My wife and I live in an active adult community, which is something of a euphemism for a retirement community.
I’m glad we don’t live in The Villages.
Our community is managed by Del Webb. About 1,500 out of what eventually will be 3,400 single-family homes are occupied and we have a population of somewhere around 2,000. At least one of the people living in a house must be 55 or older, and no one under 18 can stay here for more than a fortnight.
There is no commercial development inside Sun City Peachtree except for the golf course and its accompanying clubhouse, which includes a smallish but very nice restaurant. For anything else — groceries, prescriptions, entertainment — we have to leave the community and drive into Griffin, Ga., about five miles away.
The houses range from very nice all the way up to wonderful. Our house came with three bedrooms and a library. We converted the library and the front bedroom into offices, so we have one guest bedroom.
Our 1,840 square foot floor plan is sort of medium-sized for our community, although the top end models are nearly twice our size. Many of the models — including ours — have two options that cost about the same, a sun room at the back of the house or an upstairs with another bedroom and bathroom as well as some open space.
We have a sun room.
It’s basically a quiet community, which makes it nearly a complete opposite from The Villages.
There are already 128,000 residents in the community located 45 miles northwest of Orlando and there are plans on the drawing board for tens of thousands more homes.
When I think about those numbers and then look at pictures like the one above, I’m sort of horrified. Even though the homes are far nicer, the first thing that comes to mind is Levittown, the postwar cookie-cutter community on Long Island essentially consisting of prefabricated houses.
As you might expect, a community that big includes pretty much all the retail, medical and entertainment facilities people in the community could want or need. There are also dozens of golf courses, most of them nine-hole executive courses but more than a few championship courses as well.
I’m 71 years old, but the thought of living in a community where there are 128,000 people and they’re all retirees is not appealing to me at all. My wife is just three months younger than I am and I love her very much, but we have aged together since we were 42. If I were alone, I don’t think I would have the energy or desire to get to know women in their 70s.
One quirky fact about The Villages is the extremely high rate of STDs. I doubt unwanted pregnancy is much of a problem, but that might mean people aren’t using condoms or taking other precautions. If you don’t include the married couples, women outnumber men by a wide margin.
It’s a place that’s difficult to imagine. It’s probably not accurate to call it a Baby Boomer community. The oldest boomers are 75 now and the youngest residents (age 55) are actually the oldest Generation Xers. But the builders started the community 30 years ago, when the boomers were far from retirement age.
There’s a new film just out, “Some Kind of Heaven,” which looks at The Villages and the people who come there looking to make dreams come true. I haven’t seen it yet, but if I had to guess, I’d figure unless someone is extremely outgoing and gregarious, they may wind up disappointed.
Or maybe it’s just me.
I’m much happier in a community of 2,000 than I would be in one 64 times larger.
I am very happy where I am.