Do You and Your Spouse Dream of Living Somewhere Warm?

You originally thought that the four bedroom, four bathroom home that you purchased just as your children were starting elementary school would be the last home you would ever buy. Fast forward 21 years though and your plans have changed.
The two story home that was perfect for your young family is now too big for just you and your husband. It is fun to have all of the space when your children come home from college, but quite frankly, the stairs to the second floor and the stairs to the basement are getting to be too much. You are tired of running up and down the stairs for the laundry, and your husband is just tired of the stairs in general. You still remember your dad, a retired passenger and freight elevator construction worker, joking that maybe you could install a small left in the front entry closet when you got too old to climb the stairs. Not quite so funny any more.
In addition to the unwanted size and the extra set of stairs, you and your husband both fear that convincing your adult age children to return to the cold weather of the midwest for Thanksgiving and Christmas will become a challenge. Lately, you have been talking about the benefits of moving somewhere warm while you still have years of golfing and tennis to play. Both you and your husband have careers that will allow you to work from home, so you have started looking at homes for sale in a planned community somewhere warm. Some place where you can basically golf, swim, and play tennis year round.
Take Florida, for example. Homes for sale in the newest planned community offer so many options it is difficult to ignore:

• First of all, many of these locations brag about at least 240 sunny days a year.
• Purchasing a permanent home in Florida can come with as much as a $50,000 property tax break.
• New homes in planned communities offer affordable, and sometimes free, access to beautifully manicured golf courses.
• The green space included in these master planned communities come with extensive hiking and biking trails.
• Buying a new home in a planned community will allow you to select a ranch floor plan that keeps the family and its visitors on the same floor, without having to go up and down stairs.
• Many planned communities come with yard service, outside maintenance and even landscaping upkeep.

Looks like this weekend, when the midwest weather forecasters are predicting another foot of snow and dangerously cold wind chills, you and your husband might be looking through the listings of homes for sale in a planned community where the sun is almost always shining!