Live like you're on vacation
Nancy Menefee Jackson
Why pick a traditional neighborhood when you can choose a community with the amenities of a resort?
More and more, homeowners are opting to live in communities that offer indoor and outdoor pools, fitness centers, golf courses, activities and plenty of hiking and biking trails. What's driving this trend?
"First off, the sheer numbers of folks 55 and older gets bigger by the day, and we're very much on the front end of that group," says Lou Baker, president of the Maryland Division of Pulte Homes and Del Webb, adding that homebuyers want to stay close to their grandchildren, yet still have the amenities they would have had in Florida or Arizona. And some opt to continue to work in retirement.
"When you roll those things together, you see why people are retiring in place," Baker says.
Because this generation has been more health conscious, they're staying healthier and active much longer, hiking, biking, swimming and exercising.
At Del Webb's Carroll Vista community in Taneytown, for example, residents enjoy a four-hole pitch and putt. The 15,000-square-foot community center boasts an indoor golf simulator, fitness center, ballroom, billiards room and arts and crafts room, as well as an indoor pool so that residents can swim or do aquatic exercise year-round. An outdoor pool, tennis courts, walking paths and bird-watching sanctuary offer plenty of recreation.
A full activities calendar, organized by an activities director, completes the picture.
"We provide very nice amenities for these communities but it's the people that make it happen," Baker says. Those who want a lot of activities and a busy social calendar should make sure the community has an activities director.
Retirement living close to home
Other Maryland communities offer resort-like amenities. At Symphony Village in Centreville, the 13,800-square-foot Symphony Club offers a concert hall, grand foyer, music room and the High Note Café. Tennis courts, a fitness center with indoor and outdoor pools, badminton, volleyball, bocce, horseshoes, community gardens and walking trails also keep residents busy relaxing, as do nearby marinas and golf courses.
At Cedar Ridge in Piney Orchard, luxury elevator condominiums are paired with a 5,000-square-foot community center with an indoor lap pool, whirlpool and fitness center. The community boasts an NHL-regulation ice arena and hiking and biking trails as well as a 45-acre nature preserve with boardwalk overlooks.
Since Pennsylvania and Delaware offer similar options, Marylanders only have to choose which community, not whether to leave the grandkids.
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