About The Villages, Florida
The Villages, Florida is the fastest growing metropolitan region in the United States. Photo: Michael Warren
There’s a good reason The Villages is the fastest growing metropolitan area in the United States — in fact, there are several good reasons, including the pleasant weather, rich lifestyle opportunities, impressive daily entertainment calendar, and the paradise-like feeling that comes from living in a place where age is no barrier to having an absolute blast!
Seeking Florida Sunshine
Florida is one of the most popular states for retirees seeking to escape the cold winters further north. Located in central Florida, 45 miles northwest of Orlando, you will find The Villages — a metropolitan region that shares its name with a master-planned, age-restricted community. It’s hard to miss! At over 115,000 people, The Villages is the world’s largest over-55 community, and the most rapidly expanding metro area in the United States for a number of years running. One of the major drawing cards, bringing America’s seniors flocking to find homes to buy, is the weather. Central Florida provides the sunny, mild weather that allows its community members year-round opportunities for enjoying all that the Florida’s favorite retirement community has to offer.
The planned community of The Villages is exceptionally well cared for — with manicured public spaces, picturesque pathways, and lush sweeping greens of the community’s golf courses providing a feast for the eyes. Between the sun-kissed days and the visual pleasures that await outside, it is no wonder local residents can spend the best part of their day out and about, reveling in the adult playground that is The Villages, Florida.
Come for the Weather. Stay for the Lifestyle
You do not need to be a permanent homeowner in The Villages to enjoy all the benefits of living in the area. In addition to homes for sale, there are homes for rent, either annually or seasonally. For many seniors, family or friendship ties hold them elsewhere for part of the year, but come winter, there is nowhere they would rather be. Taking up a lease for the ‘colder’ months, you can enjoy mild, mid-60s temperatures while partaking in golf, kayaking, archery, tennis or the ever-popular staple, pickleball. Of course, there are risks. As one now full-time resident explained: “We fell so in love with the lifestyle that we were looking for a home to buy before our lease was up!”
Residents enjoy the festivities at an Oktoberfest Celebration. Photo: Tara Gerber.
The Seniors’ Disney World
Many are the comparisons between The Villages and Disney World, and indeed The Villages does seem to be a place where seniors’ dreams come true. For golfers, The Villages is a veritable wonderland. Golf carts are even the main form of transportation in The Villages. It is often said that everything is a golf cart’s ride away. But while course-side living is perhaps the defining feature of The Villages, with the many golf courses as the foundation for laying out the homes for sale that surround them, the abundance of choice in leisure activities and nightly entertainment to which one can walk, cycle or zip to by golf cart is astounding.
The Villages is built around its golf courses. Currently, The Villages boasts 11 county club championship courses, 32 executive 9-hole courses, and 4 practice facilities. Residents receive automatic lifetime country club membership to the champion courses, and walking the executive courses is free. These immaculately tended courses draw golfers young, old, professional and just out for a good time from near and far, making them some of the most popular courses in the Unites States. For the executive courses, golf rounds per course are 3.5 times the national average. Overall, The Villages golf courses average twice the nationwide average of rounds per course.
The community also boasts 50 recreation centers, from the larger regional centers to the smaller neighborhood recreation centers. These centers offer an enormous range of outdoor and indoor leisure activities, from air gun shooting to Zumba. In all, there are approximately 2,250 clubs and groups in The Villages, all of which are free to residents, whether they are homeowners or renters.
Imagine, waking up to a brand new day, hitting one of the many pools for some laps before breakfast, meeting some friends for a 10 a.m. tee off followed by some delicious lunch and craft beer, and then heading to a gathering of your war movies fan club, before stepping out for a night of trivia. Or maybe you prefer to start your day with Tai Chi, before heading to dragon boating practice, followed by a vegan potluck lunch, meeting of your French study club, and then off to Samba before an afternoon parade in one of the three town squares.
