In This Issue
A New Format
$2 Billion Judgment Against Real Estate Trade Association
One-stop Shopping for Golf Homes
Pawleys Plantation Reopens after Significant Renovation
This month we are trying something new. We have dropped the sidebar on the left for the simpler, easier-to-read single column format. This approach is more in keeping with the popular Substack newsletter format; in the coming months I intend to relocate Home On The Course to Substack and alert subscribers with an email and a link. I intend to expand the content of Home On The Course to include issues of the day beyond golf real estate and lifestyle. I hope you will continue to join me for the ride. Thanks for being a subscriber and have a happy holiday season and New Year.
I have not been a fan of the National Association of Realtors, the largest trade association in America, since before the 2008 housing recession. For years, the organization’s economists had bamboozled the media, homebuyers and its own 1.5 million members with the notion that the real estate market boom was not only sustainable but almost guaranteed. If you bought a home in the late 2000s, you likely were swayed by all the sunshine blown into the market by the NAR chief economists. In March 2008, to demonstrate just how bamboozled the mainstream media was, USA TODAY named NAR Chief Economist Lawrence Yun one of the top 10 economic forecasters in the country. Less than 10 months later, the esteemed Case–Shiller home price index reported the largest price drop for real estate in its history. Any home buyer in the prior few years felt betrayed; those preparing to sell their homes weren’t too happy either. Fifteen years later, Yun is still chief economist at NAR. No wonder many real estate brokers I have spoken with over the years find their trade organization unsupportive at best, ethically dodgy at worst. I sent my own broker some thoughts about the NAR just after the court decision. He responded:
“You had me at ‘is unaccountable to members, and whose pocketbook is never affected by failure.’”
This past Halloween, of all days, the NAR’s business practices were unmasked in a $2 billion class action judgment brought against it and a few other national real estate agencies. (Additional agencies had settled prior to the court case, indicating a wisdom beyond the NAR’s.) The court held that the way the agencies and NAR forced commission rates on home sellers and provided no transparency on the commission rates they charged home buyers was an unfair trade practice. The damages could be tripled to more than $5 billion in coming weeks by the sitting judge in the case.
The biggest winners, besides the 500 Missouri plaintiffs who brought the case, are future home sellers who no longer will be required to pay both the seller’s agent AND buyer’s agent commissions. If you have sold a house in your lifetime, you know that the commission set by the brokerage who handles the sale of your home covers all parties to the transaction. What you may not know, because the NAR has not exactly been transparent about it, is that sellers are essentially forced into paying the commission rates in order to have their homes posted on the local multiple listing service, or MLS. That is the resource virtually all buyers’ agents use in most areas of the U.S. to find homes for their clients. You cannot effectively look for a home in America without access to the MLS. The NAR and its agents, the court decided, had established the equivalent of a monopoly on the listings of homes for sale.
If industry practice evolves from the court judgment in the way many industry watchers believe it will, sellers will no longer pay a 5% or 6% commission rate to their real estate agency because the fee will no longer cover the buyer side of the transaction. Buyers’ agents will have to cut their own deal with their clients. And that could take different forms.
One of those could be a straight-fee arrangement in which the buyer pays the buyer’s agent a set dollar amount or a percentage pegged to the purchase price of the home. The amount will be negotiable and, therefore, competitive. I represent buyers looking for a golf home; I do not charge them a fee for my services but here’s how I expect to handle the fee issue in their behalf when I look to identify a local agent to work with them. Let’s say my client is focused on the Sarasota area in Florida; we would agree on a maximum fee they would pay a local agent, and I would make that – and the agent’s experience and track record -- a requirement before engaging the agent to represent my client in the Sarasota market.
Today, the buyer agent’s brokerage commands half of the commission the seller pays to his/her broker (100% of it if they are a “dual agent” with real estate agents inside the firm representing both sides of the transaction). In cases in which the fee is set at, say, 6%, today the buyer agent’s brokerage receives half of that, or 3% of the selling price. (The buyer’s agent personal commission is paid from a percentage negotiated with his agency.) On a $1 million sale, for example, the total commission is $60,000 (or 6%), with half going to the seller’s agency and half to the buyer’s.
Realistically, buyers are not going to pay $30,000 to an agent just to find them a $1 million house and to fill out paperwork when the sale is consummated. More likely will be either a set fee for a list of basic duties – research homes for sale, make offers, file paperwork – and an additional set of fees for “extras” such as identifying a lawyer to handle the closing, a mortgage broker, or an engineering inspector. Slowly over time, as the process becomes more transparent than it has been, buyers will ask ever tougher questions of their prospective agents. Agents are going to have to become a bit more persuasive about the services they offer beyond simply identifying homes that match their client’s requirements. (Note: The Multiple Listing Service will undergo its own set of changes, one of them the likelihood of a subscription service to buyers and real estate agencies.)
Of course, sellers’ agents will still be able to “negotiate” a buyer side commission with another agency. The MLS will likely list the commission rate the seller is willing to pay a buyer’s agency. In order to speed up the sale, the seller could very well offer a commission equal to or close to the current 3%. But the point is that the seller will be free to set the buyer commission rate if they and their agent believe it will help sell the home faster and at a better price.
One of the most interesting questions from the court case is if and how larger housing developments will adapt to the new freedom buyers are likely to enjoy. Virtually all golf communities initially sold home sites and home packages through an on-site agency. But once a community neared the sold-out phase, its developer typically turned the community over to its residents and closed the on-site sales office. Some resident-led communities – like the 45-year-old Landings in Savannah and the 15-year-old Carolina Colours in New Bern, NC – maintain their on-site sales offices to this day and are already holding internal discussions about how to react to the changes likely in the wake of the court decision.
Ken Kirkman, who developed Carolina Colours, stresses the importance of outside real estate agencies in bringing buyers to his community.
“Continuing to attract 3rd party buyer agents will be important to maintain values in [Carolina Colours and other communities],” Kirkman told me. He also predicts that some practices of the past will endure beyond the court case.
“The reality is that a seller willing to pay, say, 2% to the buyer’s agency will probably get more showings, and quicker, than a seller asking the buyer to bear all of the buyer agency compensation,” he said. But, he added, “in the end, there will be less compensation to buyer agents and much less uniformity in pricing."
In more than 15 years of assisting folks searching for golf homes in the Southeast U.S., I have never had a buyer’s agent try to charge my client a fee. Depending on how agencies handle the fallout from the court case, that could change soon.
A few months ago, I negotiated a straightforward arrangement with the owner of GolfHomes.com, Kirk Tidwell: I supply Golf Homes with summaries of my favorite golf communities in the Southeast, and Golf Homes provides me with complimentary ads featuring my most trusted real estate agents. Those ads, with the agents’ contact info, are positioned alongside current listings of golf homes for sale in their local golf communities. To date, we have posted summaries and agent info for golf communities in the following areas: Bluffton, Beaufort and Daufuskie Island, SC; Pawleys Island and Murrells Inlet, SC; Aiken, SC; Greenville, SC; Lake Lure, NC; New Bern, NC; Wallace, NC; Richmond, VA; Charlottesville, VA; Harrisonburg, VA. I am adding more every week.
Although I stress with my clients that they should first identify the area(s) where they would like to relocate – based on climate, topography, proximity (or not) to an urban area – once they have a targeted area in mind, GolfHomes.com is a great place to gauge the price ranges of homes in specific communities and get a look at architectural styles.
If you would like assistance with your search for a golf home, please do not hesitate to contact me at
My wife and I are headed to our second home just before Christmas and I cannot wait to play a golf course I first played almost 35 years ago and have played more than 50 times since. Under the guidance of Jack Nicklaus, Pawleys Plantation Golf Club’s original designer, and Troy Vincent of Nicklaus Design, the Pawleys Plantation course has been restored to its former glory circa 1989 – and then some. My son Tim, who writes for Golf Pass, part of the Golf Channel, played the course shortly after it reopened after seven months of work and published a comprehensive overview. You can read it here. https://www.golfpass.com/travel-advisor/articles/pawleys-plantation-golf-course-renovation-myrtle-beach
Happy Holidays and New Year to All
Larry Gavrich
Founder & Editor
Home On The Course, LLC
Where you live can affect your health. That is probably no big surprise to most of us. But as many who have lived in areas with heavy traffic on the roadways, the consequent air pollution and the financial stress that comes of high income and property taxes, living out our retirements an hour or more away from a big city has its appeal. But think twice, especially if you have pre-existing health conditions that make having a hospital and specialized healthcare services nearby more must-have than nice-to-have. On the other hand, if you are young or young at heart, living in a major city a short walk from great entertainment and services, urban living can be exciting. A friend of Home On The Course has a beautiful condo for sale in Charlotte, NC. We love it and list it. That, and more, in this month’s Home On The Course.
After a life in a suburb close to a city, or in a city itself, many couples who are fed up with traffic and the other consequences of living in a high-density area are ready for retirement to a golf community located hours from anywhere. But they should be careful what they wish for, especially if they have health issues, or expect to.
Some of the highest quality communities I have visited are located a good hour’s drive from quality hospitals – quality as defined by those who rate such things, for example, USNews & World Report. These communities are certainly traffic-free, pretty much pollution free, and largely free of high property taxes and overall high costs of living associated more with locations at some remove from cities. Many of these remote communities are located adjacent to large, clean lakes and are amenity rich, with sleek golf courses – some with multiple layouts – that most of us would be happy to play a few times a week.
At Savannah Lakes Village in McCormick, SC, one annual HOA dues payment covers most amenities except for the indoor bowling alley (pay per game), tennis and pickleball (one reasonable annual payment for those) and access to two excellent golf courses. Located on beautiful and clean Lake Thurmond in McCormick, those two Savannah Lakes’ golf courses are quite different – one hilly, one more classic – with an optional membership available that, if you intend to play three rounds a week, is much cheaper than the already low daily green fees. It is one of the great bargains in golf community club membership.
Another such remotely located community is Rumbling Bald on Lake Lure, which is home to hundreds of retired couples, many who live in Florida half the year, as well as a summer sanctuary for couples and families looking to take advantage of lake activities and a quiet vacation. Rumbling Bald has its own 36 holes of golf, one a classic Dan Maples layout called Bald Mountain that is inside the gates of the resort, the other Apple Valley, just a mile down the road from the resort community’s front gate (and with Rumbling Bald real estate surrounding it as well). Maples also designed Apple Valley. The resort offers a full roster of amenities, including a comfortable 300-yard-long beach on the lake, indoor and outdoor pools, a terrific playground for grandkid visits, tennis and, of course, lots of lake activities that include easy to drive pontoon boats to explore the coves created when the valley was flooded to create the lake in 1927.
Both these communities are terrific choices for folks who are healthy and intend to stay that way for the foreseeable future. But McCormick is a good hour from Aiken and its well-rated regional hospital, and Rumbling Bald is over an hour from Asheville and its own high-quality hospitals. For those of us with health issues that require constant follow-up appointments, as well as the comfort of having a full-service hospital with round-the-clock emergency rooms, proximity to an urban area, pollution and traffic notwithstanding, is likely to provide the most stress-free retirement.
For listings of current homes for sale, click here.
I have visited some communities that feel like they are remote but are a relatively short drive to top-quality hospitals typically associated with a big city. One obvious choice is The Landings on Skidaway Island, located just over the bridge from Savannah, GA, a 20-minute drive away. Six hospitals are within that drive time, two of them recognized nationally for their quality of care. The Landings offers six outstanding golf courses, lots of other recreational activities, hundreds of social clubs, and the feeling of being disconnected from any urban influences once you cross that bridge from Savannah city. The Landings may be home to 8,000 residents, but the community is divided into discreet neighborhoods, and the only time the place feels densely populated is just prior to a weekend shotgun golf event, when an army of golf carts comes rolling down the community’s streets headed for battle on one of The Landings golf courses.
Cypress Landing in Chocowinity, NC, qualifies as “remotely located.” It is just a 20-minute drive to the town of Greenville, population approximately 90,000, not exactly the kind of large urban area you would associate with a major medical center. But Greenville is home to Eastern Carolina University and its notable medical center, which stretches over an unusually large campus. The hospital has been recognized as one of the 100 best in the nation, and Cypress Landing, which is located on the Pamlico River, an extension of the Albemarle Sound, is one of the best bargains in golf community real estate I have encountered in 20 years.
For those of us lucky enough to be in good physical shape and without any nagging health issues, living remotely an hour or so from a high-quality hospital may be a fair trade for the noise, traffic jams and the other tacit stress inducers of life near a major city. A lifestyle like that just might keep us healthier in the long run. But if your health is a current concern, you might consider passing the remote to someone else.
Larry Gavrich
Founder & Editor
Home On The Course, LLC
The calculation of year-to-year home price changes is not opinion; it is data. And yet different real estate information sources do not agree on the change of home prices one year to the next.
First, recently, Realtor.com released a list of metro markets in which the Myrtle Beach/Conway, SC, market showed the biggest drop in the nation, 2.9% lower in August 2023 than the same month’s prices in 2022. That didn’t seem right because all reports I hear personally from the area are that prices have held firm. I looked at another real estate source, Redfin, an online real estate agency that collects a lot of data. Their numbers said Myrtle Beach area prices had increased 20% year over year. Say what?
To break the tie, I hoped, I checked another online company, Rocket Homes whose web site indicated that prices in Myrtle Beach were up 7.9% year over year. Finally, I consulted Zillow, which should have more data than any real estate company. Zillow’s web site indicated home prices in Myrtle Beach were up .3% year over year. The consensus, it seems, are that prices in the Myrtle Beach area were up year over year, but who knows by how much?
With that kind of diversity of data calculation, I gave up. My advice to anyone looking for a home in Myrtle Beach or anywhere else: Call a local real estate agent. They are compelled to produce accurate numbers. Don’t trust online sources. If you need help identifying a reputable, qualified and honest local agent, I am happy to help. Contact me here.
Interested in Charlotte?
Keith, a friend of this newsletter and a frequent contributor – he provides me with lots of market data that I often pass along to readers – is selling his condo in Charlotte, NC. Located in the popular “Uptown” section of the city, the building includes day/evening concierge, a luxurious lobby, fitness center, club room, billiards, pool, key-fob-operated elevators and dedicated round-the-clock security. At two bedrooms and one bath, and a total of 855 square feet, the unit would be perfect for a couple seeking an urban environment with mild winters and warm summers or for a single person looking for all the options a major American city offers.
The unit features all the latest in modern conveniences, newly painted walls and a new state-of-the-art refrigerator. A primary bedroom with a private balcony that extends across the living room area overlooks the pool; the unit’s dedicated gas line gives you the ability to fire up the grill on the balcony as you consider all the after-meal entertainment options just steps from the building’s entrance. There are plenty of private and public golf options in the Charlotte area; the unit comes with a deeded parking space (and access to a secured parking deck).
Keith has reasonably priced the unit at $399,500; compare at two to three times that for comparable places in other major American cities. If you are interested, please contact me.
Condo for sale in Charlotte.
Wind gets all the headlines but water — in the form of surge — can cause the most damage. Florida, for the last 50 years and more, has been a magnet for retirees for one major reason — its climate. But now the very thing that drove them there is driving them crazy with dramatically higher insurance premiums — if they can find an insurance company to cover them. That, and more, in the September issue of Home On The Course.
In the early 1950s, my Grandpa Max retired from his ownership of a Bronx, NY, parking garage and he and my Nana, Jennie, moved to their new home and new life in Miami Beach. The best feature of their modest house, which was located miles from the ocean, was a canal running through the backyard. As a five-year-old, I snagged a couple of eels from that canal with a fishing pole and drop line. Max and Jennie wound up making a very nice retirement life for themselves in Miami Beach over the next three decades.
Like northeast seniors today who have enough resources to move after retirement, the biggest lure for my grandparents was Florida’s climate, specifically temperatures generally in the 70s during winter. How ironic that climate issues in Florida could send other peoples’ grandparents in a different direction these days.
Florida is not having a good decade, weather-wise, and the news media has not been kind. (As I write this, Hurricane Idalia has just battered the “Big Bend” coastal area of Florida.) Hurricane-level winds make the biggest headlines, but it is water, especially in coastal areas, whose devastating consequences last longer. Television scenes of Fort Myers Beach in the aftermath of Hurricane Ian were apocalyptic. Winds, which reached 150 mph, grabbed most of the headlines but the accompanying flooding was every bit as damaging. A 15-foot storm surge can bring down a house as easily as 150 MPH winds; the combination of the two is many more magnitudes devastating.
But flooding is not easily remediated, and if a home survives the wind, it likely will not survive the punishing 15-foot wall of water. In Fort Myers Beach, population 6,000, the storm surge took a large part of one homeowner’s house and deposited it three blocks away. That owner, thinking about his neighbor’s problems as well as his own, told the local NPR station, “You can’t start to rebuild when you’ve got someone else’s house in your yard.”
Eight months after Ian, life is not close to normal yet in Fort Myers Beach, although a supermarket has reopened and a restaurant as well. But the town council is forced to hold its meetings in a makeshift building, the town hall having been wiped away by the storm. And a local resort that was severely damaged and whose business is a major benefit to the local economy won’t reopen until late this year, more than 12 months after the storm.
“Anybody that thinks [it won’t take years to recover] is just lying to themselves,” one local restaurant owner and resident told the NPR station.
The prevalence of strong hurricanes the last few years and the follow-on consequences have spooked insurance companies in the Sunshine State. Florida today has the dubious distinction of the highest average annual home insurance premiums in the nation, at $6,000, according to the Insurance Information Institute. That is an increase of 42% in just the last year and about four times the national average. Rates in Florida had already risen by as much as 30% in 2022. And reinsurance companies, to whom the property insurers sell many policies to reduce their risk, are also increasing their prices.
It is little wonder then that property insurance companies in Florida have either gone bankrupt or decided to stop selling policies in the state. Since the beginning of 2022, 15 insurers have left the state and another seven were declared insolvent. State government responded by creating its own “insurer of last resort” to cover those citizens of the state who have no private-market options. The insured pay their premiums to the state agency and, today, Florida itself is the largest single insurance provider in the state. But what if another devastating storm like Ian should generate so many claims that it exhausts the state insurance agency’s reserves? You guessed it; the state’s taxpayers would be on the hook for billions of dollars.
The insurance situation in Florida isn’t just affecting the retirees who make up a majority of the state’s population. My son and his wife, in their 30s and with a young child, own their first house in Vero Beach. They are a good five miles from the ocean and their neighborhood has no record of significant hurricane damage. Last year, however, their property insurer left the state and this year their new insurance company charged them 35% more than they were paying last year.
Their situation begs the question: How will young people be able to afford to live in Florida if insurance rates are likely to continue to skyrocket? And one can ask the same question about retirees, especially those on fixed or limited incomes.
The storm surge from Hurricane Ian lifted wooden docks near the ocean across the marsh to Pawleys Plantation Golf Course, a half-mile away.Insurance is not just a Florida problem. Up and down the east coast, insurance companies are raising premiums. For the condo my wife and I own in Pawleys Island, SC, about ¾ mile from the Atlantic Ocean across a wide marsh that tends to slow down the winds from Atlantic hurricanes, our HOA’s 2023 budget for building insurance – to protect the structural integrity of the association’s eight buildings -- rose 32%. Flood insurance, provided by FEMA, which we pay for directly, rose 11%; the flood insurance covers losses from flooding not covered by the HOA’s building insurance. Last year, after Hurricane Ian crossed Florida and entered the Atlantic Ocean, Pawleys Island was close to the storm’s re-entry point, with winds of almost 100 mph. Ian’s storm surge was estimated at five-to-seven feet yet picked up some of the boat docks on the ocean side of the marsh and deposited them on a few holes of the Pawleys Plantation golf course. (One of those docks still had a boat attached to it.) Although our condo is not adjacent to the marsh and suffered no wind or flood damage at all from Ian, it is considered nevertheless to be in a flood zone.
Eternal pessimists might ask the eternal weather question: Is it really safe anywhere? It is a fair question. In mid-August, a potentially devastating storm bore down on southern California, and San Diego, generally considered as having the best year-round weather in the nation, was directly in its path. (The San Diego Padres baseball club postponed a game two days in advance because of the impending storm.) I know from prior research that locations along the Carolinas coast are as likely to suffer a direct hit from a hurricane as those on the coast of Florida. And that reality has caused insurance companies to raise premiums up and down the entire east coast.
Yet despite the devastating hurricanes that seem to slam the east coast (and both coasts of Florida) year in and year out, builders keep building and buyers keep buying, no matter the risks. I stumbled upon a listing for a $20 million house on Kiawah Island in South Carolina. Kiawah is a barrier island – “barrier” because it takes the brunt of Atlantic storms before they typically peter out inland. Part of the attraction of this modern mansion is its location close to the ocean. But that, of course, puts the home in a risky position – both from a location standpoint and an insurance coverage standpoint.
I checked out the address on a site called RiskFactor.com which assesses a home’s risk to fire, heat, wind and flooding. The good news for the big house is that its risk factor for fire is “minimal,” with just one chance in 10 of a fire. The bad news for the house is everything else. Setting aside the heat factor, rated 10 of 10, or “extreme,” the wind and flood factors are both nine out of 10. Regarding the flood factor, RiskFactor.com indicates that this year the house could take on as much as eight feet of water, not too far off the site’s prediction of more than 10 feet at some point in the next 30 years. As far as wind goes, the site indicates the possibility of a three-second wind gust this year of 147 mph, and a possible 170 mph at some point over the next 30 years.
It is possible, even likely, that the dire predictions won’t come true this hurricane season or next, or the one after that or, for that matter, anytime in the next 30 years. But more and more, insurance companies are factoring in the potential and raising their rates or, worse, refusing to cover homes in certain areas. Those of us searching for our dream homes should at least consider thinking like an insurer.
Perhaps if a couple can afford a $20 million home, then they can afford to repair or replace it, or pay insurance premiums, if any company will write the policy, of tens of thousands of dollars a year. Good for them, but most of the rest of us would have trouble sustaining our much-more-modest properties in the wake of a 140-mph hurricane with storm surges that would put eight feet of water or more in our houses. I am not a scientist, but I for one believe there is something going on with the weather that may not be easily resolved, if at all. And if that is correct, consider all that is written above as a cautionary tale.
Caveat emptor.
Larry Gavrich Founder & Editor Home On The Course, LLC
On its website, the town of Pawleys Island describes the four-mile-long strip of land that forms Pawleys’ eastern edge as “a barrier island less than 4 miles long and mostly 1 house wide, separated from the mainland by a beautiful salt marsh and accessible by two short causeways. Generations of visitors have returned with the feeling that ‘their blood pressure goes down when they cross the causeway.’
Given the ever-present threat of hurricanes, Pawleys’ town fathers should be a little clearer about which direction across the causeway relieves stress.
That said, in 23 years of home ownership in Pawleys Island, my wife and I have never suffered significant damage of any kind to our condo, or any stress about the likelihood of damages. Yet we live close enough to reach the beautiful Pawleys Island beaches in less than 10 minutes, and our Jack Nicklaus golf course includes a view across the marsh to the homes that face the ocean. We are so close…and yet so far.
Here are three golf homes in and near Pawleys Island that might be close enough to enjoy the beaches and yet far enough to be safe from significant damages.
2 BR, 2 BA condo
End unit, view of Nicklaus golf course, fully furnished with mechanical upgrades in last few years, including HVAC, refrigerator and water heater. Neighborhood pool and clubhouse and golf course within three-minute walk. Reasonable golf membership fees or pay as you play. Rental income potential. Listed at $289,900. Click here. https://www.golfhomes.com/95-3-weehawka-way-pawleys-island-south-carolina-29585-p4127075.html
3 BR, 4 BA Condo
Open floor plan with master suite on entry level, large screened porch and patio with view of lake, and an inventive open floor plan. The golf course was designed by Greg Norman and is part of the McConnell Group of courses in the Carolinas. Membership in the private course provides access to 13 other McConnell courses. Private beach access just one mile away. Listed at $680,000. Click here. https://www.golfhomes.com/113-huntington-lake-circle-pawleys-island-south-carolina-29585-p3915967.html
2 BR, 2 BA townhome
One-level living across from the imaginatively designed Mike Strantz golf course. Spacious kitchen and formal dining room is great for entertaining, and the screened in porch and patio area is a great place to relax after tackling Strantz’s bunkers. Pawleys Island beach is less than 15 minutes away, and between the towns of Georgetown and Pawleys Island, you have access to plenty of shopping, restaurants and medical centers. Listed at $319,000. Click here. https://www.golfhomes.com/724-pinehurst-ln-pawleys-island-south-carolina-29585-p3645428.html
A select group of US retirees have opted to purchase homes overseas, some for vacation use and others as permanent homes. One motivating factor is the dramatic savings in cost of living. We explore the numbers in and around cities worldwide and offer an example — The Algarve area of Portugal — that offers much in the way of golf and easy living.
My brother, who manages investment portfolios, is nearing his retirement. He is a couple of years away, but for years he has been researching overseas locations that would afford him the lowest possible cost of living while not compromising his lifestyle. He is not a golfer and, therefore, has a wider range of options than those of us who would never retire to a place without golf nearby.
However, he echoes what I have read elsewhere, even in golf-related publications and websites, that Portugal has one of the lowest cost-of-living indices in the “civilized” world – I mean “civilized” literally and figuratively – and is one of the most golf-centric countries outside the U.S. With 75 golf courses across a country the size of Indiana, and 31 of them in the ocean resort area known as The Algarve, Americans seeking a permanent or vacation home in Portugal won’t starve for recreation – or anything else for that matter. (I am an unabashed lover of Porco a Alentejana, pork and clams, something of a national staple.)
Faro is the largest city in the Algarve and boasts the only airport in the region – with service to/from London, Madrid, Barcelona and a few locations in France. According to the online service Numbeo, which ranks 529 of the world’s largest cities, consumer prices in Faro that include rent are 48.6% less than they are in Tampa, FL. A couple could live quite comfortably in such a world class resort area with excellent golf.
Built on the Rio Formosa Estuary on the Portugal coast, the 35-year-old San Lorenzo Golf Club has had plenty of time to mature and become one of the best in the country. It was designed by American architect Joe Lee, who is most renowned for his work on Florida layouts. Golfers who play southern U.S. courses will feel at home on the Bermuda grass fairways and greens. Most of the rest of the 30 Algarve golf courses have excellent reputations.
Although the people you meet in European resort areas – locals, ex-pats and vacationers alike – will probably speak English, you may feel more comfortable considering a home in an officially English-speaking land. Although I will admit it has taken more than a half dozen trips for me to adapt to the Scottish brogue, I have spent enough time there to know I could live on the east coast of Scotland happily. I decided to investigate what the cost-of-living index had to say about Scotland, and specifically Edinburgh, one of my favorite cities in the world and surrounded by a wonderful selection of renowned, 100-year-old golf courses.
According to the city-compare function at Numbeo, the costs to live in Edinburgh, assuming you rent a home, would be $3,800 per month compared with $2,690 in Faro, Portugal. But compare Edinburgh to, say, Charlotte, NC, and Edinburgh appears to be a bargain, with Numbeo indicating you would need $6,893 per month in Charlotte to live the same lifestyle as you would in Edinburgh for $3,800. The comparison for Charlotte is slightly better when put up against the home of golf, St. Andrews, where Charlotte cost of living is $5,404 to maintain the same lifestyle in St. Andrews at $4,200.
In the attached sidebar, I’ve listed the 25 most expensive foreign cities, courtesy of Numbeo. It is fun to play around with the numbers, especially if you have an inkling about moving overseas for a vacation or permanent home. (Note: Many countries expect you to “contribute” financially to meet their resident requirements; those contributions might include the purchase of a home at a certain minimum level, a substantial deposit in a national bank or other considerations. Always check before getting serious about relocating to a foreign land.)
If any readers are currently living in a foreign country part- or full-time, I would love to hear from you and recount your experiences in this space.
Larry Gavrich
Founder & Editor
Home On The Course, LLC
| Top 25 | Cost of Living Index |
| Hamilton, Bermuda | 140.4 |
| Basel, Switzerland | 130.0 |
| Zurich, Switzerland | 128.5 |
| Lausanne, Switzerland | 120.6 |
| Zug, Switzerland | 119.1 |
| George Town, Cayman Islands | 118.5 |
| Geneva, Switzerland | 112.9 |
| Bern, Switzerland | 111.2 |
| Nassau, Bahamas | 103.3 |
| New York, NY, United States | 100.0 |
| Honolulu, HI, United States | 98.4 |
| San Francisco, CA, United States | 98.4 |
| Oakland, CA, United States | 98.1 |
| Seattle, WA, United States | 94.6 |
| Reykjavik, Iceland | 90.8 |
| Canberra, Australia | 89.2 |
| Adelaide, Australia | 89.0 |
| Barbados, Barbados | 88.9 |
| Boston, MA, United States | 88.7 |
| Trondheim, Norway | 88.1 |
| Saint Helier, Jersey | 88.0 |
| San Jose, CA, United States | 87.7 |
| Sacramento, CA, United States | 87.4 |
| Bergen, Norway | 87.1 |
| San Diego, CA, United States | 86.5 |
Source: https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/
Anyone who is a fan of this newsletter knows I am not a fan of “best places” lists. The latest one to get my attention is from US News & World Report which is best known for its rankings of colleges and universities. Their latest ranking seriously needs an education. I respond with a list of my own. Also, I have a take on the announcement that rocked the golf world last week. The Saudis are coming, the Saudis are coming. And finally, poetry makes its way into the newsletter this month. Robert Frost’s “Mending Wall” offers some good advice for those of us whose friends and neighbors don’t see things as we do.
After I retired from the corporate world, I took a job with a moderate-sized university. A few months in, I noted that the university’s mission statement should have included, “Do whatever it takes to improve our standing on USNews & World Report’s list of best universities.” The magazine’s list drove many of the discussions among university officials; “obsession” was not too strong a characterization. I later learned that other universities employed full-timers dedicated to working on the USN&WR annual rankings.
A friend recently sent me one of USNews’ latest lists; the ranking has nothing to do with education and, frankly, it does not use a particularly scholarly approach to attitudes and attributes. It is the USNews’ latest ranking of the “Best Places to Live.” If you live in a cocoon free of societal shifts and political issues, and you don’t mind getting advice about where to live from people who have never visited the cities they are assessing, you will be misled by this latest list.
UNSNews weights its rankings as follows: Quality of Life (36%), Value/Affordability (23%), Desirability (22%) and Job Market (19%). Some of those categories are flawed. First, one of the weighted criteria in the Desirability category is a “Desirability Index” which, no surprise, defines how “desirable” it is to live in a particular metro area. My expectation was that the magazine’s editors would have asked the people in the 150 metros it ranks to score their urban areas on a list of obviously desirable traits. But, no, the magazine asked 3,500 people from around the nation where they would most like to live among the 150 cities that they probably HAVE NEVER EVEN VISITED. If I live in Anchorage or Bangor, ME, for example, what do you think I might say about Tampa, FL or Myrtle Beach, SC? (The survey, by the way, was conducted in March 2023, when mean temperatures in Anchorage and Bangor are 25 and 30 degrees. In March, mean temperatures in my own state of Connecticut are just 40 degrees.)
USNews demeans weather’s impact in another way, giving it just a 10% weight in the Desirability category. Whereas they ignore climate as a strong factor in people’s perceptions of places they’ve never visited, that 10% weighting indicates USNews finds climate relatively unimportant in a decision to relocate. Yet, for decades, climate has driven the historic southward migration of retirees; and now, given the effects of the pandemic, many employees newly working from home are also exercising the option to relocate to warm weather areas far from their corporate offices.
Nowhere in the Quality of Life category, or anywhere else in USNews’ list for that matter, is an acknowledgement that drastic societal changes and divisions between how states treat individual rights may have an impact on a metro area’s desirability. Retirees on both sides of the political spectrum have, for decades, pretty much ignored the red state/blue state differences because the warm-weather red states wanted to do all they could to attract new residents and the blue states wanted to do all they could to retain them. But today, for many Americans, the political climates in some states has become as important as the meteorological climates. You cannot have missed that some state legislatures, for example, have imposed bans on abortions after just six weeks, banned certain books, wiped child labor laws essentially off the books, and even imposed restrictions on companies whose social values they do not like – or at least they tried to impose them. USN&WR’s dismissal of the dramatic political and social differences between states and their most prominent metro areas assumes that desirability and political discomfort are somehow mutually exclusive.
For those considering a relocation but without a firm idea about where, the best guidance I have is, “Ladies and Gentlemen, start your engines” and hit the road to visit as many as you can. Nothing else is a substitute, especially magazine rankings.
Ranking the best places to live is a subjective exercise. If it weren’t, then all those ranking agencies – USNews & World Report, Kiplingers, NerdWallet et al – would not disagree so widely on their conclusions. As a public service, I offer my own super-subjective list of best places to live in the Southeast Region of the U.S. – minus any ranking order. My list is based on research over more than 15 years and at least a couple of visits to the golf communities located in each of the following metro areas.
One of the most popular destinations in recent years, Greenville offers a nice package of amenities that appeal to many Baby Boomers. These include a rather modest but high-quality group of golf communities, from the deluxe Cliffs to the more egalitarian Pebble Creek, with a nice selection in between (e.g. Green Valley and Thornblade). The downtown area is stuffed with entertaining venues that include a minor league baseball stadium (Shoeless Joe Jackson’s statue is outside), a major concert venue (Peace Center) and a growing number of eclectic restaurants, some with views of the city’s beautiful Reedy River.
Talk about a restaurant scene, the Holy City is a religious experience for foodies where farm-to-table dining is embellished by sea-to-table offerings (no better place we know for oysters). The city is literally surrounded by the widest array of golf communities, from the half dozen championship layouts on Kiawah Island, including the famed Ocean Course, to the suburban layouts in Mt. Pleasant (Arnold Palmer’s modern RiverTowne, George Cobb’s Classic Snee Farm and, in nearby Awendaw, the legendary Mike Strantz’ Bull’s Bay). For urbane living near an urban setting, those who can afford it choose Daniel Island and its two highly ranked layouts by Rees Jones and Tom Fazio.
This four-mile strip of the Grand Strand of Myrtle Beach packs a lot of golf, beach and food options along US Highway 17. The Grand Strand features only a few private clubs, and most of them are south of Myrtle Beach, including DeBordieu Colony (Pete Dye), The Reserve at Litchfield Beach (Greg Norman) and Wachesaw Plantation (Fazio). Top public courses include Caledonia and True Blue (two by Strantz) and Pawleys Plantation (Nicklaus), which is currently undergoing a $2 million restoration to its circa 1989 glory. The small area offers a wide range of dining establishments, chief among them the Southern-food oriented Frank’s, the eclectic Chive Blossom and the ultra-casual back-in-the-woods PIT (Pawleys Island Tavern). For at-home chefs, there are four supermarkets within four miles, including a Fresh Market (like Whole Foods). The beach at Pawleys Island is one of the best on the east coast and accessible to all, if the parking lots are not filled. (All beaches in South Carolina are open to the public.)
Okay, full disclosure: If I were looking for a year-round retirement place, Florida would not be at the top of my list. It is just too relentlessly hot during the summer months. But for a vacation home, I would target the Sarasota area for its cultural activities, especially the art museums (Ringling, Salvador Dali) and a younger-minded population (and I include many local retirees in that designation). The proximity to the Gulf of Mexico beaches and a wide array of golf communities, including the immense Lakewood, one of the most comprehensive in the state, and Longboat Key, which juts out into the Gulf, makes Sarasota the embodiment of the old saw “location, location, location.” And a nice bonus, especially for sports fans like me, is that the Tampa Bay area boasts some of the best teams in all the major sports. Since this decade began, relatively small Tampa Bay has produced two world championships in professional football and hockey. And the Tampa Bay Rays baseball club is currently the best in major league baseball.
University towns like Charlottesville (University of Virginia) tend to offer a sophisticated array of activities. That stands to reason since both professors and students are well educated and expect high standards of quality. Universities are also magnets for concerts and theater productions and, for those of us with a disposition toward lifelong learning, continuing education courses. Golf communities anchor both ends of the city, with the Scottish-tinged Glenmore and totally renovated Keswick Hall to the east, and Farmington Country Club and Old Trail to the west. The city’s location makes it an easy 90-minute drive to the Wintergreen Resort in the Blue Ridge Mountains and its 45 holes of top golf, and under three hours to the ocean.
Savannah, GA…a city loaded with character and history, with the well-organized, multi-golf-course Landings community just 20 minutes away.
Chapel Hill, NC…another university town with all kinds of golfing options nearby.
Asheville, NC…a small version of San Francisco, with all the benefits and none of the downsides.
Wilmington, NC…historic town with modern conveniences, charm and accessibility.
Richmond, VA…one of the most underrated cities for retirees.
Vero Beach, FL…makes my list based on its reasonably priced real estate, nice beaches and quality services.
Larry Gavrich
Founder & Editor
Home On The Course, LLC
The golf world is in turmoil with the stunning announcement that the PGA Tour and Saudi-backed LIV Tour have buried the hatchet – in the players’ backs, some high-profile players like Rory McIlroy might say. McIlroy and other PGA stalwarts – Jon Rahm, Collin Morikawa, Justin Thomas, Jordan Spieth, many others – were betrayed by the organization that had asked them to remain loyal as their fellow competitors were lured to LIV with nine-figure contracts.
Now that PGA Tour leader Jay Monahan, who will play second fiddle to a Saudi-installed leader of the new tour, has stabbed them in the back, multi-millionaires like McIlroy, who were aggressively and publicly critical of their former competitors for chasing the big bucks, have two choices – cave or create some alternative competitions. Perhaps in anticipation that this day might come, Tiger Woods and McIlroy developed TGL, a tech-dominated and team-oriented golf league with Monday night prime-time competitions. When the new league, which will start in January 2024, was announced earlier this year, the LIV Tour accused Woods, McIlroy and the PGA of hypocrisy, an accusation that seemed especially rich (pun intended) coming from an organization that plucked players from the PGA with immediate multi-million dollar “appearance fees.”
But, perhaps fatefully, the PGA Tour is partners with Woods and McIlroy in the new league. It remains to be seen if that arrangement is binding or if the star players betrayed by their tour will go ahead and try to turn their Monday night venture into something more expansive and, perhaps, more enduring. I hope so but admit that is wishful thinking. With all the money involved, expect the PGA players to continue to worship the golden goose, no matter who controls it. McIlroy implied as much the day after the announcement of the takeover by LIV.
“I still hate LIV. I hope it goes away,” he said. “[But] at the end of the day, money talks and you'd rather have them as a partner." Oh, Rory, LIV isn’t going away. It just has a new name, PGA Tour.
The most enduring line from any of my high school English classes in the 1960s was the windup to Robert Frost’s poem Mending Wall – “good fences make good neighbors.” It is a line I have thought about a lot in recent years as our national politics have driven friends and families apart.
I live in two places; full time in Connecticut and occasionally in a condo in South Carolina. And let’s say that invisible fences have managed to keep the peace.
I have never been close to my neighbors in Connecticut. The couple across the backyard moved in more than 10 years ago and they must work by night and sleep by day because we have seen them fewer than a half dozen times over the decade. We noted that their daughters, when they were young, would huddle around a fire pit in the back yard on cool autumn nights, but they must be off to college or somewhere else because we haven’t laid eyes on them in five years. In the case of our backyard neighbors, their invisibility has created the invisible fence between us.
One side of our house is bordered by a fairly well-trafficked road but on the other side is a house with a couple we have never socialized with. My wife will occasionally engage in pleasantries with the lady who lives there, but her husband is a sour guy I want nothing to do with. Once when I found myself locked out of my house, I went over to their home to use the phone (in the days before cell phones). He didn’t even get up from his chair; just pointed to the phone and said nothing. Since then I have built a metaphorical wall that keeps us at arms-length from each other.
We have owned our condo in South Carolina for more than 20 years. My neighbors are conservative, me not so much. In the early 00s, it was amusing and occasionally stimulating to talk about politics. I will admit I liked to goad them a bit about their views. The summer of 2008 was a watershed. During a July 4th get together in the parking lot in front of our group of six condos, the subject of universal healthcare came up. “It’s European Socialism,” one of them declared. Ever the provocateur, I asked, “So what’s wrong with European Socialism?” My neighbor seemed flustered that his labeling had been challenged. He sputtered “It, it, it’s not American.”
I had looked forward to a retirement that included spirited discussions of issues, including politics. But one neighbor’s lame definition of European Socialism was followed a year later by another neighbor labeling the sitting U.S. President as “the anti-Christ.” I realized then that we would have to wall off certain subject categories in order to continue to get along. During a period of more and more divided opinion and attitudes, it has worked. Indeed, good fences make good neighbors.
Some people don’t appreciate Florida as a destination for retirees, despite its popularity. I have heard cynics say about the Sunshine State that, “People are dying to live there…literally.” But God’s waiting room, according to an assessment of longevity across the U.S., has one of the highest average age-at-death of all 50 states, and certainly the highest in the Southeast by a wide measure. That story and more in this month’s Home On The Course.
If you own a golf community home in a popular area, the Pandemic market has been good to you – and continues to be. Despite some headlines that predicted significant price drops, home prices between January 2022 and this past January rose 5.5% nationwide, according to the experts at Corel Logic’s Home Price Insights report. That same well-trusted report forecasts a 3.1% increase over the coming year. More important for those seeking a golf home in the Sunbelt, especially the Southeast, price rises in the region will outstrip those nationally, with the forecast for the Miami area alone a whopping 17.3%.
No other areas I follow are predicted to rise by nearly that much, but neither are they poised to fall. Baby Boomers continue their march to Sunbelt retirements, and employers are acceding to the wishes of their workers to dial it in remotely. Those society-shifting trends continue to put pressure on real estate inventory levels (low) and prices (historically high in many locations). In the Myrtle Beach metro, for example, the average home value rose this past January to almost $300,000, nearly 15% higher than the year before, according to Norada Real Estate Investments. Zillow reported that sold homes in Myrtle Beach fetched, on average, about 97% of their list prices. Sellers are holding many of the cards in Myrtle Beach and in other coastal Southeast areas.
Given that real estate landscape, what are active buyers supposed to do? They have three options – buy an existing home, rent a condo or other style home, or buy a lot and build a dream home. (Note: There is a fourth option, which I intend to explore in a future newsletter – staying put in a place with which you are familiar and comfortable.) Each option has advantages and disadvantages; your lifestyle and goals will drive the proper decision for you.
Whether a single-family home or condo, owning has obvious advantages, especially for those with fairly longtime horizons (say, five years or more). Real estate almost always appreciates over time unless, of course, you were unlucky enough to buy in the few years leading up to the 2008 housing recession. Even then, for those with patience, most markets had recouped their losses by around 2011.
Single-family home ownership is “subsidized” by the government, which provides a deduction for up to $10,000 in property taxes. Given the typical property taxes in many popular areas of the Southeast, your home would need to be valued at more than an estimated $1 million for you not to be eligible for the full deduction. That said, many of us own two homes, and our combined property taxes exceed the $10,000 limit. Deductions for mortgage interest payments on your primary and second homes will be helpful, and tap out at a total $1 million (for joint/married filers).
Of course, potential appreciation of your home is another strong incentive to buy. Consider how much your primary home appreciated over the decades you owned it, assuming you lived in one place for a significant period of time. However, many “lifestyle” experts advise that you should consider a house as shelter first, lifestyle support second, and investment a distinct third – an approach I have always taken. House appreciation is a wonderful bonus, but should not be the driving point, especially in retirement when you want to lower your risk.
The benefits of long-term home ownership are undeniable, but what about the costs? If you have a yard and are getting to the point that you can’t, or don’t want to, maintain the landscaping, you will pay for someone else to do it – and pay a substantial amount since there will be lots of retirees in your area fighting for the services of a limited number of lawn tenders. Any repairs to your home – water heater and roof leaks, damage from storms – is on you. Oh yes, and homeowners’ insurance and flood insurance will be required if you live in a designated flood zone near the ocean, and homeowner association fees if you live in a developed community.
There is one other cost that most of us do not think about, and that is opportunity cost, or the strategy to take the money you might plow into a house and, instead, invest most of it in a safe place that generates steady income that you can use to rent a nice home – without biting too much into the principal.
In that last example above, let’s say you sell your primary house for $700,000 and you will be downsizing to a home in the Southeast that is considerably less expensive than the one you sold. And let’s consider you put aside $600,000 in cash to pay for a new golf community home and $100,000 in the bank. Sure, you could take out a mortgage on the house, but in your seventh decade of life, is any significant debt what you really want to deal with – not to mention mowing lawns, picking up leaves and other garden detritus and paying for inevitable repairs?
Now consider you take the entire $700,000 from the sale and put it into some safe, interest-bearing account yielding, let’s say, 4.5%. (This is a real current example from Fidelity’s Government Money Market Fund.) That rate would provide $31,500 for you annually without any bite of the total principal. Divide by 12 for a (rough) monthly yield and that’s $2,625. As I write this, that almost pays for a nice three-bedroom, two-bath single-family home in the gated River Club golf community in Pawleys Island, SC, listed at $2,810 per month. The house comprises 2,300 square feet and its occupants will have access to a sporty 18-hole golf course, and an ocean beach club with tennis courts and walking trail. And cable TV, internet and trash pickup are included.
The other major positive about renting is that you have time to decide if you like a community and area and, while in residence, look for a place to buy, if you are so inclined. But beware the unexpected disadvantages of renting. Your landlord can raise your rent at any time, making the budgeting process year to year a bit tenuous. Or, perhaps even worse, your landlord could decide to come back to live in the rental. The example above at the River Club is only for a six-month lease; that’s fine if you are looking to buy or build a home in the area, but if you are counting on a long-term lease of one or two years, you had better search for rentals with that contingency.
There are still a few choice home sites for sale in many of the best golf communities in the Southeast, although the Pandemic market had the same effect on the sales of lots as it did on the sales of homes, with prices pushed up by demand. Inventories have shrunk and prices have risen proportionately.
Back in the good old days, less than a decade ago, the price to build your dream home was not any higher than a comparable already-built home. That is because the price of “unimproved” land was a great bargain. But not quite today. You will pay an extra price to build a home precisely to your specifications; contributing partially to that price is the cost of the land, but the cost of the materials and labor to build has also risen substantially over recent years. According to the National Association of Home Builders, a newly built home in May 2022 cost an average $34,000 more, or 7.5%, for land and construction than buying a comparably sized and outfitted existing house (based on an analysis of the median prices of homes sold in the U.S.). Of course, there are regional differences in costs, and a client’s personal preferences and tastes will drive the price to build up or down.
Because of a shortage of labor owing, at least in part, to immigration policy, homes are taking months longer to build than in pre-Pandemic times. That argues, perhaps, for a strategy that combines renting with an option to build.
If you loved the experience of owning a home during your working career, and you didn’t mind making minor repairs yourself and doing some gardening, then translating that experience into your initial retirement years should be smooth. If, on the other hand, you cashed in from years of appreciation in your primary home and the interest on the amount you bank will pay for a nice rental apartment, then why not? Your principal, at least for a few years, will pay for travel and other entertainments in your Golden Years. And, finally, if you have never lived in a space designed to your own style of living, and if you have the money and the patience to do it, consider buying a lot and building your dream come true. Whatever path you choose, enjoy the experience to the max.
Larry Gavrich
Founder & Editor
Home On The Course, LLC
I was a couple of months past my 16th birthday as I stood on the 7th tee of the 137-yard downhill par three at Valley View Golf Club in East Hanover, NJ. As I recall, my handicap at the time, if I had kept one, would have been in the mid-teens. I hit a 7 iron flush and watched it land 15 feet short and a little right of the hole. It rolled into the cup without making a sound against the flagstick.
I write this not to brag; that was my one and only hole in one in 63 years of playing (although I left one hanging over the lip at a downhill par 3 in Minnesota in the 1980s). But I want to make a point that no other golfer, alive or dead, amateur or professional, will ever do better on a par three than I did that day. In that regard, Tiger Woods has nothing on me. That possibility that we golfers, with just one swing, can be as good as any professional is why golf is the greatest game an amateur can play.
Let’s face it. You and I will never be able to hit a rising fastball from Justin Verlander. Or prevent Kevin Durant from a thunderous dunk over our heads. Or prevent being deked out of our shorts by Odell Beckham. But it is at least possible, with one swing, to do better than virtually every professional golfer will do in any tournament. And those of us who birdie a par three or four will perform just as well as the best professionals have performed at Augusta National this week.
As you play your local muni or private club this week, swing with confidence because, for one shining moment, you could be as good as the very best players in the world.
After Hurricane Ian devastated Ft. Myers and moved across Florida and into the Atlantic Ocean’s gulf stream, it landed in Pawleys Island, tearing up the wooden dike that separates the Pawleys Plantation’s two signature par 3s. Fortunately, winds topped out at around 80 mph, but the storm surge from the ocean across the marsh pulled up docks, and even one boat, and deposited them across the golf course’s back nine.
When Hurricane Ian devastated Fort Myers Beach, real estate prices there had already reached historic highs. The month before the hurricane, news reports indicated Fort Myers was the third most overvalued market in the nation, according to researchers at two Florida universities. In the month after the hurricane leveled much of the Fort Myers area, prices rose another 21%.
Say what? Did fools rush in where wiser men feared to tread? Florida and its balmy winter temperatures, its lack of a state income tax and decades-long orientation toward retirees – e.g. bargain early bird dinners – have an almost narcotic attraction for seniors and, lately, younger persons as well, especially those who are now working remotely. The land rush to Florida is on steroids.
Florida’s ocean and gulf coastline is second in length only to Alaska’s and 2 ½ times that of third place California. Beaches have always attracted retirees, and Florida’s are the most popular of all – even if there is evidence that they are more and more susceptible to intense storms. The threat, of course, drives up flood insurance rates and expands the flood zones to compel more and more homeowners there to take on insurance premiums. But to those looking for property on or near the ocean or, in this case, the Gulf of Mexico, apparently no devastation or even a run-up in prices are too severe to miss a buying opportunity. Fort Myers’ economy and real estate market will be the beneficiaries – until the next storm.
“How Dry I Am” could be the state song of Arizona given recent news from the Grand Canyon State. Permission to build a huge housing development west of Phoenix has been denied over concerns about water availability. That is a big problem that could result in a shift of population. That story this month, as well as market reality in golf communities, as a group of them in the Hilton Head Island area have raised their homeowner fees significantly. Why? The answer may be “Because they can.” On the bright side, major league baseball games started this week, and many of those athletes will wind up in a ballpark near you. We list some minor league venues in the Southeast where reasonable ticket prices will leave you with plenty of money left over for hot dogs and beer.
Persistent droughts in Arizona may cause an overflowing river of retiree migration from the Grand Canyon State to California and the Southeast Region. Just recently, the state of Arizona turned down a plan by the Hughes Corporation to build a huge community west of Phoenix. Spread across 37,000 acres, the development would have included 100,000 homes, almost twice as many as are built at the vaunted Villages in northern Florida, home to 140,000 retirees. Imagine the consequences for water supplies in a drought-susceptible state with the addition of 200,000 new residents.
The state of Arizona requires that all sizable housing developments submit a 100-year water plan. Apparently, the Hughes Corporation could not produce one.
“Surface waters like the Colorado River are drying up,” Adam Minter wrote recently in an article for Bloomberg,” forcing cities and farmers to turn to groundwater. Unfortunately, most groundwater is finite, and once depleted it's difficult or impossible to replenish.” Here is the link to the Bloomberg article, but it may be behind a paywall: click here
Arizona, therefore, will face a Hobson’s choice: Permit the giant developers to buy up farms in the state and use what groundwater is currently available to them to supply residents with drinking water, or strictly limit the number of developments. In the short term, if the farms disappear, it seems logical, that locally produced food will dry up, and all those new residents and other Arizonans will have to rely on food grown elsewhere. Farm-to-table restaurants beware. But also, groundwater is not unlimited; giving it away now seems like a parched-earth strategy.
Those retirees who, after researching places to live and deciding that water might be a problem in Arizona, may be basking in the glow of schadenfreude (pleasure derived by someone from another’s misfortune). But as I wrote recently at TopRetirements.com in response to a comment about California’s net outward migration, “Sorry, but net [inbound] migration to Cali may be just one more Arizona drought away…the Colorado River, which multiple states rely on for drinking water, is increasingly susceptible during the frequent drought conditions. Cali taxes and traffic may start looking tolerable to folks who fear they won’t have water to drink, or [will suffer] a drop in the value of their homes (evidence of this in some AZ areas).”
If you are fortunate to live in a community in the Carolinas, Georgia, Florida or any other Southeast Region area that receives enough annual rainfall to fill the local reservoirs, resist the temptation to gloat about your comparatively good choice. Arizona’s water situation could very well wind up sending its retirees – current and future – in your direction. And the extra stress that will put on infrastructure challenges, such as roadways and, yes, water supplies, might have you searching the Internet for dowsing rods (which most of us know as “divining” rods).
Golf communities in the Low Country of South Carolina appear to be taking advantage of rising home values in their communities by increasing fees to their homeowners. The Island Packet newspaper, which serves Hilton Head Island, Beaufort, Bluffton, SC and surrounding areas, reported recently that 10 local communities have raised their homeowner fees more than 14% above the rate of inflation during the last three years.
Haig Point on Daufuskie Island and Palmetto Bluff in Bluffton showed the largest increases, in Haig Point’s case an increase from $12,800 in 2021 to $17,962 this year, or 29%. Palmetto Bluff, according to the Island Packet, has not announced a POA (Property Owners Association) fee increase for 2023, but its mandatory base club fee increased $1,800 per year, or from almost $4,900 to $6,700 annually over the last three years, an increase of 27%. The club fee does not include golf.
We can assume these are not isolated examples, as prices in high-quality golf communities have risen pretty much across the board. The owners of homes in these communities have benefited significantly from the pandemic-era increases in home values, at least on paper. Homeowner associations are looking to build their rainy-day funds, especially in hurricane vulnerable areas, and this now appears to be an opportune time. But as one Palmetto Bluff resident told the Island Packet, “Everybody’s prepared to pay their share. Just that [this] was not viewed as a fair share.”
Look for a potential rise in resident activism if the trend continues.
I write this on a late February morning with snow falling outside my Connecticut home, more than six inches on the ground and another three on the way. I have an important board meeting to attend at the Hartford headquarters of a social welfare agency, a normal 25-minute drive away that, if I attempt it today, could take more than an hour. Thank goodness for Zoom.
Many New Englanders might be tempted, on a winter’s day like this, to yearn for the warmth of Florida or somewhere else well below the Mason-Dixon Line. I note it is 76 in Savannah right now, heading for 82, and in Richmond, VA, it will reach 70, with sunny skies. The thermometer outside our window is showing 31.
Somewhat strangely, I am not feeling cabin fever or winter doldrums, despite the fact I haven’t picked up my golf clubs in two months and won’t at least for another month – and then I can count on muddy fairways and soggy greens in the Hartford area. One reason for my passivity about the weather is what I have been reading lately – about Florida.
Today, for example, at TopRetirements.com, a couple of writers weighed in about growing restiveness among Floridians. “FEMA has rezoned a lot of communities around here [southwest Florida] to now be in a flood zone,” one wrote, “which means the association has to carry flood insurance which becomes a big expense for all owners in the community. For this area, [Hurricane] Ian has turned things upside down and there is a long road ahead for full recovery.”
Another resident in Fort Myers wrote: “Traffic is an issue right now as we are in ‘season’ and we still have a lot of clean-up, repairs going on with Hurricane Ian. As full-time residents we are hoping for some ‘quiet’ when season ends and clean up completes.”
He added that, “It’s still a nice place to live and watching the ‘major winter storms’ every night on TV makes us feel very blessed to live here, hurricanes and all.”
His “compensation” was interesting, as if there is some equation between snow and hurricanes. Snowstorms – the one today is the first of the season in Connecticut and, at under nine inches, hardly a storm – are not nearly as damaging or life-threatening as hurricanes. Watching on TV the damage from hurricanes on the Gulf Coast…well, I’ll see the writer’s blessings and raise him a few.
Yes, the weather during the winter in Florida is much more accommodating than the snow and cold of New England, but we don’t have a tourist season up here, so our roads are pretty much free of traffic, especially now that more people are working from home, and we don’t have to wait in long lines to pay at the supermarket. And whereas many Floridians must choose during the high season between waiting in line to get into their favorite restaurant or eating dinner at 4 pm, we Nutmeggers have the freedom to choose our dining options up to the very last minute.
Indeed, Connecticut is a high-tax state, but our flood zones – and mandatory insurance payments – are few and far between. Our taxes help pay to get the roads cleared of snow and the potholes filled every spring, but I daresay that component of our taxes is a lot lower than flood insurance payments along coastal Florida. As sea waters rise, it will only get worse.
For many of us, cheap entertainment is no farther away than the nearest minor league baseball park. Fortunately, many of them are conveniently located a reasonable drive away from some of the Southeast (and Arizona’s) most popular golf communities.
My first experience with such a ballpark was in Myrtle Beach, home to the Chicago Cubs minor league club, The Pelicans. This is Single-A baseball, pretty much the entry level league for those trying to make it to the “Big Show,” major league baseball. But what minor league baseball lacks in status it more than makes up for in enthusiasm. Minor league team owners know they have to keep their crowds entertained, and they work hard at it. Go, and you will see what I mean.
The Pelicans play in the Carolina League against 11 other teams from areas rich with golf communities. In the Southern half of the league alone, teams represent North Augusta, SC; Charleston, SC; Columbia, SC; Fayetteville, NC; Kannapolis, NC; as well as Myrtle Beach.
The following is a selection of popular golf communities within a short drive of these minor league teams’ home fields:
North Augusta GreenJackets: Woodside Plantation, Aiken; Mount Vintage Plantation, North Augusta; Cedar Creek, Aiken.
Charleston River Dogs: Rivertowne, Mt. Pleasant; Daniel Island, Daniel Island; Dunes West, Mt. Pleasant; Wild Dunes, Isle of Palms; Coosaw Creek, North Charleston.
Columbia Fireflies: Woodcreek Farms, Elgin; Cobblestone Park, Blythewood; Timberlake, Chapin; Crickentree, Blythewood; Wildewood, Columbia.
Fayetteville Woodpeckers: Anderson Creek, Spring Lake; King’s Grant, Fayetteville; Gates Four, Fayetteville.
Kannapolis Cannon Ballers: Irish Creek, Kannapolis; Warrior Golf Club, China Grove.
Myrtle Beach Pelicans: Grande Dunes, Myrtle Beach; Barefoot Reserve, North Myrtle Beach; Tidewater, Little River; Wachesaw Plantation, Murrells Inlet.
As if we didn’t need more evidence of why online state-by-state rankings are injurious to anyone’s search for a comfortable place to live, Builder magazine has published the results of a survey by a 14-year-old service called United Regions Van Lines (and misnamed it “United Region Van Lines) that reaches new heights in silliness. It turns out that some of the most economically advantageous states are subsidized substantially by states with income taxes.
Here are United Regions’ top 10 “most economical” states:
Note a few things about the list. They include most of the nation’s income-tax-free states. Of course, a state income tax is not all that meaningful to those without a large amount of income. Yet how many wealthy folks who benefit from no state income tax will want to move to Alaska or the Dakotas? The list includes only three states in the Southern U.S., so bring a winter wardrobe if you choose to live in one of the cheap states. And, with few exceptions, these are states that receive more dollars per capita from the U.S. government than they send – much more.
Alaska, ranked #4 on the list above, receives a whopping $18,051 per resident from the Federal government, making it one of the most subsidized states. My high-tax state of Connecticut receives $1.29 for every dollar we send in taxes to the Federal government, the lowest among the 50 states; New Hampshire, #1 one on the list above, receives $1.69 for every dollar it sends. On a per capita basis, New Hampshire receives $7,337 per resident from the government; Connecticut receives just $4,152. (reference https://balancingeverything.com/most-federally-dependent-states/)
Speaking for my fellow Connecticut residents, you’re welcome, New Hampshire.
We start the new year with a newsletter stacked with good information for those contemplating a relocation. First, we provide a dozen of the most important considerations when starting a search for a golf community home. We also share the results of an annual survey that indicates where people are moving to – and from. And then we share one reader’s insight into how to save money on real estate without compromising access to amenities – in this case a roster of amenities unrivalled among golf communities. All this in the January issue of Home On The Course.
As we begin another year, home prices have leveled off in many of the Southeast Region’s top golf communities, although inventories are still a bit tight. Millions of Baby Boomers continue to eye relocation south, joined by even more millions freed to work from home and live where they want to live.
If you are among those in search of a golf community home, here are your top considerations.
There is only one thing you need to know when you start a search for a golf home: Do you want to live near the ocean, in the mountains or somewhere in between (e.g. river or lake). If you (and your significant other) cannot answer this question, you are doomed to a long and potentially fruitless search. There are just too many fine golf communities to consider.
When raising a family, being close to ample goods and services is fundamentally important. But in retirement, many of us would prefer to be far from the maddening crowds and inconveniences of traffic, air pollution and noise. Be careful what you wish for. I will never forget asking a local resident in the middle of a fairway on an island off the coast of North Carolina how long it might take for medical help to reach us if one of us suffered a heart attack. “They could get a helicopter out here in 20 minutes,” he said, “and have you at the hospital in, say, 15 minutes more.” No thanks. That may be the most extreme example, but the point is that as we age, we should have easy access to quality medical care. At remote locations, you won’t get that; nor will you get the kind of shopping, restaurants and services you are used to. Think carefully about proximity.
I hammered this point in last month’s newsletter when I demonstrated that online “best of” lists mislead at best and lie at worst. In addition, a place like Miami is far different than Naples, and Daytona Beach is far different than Orlando. Yet all are in Florida. There is no such thing as a “best state” when you are looking for a home.
All politics is local, and so too are taxes. Property taxes are likely to have almost as much impact on you as will state income taxes, especially if your income is relatively fixed. Mississippi and Kansas are the two lowest cost of living states, according to the online World Population Review; yet each has a state income tax. Florida and Texas, with zero state income taxes, do not crack the top 10 in terms of affordability.
For more information see this link (click here).
Nothing makes for more tedious reading than do community associations’ master deeds and covenants. Nothing makes for more important reading as well. I found this out all too well when it was too late. Without diving into the weeds, my condo association in South Carolina assessed the 28 members of the association a whopping $14,000 each to replace damaged second-story porches on 20 of the 28 condos. No such damage occurred to the other eight – including ours – but because the original master deed defined the porches as “limited common elements,” all members of the association were required to pay for the replacements. If I had read the fine print back in 2000 when we purchased the condo, it might not have changed our minds, but I wouldn’t feel as foolish – or lighter in the wallet – as I do today. Lesson learned.
This may seem as if it goes without saying, but I have worked with couples who bought a multiple-bedroom home on the assumption that children, grandchildren and friends would visit often. They won’t, at least not frequently enough to justify the expense of a too-big house. Larger communities have an ample inventory of homes for rent; and where they don’t, plenty of hotels, VRBOs, AirbNbs and other rentals will be available. Over a decade, renting your family and friends rooms will turn out a lot cheaper than an extra couple hundred thou for a bigger home.
Have an honest talk with yourself about how much golf you will play at your golf community course. If it is once or even twice a week, run the numbers after adding together the dues and other fees associated with your membership. Check out semi-private or public alternatives in the area; the relative cost of public play may make it sensible to consider a hybrid approach – a social membership in your golf community’s club, which is offered in most communities, and play at the local publicly accessible course. And if you are buying a vacation home in a golf community, don’t forget to multiply by two since you will likely be paying for golf in two locations.
This is another question I have covered recently. There will come a time, although we shudder at the thought, that our distance off the tee may require a dramatic move up a couple or three tee boxes. Make sure the golf course you plan to play has enough tee boxes to accommodate the older you. Look closely at par 4s; any par 4 beyond, say, 340 yards, will be out of reach with an iron or hybrid shot for those who can’t drive the ball 200 yards anymore. Yet most golf courses recommend that you play tees based on your handicap, not your driving distance. Check out the scorecard for the course you are considering, and you will see that the regular men’s tees, and maybe even the senior’s tees, feature par 4s well beyond our reach. In my 75th year, I have moved up to the tee boxes just behind the women’s tees. The game is more fun from there.
Given a choice, we would all live in our idea of a perfect home – not too big, not too small, rooms all in the right places, etc. You won’t find it, but you may find something close that you can revise into a version close to perfect. If that doesn’t work, there is a way; buy a lot and build your home to your perfect specifications. But building a home is not for the faint of heart. The home may turn out perfect, but the process will likely not be.
If you have done your homework without making perfect the enemy of good, then your decision on where to live will be the right one – for you. Relax and enjoy.
I look forward to the annual United Van Lines Migration Study, published just a few days into the start of every new year. The moving company does not exactly have the gravitas of the U.S. Census, but its numbers tell us succinctly where people are moving from one state to another, and why. Some of the results are surprising, if not shocking.
I wrote a couple of months ago that Florida’s dramatic growth in population could very well slow in the coming years. According to the United Van Lines study, the Sunshine State continues as a magnet for migrants from other states, but the reasons why people come and go from Florida are a bit nuanced. UVL lists six “reasons” why people move to or from a state. Those who moved to Florida said they did so for retirement, lifestyle and cost of living, but they moved out of the state for reasons of health, family and jobs. Those first two categories are not surprising for the overwhelmingly senior citizens in the state; but bleeding population because you don’t have enough jobs available — or enough people to fill them — implies a longer term problem. Overall, inward migration to Florida was 57.6%, outbound 42.4%. More senior citizens (65 and older) are leaving the state than are coming into it, at least via United Van Lines.
Contrast Florida with the tiny state of Vermont, where I hope to live out my retirement years. (Note: My daughter, her husband and child, plus two dogs, live in northern Vermont.). According to United Van Lines, Vermont had the highest ratio in the nation of inbound residents in 2022, 77% (obviously based on smaller total numbers). More than 16% said their move to Vermont was for “retirement,” 40% said it was for a job, and 38% for family reasons. (Note: Outbound percentage for “retirement” was not available.)
All Southeast Region states except for Georgia and Mississippi remained magnets for relocation in 2022. Perhaps surprisingly, Rhode Island, Delaware and South Dakota, not exactly warm weather havens in winter, showed dominant inward migration. In Rhode Island, slightly more new residents than former residents indicated that retirement and family drove their decisions to relocate. In Delaware, retirement, lifestyle and cost were the dominating factors. (Delaware does not have state or local sales taxes, does not tax social security benefits, and its state income tax is relatively modest.) Coat manufacturers take note: There is the hint in these numbers that some seniors are looking northward for their retirement years.
New Jersey continued its six-year streak of the largest net loss of residents – at least among those who use United Van Lines. The biggest reasons were retirement, lifestyle and cost. Other big losers of population via United Van Lines were New York, Illinois and Michigan.
You will find the United Van Lines article and a handy map here (click this link).
The Villages, the sprawling “city” of 140,000 senior citizens (50+) in a remote part of Florida, inspires cheer and loathing in pretty much equal measure. But one thing is inarguable: The Villages cannot be beat when it comes to activities. With 50 golf courses (a mix of executive and regulation layouts), more than 230 pickleball courts, 2,500 social clubs (including 130 of them specific to single persons), dozens of restaurants, a 307-bed hospital, multiple health centers, and virtually all other services of a medium-sized city, The Villages’ roster of “adult activities” is on steroids.
But what if you like The Villages’ vast number of amenities but the place is just too crowded for you, or you have other issues with the community? There is a workaround, as one reader of this newsletter found and executed. About 10 years ago, Alan, one of my most faithful newsletter readers, wrote me from his Colorado home that he and his wife Gail were looking seriously at a move to The Villages. Alan is one of those who approaches any large purchase with bulldog tenacity and lots of research. He was disappointed in what he found about The Villages.
“My heart was initially set on moving into The Villages,” Alan wrote me recently. But his research raised issues that sent him in another direction.
“Most new development in The Villages,” Alan said, “was within eyesight and/or earshot of the Florida Turnpike, a major highway with an existing truck stop facility right where the new [real estate] construction was. Some houses are less than 100 feet away. I did not want to see, hear, breathe, feel or taste the traffic.”
Alan explained that the “premium” (my word) for homes not near the highway was $80,000, and that house lots away from the highway were priced considerably higher –- a minimum of $160,000 and as much as $350,000, “just for sand the size of a postage stamp,” Alan said.
In addition, the CDD bond would have cost $40,000 for the house Alan wanted. A Community Development District (CDD) is a governmental unit created to serve the long-term specific needs of its community. It is a way for developer owners to maintain stricter control of their communities. Reinforcing that notion at The Villages, the community has no homeowners association; “the developer owns it all,” according to Alan, “except the house and lot that you purchase.” That may seem like a good thing to those used to paying a couple hundred dollars a month for HOA fees, but in a developer owned community like The Villages, the owner can set the amenity fees at whatever level he wants.
“I wanted the amenities The Villages offers”, says Alan, “but did not want to pay for the over-inflated lots, houses and CDD bond.”
Alan and Gail purchased a home in a Del Webb community at Spruce Creek, just 3.5 miles outside of The Villages boundary. If Del Webb communities didn’t start the whole 55+ community trend a few decades ago, they certainly perfected it. The first Del Webb community was built in Sun City, AZ, near Phoenix, in 1960. Today, the organization’s communities span California, South Carolina, Arizona and Florida, with 55 communities in the Sunshine State alone.
Most of the amenities and services inside the gates of The Villages are open to all whether they are Villages residents or not. Alan, who does not play golf, says he and Gail often drive the six minutes to take advantage of the huge community’s amenities, including: Sam’s Club Warehouse; Publix, Wynn Dixie and Aldi supermarkets; Super Walmart, Home Depot, Loews and Target stores, a wide range of restaurants (the couple dines out a time or two a week), a bowling alley, theaters for movies, plays and concerts, and the community’s many town squares for live music.
As for health services, Alan says his Del Webb Spruce Creek community benefits from doctors’ offices, physical therapists and chiropractors located literally at the community’s front gate entrance. And a University of Florida medical emergency facility staffed with specialty trauma doctors is also located in Spruce Creek.
“The proximity of our medical facility provides me with a huge piece of mind and a Godsend if, and when, I ever need it,” says Alan. He adds, “I suspect there is more medical staffing here than any part of the nation on a per capita basis.”
The couple is also comforted by the fact that the University of Florida Health System, which has a good reputation, has taken over operations of the hospital at The Villages.
Although Alan does not play golf, the hybrid retirement he created – living in a place with some important services and close to an almost endless list of additional amenities – is a guide for others looking to relocate in retirement. With a little bit of creativity, you can save some money on real estate AND enjoy nearly all the benefits of someone else’s investment nearby.
