I live in The Villages, Florida. It started in 1968 as a trailer park on Hwy 441 about 60 miles north west of Orlando. About 1990 the developer brought in his son from upper Michigan (Mark Farner & Ted Nugent area), and he began the actual housing development. It's now 40 square miles and population 130,000 over the age of 55. No one under 19 can live here or visit for more than 30 days a year. The population 99% white, African Americans about 1%. If any African Americans want to move here, I say come on. In our villa section of 80 villas, three are AA. They want the same things as white people, a safe place to live out your retirement years.
I moved here in 2011, I'll be 69 in July. For major sports, Tampa is a 90 minute drive south on I-75, College you have Gainesville a 60 minute drive north, that's the Florida Gators. I'm a Seminole Fan, that's in Tallahassee a little further north. Once you live here a while, you really don't want to go elsewhere too often. The news we get from Orlando, and they have as many murders as any city in the north. Orlando is not a great place to live.
I was familiar with Florida, I grew up in St. Petersburg from 4th grade (1959) to 1977, then moved to Pensacola (home of Naval Aviation) until 1982. Lived in Savannah the rest of the 80's and then moved to Maryland for 22 years. I retired in 2004 and after both my parents were deceased I retired here in 2011.
We have 12 championship golf courses, 10 of them are 27 hole layouts. We have 35 nine hole executive golf courses (par 3's). We are divided in about 75 Villages with about 1200 homes in each village. Each village has a pool and a rec center. Rec Centers have tennis courts and pickleball courts, that's really big here. They now have a championship on CBSSports. We also have larger Regional Rec Center with pools, I guess we've got about 90 pools all together.
We have 3 town squares, each one has a live band play everyday from 5pm to 9pm, usually classic rock, oldies, disco, etc. Each square has a theater with 8 screens. The Villages is about 75% Republican and our county (Sumter) had the highest total for Trump than any county in Florida, and of course Trump won Florida.
Here's a square, this one is Lake Sumter Landing. Did I tell you, you can drive a golf cart anywhere within The Villages, there are over 50,000 carts here. Some people don't even own a car anymore. The Florida Turnpike goes right by here, so you can be in Orlando in one hour. The Gulf Beaches are about two hours to Clearwater, which is the best.
A band and the dance floor at Lake Sumter Landing Square.
All of the Fox News people or any conservative with a book will be at our Barnes & Nobles
The original square was Spanish Springs
The newest square Brownwood, opened in 2013
Live Webcam at each square aimed at the bandstand and dance floor. If a picture doesn't come up, keep refreshing since each camera is limited to 500 viewers.
The Villages Webcams
The Developer's Website for home information and resales
https://www.thevillages.com/lifestyle/