Residents of the more than 1,100 homes in The Fairways in Lakewood, NJ, had every reason to believe they were buying into a golf community in perpetuity when they began buying lots and homes there in the late 1990s. In marketing, sales representations and more formal declarations, The Fairways met the strict definition of a golf community, with the 27-hole Eagle Ridge course at its heart. And since 50% of the community’s total property was, by municipal ordinance, designated open and green, there was little reason to think that the Kokes family, which developed The Fairways, would or could repurpose the golf course.
        But last year the Kokes family sold the course to another firm clearly not interested in maintaining a golf course. As has happened in so many communities across the nation, new owners GDMS holdings had a more profitable plan in mind –- to turn the fairways and greens into home sites and, eventually, homes. According to a story at app.com, a USA Today online magazine, GDMS has proposed an additional 1,000 homes to be built on the golf course.
        A lawsuit with many of The Fairways’ residents as plaintiffs has been filed against the new owners and the old ones, and although the state’s EPA regulators have given the green light for construction, local planning officials have not rendered any decision. Hearings and deliberations are likely to drag on for months, with plenty of noise from The Fairways sexa- and septagenarians. 
        Retired persons have plenty of time on their hands.
        See the app.com article here.

        When we think of the typical migrant to the Southeast states, especially the Carolinas, the tendency is to envision a shivering Yankee fed up with New England winters and eager for essentially one year-round wardrobe. 
        Well, think again. It turns out that the majority of those moving to the Carolinas do so from right next door.
        According to a recent study published by the University of North Carolina Population Center, four of the top five states contributing new residents to the Tarheel State are from other Southeast states: Virginia, Florida, South Carolina and Georgia, in that order. Only New York State (#4) gets in the way of a clean sweep for the southern locations. In a further slam at conventional wisdom, the state of California (#6) contributed more migrants to North Carolina than did Pennsylvania (#7), New Jersey (#9) and the other northeast states. (Connecticut was #14 and Massachusetts #16.)
        Until a few years ago, Northerners moving south had the luxury of low housing prices, as well as an overall lower cost of living than they were used to – in some cases much lower. But the heavy influx into the Southeastern states is starting to put pressure on prices, and it is only a matter of time before the increases in population start to put stress on the provision of services at the state and local levels. And that can only mean an increase in taxes, as well as some of the other realities of life in the urban and suburban North, such as traffic, pollution and the other issues we associate with dense population. 
        Those of us in our retirement years still have a decade or two to enjoy the comparably low costs of living in the South. But our children and their children may live a different reality in their own retirement years.
        Thanks, as always, to our faithful data hound, Keith Spivey, for sending us the UNC study.