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50 Most Popular Active Adult Communities for 2010 | |
| Note: See also our updated version of this feature - "100 Most Popular Active Adult Communities for 2011".
The results are in for the best (actually the most popular) 50 active adult communities of 2010. Once again the sun belt dominated the list - the only communities outside of the sun belt to make it were The Village at Penn State in State College, PA.; Sage Village in Boulder, CO; and in a very strong showing for Delaware - 5 communities from that state.
Topretirements expanded the list to 50 communities this year. Florida and North Carolina topped the 2010 list with 8 communities each, followed by Arizona with 7. California, Texas, and South Carolina also had good representation. We speculate that Delaware had so many communities making the list (5) because of its reputation as a low tax state, and for its access to great beaches and the pastoral Delmarva Peninsula. Green Valley, Arizona (pictured below courtesy of Wikipedia and PDTillman) was the most popular active adult community for 2010, beating out #2, The Villages (of Florida).
 The top 50 communities were chosen on the basis of visitor popularity at Topretirements during the period January 1 to July 31, 2010. The 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)
4. The Settlement at Powhatan Creek* (Williamsburg, VA)
5. Hot Springs Village* (Hot Springs, AR)
6. Tellico Village (TN)
7. Laguna Woods Village (Laguna Woods, CA)
8. The Village of San Buenas*, (Costa Rica)
9. Silver Sage Village (Boulder, CO)
10. Hampton Lake* (Bluffton, SC)
11. Enchanted Canyon (Prescott, AZ)
12. Crest Mountain (Asheville, NC)
13. Sun City (Sun City, AZ)
14. The Moorings (Vero Beach, FL)
15. Fairfield Glade (TN)
16.The Residence at South Park (Charlotte, NC)
17. The Orchard Villas (Apex, NC)
18 Century Village (Deerfield Beach, FL) There are actually 3 Century Villages in Southeast FL
19. High Country Villas (San Diego, CA)
20. Robson Ranch* (near Dallas, TX)
21. Rarity Bay* (Vonore - Lake Tellico, TN)
22. The Venetian at Capri Isles (Venice, FL)
23. Biltmore Lake (Asheville, NC)
24. Pelican Sound (Estero, FL)
25. The Villages at Lynx Creek (Prescott, AZ)
26. The Village at Penn State (State College, PA)
27. Lakewood Ranch (Sarasota, FL)
28. Merrill Gardens at Parmer Woods (Austin, TX)
29. Millville by the Sea (Bethany Beach, DE)
30. Ladd Landing (Knoxville, TN)
31. Querencia at Barton Creek (Austin, TX )
32. Sun City of Texas (Georgetown, TX)
33. Pine Lakes (Prescott, AZ)
34. Terra Vista at Citrus Hills* (Hernando, FL)
35. Lofts at Mica VIllage (Asheville, NC)
36. Bayside* (Selbyville, DE)
37. Talking Rock (Prescott, AZ)
38. Carolina Preserve (Cary, NC)
39. Shenandoah* (Winchester, VA)
40. The Cliffs at Walnut Cove (Asheville, NC)
41. West Bay (Lewes, DE)
42. The Ponds* (Summerville, SC)
43. Sun City Grand (Surprise, AZ)
44. Soleil Laurel Canyon* (Canton, GA)
45. Southern Meadow* (Magnolia, DE)
46. Pleasant Place (Paris, TN)
47. The Half-Way Tree Mobile Home Park (Hendersonville, NC)
48. Four Seasons Charlottesville (Charlottesville, VA)
49. Bay Crossing (Lewes, DE)
50. Venetian Falls (Venice, FL)
* Topretirements Advertiser
 You can follow the links above to get a snapshot of each of the top 50 communities, along with links and phone numbers. Here is a link to more than 1200 other active adult communities at Topretirements, by state.
Observations about the results:
- The popularity of the Sun Belt communities in this study offers strong evidence that many baby boomers are thinking about retiring in warmer climes
- For the most part, the active adult communities making the list are in towns that are 100 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.
These are some other considerations about the selection criteria:
- Not all communities were available during the entire 6 month period. Their rankings might be better or worse because of that fact
- Some, but not all, of these communities are age restricted (55+). To be selected, however, they must be predominately occupied by retired people
- Topretirements advertisers, who have preferred positioning at our site, are included in this list. Their rankings were helped by that factor. Advertiser communities are identified by an *
- In the effort to be fair, developments which were reviewed in one of our weekly newsletters during the period were adjusted downward to factor out those visits
- Finally, some of the larger, incorporated communities have additional, higher profile pages on our site, 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.
2011 List of Most Popular Active Adult Communities
Sunbelt Shimmers in 2011 List of 100 Best Retirement Towns |
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