The Villages is among the best retirement communities in Florida.
Whether you are planning to buy a new home, buy a resale, or possibly rent a home in The Villages, you should find a lot of good information on this page.
For your convenience, I've broken this page into four sections:
Let's jump right in!
The Villages New Homes
The Villages consistently sells more new homes each year than any other community in the country, retirement or otherwise.
That's pretty crazy considering that The Villages is a privately held company and they compete with a lot of publicly traded companies that despite their even bigger bank accounts, can't seem to outsell The Villages.
If you are thinking about moving to The Villages and buying a new home, you must work with a salesperson assigned to you by the developer.
Unlike most other places, you cannot bring your own real estate agent to the table.
Over the years, The Villages has built a variety of homes styles, or “series” as they typically refer to them, including Patio Villas, Courtyard Villas (this series includes Bungalow Villas and Cabana Villas), Cottage Homes, Verandas (a blend between Courtyard Villas and Designer Homes), Designer Homes, and Premier Homes.
Patio Villas are going to be your smaller, less expensive options and Premier Homes account for the biggest and most expensive. All the other home series fill in the gap.
Construction materials vary between (and sometimes within) each series, with some homes being constructed of frame and vinyl siding, while others are concrete block construction.
Keep in mind that over the years home classes and styles have changed, so the home styles The Villages is selling today does not necessarily reflect the full range of homes you might see in The Villages if you were to also look at resales.
Your best bet to get a feel for what each home type entails and what current prices are is to browse them on The Villages website.
The Villages Average Homebuyer Will Move 2.5 Times
This isn’t necessarily a documented fact, and I've heard both higher and lower figures tossed around, but most people that have lived here awhile feel that 2.5 times is pretty accurate.
In some cases this has been fairly easy to do from a seller’s perspective due to the tremendous growth and continued strong home demand, plus the relative stability of home prices.
But it might not always be that way.
So why not try and get it right the first time?
In my book you'll learn why so many people move multiple times within The Villages, and how to avoid doing the same.
The Villages Lot Premiums
Lot premiums are an additional charge that the developer tacks on to the price of a new home depending on where in the community a lot is located.
Basically the way most new homes are sold these days is a builder will advertise their homes based on standard features and a “standard” lot, and anything they can use to justify an increase in price is a premium.
As you can imagine, the definition of “standard” varies widely.
So, in general, what kinds of lots in The Villages demand a premium?
- Oversized lots
- Lots that back up to a preserve
- Lots that back up to private land
- Golf front lots
- Golf view lots
- Cul de sac lots
- Corner lots
- Waterfront lots
- Lakefront lots
In my book I talk about what you can expect to pay for lot premiums, discuss whether or not they're worth it, what agents say about recouping the costs for lot premiums, and more.
The Villages Resales
If you don't like where The Villages is building new homes, or prefer not to have to wait for your home to be built, you could buy a resale.
From what I've heard, approximately the same amount of resales are sold every year as new homes, so you'd be far from alone going the resale route.
When buying a resale, you've got two options:
- You can work with the developer's sales team to look at resales listed with them, or
- You can work with an outside Realtor to see resales that are not listed with the developer. In my experience this accounts for about 40% of resales available.
So basically, if you want to see everything available, you unfortunately have to do both things.
I explain this problem a little more on this page.
Rentals
If you are not ready to make the jump to owning a home in The Villages, you'll be pleased to hear that there is a thriving rental market here.
Depending on where you're looking, you can find rentals for or short as a few days, weeks, or months, as well as long term rentals for a year or more.
When you plan to rent, though, is a major factor, as pricing goes way up and availability goes way down during the busy season which is generally November through May, with the peak being January through April.
I've put together a complete guide on finding a rental in The Villages that includes what you can expect to pay, where to look, and more right here.
Alternatives to The Villages
People ask me all the time, “what are other communities like The Villages that I might also want to consider?”
As the most popular retirement state in the country, Florida has certainly got a lot of retirement community options.
On my other website, floridaforboomers.com I've written several articles comparing The Villages to other popular Florida retirement communities:
- The Villages vs. Citrus Hills
- The Villages vs. On Top of the World
- The Villages vs. Solivita
- The Villages vs. Tradition
More articles like those are in the works.
You might also be interested in my list of all 55+ communities in Florida that are currently under construction and selling new homes.
Conclusion
As the most popular community in the country right now, The Villages gives people plenty of options when it comes to real estate.
But with more options comes more things that potential buyers and renters need to be aware of.
You can find all of the information you need in my book, Inside the Bubble.