Do You Really Want To Live In A 55+ Community?

No gates here. We left the big city behind, and there is much less crime here. I suspect some of these guard gates house a bunch of white collar criminals. At least they are not likely to mug you.
Not what you think. We have a bunch of celebrities (entertainers, athletes), retired doctors and attorneys, retired mega corp C-suite and other senior management folks.
 
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LOL. I did not mean to imply they are all criminals. Just that no place is crime free. And there are different types of crime. I'll stop now. ;>)
 
We've owned single family homes with no HOA, a condo and now a single family home with a HOA in a 55+ community.

I love it here. We like to keep our property nice and the HOA here provides guardrails to ensure that. While I don't think it is required, almost everyone here parks their vehicles in their garage and nobody parks on the street other than perhaps visitors. The only person that I know f that doesn't park in their garage parks in the driveway because his big-a$$ truck won't fit in his garage. DD and DSis both live in nice neighborhoods but each have lots of cars parked on the street or in driveways which is unattractive to me by comparison to where we live.

When we lived in Florida we lived in a condo. Also, I served on the Board for one term and one year as Treasurer. Most of our owners previously owned single family homes and were totally clueless about what they could or couldn't do and where the Association's responsibility ended and theirs began. For many owners it was rarely right but never in doubt.

We've been lucky in that our single family homes without a HOA are in communities that are generally kept up nice, but if you ended up with some slob as a neighbor with 6 dilipated cars in the yard, peeling paint, unmown lawn or whatever, there would be nothing that you can do about it. So I'll take the HOA, thank you.

Now none of the above really has much to do with 55+ other than I think most 55+ communities also includes a HOA. Some 55+ have minimal or even no amenities, but 55+ just keeps the owners over 55. Ours includes a lot: 4 amenity centers with fitness facilities and pools and meeting rooms, 3 par-72 golf courses within 2 miles of each other, 50 clubs, a nice ballroom and facilities for bocce, horseshoes, billiards, tennis, pickleball, softball, a woodshop, 27 miles of hiking trails, and more.
 
Yesterday, we helped my 90 YO sister move in a CCRC. She is in a very nice independent living apartment and I think it's a great move for her. Sadly, she and her husband were in the process of planning this move but he passed away in December so she is on her own now. We were exploring the facility and at one point she commented that there were really a lot of old people - made me smile, coming from a 90-year old. :)
Sounds like my mother. When she was ~90 she moved into assisted living. When we toured the facility there was an old woman plooding along and after we passed her she said "Oh, that poor old woman". I held my tongue but was tempted to ask if she had looked in a mirror laterly.
 
Yeah, living in a walled compound just isn't my thing. I guess in some urban areas that's necessary. Seems kinda like a third-world or medieval existence, to me.
 
Yeah, living in a walled compound just isn't my thing. I guess in some urban areas that's necessary. Seems kinda like a third-world or medieval existence, to me.
I think so much is what you are used to. We have lived in gated hoods for almost 25 years so it's what seems normal to us. We love it but, again, it's what we are used to.
 
I think so much is what you are used to. We have lived in gated hoods for almost 25 years so it's what seems normal to us. We love it but, again, it's what we are used to.
15 years for us. We still try not to have any reason for anyone to break in (cheap TV, no cash, etc.).
 
15 years for us. We still try not to have any reason for anyone to break in (cheap TV, no cash, etc.).
I would say it's the big "visible" things that catch criminals eyes. For example, they don't know if you have cash at home but if you have an expensive car they might be more likely to take a chance and find out!? Just a guess.
 
I would say it's the big "visible" things that catch criminals eyes. For example, they don't know if you have cash at home but if you have an expensive car they might be more likely to take a chance and find out!? Just a guess.
Heh, heh, I think I'm safe then. My "new" car is 13 years old. Oh, and it's the base model.
 
I would say it's the big "visible" things that catch criminals eyes. For example, they don't know if you have cash at home but if you have an expensive car they might be more likely to take a chance and find out!? Just a guess.
Lots of Bentleys around us and whatever high end cars. No break-ins. With the gated but not guarded development, cars get stolen when not parked in the garage, like Toyotas and such.

Criminals go after low hanging fruits.
 

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