Admittedly, the original Sun City was our primary destination in that my folks lived there. We shopped on line and visited a half a dozen other communities. When all was said it done, none had the value Sun City had; the amenities or kind of lifestyle we wanted once we stopped working.

We bought when we were 51 and would have loved to have moved to Sun City. You had to be 55 and so we rented it out in the winter months and visited periodically, remodeling it as the years went by. It was one of the best things we did financially.

Now, here is the point: I’ve had the good fortune of doing some in depth research on Sun City. There were times when the Webb Corporation allowed 50 year old’s to live in Sun City. It was primarily at times when they wanted to increase housing sales. The decision to move away from it had several good reasons, but primarily the community’s values and structure was based on it being created as a retirement setting.

Clearly, the builders and real estate agents calling for lowering the age have different interests from those of us living in active adult communities. That doesn’t mean they are wrong, it just means their agenda and ours are on opposite ends of the spectrum.

Let me give you an example: Sun City is unincorporated which means our property taxes are considerably lower than most other communities. In looking back, i see any number of references from the Del Webb Corporation where in retrospect, they suggest they should have pushed for incorporation. That makes sense from the builders perspective; they paid for the infrastructure, rather than the taxes of those living here.

Reducing the age requirements is a similar scenario. There are reasons to do it, but it certainly doesn’t work out for the betterment of the community. The Federal Age overlay would be impacted, the clubs and organizations that rely heavily on volunteers would be impacted and those two components are an integral part of what makes age restricted active adult communities unique living experiences.

I would hope the communities looking to reduce the age requirements not do so without giving it serious discussion and debate. One of the facts of life in age restricted communities is there will always be homes on the market. It is the nature of a setting where all of the residents are in the last third of their lives. Being able to turn them over faster is of little value if it destroys the beauty and charm of living a slower placed more genteel lifestyle.