- New data revealed the metro areas that gained the most residents between the 2010 and 2020 Census.
- A prominent retirement community in central Florida, The Villages, grew 39% and came out on top.
- The Villages represents a version of the classic American dream, which helps explain its allure.
In the 1980s, the Michigan businessman Harold Schwartz bought a 400-unit trailer park in central Florida with the intention of redefining retirement.
The original investment has since grown into The Villages, a veritable Disney World for retirees that topped the US Census Bureau's list of cities that gained the most residents last year. It beat out the burgeoning tech hub Austin, Texas, and the popular spring-breaker destination Myrtle Beach, South Carolina.
The Villages is now so big that it's considered its own metropolitan area — and there are more residents careening through its 90 miles of golf-cart paths now than ever before. From July 2019 to July 2020, the population increased by 3.9% to 139,018. That's more than 5,000 new residents.
The pandemic caused many Americans to start their dream retirements early, which helps explain the recent uptick in new residents.
New Census data, however, revealed that the area's explosive growth wasn't isolated to last year. From the 2010 to 2020 Census, The Villages grew 39% from 93,000 residents — making it the fastest-growing metro area of the decade.
Golf carts are the main mode of transportation for the over 130,000 residents living in the 55-plus community just 60 miles northwest of Orlando. When they aren't a setting a mark recognized by the Guinness World Records for longest golf-cart parade, residents are using those carts to zip between over 50 golf courses, a dozen country clubs, and hundreds of interest club meetings.
The community is a Republican stronghold by design — H. Gary Morse, Schwartz's son who help craft it, was a Republican megadonor, and the enclave presents what some may consider the classic vision of 1950s suburbia. The Villages are dotted with single-family homes, quaint main streets with convenience stores and restaurants, and multiple town squares.
One town square even features a statue of Schwartz as if he were Walt Disney. And in a way, he is. The Villages is perhaps as close as you can get to a Disney World for older people. The median age is 66.
"There is no place like this," one resident says in "Some Kind of Heaven," the 2021 documentary about the community. "This is nirvana," the resident adds as images of older people partying in piazzas, tanning poolside, and playing tennis dance across the screen.
All the newcomers have pushed median home prices in The Villages up 18.8% year over year to $319,000 in July, according to Redfin. Perhaps even more telling: 115 homes sold in July 2020, while 202 homes sold in July 2021, Redfin found.
John Rohan, the recreation director for The Villages, told the area's local newspaper that the community's popularity was unsurprising to him.
"Everybody wants to be a part of something that is unique and sustainable and promotes their personal health and well-being," he said. "Residents want to participate and be active in the social community and do something they've never done, or do something they've never done in the past. The benefits are endless."
Consider Hoa Dupree. At 73 years old, she and her husband just sold their Dayton, Ohio, home and are moving down to The Villages. Dupree is learning how to swim — something she's always been afraid of — in preparation for her new life in Florida.
"I wish I'd been swimming when I was younger," Dupree told the Springfield News-Sun. "This was my second chance."
Dupree's attitude seems to be the prevailing sentiment in The Villages, where infamous tales of Viagra black markets, public drunkenness, and sex swinging have emerged.
"When you move here, it's like going off to college," Anne Kincer, a resident, says in the documentary. "Since nobody is from here, everybody can be whoever they want to be down here."
Editor's note: this was originally published on June 16 and updated on August 13 to reflect new census figures.
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