The One Reason You Should Definitely Move Into an Over 55 Community

Like many of you, as we neared retirement, we started thinking about downsizing. We talked about a smaller house somewhere, and even though we had never lived in one, we thought about condos and townhomes. We considered townhouse communities near where we currently lived and high rise condos in the city.

But one thing we never discussed was an over-55 community.

We were both about 60 when we decided to pull the pin and enter the next stage of our lives. We had lived in the last home for over 15 years. And despite this, we knew almost no one in our neighborhood, and the few we did know, we were just on a wave as you drive by basis. This was our third house together, and the circumstances were similar in all of them.

Having lived in virtual isolation for the last 40 years, we were hesitant about considering condo living. But we were also tired of the rigors of homeownership and the subsequent work, maintenance and costs, so we were willing to give it a try. After months of looking, however, we hadn’t found anything that just felt right.

Then somehow, over-55 condos hit our radar. The problem was, there weren’t any close-by or in town where we thought we wanted to stay. After looking out of the city a bit, we found an over-55 condo building a few miles north and went to check it out. It was a beautiful brick building with lovely landscaping and near many amenities.

Then we went inside.

As soon as we passed through the doors from the lovely, well-appointed lobby into the living area, we stopped. It looked and smelled like a nursing home corridor. We glanced around long enough to be polite, then got out of there, and never looked back.

And that was the end of that.

Or so we thought.

We liked the area we were in, so we decided to drive around a bit. At one point, we passed another over-55 community, this one labeled for active adults. That sounds better. There certainly wasn’t anyone ‘active’ at that last place. We turned in and was pleasantly surprised by charming townhouses, well maintained and landscaped, in a neighborhood reminiscent of our current one, only with smaller houses and attached townhomes.

There was nothing for sale, but since I was impressed with the construction and maintenance of what turned out to be eight-year-old homes, we researched the builder. It turned out they were a small local company but had about a dozen neighborhoods north of the city in the same general area. One was still under construction, but virtually sold out, and the next one was just in the surveying process.

To make an already long story a bit shorter, nine months later, we closed on our new retirement home and moved into a neighborhood that had only about a dozen homes complete so far.

And that turned out to be the best thing we have ever done.

Many of you may have thought about these types of communities for the well-advertised and obvious reasons:

Smaller homes

Less maintenance

HOA handles all exteriors and landscaping

Lower cost and minimal taxes

And all of that was true, but none of those are what made this decision so perfect. It’s not the houses, or the green space, or the clubhouse, or even the carefree lifestyle.

It’s the people.

Having been scared off by the geriatrics in the first place we looked, we were a bit worried about meeting the new neighbors. But we couldn’t have been more wrong. Our very first experience was a Friday night pot-luck in the clubhouse only a few days after moving in. We strolled down there about 6 o’clock, carrying our dish, and opened the doors to a complete surprise.

These people were active, outgoing, and well, just plain fun. Fifty-five to eighty-five, it didn’t matter. We were immediately embraced into a community, the likes of which we had never experienced. By the time we left there a couple of hours later on a first name basis with 40 people, we were almost in tears; such was our joy.

But, I haven’t even gotten to the best part yet.

A few weeks later, the inevitable in a community like this happened, and an ambulance paid a late-night visit. Everyone came out of their homes, not as the looky-loos you may be accustomed to, but helpful and caring neighbors. It turned out, it was a minor problem, and the patient was pronounced okay.

But that didn’t stop the neighbors. They set up phone trees and sent out emails as people began preparing food for the woman, planning shopping trips, and deciding who was going to drive her back and forth to doctors’ visits and other appointments.

And that was just the beginning.

Every time there has been any sort of problem in the neighborhood, the neighbors have gathered together and done whatever it took to help whoever was in need. One man who had lived there only a few days when he had to have emergency surgery, was absolutely astounded by the outpouring of support, food, company, and help that came to his door in the coming days.

When my wife had surgery, even though they all knew that I was the cook in the family, meals came day after day until we didn’t know when we would be able to eat everything.

And just like that, after forty years, we were finally home.

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