My daughter lives in Leesburg which is next to The Villages. We used to live close to The Villages too. It's a large community with just about anything you could want/need. A lot of residents have golf carts they use to get around the area. It's great to see the different ones. It is expensive to live there. Although there are a lot of amminities (sp?) it's a lot less expensive to live in one of the surrounding areas. Traffic is bad at certain times when all the retirees go to breakfast or dinner. My daughter runs a home health agency and hates the traffic at certain times of day.

Hi,
We have several friends who live in the Villages and love it. However, when we contemplated the move to central FL 4 years ago, we quickly found that The Villages wasn't for us. We ended up in The Plantations of Leesburg, which is on HWY 27 about 6 miles south of Leesburg. There are lots of 55+ communities around. Check them out carefully! Many have no money in the coffers and are constantly raising HOAs. Some you own nothing but the house; the land it is on belongs to the community. So make sure you do your homework first.

I second quiltmaker52's advice.

We live in Homosassa, 40 miles west and have friends in Wildwood, a few miles away, and often drive to WM in the villages and other areas of villages for shopping or dinner. It is very large and many areas involved, so prices vary too. Many use golf carts and they have separate little streets beside the roads just for the golf carts and parking at various stores. Even saw some new carts $15-20,000 so if money is an issue, be careful. There are many other places that are not as large and restrictive and cost less to live in, But many people love it, depends what you want from retirement. We live on almost 5 acres and have peace and quiet, and not to close to neighbors.

Good to know you are researching before committing. Some get sucked in because it all looks so good and new. We live on 10 acres outside Ocala and 1 1/2 hours from either coast. I like space after having lived in close quarters for many, many years. I won't be able to maintain the acreage forever, but for now, it's great. There are horses next door (they let their owners live there, too).
Really, it just depends on what you like. Check out the surrounding areas and towns before you commit. Some wouldn't like being on acreage, as it can be isolating. Also, I like living in a place where there's a mix of young/old, different ethnicities, and different backgrounds. Whatever you choose, I hope you will be blessed and enjoy the move. And yes, quilting and golfing are popular activities as well as many others.

An ex-boyfriend of mine lives there. He and his now wife loves it. Golf carts everywhere!!

Thanks for all the suggestions. We have looked online at other communities and a lot of them have small homes or manufactured homes with carports and no garages. We'll keep looking and hopefully we can find something we like. We live in high traffic area with lots of schools and kids, commuters and it's a rat race.

There are lots of places that are out of rat race and not so congested, so stay away from Ocala and Gainesville and N of Tampa Bay. We can take expressway and be in Tampa in an hour and don't miss all the madness of their traffic by not living there. Talked the friend in Wildwood and she says they many restrictions, cars must be in a garage, and if you have a single car garage, you can only have one car among many other things. Ocala has any store you would want and we can get the 40 miles in an hour or less, same with 25-35 miles S on US 19 in Spring Hills and points south. Lots of good Dr.'s here too.
We have several places here, that are close to many things and deed restricted, with nice houses and not as costly as the villages. One is Sugar Mill Woods and here it is warmer in winter and cooler in summer as we are only 3-6 miles from Gulf of Mexico..
Best thing would be come down and rent for a few months and then take your time looking for what you want in price range you want and see the location first hand.

We live very peacefully in our villages (neighborhoods). There's a reason 110,000 seniors live here!
You are getting some mis information from non residents so come check it out & enjoy!

carol ...i am with you love the homosassa area ....there are lots of nice places ....look around ...