The Real Cost of Retiring in The Villages, Florida, on a Single Pension

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We get a version of this question almost every week. Someone has a single pension and has been told The Villages is the affordable answer in Florida. They want to know if the math actually works on one income. Here is what it really takes.

What The Villages actually costs a single retiree

Start with the house. A patio villa or small courtyard villa in the older sections runs in the low to mid $300,000s, while a designer home north of 466A pushes past $500,000. Assume a single retiree pays cash for a roughly $325,000 villa. Property taxes in Sumter County land near $3,500 a year on that value, and Florida homeowners insurance is the line item that has eaten everyone’s budget lately. Plan on $2,800 to $3,500 for a wind-included policy on a modest home.

Then come the hidden line items. The monthly amenity fee is around $200, indexed annually to CPI, which rose from 321.4 to 334.0 over the past year. Most homes carry a CDD bond, the infrastructure debt baked into the property, that can range from $10,000 to $30,000 in remaining principal with annual payments of $1,200 to $2,500 until retired. A fire assessment and trash add a few hundred more. Call the non-tax community carrying cost roughly $4,500 a year before you turn on a light.

Healthcare at 65 is Medicare. Part B is $202.90 a month in 2026, with a $283 annual deductible. Layer on a Medigap Plan G (roughly $160 to $200 a month in central Florida for a 65-year-old), a Part D drug plan around $40, and dental/vision out of pocket, and you are at $5,800 to $6,500 a year, before any real illness.

Food for one, USDA Moderate plan, runs about $4,800 a year, and Villages residents eat out often, so budget another $3,000 for the town squares. Electric in a small Florida home with summer AC averages $180 a month. Water and sewer add $80. A car is non-negotiable for medical and Costco runs even with a golf cart, and gas was $4.05 a gallon in June 2026. Between fuel, insurance, registration, and the golf cart itself (purchase, batteries every five to seven years, maintenance), transportation lands around $5,500.

A working all-in budget for a single retiree owning the home outright:

• Property tax, insurance, amenity, CDD, utilities: about $14,500
• Healthcare (Medicare + Medigap + Part D + dental): about $6,200
• Food and dining: about $7,800
• Transportation: about $5,500
• Home maintenance, replacements, gifts, travel, reserves: about $9,000
• Federal income tax on pension and withdrawals: about $3,500

That is roughly $46,500 a year, call it $47,000 to be conservative. The BLS average household spends $78,535, but a single, mortgage-free retiree in The Villages can credibly run leaner.

Does one pension actually clear it

A single retiree claiming Social Security at full retirement age in 2026 averages around $24,000 a year, with the 2026 COLA at 2.8% providing partial inflation defense. Florida has no state income tax, so the pension lands gross.

If the pension is $30,000 gross, combined gross income is $54,000, which clears the $47,000 budget with a thin cushion. If the pension is $20,000, you are short about $3,000 a year, and that gap divided by a 3.75% withdrawal rate (appropriate for someone retiring at 65 planning to age 95) implies a portfolio of about $80,000 to fill it. And if the pension is only $15,000, the gap is closer to $8,000 a year, requiring roughly $215,000 invested. The structurally sound version of this scenario is a pension of at least $24,000 plus a $150,000 to $250,000 cushion in a balanced portfolio of index funds and a short treasury ladder.

Delaying Social Security from 65 to 70 lifts that base benefit by roughly a third, which is the single biggest lever a pension-only retiree has. Each year of delay past full retirement age adds about 8%, and that increase is itself COLA-indexed for life.

The line items nobody underwrites: insurance and the bond

Most analyses of The Villages miss two critical items. The CDD bond and homeowners insurance behave nothing like the rest of the budget. Healthcare PCE rose from $3,494.0 billion in April 2025 to $3,700.1 billion in April 2026, and people plan for that. Florida insurance is the blind spot. It has compounded at double-digit rates for several years and now exceeds property tax on many Villages homes. Over a 25-year retirement, that one line item can consume $100,000 to $150,000 in current dollars if trends continue, and unlike a mortgage it never amortizes away.

The CDD bond is the second blind spot. Buyers see the home price but often do not see the $18,000 in attached infrastructure debt with interest that survives the closing. Paying it off at purchase, when possible, is usually the right move for a fixed-income retiree because it removes a non-deductible obligation that does not shrink with inflation.

The takeaway

The Villages on a single pension works, but only on specific terms. You need the house paid for, a pension of at least roughly $24,000 indexed or near-indexed, Social Security claimed as late as cash flow allows, and a side portfolio of $150,000 to $250,000 invested for the gap years and the insurance creep. A 3.75% withdrawal rate against that cushion, a paid-off CDD bond, and a realistic $47,000 to $52,000 annual budget is the version of this that survives 25 years of Florida weather and Florida premiums. Anything less than that, and the brochure is doing the talking.