When my husband got downsized from his job back in Pennsylvania in 2010 at the age of 61 he wasn't ready to retire. He turns 68 later this year and will finally be retiring or at least semi retiring at that time! Anyhow I urged him to look for a job in Florida as we wanted to get away from the winters up North and he easily found one. While we were house hunting and waiting for our house to close he lived out of the timeshares, Wyndham Palm-Aire and Sea Gardens for 4 months, the first week of December through the first week of April. We certainly considered owning the timeshare a blessing.
I had very fixed ideas about the type of home I wanted to buy here in Florida; I wanted something that would work for us in retirement and as we aged.
1. I wanted everything on one level. We have what is considered a patio home. We live on the canal side of the plan which I love and the other side of our plan is bordered by a golf course. We have screened lanais/patios front and back and a one car attached garage.
2. I wanted 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and a den/office. In our plan most of the homes are 2 bedroom/2 bath and their living room and back screened lanai is larger than ours, same footprint, but we have a den/3rd bedroom layout. The second bedroom, bath and den are all in the front of the house giving nice separation. I wanted that den/3rd bedroom layout not just for my husband's office but also so our son and DIL wouldn't have to share a bedroom with their 2 small daughters when they come to visit. However my biggest reason for wanting that den/3rd bedroom is that when we age if we need someone to live in and help with our care they will have their own bedroom, bathroom, and the den to use as their living room. In the meantime should we have visitors come for several months in the winter once my husband retires they will have their own space. Same thing if something happened to one of us and the other would like to share the home with another person to share/split the living expenses.
3. The doorways to the bathrooms had to be big enough to get a wheelchair or walker through. Also at least one of the bathrooms had to be big enough to easily accommodate a wheelchair or walker and a second person to assist. Not a concern at this time but I was thinking ahead and none of us knows what the future has in store for us.
4. I wanted a good community with mostly year round residents and lower homeowners association fees. Most housing plans here in Florida have homeowners associations and when we were house hunting the realtors taught us how important it is to have a good strong homeowners association. Many people may be like us with no prior experience of homeowners associations or bad impressions of them. After living in this part of Florida for 6 years I cannot stress enough about how important it is to have a good strong homeowners association. My husband has been a board member on ours for several years now and they run things instead of employing a management company which makes a big difference in the homeowners fees. We have had one increase of $5 per month in the six years we have lived here. The $155 a month covers the very nice pool and clubhouse, tennis courts, yard work, landscaping throughout the community, exterior painting, driveway care, basic cable, sprinkler system maintenance, pest/insect treatment and several socials a year.
5. Location, location, location. I wanted a safe, quiet community in a convenient location. We are far enough away from major/busy streets, the interstate and turnpike to keep the road noise down. There is only one way in and out of our plan so no thru traffic. Within a half a mile to a mile we can walk or ride a bike to a Publix grocery store, a Walgreen's drug store, the Library, our city's community center and pool with a little waterpark, gas stations, some restaurants, various stores, two Churches, a Synagogue, and a Buddhist temple. Within 1.5-2 miles is a Sun Trust bank, a Super Target, a CVS, Winn Dixie grocery store, a Walmart neighborhood market, Aldi's, a movie theater and more stores and restaurants. Another big thing is our distance to the airport, 20-25 minutes depending on traffic. We are 5 minutes from the Sawgrass Expressway and 7-10 minutes from the turnpike. We are about half a mile from Challenger Elementary and Millennium Middle School which are considered the best in the Broward County School system and also where we go to vote. If we had to or wanted to we could live here and not drive.
6. Mature trees. Developers in Florida often typically level everything and many plans look very barren or stark. The Florida sun can be brutal so not only do mature trees make the appearance of a plan so much nicer they provide shade which also helps with the air conditioning and electric bill.
7. Resale value. Location of course. Low homeowners fees. Multi ages in our plan of 146 homes. Over 55 communities don't have the ease of resale nor the value that multi age communities do.
8. Low maintenance/responsibility When my husband retires we want to travel several months at a time with our timeshares. The homeowners association takes care of all the outside work and these homes are very low maintenance. So before we leave all we have to do is make sure there is nothing that will spoil in the refrigerator, turn off the water, turn up the AC, pull the hurricane shutters, take out the trash, make arrangements for our mail and ask the neighbors on either side to keep an eye on things. An hour tops if we don't stand around talking to the neighbors for too long!
Our section of the coastline, Miami to West Palm Beach almost always has a nice breeze even if you live inland like we do, about 12 miles. This keeps the warmer months temperature and humidity lower than you expect for Florida. The way the gulf stream runs along this section of the coastline gives us the nice steady breeze that other coastal areas don't have. Our son and his family came down over the 4th of July one year and it was less hot and humid here than in the Cleveland, Ohio area where he lives! In August and September if that breeze dies it quickly gets as hot and humid as most people think of Florida as being. When you live inland, in any part of Florida, more towards the center of the State and away from the coast, the temperature is about 15 degrees higher and the humidity much is higher too in the warmer months.
Our part of Florida has high homeowners insurance rates due to the hurricanes. The last big one to hit this area was Wilma in 2005. I guess the insurance companies are still recovering their losses. Our 2016 property taxes were $2142 but our homeowner insurance was $3104. Flood insurance is not included in that and was another $430. The flood zones were re-evaluated about a year ago and we are no longer in a flood zone so could drop the flood insurance. After the first year here we put in all new Miami-Dade hurricane rated windows and doors and that brought our homeowners insurance down or it would be higher. For each major road, I-95, the turnpike, that you live west of your rates drop considerably. We live just beyond the turnpike so we live in the lowest rate area. When we drive past the big beautiful houses on the beach or even within a mile or two of the beach we always say "Can you even imagine what they are paying in homeowners insurance!" If people you know say they don't pay nearly as much as we do it is because they have lived here longer. As a new resident/insured you will not get that rate! There are people in our plan that pay literally half of what we do but they have lived here for 30 years since the plan was built. Another thing we didn't know was that the insurance companies here in this part of Florida seem to typically raise your rates quite a bit after the first year. We got mad when that happened to us and switched companies. Same thing happened with the new company.
As much as I would love to live with a view of the ocean I confess to being a weenie and so we live a little inland for that reason too not just for the better homeowners insurance rates. I am more than willing to drive 15-20 minutes to the beach to feel safer and not be worrying about hurricanes. From what I know condos don't pay nearly as much for insurance as we do, even those on or close to the beach, but we weren't interested in a condo.
The property values, in this section of Florida, have recovered a lot since we bought at their lowest point in 2011 but they still aren't back up to what they were so decent deals can still be found. Our plan is called The Landings on Cypress Greens in Tamarac, Florida if anyone wants to Google Earth us or look up homes for sale. If anyone is really interested you can pm me and I can put you in touch with the board member who can give you information about homes for sale or rent in our plan. She would know about homes available for sale or rent before they go on the market. Some people like to rent for a year or season or two before they commit to buying to see if they will like it or like the area and that can be an excellent idea.
Many people contemplate or actually do move to Florida after retirement or at least winter here. And other places too. Hopefully this provides some helpful information for anyone considering the next chapter in their lives.
