When residents of Sun City Center, a sprawling retirement community in west-central Florida, have problems with their electronic devices, many of them now know who to turn to: Maria Hodge, one of its newest residents and also one of its youngest .
Since moving to this 55-plus community last year, Ms. Hodge, 59, has become a fixture among the nearly 11,500 residents, whose average age is 79. She cooks a weekly lunch for the volunteer EMT team. She serves as the secretary of the synchronized swimming team. She regularly dons a starched laminated name tag and drives her golf cart to the community information center to give tours to potential new residents, gushing about the dance hall and fitness center, the art studios and woodcarving rooms, and the dozens of unique neighborhoods that have sprung up around Gardens and 90 small lakes.
But one of her favorite jobs these days is tech support.
“We have people here who still have what we call the dino phone,” she said. “They still have flip phones. And most of the women on my swim team are electronically challenged.”
Ms. Hodge, a native of Cherry Hill, New Jersey, never imagined she would be settling into a retirement community long before her 60th birthday, but here she is, a spring snowbird living in a community of people old enough to to be their parents.
There are thousands of communities with populations over 55 scattered throughout the United States, with the majority located in Florida and the Southwest. Unlike assisted living and nursing homes, 55-plus communities offer older Americans the opportunity to purchase traditional single-family homes but have access to a built-in network of friendships, extracurricular activities and an active, age-appropriate lifestyle that meets their needs in retirement . Generally, at least one member of a household is required to be at least 55 years old, and almost all are governed by a homeowners association, which collects dues to cover the costs of activities, community events and facilities.
Such communities also offer a big incentive: cheaper real estate. An age-restricted buyer pool means less competition, so homes in communities with over-55s tend to be priced below market value, and Sun City Center is no exception. According to Realtor.com, the median home price in September 2023 was $320,000, while the median for homes in nearby Tampa was $409,500.
Sun City Center is one of the largest 55+ communities in the country, with grocery stores, retail stores, churches, a synagogue, a hospital, and golf carts legally allowed to operate on the streets.
Ms. Hodge and her husband, Tim Hodge, 63, bought a two-bedroom, den-owned single-family home there in June 2022 for $375,000 after only seeing it online. But they were ready to move south, driven by the pandemic.
In 2020, they lived in rural Pennsylvania in a 4,000-square-foot house that bordered 98 acres of protected land, and the isolation during lockdown was oppressive.
Mr. Hodge, who worked as a systems engineer and manager at Lockheed Martin for 40 years, was retired and had become accustomed to staying at home, while Ms. Hodge, who worked in restaurant sales and food service, was still at it and often 15 Years old was -hour days arranging deliveries and catering services for customers as the pandemic raged. The imbalance was obvious to Mr. Hodge and something had to give. “My husband looked at me one day and said, ‘What are we doing?’ You’re never home. “You’re exhausted all the time,” Ms. Hodge said.
Several months into the pandemic, the couple traveled to Florida to visit friends and felt a significant cultural difference. They liked it.
“In Pennsylvania it was a militant lockdown,” Ms. Hodge said. “We came to Florida and it was super laid back. It was a culture shock after living under a regime that said, “You don’t go anywhere, you don’t do anything.””
Research shows that loneliness is directly linked to poor health outcomes, particularly among older populations, said Denise Rousseau, a professor of organizational behavior at Carnegie Mellon University. And when they move into a retirement community, the environment older Americans leave behind plays a big role in whether they do well or not, she added.
“If you’ve lived in a place with close friends and family, senior living doesn’t necessarily offer you anything better. But for many people who are isolated, senior living is very attractive,” she said.
This was certainly true for Mr and Mrs Hodge, who were attracted to the idea of being surrounded not only by sunshine but also by social activity. They began seriously discussing the idea of moving to Florida permanently. And they knew that if they were going to pack up and head south, they wanted to do so as two retirees (Ms. Hodge still puts in a few hours a week consulting remotely for restaurants).
Mr Hodge was keen to leave the cold winters of the North East behind him. Ms. Hodge, an avid Disney fan, was intrigued by the prospect of living close to Disney World so she could visit regularly. Both were curious about the dozens of clubs and organizations at Sun City Center, which include lawn bowling, chess, Bible study, choir and pickleball.
The couple, who have six adult children, sold their Pennsylvania home for $525,000 in June 2022 and plan to downsize in the next phase of their lives. They may have gone too far, they admitted. The new Sun City home is 1,700 square feet and they said it feels small.
“My husband and I joke that we live in a cabin,” Ms. Hodge said. They share the space with their dog Ginger, a Bichon-Yorkie mix, and after moving in they spent $100,000 on a gut renovation that included new quartz countertops and installing custom cabinets, plus another $100,000 on one in-ground pool that fills the screened porch and offers views of the lake.
Sixteen months later, they’ve established a rhythm – Mr. Hodge loves racing remote-controlled cars and volunteers with a group called “Lamplighters,” which helps residents change the light bulbs in the lampposts that line the streets at night Illuminate Sun City Center. He enjoys spending long days at home and lounging on the sofa with Ginger.
Ms. Hodge now puts in 20 hours a week with her synchronized swimming team, of which she is the youngest member (the oldest is 94). She can now name most of the clubs and organizations at Sun City Center by heart, and she’s made friends – even if most of them are at least a decade older than her.
“I look at my swim team’s roster and see some birth dates, and I’m like,” she said, adding a profanity that begins with “holy” that may not go over well in Bible study. “Some of my friends are really old — it’s like, oh, this person is in their 70s, they’re not going to be around as long as me,” she said.
But she has made peace with it and learned to enjoy her position in the community.
“People here see me and say, ‘That’s energy.’ This is great,” she said. “I don’t really see myself with the residents here, but it’s also super rewarding to teach the older crew how to do things in a different way. It makes me feel younger.”