5 Things We Don't Like About Living In The Villages

This video covers 5 things WE don't like about Living in The Villages. We moved here in April 2021 and we really do enjoy living here even more than our previous house in Harbor Hills, Lady Lake just outside the area but we know that The Villages is not for everyone.

0:00 Intro
0:30 Traffic and Road Construction
1:03 Businesses Close Early
1:43 Not a True Gated Community
2:39 Constant Construction (expansion of The Villages)
3:14 Houses Built Close to Each Other
3:33 Courtyard Villas in Lake Sumter Landing
3:43 Bungalows in Lake Sumter Landing
3:57 Lakeshore Cottages in Lake Sumter Landing

1. We don't like the Traffic and road construction in the area especially on US 27/441 by where the Target, Kohls, Chick Fil-A and all those in that area. This is also a positive as the construction is to widen the roads to alleviate the number of vehicles. The traffic can be bad at times specially during the winter months when 'seasonal residents' are in town. Still, the traffic is nothing like that in Orlando on I-4 or Atlanta, Georgia.

2. Businesses close early. Most shops and restaurants close at 9pm, some even earlier than that. The Town Square nightly entertainment ends at 9pm. This video shows business hours of several places around Spanish Springs. Generally, Seniors go to bed early and that may be why. However, there are a handful of restaurants that are open past 9pm like Chili's and Applebee's on 441.

3. The Villages is not a true gated community. The gate attendants allow any vehicle in. The manned gate houses are there to control the flow of traffic. So there's typically 2 sides when driving into a group of Villages, the left side is for Visitors, right side for Residents where residents use a card that brings up the metal bar. On the upside, The Villages has a Community Watch who serve the community by keeping a watchful eye 24/7, 365 days a year. The 24-hour gate operations staff views and monitors cameras for 120 plus gates throughout the District among other functions. They also work closely with local law enforcement. This means there are vehicles that roam around the neighborhoods several times a day.

4. We don't like the Constant Construction- applies mostly to the new sections of The Villages which is in the southern area heading towards Orlando (ie. Village of Deluna, Village of St. John south of Brownwood) Although there are a few new construction happening as well in the older section like this one in Spanish Springs. The Villages continues to expand building neighborhoods after neighborhoods and there seems to be no end in sight. If you live in the newer sections, like The Village of St. Johns, even though it may be close to smaller shops, bigger stores like Target, Kohl's, TJ Maxx, HomeGoods, BJ's Wholesale will be a good 25 minutes from that location. Another consideration is that if you choose a neighborhood in the southern newer area of The Villages near the Florida Turnpike which is a major highway, you may hear the traffic of this busy highway)

5. Houses are built very close to each other, some call it a postage stamp because the lots are pretty small. Of course we knew that before we bought our house now. This video shows clips of some courtyard villas as well as bungalows in Lake Sumter Landing. In the courtyard villas, the boundary line is a little over 5 feet to both sides of the house unless you are in a corner lot. Still the houses are pretty well made and as you can see, most residents do take great care of their property.

So as you can see, there's only a handful of things we don't like about living in The Villages. I actually had to think all week and hubby and I had a couple of conversations in order to come up with the 5 things we don't like. Make sure you subscribe because in the next video, we will talk about reasons we like about living in The Villages and we have lots of good reasons. Also check out our playlist all about our life here in TV.

ALL MY VIDEOS ABOUT THE VILLAGES: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list...

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Other Villages Channel We Like: THE VILLAGES FLORIDA NEWCOMERS (Jerry and Linda)

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