Florida Retirement

Florida is a great place for retiring, offering many great benefits for living out the golden years of your life. There are the endless miles of beaches for walking, jogging and generally relaxing and soaking up the warm atmosphere. While this is not enough of an incentive of itself to lure you into living in Florida retirement homes or communities, these are just the beginning of benefits for your future retirement plans. There are many high quality, purpose-built retirement communities in Florida and you should be able to find the type of retirement community that you will be comfortable with while you enjoy the best years of your life in Florida retirement. These facilities include single person homes, condominiums, and even beautiful villas.

Check out the host of interesting activities that you will be able to participate in at a Florida retirement community - does the retirement community you are looking at meet your entertainment needs and hobbies - current and future? For example, some Florida retirement communities offer free basic computer classes to its residents; if you are not computer literate now, retirement is a great time to learn - especially if you want to keep in touch with family by email. Or maybe you are really adventerous and ready to step up to video?

There are also special discounts that you may be able to get on the many health plans that senior citizens in Florida can access. Google information on "Florida retirement discounts and other packages" to obtain info on a whole host of Florida reirement packages.

Here are a few things to watch for in any Florida retirement community that you consider. First, make sure the fees are affordable - and check for hidden fees! Many Florida retirement communities have so-called “community development districts”. In these retirement communities, the developer establishes a long-term debt obligation to pay for many of the development costs. Others set up leases on recreational facilities and other amenities which provide long-term revenue to the developer, even after the retirement community is completely sold out. Look for a true "resident-owned community" with no recreational leases or CDD fees.

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Check also for "Closing costs" which can add thousands of dollars to the cost of buying a home in a Florida retirement community These charges are often hidden from the customer when you sign your purchase agreement. Make sure you ask about closing costs in advance of signing.

You should visit “Where To Retire” Magazine, a great source of info - it names Ocala, Florida, as having some of the “most affordable housing in Florida, and one of the state’s lowest costs of living.” According to the article, prices for new homes in the Ocala area dropped from a median of $169,000 in October, 2006, to $145,000 in February 2008, according to Bert Meadows, president of the Ocala-Marion County Association of Realtors. “Sales started picking up in April,” he said. “In April, the average listing price of an existing home was $167,700 and in May, it was $186,538. We’re predicting within a year we’ll have a shortage of homes because builders backed off and we’ll have gone through some inventory, which we saw drop a bit in May.”

Some have started to think that Florida is no longer the retirement paradise that it used to be; comments that potential newcomers worried about hurricanes, that insurance and property tax rates are too high and that the area has become generally too expensive, are true in some parts of Florida, but Central Florida has been largely spared the problems in other parts of the state often reported in the news media. The last hurricane to hit Central Florida – specifically the Marion County/Ocala area – was Hurricane Gladys in 1968. Since 1950 there have been only two hurricanes and three tropical storms that have significantly affected Central Florida - quite different from the hurricanes that often cross South Florida or the Gulf Coast.

Recently, tropical storm Fay was in the news; many potential residents had the mistaken impression that a hurricane in Florida means that the entire state is ingulfed in a huge storm. Nothing could be further from the truth - the actual storm itself was many miles away and had minimal effect on Central Florida. Because it has fewer storms than other parts of the state, Central Florida enjoys relatively low insurance rates - most medium priced homes can be insured for under $1,000 per year.

Similarly, taxes on moderately priced homes are also relatively low compared to the rest of the US, especially when you consider the lack of state income tax and relatively low sales taxes. Taxes on homes around the $200,000 - $250,000 bracket will typically run between $2,500 and $3,500 per year, provided you are a Florida resident and enjoy the homestead exemption.

Finally, there is the cost of living; overall, Central Florida is very affordable. Housing is reasonably priced, with new modern well-equipped homes ranging from $180,000-$250,000 (current 2008). Because your Florida retirement community is to some degree self-contained, you should spend less on gas than pre-retirement and free parking is more common in Florida than many other parts of the US. The cost of food, entertainment etc is comparable to most other parts of the country

And, as always, talk with your lawyer to find out the various legal implications before commiting to Florida retirement.