You know me....lists! Today's is rather humorous..unless of course it affects you! So often you see a list of the best places to retire... Every town touts it's medical care, golf courses, restaurants, etc.... Today's list that was brought to my attention is the 5 WORST places to retire..Nothing really startling about that...unless.... that's where your retirement home is...
3) A Retirement Ghost Town
La Cresta Community, Davenport, FL
It looked like the 90 homeowners in Davenport, Florida's La Cresta, a planned 55-and-over community from mega-developer Del Webb, were making a solid investment. After all, Webb's active-retirement empire has 50 years of success behind it, and includes more than 50 developments in 20 states. But La Cresta ended up becoming that spookiest of bad retirement destinations – a retirement ghost town. After a dispute with the company that owned the land, Webb in 2009 effectively abandoned the place, peeling its name off La Cresta's sales office, locking the doors, and boarding up the windows. The community was half-finished and half-occupied — complete with an activity center, abandoned pools and blocks of empty lots and half-built homes.*
There’s more bad news for those who bought in. Even though it has long been a haven for retirees, Florida is on the list of states cutting aid to seniors: 69,000 seniors had their home aid delayed last year.
*CLARIFICATION: According to a Del Webb spokesperson, Valerie Dolenga, La Cresta changed its name to Del Webb Orlando in 2010 and resumed construction, completing a 30,800 square-foot, $8 million clubhouse in March 2011. The 70 homeowners who had purchased property at the time the development was abandoned, have been joined by 80 new buyers, according to Dolenga, which brings the community to 19 percent capacity. Though Todd Vargo, a senior development planner at the local Polk County office who visits the property often, was unable to confirm how many buyers have moved in, or how often they’re there.
Del Webb is a big name right around the corner from us. They have an identifying billboard that we always use as the landmark sign "to turn by" when giving directions to visitors. They advertise Goat Milk Fudge. "Y'all just turn by the Webb goat milk fudge sign!" If that gives you any insight to our surrounding area, you can tell the NY rednecks moved near the Florida rednecks. There must be really good money in goat milk if it helped turn things around and build an 8 million dollar clubhouse. This is just s short hop, skip and a jump from our house on a road we travel daily so I'll be able to report on the spirit of the ghost town when I arrive. It's probably never a good thing to see anything you have, do or associate with on a top 5 worst list. It makes it a bit harder to sell your property too.....Thankfully we don't actually live in La Cresta, we live in La Taco Village....and we're trying to figure out how to make fudge from chickens!!
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