The Villages is a hot bed for new senior home construction. The planned retirement community, which comprises several locales around Sumter County, is continuing to build new residences on vacant lots. New properties in The Villages make it the best selling master planned community in the U.S.
As a retiree community, many of the newer homes are smaller and not designed to house full families. The median age for residents of The Villages is 71.1 years of age, as opposed to the median age of Florida overall, which stands at 41.5.
When dealing with senior housing, there are a multitude of issues that can come into play regarding the buildout of a new property. The state of Florida, by a landslide, outranks other states in new independent living constructions for seniors. Normally, if a senior decides to build out his or her own retirement property with the help of a contractor, they have to deal with a great deal of tedium and legalese in order to have the property delivered on budget and to their desired specifications. Not so in The Villages, where a development group has created a planned city filled with new housing for all of its age appropriate residents and clientele.
Today’s modern seniors are looking for beautiful design and comfortable livability when it comes to choosing a home in which to spend their golden years. More important than attractive amenities and basic comforts comes safety measures within the home that are specifically crafted to make navigating the residence seamless, year after year.
If you are on the market for a residence in The Villages, there are several aspects of the home’s construction other than aesthetics that you should consider before putting down an offer. For instance, while you may be able to climb stairs with ease at this point in time, remember that scaling steps at a high incline may become more difficult with each passing year. Many planned senior residences are only single-floor domiciles, making the prospect of stair climbing at an advanced age nil.
If you happen to be interested in a multi-story or split-level home in production, you should make sure that the builder has taken into account the height of the stair rise so that one stair step is a relatively short distance to the next. High bathtubs may be all the rage in design magazines, but a lower, more accessible tub is preferable to accommodate limited mobility and flexibility as one advances in age. Slip resistant flooring is another preferred design inclusion that can help to mitigate personal injury accidents such as slip-and-falls.
If you’re interested to see what other parts of your home should be built with age appropriate intent, consult the Aging-In-Place Remodeling Checklist from the National Association of Home Builders for pointers and for lists of certified builders.
If you’ve sustained any personal injuries are a result of the lack of integrity in the construction of your new home, contact our attorneys at Morgan & Morgan for a free case evaluation.
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