Category: Active adult communities
November 9, 2016 -- Many, many thanks to the 756 Topretirements Members who took the the time to fill out our most recent survey on retirement community preferences. You are good people - thanks!
Your input confirms some of our hypotheses and offers fresh perspective on others. One surprise was your favorite amenity - walking trails! You made hundreds of excellent comments to several of the questions - we just wish we had room to highlight every comment because they all offer a unique perspective. Here is one, describing the type of community someone is looking for, that is fairly representative: "Large, walkable, active community with urban area nearby for culture, restaurants etc. A Clubhouse with social clubs will make it easy to make new friends."
Highlights
Everyone has their own unique take on retirement, that much is obvious from these results. That is particularly true if you look at the 327 comments made to Question 10, "Please describe your ideal retirement community". Here are some
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Published on November 8, 2016
Comments 63
Category: Active adult communities
October 6, 2016 -- Our new list of the 100 most popular 55+ and active adult communities at Topretirements for 2016 is here, and there are surprises and new faces galore. There is also plenty of consistency - most of last year's top 10 communities are back. We think that looking at the kind of communities that our visitors and Members are most interested in is valuable - particularly to see the types of 55+ communities that generate interest, and where they are located.
Speaking of our top 100 list, we want to stress that these are not necessarily the "best" 55+ communities - however someone might determine that. Rather, The top 100 communities were chosen on the basis of visitor popularity at Topretirements during the period January 1 to September 30, 2016 as reported by Google Analytics. The communities whose listings were viewed by our visitors the most were determined to be the winners. Please see the end of article for more details
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Published on October 5, 2016
Comments 23
Category: Active adult communities
June 16, 2016 -- We've been wresting with a question about active adult and 55+ communities. The question is: does one side of the of the USA have a better range, selection, and type of active and 55+ communities than the other? Does the East (from Maine to Florida and west to Wisconsin and Louisiana) offer more, or is the Western half of the country (from Kansas to Hawaii and parts North and South) the one with more interesting active adult possibilities? The obvious answer finally came to us - ask our Topretirements Members - you have a range of collective experience that is incredibly valuable! So we are asking you at the end of this article to share your point of view about the areas that provide the best options for active adult living.
Part of the reason we ask comes from the challenge we continually face in adding new active adult and 55+ communities to our database. Although it usually easy to find a community we haven't yet reviewed in the Eastern part of the US on any given day, it is much harder to discover new or existing ones from the West. Which leads us to believe that perhaps the fence is much greener if you decide to retire somewhere in the East. But perhaps it is, as several frustrated
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Published on June 14, 2016
Comments 21
Category: Active adult communities
December 1, 2015 -- We are very happy for the folks who find their perfect place to retire -it is wonderful that you can live your dream. But we know there are many others who haven't found their Goldilocks place, yet anyway. For those who haven't, perhaps your experience is something like... the right community is too old... HOA fees are too high or restrictive... they have amenities you don't want... too many young people... or, it would be perfect, except it's in the wrong place. But maybe the problem is that your community hasn't been invented yet. Perhaps it is up to you to build it yourself.
Nextavenue.com had an interesting article, "Not Your Mother's Retirement Home", that discusses different
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Published on December 1, 2015
Comments 22
Category: Active adult communities
December 12, 2015 -- Where do you stand on active adult communities - are you a person who can't wait to move into one, or do they represent the type of place where you wouldn't want to be caught dead? This article will address the question - is an active adult community right for you. We will talk about the advantages, disadvantages, and peculiarities of this type of retirement lifestyle. But mostly we hope you, our Members, will share your thoughts in the Comments section at the end of the article. Your insights will help the rest of us learn how different people feel about them, especially those who have actually resided in an active community.
The original active community was Sun City, located northwest of Phoenix, Arizona. Founded by Del Webb, it is still going strong, 55 years after it opened. The one that most people in the eastern part of the U.S. know about is The Villages, a community of over 100,000 with 33 golf courses and 3 town centers, and that sprawls over 3 counties in Central Florida. Active communities range from other ultra large communities like California'sLaguna Woods Village with its 230 clubs, to very small communities like the thousands listed in our Directory of Active Adult Communities.
What is an Active Adult CommunityThe common denominator is that the term "active adult communities" describes a very
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Published on November 2, 2015
Comments 134
Category: Active adult communities
October 3, 2015 -- The think we love the most about the 2015 list of the most popular active communities at Topretirements is that there are so many newcomers - 36 communities are new to it this year! It is great that there are so many new faces - even more interesting places for our Members to explore. Another huge piece of news from the 2015 results is that our long-time, undefeated, #1 community, The Villages, was narrowly edged out of first place by another perennial top 10 finisher, Fearrington Village near Chapel Hill, NC. The 2 communities could not be more different - in scale, amenities, and feel - it's refreshing to see such variation in the choices available to retiring baby boomers.
Speaking of diversity
The 2015 list has some unusual and exotic choices for retirement
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Published on October 3, 2015
Comments 22
Category: Active adult communities
July 4, 2015 -- It's out there somewhere, the perfect place for you to retire. A community with the right combination of activities, ambience, neighbors, type of homes, etc. that matches exactly to what you are looking for. The reality is there might be dozens, even hundreds of places that where you can retire happy, if you can identify and analyze them. This quiz will take you through the major issues that will help you understand and rate the communities that are a good match for you.
About this checklist/rating sheet
For each question there might be several answers that describe you and your preferences, so choose as many as fit. Once you complete this form you will have a better idea about your overall preferences. Then, by rating different
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Published on July 4, 2015
Comments 58
Category: Active adult communities
March 11, 2015 -- Whether you are in the shiny model home or the posh real estate office, it's the positive that gets accentuated when you go looking at retirement real estate. According to the enthusiastic salesperson the amenities are great, the fees are low, and the neighbors - well, they are especially interesting and friendly. What's more, there are only a few more great homes available before the whole project is completely sold out.
But unfortunately there are often things unsaid, whether you are looking at buying a new home in a brand new community or a pre-owned unit in a 55+ community that has been around for decades. This article will help you understand some of the potential pitfalls by pointing to situations you need to ask about. Mind you, most active communities are well run entities thoroughly enjoyed by their residents. This article is
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Published on March 10, 2015
Comments 143
Category: Active adult communities
February 3, 2015 — If you have spent much time by now on Topretirements.com we would be surprised if you haven’t seen a lot of Member comments about Home Owners Associations (HOAs). To many, it would seem these mysterious entities are the devil incarnate. Usually without any actual experience with the demon, these folks want to avoid what they think are treacherous fees, political cabals, and mean-spirited rules at all costs. Only occasionally do we see someone sticking up in their defense. This article will try to dispel some of the misinformation about HOAs, and then let you draw your own conclusions - are they are something to be avoided or appreciated? We’ve also included links to our
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Published on February 3, 2015
Comments 39
Category: Active adult communities
November 13, 2014 -- Many residents of the giant active adult community, The Villages, are mourning the loss of the legendary developer of their community, Gary Morse. Morse died on October 29 at the age of 77.
He moved to Central Florida in 1983 and starting selling real estate in the modest mobile home park owned by his father. Originally the homes here were mobile homes in a development called Orange Blossom Gardens. Over time the homes became a mixture of
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Published on November 13, 2014
Comments 35
