Thoughts on newer 55+ communities in FL?

[JP.mpls]

That is what I meant, there is no point having a personal pool in one's back yard as the community pool is there for the residents use. We would gladly give up our pool that is in our back yard.

Oh. I agree. My cousin has a SFH with pool. Way too much maintenance an heating costs. I much prefer a well maintained community pool.
I do try to avoid the pool gossip, but things could be worse. If that is my biggest problem, I'm doing okay. Enjoy.

 

[JP.mpls]

This spring we visited a couple of 55+ communities in central Florida. Solivita for one. We thought it was very nice. However, we would prefer a community that was closer to city amenities. My guess is a lot of the 55+ places are a bit out in the sticks when built, since they would require a lot of real estate at an affordable price to begin development.

We also visited the Sun City 55+ just South of Charlotte, North Carolina. That would be our first choice, but when covid hit, the home prices there shot up out of our budget.

Masq,
My place isn't 55+, but it is in Florida, so it is mostly old people anyway.
It is older, so much closer to the beach, but the townhomes need some updating/TLC . I really like the damn place.

 

[Chuckanut]

We are in our early 70's. The absolute last place we want to live is in a community of a bunch of old farts like us.

Shall we nickname you Groucho?

Groucho Marx - “I don’t want to belong to any club that would accept me as one of its members.”

On a more serious note, I agree that a mixed generation neighborhood is more interesting (in a good way) to live in. FWIW, I have friends who moved to a retirement comminity not far from me. The house was previously owned by a much older couple. But, as time passes, the older folks pass on, and young whipper-snappers (aka. 60-somethings) move in. Still, I like the fact that my small neighborhood is mixed. If I want to socialize with people my own age there is a Senior Center with over 2500 members about a 15 minute drive from my home.

 

[Dtail]

Oh. I agree. My cousin has a SFH with pool. Way too much maintenance an heating costs. I much prefer a well maintained community pool.
I do try to avoid the pool gossip, but things could be worse. If that is my biggest problem, I'm doing okay. Enjoy.

We have our own pool, plus the community pool. During the long summer, it is nice to get out of the soaked through Pickleball clothes (skivvies still on) and jump right in my own pool.

 

[bobandsherry]

Though we didn’t choose to live in a 55+ community, we did visit quite a few and seriously considered it. We did see bright shiny new 55+ communities where everyone appeared relatively young and active. We also visited a few that were built 20-30 years ago, and they were a completely different world.

You can read articles about the phenomenon online, on group/clique think (well known for many, not all, seniors) and properties not aging well, there are many.

While I’m honestly glad your experience has been good, and others are undoubtedly very happy in 55+ communities, your one experience isn’t representative of all either. More anecdotal…

Yet your "experience" is from visiting, so talk about being anecdotal. [emoji2369].


I've seen many non-55+ communities fall into disrepair after 20-30 years. I look at the community I lived in nearly 25 years ago and recall what it used to be. I look at community that was next door to my prior community and it just looked so bad. It has been 20 years since development ceased. It's not being 55+, it's just that enforcement wanes and people, no matter what their age, just don't don't see value in continuing to pay more to maintain. A 30 something in my last community felt a $15/yr increase in HOA fees was too much, didn't see why HOA should spend the money. So not limited by age at all.

And I only shared my experience as that's really all anyone can. Third hand I could refer to my wife's cousin who lives in a great community, now 15 years old. We considered there, but it was too far inland for us. But homes were still looking fresh. I can also share friends of ours who live in a community that's 20 years old, and yet still under development that still looks well maintained, has lots of activities and just a younger group of "old people", maybe because it's still actively being developed. I could have shared other experiences but didn't feel it was worth sharing as it was third hand.

Based on what I saw, the 55+ communities that I looked that were not well cared for were those that were originally built on the cheap. Those attracted a certain type of people and well they continue to retain those types of people.

Different stories for different folks.

 

[bobandsherry]

This spring we visited a couple of 55+ communities in central Florida. Solivita for one. We thought it was very nice. However, we would prefer a community that was closer to city amenities.

Heh, I looked at that community and felt the same as you did. For being a community that has been developed for 20+ years it still hadn't drawn a lot of business activity.

The community I chose is still "in the sticks" part of the urban sprawl, but still close enough to Tampa, only 30 minutes, for access to the city amenities (sports, theater, entertainment) as well as airport and cruise port as well as access to quality hospital and doctors.

 

[bobandsherry]

Oh. I agree. My cousin has a SFH with pool. Way too much maintenance an heating costs. I much prefer a well maintained community pool.
I do try to avoid the pool gossip, but things could be worse. If that is my biggest problem, I'm doing okay. Enjoy.

My last house we had a pool built. We enjoyed it but it did require maintenance (and I'm not trusting any pool company to maintain my pool). And now we travel much more since our beloved dog of 16 years passed. So as we looked for our new home I made sure we'd have no personal pool and wanted a great community pool. Our community pool is now heated, has zero depth entry and laps section along with a feeling of being at a resort with cafe and bar. So I know exactly what you are talking about. [emoji106]

 

[Midpack]

Yet your "experience" is from visiting, so talk about being anecdotal. [emoji2369].

My point was your POV was also anecdotal, not that my experience wasn’t. 1 data point isn’t much better than 0.

 

[aja8888]

I'm in a 25 year old 55+ community in Texas (437 homes). I'm leaving this week as I bought a house in a "normal" type neighborhood again.

We tried this (for 9 years), but we were not ready for the "bus trip" lifestyle. And, in the last month or so, four guys here died. The place is overrun with widows (not a bad thing). And I really don't have any close friends here. My ROMEO and golf groups consists of friends from my past life and none of them live in a 55+ community.

Maybe I'm too active for the folks here who are in bed by 8:00 PM? I don't know, but I seem to be the last one around here closing up at night.

One good thing, the ambulances and fire trucks are instructed to shut off their flashing lights and sirens when entering the front gates on emergency calls. The new drivers always seem to forget about that rule!

 

[Aerides]

My parents 55+ isn't that far west, 20 mins from the beach or so, but where that there are 3 publix's and a target in a 5 miles radius. A whole foods is going up soon, and there is dining and shopping at the nearest intersection, about a half mile from their entrance.

When I helped them look for a home, we saw older developments that filled up 25 years ago are now filled with 85 year-olds. They were often present in the homes during the showing. The homes inside looked like someone packed up their 1980's furniture in 1995 and moved to florida. A time warp walking around.

M&D's is a bit younger, having built out about 12 years ago, and includes tennis, bocce, and pickleball courts (currently members pitching for more).

But old or new, most of the neighborhoods are mostly well maintained - these all come with HOAs. If there's a community pool, restaurant, clubhouse, guardhouse, fountains by the entrance, that stuff is routinely updated as part of a maintenance budget. So no voting "no", if something needs a big upgrade, plan on big assessments like a condo.

 

[Scuba]

For us, one of the appealing things about a 55+ community vs non age-restricted is the ability to make new friends with people who have a similar lifestyle - ie active, flexible schedule, enjoy traveling, entertaining, dining out, pickleball, etc.

Most of our CA friends do not have children, or their children are adults. We haven’t lived close to families with children for decades, and we haven’t ever wished we did. We have a mix of retired and working friends. Definitely easier to plan outings with retired friends due to flexible schedules.

Being in our early to mid 60’s, I’m pretty sure that 30 or 40 something working parents wouldn’t be in our social network. They wouldn’t want to hang out with us, and we wouldn’t have much in common with them.

We did look at some 55+ communities that were 15-25 years old, and although the facilities were nicely maintained, the home interiors all needed a total remodel to suit our taste, and the crowd seemed much older than we are.

A brand new 55+ seems like a great solution for us. We may still be slightly younger than the average resident moving in, but not much, and the facilities and amenities are amazing. If they’ve deteriorated somewhat by the time we are 85-90, we may not notice or care.

 

[Scuba]

We’d like to have our own pool even if the community pool is great. We live in a community with 15 pools now, and while we do use the community pools and we’ve met some nice neighbors there, it’s certainly not as convenient as jumping in our own pool right outside our back door. If we had our own pool, we wouldn’t have to pack up a cooler or walk all the way back home for a bathroom break.

 

[ER Eddie]

Good luck with your decision, Scuba.

I considered 55+ communities, but I decided against them. For me, it boiled down to four main reasons:

1. Living under an HoA. I love my independence, and having an HoA dictate what I can do with my own property would bug the crap out of me. While I understand some HoAs are fine/reasonable, I've heard too many HoA horror stories. Not just appearance-related trivia, but other factors, too (e.g., rapidly rising fees, poor decision-making).

2. The 3 to 1 ratio of women to men. I'm a single man, and I don't want to be surrounded by a field of grannies. No offense to the grannies amongst us. I like talking to older women; I just don't want to live in a community dominated by them. And I suspect that most of the men will be married, so I'll be the odd man out. I'm used to being the odd man out, but I don't need to go seeking it.

3. I have heard too many complaints about the "high school mentality" of people living in 55+ communities -- gossip, cliques, busybodies, drama. Granted, you can find these things in most neighborhoods to some degree, but it seems -- at least based on the frequency of reports -- that these elements are amplified in (some) retirement communities. I suspect it is because they have too much time on their hands. And as I heard someone quip, "most people don't mature; they just age."

4. Most 55+ communities do not have enough amenities that appealed to me. I'm not much into tennis and pickleball, for instance. It wasn't until I got to the very large communities that I found enough amenities to appeal to me. In most cases, I would be paying large fees for amenities I would not use.


To be fair, many people clearly love their 55+ community. I hope you become one of them, if that's the direction you head. I'm not claiming that all 55+ communities have the problems I mentioned above. I'm sure that many are just fine. However, for me, the cons outweighed the pros.

 

[Koolau]

The east coast isn't much better, especially with more violent hurricanes in WPB/Miami area. And panhandle has seen it's fair share. Inland may not be immune, but does avoid the storm surge which what causes most of the damage from the hurricanes. Perhaps why 55+ communities are away from the coast lines.

Map (dated from 2016) of Cat1+ hurricane tracks over past 100 years in Florida - cost of living in paradise.

View attachment 46179

https://www.news-press.com/story/we...tropical-storm-magnet-for-a-century/91597860/

We were concerned about hurricanes when we considered moving to the Islands. The equivalent hurricane map in our area suggests less issues with hurricanes than for Florida. Of course, Hawaii is smaller, so many hurricanes "miss" us. But, just in general, there appear to be far fewer hurricanes in the mid pacific. Thank goodness!