Social life is an important aspect of Active Adult retirement community living and these retirement communities provide ample opportunities for that.  Indeed, people looking into Active Adult retirement communities tend to look at the lifestyle choices first and the housing second.

Active Adult retirement communities often have a minimum age restriction.  These age-restricted communities are often referred to as 55+ Active Adult, and at least one person in the family has to be 55.  Age-restricted retirement communities don’t allow children as residents even with a 55+ family member.  Other Active Adult communities are simply age-targeted with no age restrictions.  You need to be clear in your mind which type you would prefer.

While residents of Active Adult communities buy their homes…be they single family homes, apartments, townhouses, manufactured homes or whatever…they also must pay homeowners fees to use the clubhouse, swimming pool, golf course, or other shared resources.  These communities will have a Community Association with Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions (CC&Rs) as well as association fees to cover things such as maintenance, landscaping, security, activity fees and the like.  Be sure to read the fine print carefully as these charges could mount up significantly and wreak havoc with your retirement investment finances.

Another thing to be aware of when planning your retirement move is that Active Adult retirement communities are usually not equipped to provide health care or assisted living services.  While you may not plan on needing such services, your retirement investment planning should take that need into consideration.

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New retirement communities are still being developed in Florida and Arizona. Del Webb is now developing Sun City Festival in Arizona, a 3,000 acre site designed to eventually be home to 7,200 households. But now not only are retirement communities growing in Florida and Arizona, they are now popping up in other Sun Belt states like Texas and New Mexico. But what’s really amazing is the development of retirement communities in such northern locales as Michigan, Massachusetts and Illinois.

Several things are driving this trend. Many retirees want to downsize from the house where they raised their families. They simply no longer need all that space, so they’re looking for a smaller house. They like the amenities planned retirement communities offer.

At the same time, many folks have realized they don’t want to move half way across the country from their children and grandchildren, better weather or not. How much fun is being able to play golf in January if there’s a new grandbaby you only get to see once or twice a year because of the distance.

The booming real estate market of the last few years, particularly in the Northeast, has driven home equity up to all-time highs. But if you sell your house to capture the equity, where do you go when you buy a smaller house? People moving out of larger houses can afford to relocate to a planned retirement community, but in what part of the country?

Oak Point in Massachusetts is a great example of this new trend of Northeastern retirement communities. It has the community clubhouse and shuffleboard courts you would expect in a 55+ community in the Sun Belt. It has almost all the amenities you’d find in a Florida or Arizona retirement community except the weather.

But it’s not just shuffleboard and bocce ball. Since Oak Pointe is also designed for active seniors, you can wait for the snow to melt in the heated swimming pool and the state-of-the-art fitness center. You also don’t have to shovel the snow: the maintenance staff does it. It’s all included in the price. When you want some big city excitement, Boston is less than an hour away by car or bus. If you want a day at the beach, Cape Cod is also an hour’s drive away.

Especially for those with children in the area, and for those who enjoy the cultural amenities of the Boston area, retirement in the North makes great sense. Even a few folks who were living in the Sun Belt have now moved into some of these Northern retirement communities. Who could have imagined that a few years ago?

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