The Old Gray Mare She’s…Feeling The Squeeze!

Allow me to share something you may already know, or at least have thought about: retirement isn’t what it used to be.

We didn’t retire until December 2017, which you could also consider as 2018. Not that long ago, but regardless, the changes we’ve experienced since then are very disconcerting.

We moved into a 55+ community in Ormond Beach, FL, known as Aberdeen. When we arrived in 2018, we paid cash for a manufactured home with a lot rent just above $750. Despite the four-lane highway passing our entrance, across the road and all around us was forest.

The home we purchased has a sunroom with nine windows facing a retention pond that has filled to form a small lake. Teaming with ducks, it was also visited by a family of otters that made their ramp as they munched a few yummy fish or romped around on the lawns behind the homes. The retention ponds are interconnected by underground storm tunnels that allow the otters, fish, and other aquatic life to swim between.

Believe it or not, on Thanksgiving Day of 2018, we had twenty very large turkeys! Not to eat, but roosting on our driveway! Families of them trotting around the grounds, up and down the streets. I was absolutely beautiful!

The forests were teeming with wildlife: deer, foxes, turkeys, sandhill cranes, bobcats, opossums, raccoons, snakes, and the occasional alligator, which, sadly, we have yet to spot, though others have. In fact, we have one street deep inside the property that everyone refers to as “snake alley.” Our great magnolia and water oak trees were filled with birds and squirrels, making our first year or two in Aberdeen idyllic.

 Then, the unimaginable happened…

When we arrived, Aberdeen was privately owned by a couple of attorneys who cared about it and its residents. We had a very nice clubhouse with shuffleboard courts, horseshoes, an Olympic pool, a hot tub, pool tables, card rooms, a library, an exercise room, and a large meeting room with an attached professional-grade kitchen.

The community was gated and safe for residents to walk, bike, and golf-cart without worry. The HOA cost $25 per year, and had all the power of a Girl Scout troop, but it gave the residents a place to vent about those few things they did not like, as well as a representative group to speak to management about them.

Then, one afternoon, the heavy equipment arrived. Within a few weeks, hundreds of acres of forest disappeared on the opposite side of the four-lane boulevard. A few months after that, a housing development was staring at the entrance of the Aberdeen Community, which brought the HOA meetings to an entirely new level of discussion.

It didn’t end there, unfortunately!

To our amazement, forests for miles around us were suddenly being ripped and stripped. Apartments, rental homes, and temporary residences for transient employees were being constructed everywhere. New malls and shopping centers sprang up, bringing in fast-food chains, convenience stores, rehab facilities, and other similar buildings.

Our little community had suddenly become an island in the middle of what can only be termed as ‘radical urban sprawl!’ Traffic quadrupled, noise pollution along with air pollution, and suddenly, the animals were GONE! No more birds or turkeys…everything changed.

But The Day Ain’t Over Yet!

On July 20, 2000, Murex Properties acquired the Aberdeen Community. This acquisition was part of a larger real estate deal involving Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Corporation, which paid $96 million for the community.

What began as an idyllic setting at a reasonable price now costs new residents $1200 per month, with a 5% annual increase and a share of the ad valorem property tax!

Why did all of this happen?

Ask them, and they will tell you that what they charge is “THE MARKET RATE.” What was once “two guys making a living,” suddenly became “shareholder gains or losses.”

This is affecting not only Aberdeen but also EVERY retirement community in Florida, and possibly the nation. Baby Boomers are retiring at a rate of about 10,000 per day, and will continue to do so for the next several years. There is no way that corporate America is going to miss out on the opportunity to rape those funds from the people who worked their entire lives to receive them.  (See: Senior Site, for more.)

Murex and Those Like Them Can Take a Hike!

Of the 533 homes in Aberdeen, nearly 50 are vacant. Some are up for sale while others sit idle, unable to sell. Consequently, we, too, are looking for a house where, if we’re going to pay $1200+ per month, we would rather put that toward a mortgage. Our home, which, by the way, is turnkey, will soon join the others up for sale. Playing this ridiculous game of “who can take advantage of the most vulnerable” is one of the most sickening aspects of this capitalist society.

So, my advice, if you are not already retired and looking toward it: BE CAREFUL! It’s not only the scammers and con artists who are out to rip you off; big business wants its share, and they are gunning for every penny they can squeeze out of you.