25 Best Active Adult Communities for 2009

The results are in for the best 25 active adult communities of 2009.  And if there is one major conclusion, it is that the sun belt completely dominates the list – the only top 25 active adult community to make the list outside of the sun belt was The Village at Penn State in State College, PA.  Florida topped the list with 7 communities, while Arizona and North Carolina had 3 each. California and Texas each had 2. Green Valley, Arizona (pictured below) was the most popular active adult community, beating out  #2, The Villages (of Florida), by almost a 2 to 1 margin.

The top 25 communities were chosen on the basis of visitor popularity at Topretirements during the period January 1 to August 1, 2009.  The 25 communities with the most page visits to their listings were the winners. Please see the end of article for more details on the selection criteria.

 And the winners are:
 1. Green Valley (Green Valley, AZ)  Green Valley is so large that is has multiple    active adult communities within it.
 2. The Villages (The Villages, FL) (see picture following this list)
 3. Holly Lake Ranch (Tyler, TX)  (Advertiser)
 4. Fairhope (Fairhope, AL)
 5. Seaside Village (Carrabelle, FL)  (Advertiser)
 6. Hot Springs Village (Hot Springs, AR)
7. Tellico Village (TN)
8. Silver Sage Village (Boulder, CO)
9. Laguna Woods Village (Laguna Woods, CA)
10. Abacoa (Jupiter, FL)

11. The Moorings (Vero Beach, FL)
12. Sun City (Peoria, AZ)
13. The Village at Penn State (State College, PA)
14. Enchanted Canyon (Prescott, AZ)
15. Pelican Sound (Estero, FL)
16. The Village of San Buenas, (San Buenaventura, Costa Rica) (Advertiser)
17. Century Village (Deerfield Beach, FL)
18. Stillwater Estates (Centralia, WA) (Advertiser)
19. Hampton Lake (Bluffton, SC)
20. The Settlement at Powhatan Creek (Williamsburg, VA)  Advertiser
21. The Orchard Villas (Apex, NC)
22. Crest Mountain (Asheville, NC)
23. The Residence at South Park (Charlotte, NC)
24. High Country Villas (San Diego, CA)
25. The Venetian at Capri Isles (Venice, FL)

You can follow the links above to get a snapshot of each of the top 25 communities, along with links and phone numbers.  Here is a link to all  670 active adult communities at Topretirements, by state.

Our observations on the results are:
– The popularity of the Sun Belt communities in this study offers conclusive evidence that many of tomorrow’s baby boomers are thinking about retiring in warmer climes
– For the most part the 55+ communities making the list are from towns that are in the 25 best places to retire at Topretirements. In some cases being the first 55+ community listed  for a popular town could account for the high popularity of the community.
– A  few communities were from surprising towns, such as Apex, NC and Estero, FL

In the interest of fairness we should also report these other considerations:
– Not all communities were available during the entire 7 month period, so their rankings might be better or worse than otherwise
– Some, but not all of these communities are age restricted (55+). Our selection criteria was that they must be predominately occupied by retired people
– Topretirements advertisers, who get preferred positioning at our site, are included in this list. Their rankings were helped by that factor. Advertiser communities are so identified.
– Finally, some of the larger, incorporated communities have higher profile pages on our site than average, which also helps them in the rankings. Those include The Villages, Tellico Village, Hot Springs Village, Laguna Woods, etc.

For Further Reference:
See all the articles we have written about active adult communities in our blog.