Demand skyrockets for Villages’ lifestyle – The Villages Daily Sun
Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%..
Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Updated: January 6, 2022 @ 4:42 pm
Villagers dance during the Lake Sumter Landing nightly live music event.
Villagers dance during the Lake Sumter Landing nightly live music event.
The Villages’ allure as an active-adult lifestyle destination just earned it top billing as the nation’s No. 1 master-planned community. No other community, whether multigenerational or age-restricted, came close to the volume of home sales The Villages closed in 2021, according to RCLCO, a Bethesda, Maryland-based international real estate consulting firm. The Villages led a resurgence in sales throughout the entire master-planned building industry, said Karl Pischke, an RCLCO principal. But the lifestyle put The Villages ahead of the pack.
“Master-planned communities in general tend to be better amenitized and foster a community better than a typical builder subdivision,” Pischke said. “That has an impact on what buyers are looking for and generates sales of homes in master-planned communities. But The Villages on whole is at another level with its amenities and lifestyle. That sets it apart from any other active adult community, particularly with what it is able to offer.”
The lifestyle remains as vibrant today as 16 years ago, when Marilyn Boldt-Butenhof and her husband, Donald, moved to the Village of Woodbury from the Milwaukee area, whether it’s playing golf, softball or pickleball and so much more.
“First of all, when you actually see the place, you’re amazed,” she said. “When you actually come and see the place, it’s like, ‘wow.’ Just look at all the plantings, the vegetation. It’s so appealing to the eye, especially if you come from a bigger city.
One look at Boldt-Butenhof’s calendar also explains why so many people 55 and older want a share of this lifestyle. Three times a week she enjoys water aerobics at Mulberry Grove Regional Recreation Complex, golfs twice a week and enjoys the camaraderie as a retired nurse with The Villages Nurses resident lifestyle club at Savannah Center. Oh, yes, she’s a Red Hat, too.
Those activities are just a few that she cites when someone elsewhere asks her about The Villages, she said.
“I tell them we have a lot of facilities, lots of swimming pools and golf courses” Boldt-Butenhof said. “The weather is almost always nice. If you can’t find something to do here, there is something wrong with you.”
What she also likes is her golf cart.
“My grandchildren, even great-grandchildren, call me the grandmother with the golf cart,” Boldt-Butenholf said. “That’s one of the great things about The Villages, because it’s also a money-saving thing. It’s a nice thing that you can go almost anywhere in The Villages with a golf cart. I can’t tell you how much money we save doing that. It’s really a big savings.”
The Villages earned the top ranking in 2021 with 4,004 home sales, a 63% year-over-year increase, according to the RCLCO data. It eclipsed 2021 sales at the No. 2 master-planned community, Lakewood Ranch, Sarasota’s multigenerational community, with only 2,574 sales. The Las Vegas community of Summerlin ranked third with 1,619 sales.
Several reasons account for this resurgence in master-planned home sales, Pischke said. The COVID-19 pandemic dampened sales overall in 2020 throughout the country.
“For 2021, that certainly was not the case,” he said. “Demand skyrocketed.”
The general sense is that many people with the wherewithal opted for retirement in wake of the pandemic, Pischke said
“Folks who have chosen to retire early or take advantage of the ability to work remotely expedited the purchase of their retirement home, and The Villages is benefiting from that,” he said.
While the latest numbers are impressive, this trend comes as no surprise to John Rohan, the director for almost 29 years of the The Villages Parks and Recreation Department.
“These new residents want to share in The Villages active adult lifestyle,” he said. “It’s not just one thing, either. The people moving here know about the quality and high standard of living they’re going to experience living here.”
Just from the participation of new and existing residents, The Villages lifestyle and amenities make it a perinnial destination, Rohan said.
“This is a world-class community that provides its residents with an outstanding lifestyle second to none,” he said. “We also support that lifestyle with a nationally accredited recreation program.”
Residents get all the credit for making it a world-class community, Rohan said.
“It is achieved through the number of recreation centers and amenities; our dedicated resident lifestyle volunteers, currently numbering more than 3,000 resident lifestyle clubs and activities; our dedicated and professional staff, and we love what we do,” he said. “We’re all committed to our goal to help enhance and enrich the lives of our residents.”
Specialty Editor David R. Corder can be reached at 352-753-1119, ext. 5241, or david.corder@thevillagesmedia.com.
Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Partly cloudy skies this evening will give way to occasional showers overnight. Low 58F. Winds light and variable. Chance of rain 40%.
Partly cloudy skies. High 72F. Winds N at 5 to 10 mph.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular videos.
Sorry, there are no recent results for popular commented articles.
