The Villages Owners Who Sell Next Year Will Learn Why Listings Keep Sitting. Their Neighbors Already Know

In their 70s, many Villages owners hit the same crossroads. The kids and grandkids may live in another state, and the house suddenly has to help pay for the next chapter of retirement. The question readers send us sounds simple enough: if you list next year, what will you actually walk away with, and will it be enough to carry you the rest of the way? Here’s what the numbers say on pricing, closing costs, property taxes, and retirement income.

Why Villages Listings Sit While Prices Hold Up

Nationally, prices have hardly moved down. The Case-Shiller national index rose 1.9% over the past year. Existing home sales, though, slipped to an annualized 3.98 million, the lowest reading in the past year. Borrowing is expensive, and the 10-year Treasury yield stands at 5.22%.

The Villages is slower still. Redfin data for May counted 907 active listings, 214 sales, and a median of 54 days on market. 50.8% of inventory was still unsold after 60 days. Only 3.0% of listings sold above the original asking price, compared with 25.8% nationally. Pricing based on a neighbor’s sale from a few years ago reflects a different market than current conditions.

Three Charges Buyers Subtract Before They Make an Offer

Buyers who come in with a calculator know that every home carries three required charges: a CPI-linked amenity fee, a CDD bond, and a maintenance assessment. None of them appear on Zillow. Sellers tend to forget the bond. Paying it off at closing is legally optional, but bond-paid homes outsell bond-outstanding ones, so in practice the payoff is how you compete. Heirs face the same pay-or-discount choice.

Under Florida’s Save Our Homes rule, annual assessed-value increases are capped at 3% for homesteaded owners, so a longtime owner’s bill reflects years of that cap. A buyer gets reassessed at market value. One retiree who moved to Lakewood Ranch saw his property taxes climb by more than $2,200 a year even though the new home was smaller. Village buyers run the same numbers and lower their offers to match.

Turning Sale Proceeds Into a Retirement Paycheck

Active Villages retirees typically need between $90,000 and $110,000 a year. Take $100,000 as a couple’s working budget. The average retired worker collects $2,071 a month after the 2026 COLA, so two average earners bring in $49,704 a year. A gap of $50,296 remains. At a 4% withdrawal rate, that takes about $1.26 million. If one spouse is younger and the plan has to last longer, a 3.5% rate raises the target to roughly $1.44 million. Medicare Part B costs $202.90 per person per month, or about $4,870 for two, and that’s before supplemental coverage.

Every $20,000 you knock off the price costs you about $800 a year in sustainable income at 4%. Waiting costs much less. With a roughly $200 monthly amenity fee plus an assumed $100 for water and sewer, six months on the market runs about $1,800 before taxes and insurance. Overpricing does more damage than patience does.

The high rates that keep buyers away also work in your favor once you’ve sold. A Treasury ladder built near current yields can pay a large share of the withdrawal without selling stock index funds in a down year (the mix, payment calendar, and withdrawal order are all laid out in our free paycheck portfolio guide). If either spouse hasn’t claimed Social Security yet, each year of delay past full retirement age increases the benefit, and the larger check becomes the survivor benefit later. That shrinks the gap.

Portability Decides Where Your Next Chapter Makes Sense

Florida lets you transfer up to $500,000 of accrued Save Our Homes benefit to a new Florida homestead. Moving to another state wipes out that benefit. You’d pay full-value property tax in the new state, and you might also pick up a state income tax. Florida ranks 1st on individual income tax. Moving near family in the Carolinas lowers general costs, since South Carolina’s everyday expense index is 93.749 against Florida’s 103.414. Weigh that discount against the tax shelter you give up.

Price the home for a market where the median listing sits 54 days. Sellers who pay off the bond at closing compete more effectively. Give buyers an accurate estimate of their new tax bill so they don’t guess and cut their offer. Then plan around a portfolio of about $1.26 million drawing 4% a year, or $1.44 million at 3.5%, with average Social Security and a $100,000 budget.

A Treasury ladder can cover the first several years of withdrawals. The tax advantage moves with you only if you stay in Florida. Settling on a destination before setting the asking price keeps that tax tradeoff in view.

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