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Try It NOWCategory: Active adult communities
July 3 — Buying into a retirement or active adult community is a complex decision involving where you want to live, what lifestyle and activities you want, costs, and what kind of neighbors you want. Your new Home Owners Association (HOA), which typically runs most active adult communities and…
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Category: Active adult communities
Developers of active adult and over 50 communities are fighting back against the real estate slowdown. Their imaginations have been working overtime to come with new and exciting incentives to bring prospective buyers back into their communities. Obviously, lowering prices is a tactic used by most. Indeed the average price of new units sold at Toll Brothers and other builders is down significantly. But many developers are also focusing on the key problem facing buyers of active adult communities – they can’t buy a new home because they can’t sell their old one. Check out some of the ideas we have heard about in the last few weeks:
Buy 1, Get 1 Free
We’re not kidding, a California builder, Michael Crewes Development, is actually offering this deal. Buy one house, get a 2,000 sq.ft. cityscape row home worth $400,000 for free. So what about the house you have to buy?
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Category: Active adult communities
About 60 million Americans live in buildings controlled by home owners associations (HOAs), according to the Community Association Institute. Now, as the real estate crunch moves into a new phase with more strapped owners who can't make their mortgage or maintenance payments, HOAs are being forced to foreclose to protect their interests.
The problem is worse in older condominium associations, especially those that have been poorly run. Suddenly facing large maintenance bills some HOAs have to send out hefty assessment notices, but unfortunately many owners are not in a position to pay.
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Category: Active adult communities
May 13 — A report from Arizona State University’s Morrison School of Management and Agribusiness brought some welcome good news to the Arizona market for active adult communities recently. The school found that price drops in the area of over 30% helped spur increased sales in retirement communities among snowbirds…
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Category: Active adult communities
April 15 -- Imagine a town where a surprising number of residents have 2 golf carts - and only 1 car. Where the supermarket and high school have special golf cart parking lots. And where 72 of the 80 motor vehicles reported stolen last year were golf carts. That's Peachtree City, Georgia, one of America's largest planned communities -a perfect active adult community for many.
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Category: Active adult communities
April 9 -- For Sequoya, moving into a 55+ community in Yuma was "... boy what a mistake!" Similarly, Kimojimo "tried (a community in FL), lasted 9 months, and couldn't WAIT to get out!" Yet Bill55, who worked for years for Del Webb, "... met countless people who had no intention of living in an adult community. But for one reason or another they decided to give it a shot and I would see them around the community day after day taking part in all sorts of activities. At least 95% of those people said that moving there was the best decision of their lives!"
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Category: Active adult communities
March 24 -- The stereotype would have you think that the hordes of baby boomers moving into active adult communities can't wait to move into a smaller house. According to a new study from the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), however, the reality is somewhat different.
The study, "Profile of the 50+ Housing Market", points out that more than 85 million people will be 55+ by 2014. Many will be buying in homes specifically built for 55+ buyers, and these won't be all that small - the average home will still have more than 2 bedrooms and over 2,000 square feet for living. Yards and other maintenance-requiring items will be downsized, however.
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Category: Active adult communities
March 18 - Maybe it is the softer market for real estate and active adult communities. It could be a bold move to capture market share when many real estate developers are down. Or perhaps it is just an awakening to the possibilities. Whatever the reasons, a number of leading active adult communities have been on an advertising tear lately, placing their ads in venues where they haven't been seen before.
Leading the charge has been The Villages, the active adult behemoth south of Ocala, FL. Anybody who has been watching golf on network television lately has been exposed to their messages many times by now. In Topretirements' experience, this is the first time that a retirement community has gone to national television to look for prospects.
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Category: Active adult communities
February 28 – If you are a person that likes to be active, have we got the place for you! It’s The Villages in north central Florida. Spread over a 5 X 12 mile site, there is plenty of room for just about everything. In fact it has so many…
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Category: Active adult communities
One of the primary drivers of where people choose to retire is the ability to be near loved ones. Often the perfect choice is a home that is close, but not too close, to those loved ones.
Now the over 55 community industry is joining in on that trend. One of their answers is to be seen in Victoria Park in central Florida near DeLand. This huge development is truly multi-generational, with traditional single family homes. Victoria Gardens also includes a special section, Victoria Gardens, which is a gated and age-restriction community within the overall development.
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