere, use this great information monster called "the internet"....google is an easy thing to do:

STDs Running Rampant In Retirement Community - Orlando News Story - WKMG Orlando (http://www.clickorlando.com/news/9283707/detail.html - broken link)

Doctors In Retirement Community Seeing Increase In STDs - News Story - WFTV Orlando

Family Watchdog type in 32162 in zip code box (wow! sexual offenders plentiful)

Rainbow Family of The Villages, FL - Home (http://rainbowfamilyvillagesfl.com/site/ - broken link) Yes.....Everywhere.

AnonChick · 07-12-2010, 09:14 AM

Yes FLdyingfast, there are gay and lesbian retired people, and some of them live in the Villages. OMG WHAT IS THIS COUNTRY COMING TO WHEN A RETIREMENT COMMUNITY ALLOWS PEOPLE TO NOT BE HETEROSEXUAL!!!!!!111111oneoneoneleven

I'm also guessing, that you'll find as years go on, that more people who are older, than younger, are on the sexual offenders list. That's because, even if they offended when they were young, they will - you got it - get older. They will not suddenly cease to be ex-convicted sexual offenders when they turn 55, or when they retire from their jobs. So yeah, Jimbob who was 19 and took his 17-year-old fiance Nellie-Sue's virginity and Nell's dad caught them and had Jimbob arrested for corruption of a minor, will still be on that clunky old sexual offender list when he's 75 and living in the Villages.

The STD story is over 5 years old, and when we heard about it from our friends who live there, they thought it was hillarious that Old Man Geezer Smith just gave SallyAnn a case of the clap, because when you're very old, you don't really give "safe sex" much thought. Pregnancy doesn't happen, so they just don't even consider that they might need condoms. Mostly the old folks who live there, think it's amazingly good fortune that their men can get it up long enough to give out an STD in the first place.

FLdyingfast · 07-12-2010, 02:19 PM

Nice.. thanks for making my point more clear. So go and spend that nest egg and take a big chance on a place that may or may not have such a large population of anything goes, diseased, hypersexual hippies..... I thought the point of retiring was to reward yourself for a life of hard work, not punish yourself. But, that might be right up someone's alley (no pun intended). Just be sure to wipe the seat first! I also find it hilarious when I'm in the pool with lots of STD slathered folks floating around me.....not. I'll take my money somewhere safe, clean, and little less "saddam and gamora", thank you.