Located just two hours away from each other, The Villages and Lakewood Ranch are usually the top two best-selling communities (retirement or otherwise) in the country.
In 2024 The Villages had 3,208 new home sales and Lakewood Ranch had 2,210 new home sales. If we count home sales as votes, it's clear that both of these communities have a lot of things going for them.
In this article, my goal is to highlight some of the similarities and differences between these two popular Florida master-planned communities.
The community you ultimately choose will boil down to personal preference more so than one being better than the other.
Let's jump right in!
Size and Location
The Villages is currently home to more than 150,000 people, while Lakewood Ranch is home to about 72,000 people, so both communities are big by any standard.
As I mentioned before Lakewood Ranch and The Villages are only about 2 hours away from each other.
The Villages is in the middle of the state, about an hour north of Orlando, and Lakewood Ranch is on Florida's central west coast, near Sarasota.
Both locations have their pluses and minuses.
The biggest complaint I hear about The Villages' location is that it's so far from the coast. It's also about an hour away from the nearest airport (Orlando-MCO).
On the plus side though, according to a Wall Street Journal climate study, The Villages' inland location is one of the best places to live if you want to avoid hurricane winds and flooding.
As for Lakewood Ranch, when I ask readers in my annual survey what part of Florida they are most interested in, the Central West Coast always comes out on top:
At Lakewood Ranch you have easier access to the coast, though you're still about a 20-30 minute car ride away from the nearest beach depending on traffic.
As for airports, you've got options. Sarasota Bradenton International (SRQ) is less than 10 miles away. St. Pete Clearwater International (PIE) is 47 miles away. Tampa International (TPA) is 55 miles away.
Amenities
The Villages and Lakewood Ranch both have long lists of impressive amenities available for residents.
Both communities have large town squares and smaller neighborhood plazas where residents can find just about any kind of restaurant, shop, business, or entertainment option imaginable.
Both places have resident clubs, live music, farmer's markets, festivals throughout the year, and so much more. Both places even have Polo clubs!
The key difference that I see is that where the recreation centers in The Villages are open to all residents no matter which “Village” you live in, at Lakewood Ranch most of the community clubhouses are neighborhood-specific.
For instance, a resident of Cresswind Lakewood Ranch isn't going to be using the clubhouse at Del Webb Lakewood Ranch or vice versa.
Another thing to point out is the difference in the amount of golf cart connectivity.
In The Villages you can get just about everywhere by golf cart. At Lakewood Ranch you can travel in the individual neighborhoods via golf cart, but they're not permitted out on the main roads and they don't have the extensive network of multi-modal trails that The Villages has.
Golf
The Villages' early success was built on the promise of “free golf for life”.
While you can debate whether golf is actually free, you can't deny there's a whole lot of it.
At the time of this writing, The Villages has more than 700 holes of golf and that number continues to grow.
There is golf at Lakewood Ranch, but it is much less of a focus.
If your plan is to play golf almost every day in retirement, The Villages might be the better choice for you.
55+ vs. Multi-Generational
I always think it's pretty amazing that The Villages manages to outsell every other community in the country, despite the fact that it's mostly limited to people over 55 years of age. Maybe it's because of that fact, not despite it, but amazing either way.
While they can't claim to be the best-selling community in the country, you will see Lakewood Ranch call themselves the “best-selling multi-generational community in the country”. That's a mouthful but impressive nonetheless.
The Villages is made up of dozens of different neighborhoods or “Villages” that are mostly 55+. Lakewood Ranch also has several neighborhoods, but most of them are open to people of all ages with a few 55+ neighborhoods sprinkled in, thus the “multi-generational” monicker.
Real Estate
In The Villages most people will tell you, “You're not buying a house, you're buying a lifestyle.”
You can find everything from $100,000 manufactured homes to retirement mini-mansions that sell for over a million dollars and of course everything in between.
One thing to know is that The Villages controls the building process for all their homes. You won't find outside builders like Pulte or DR Horton building homes in The Villages.
In Lakewood Ranch, there is also a pretty impressive spread between the low and high ends of the market. You can find townhouses and condos from the $200k's to mega mansions north of $6 million and everything in between.
But in Lakewood Ranch, the different neighborhoods are built by different builders. At the time of this writing, I count 20 different builders to choose from.
One of those is Kolter Homes which has brought their Cresswind brand of 55+ communities to Lakewood Ranch.
Cresswind Lakewood Ranch offers a variety of amenities, including the resident-exclusive Club Cresswind with a full fitness center, art studio, tennis and pickleball courts, resort-style swimming pool, resistance pool and more.
Homebuyers can choose from nineteen spacious home plans, specifically designed for active adults and offering open floorplans and energy-efficient designs.
You can request more information about Cresswind Lakewood Ranch right here:
Conclusion
Like I said at the outset, you really can't go wrong choosing The Villages or Lakewood Ranch for retirement.
Will it be the undisputed king of retirement or the multi-generational challenger for you?
Let us know in the comments down below!
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