Activities and price are big attractions

By Emmet Pierce
STAFF WRITER for the San Diego Union Tribune

July 16, 2006

OCEANSIDE – If there is a drawback to aging, Sharron Rowley hasn't noticed.

Rowley, 64, says she and her husband Dave, 77, are too busy enjoying life in a 55-plus community here to worry about the passage of time. “We're proud of our ages,” she said.

About 18 months ago the couple moved from Coronado Cays to the age-restricted Ocean Hills Country Club. Rowley says living in the gated, security-patrolled community gives her a sense of safety.

“The best thing is, it is so neat and clean,” Rowley said. “It is pristine. Everyone is friendly. I like the feeling of safety. I walk early in the morning and sometimes late at night and I never worry.”

The San Diego County real estate market has been cooling in recent months, but it was still sizzling when the Rowleys decided to cash out of their Coronado Cays condominium.

“It was about the height of the market,” she recalled. “Things were going crazy. People were making multiple offers. We decided if someone offered us an obscene amount of money for our property we would take it, and we did.”

A friend told her about the duplexes at Ocean Hills. “On a very rainy weekend we drove up and met an agent there, just by happenstance,” Rowley recalled. “She ended up showing us three properties. By the time we left my husband was sold. I said, 'Don't you think we should look around a little? He said, 'I think we've found what we want.' I said, 'You know, you're right.' ”

Homes there now range in price from about $375,000 to more than $800,000. Governed by a homeowner association, the development includes more than 1,600 units on 427 acres.

“There is a tremendous mixture of people, mostly professionals,” Laby said. “They come from all over. We have people from New York and Chicago and New Jersey.”
Many residents are attracted to the community by its organized activities, she added. In addition to golf, “there is a lot of bridge playing, sewing, photography, a computer club, ballroom dancing, folk dancing, something for everybody really. We have a nice little library here, a swimming pool and a Jacuzzi.”

Active-adult housing can be a bargain.

“In age-restricted communities, because the population of buyers is limited, properties tend to sell 10 to 15 percent less than nonrestricted communities,” he said.

Ocean Hills resident Lyle Wynston, a retired biochemistry professor from Orange County, enjoys Ocean Hills much more than the single-family neighborhood he left in Aliso Viejo. He says the day may come when aging will force him to make still another lifestyle change, however.

Wynston said he and his wife will remain in Ocean Hills “as long as we can maintain an independent household. We can foresee a time when we will have to move into a retirement home.”

Rowley, who works part-time as a receptionist, said she and her retired husband spend much of their time enjoying the beauty of the community's golf course, even though they have yet to take up the game.

“We live on the golf course,” she said. “We have fun watching the golfers. When I retire, maybe we will take up golf.”