Laguna Woods Village

Coastal Orange County's Laguna Woods Village is the largest and most popular retirement community of its kind in the United States and in many ways has been the prototype for the active retirement lifestyle in America.

Amenities and Activities

Recreational opportunities abound in Laguna Woods Village. Avid golfers enjoy a respected, championship-level 27-hole course and a separate nine-hole, three par circuit. More recreation is found at two fully-equipped gyms, five pools, hot pools, horse stables, tennis courts, bocce and dozens of other year round venues. Residents also enjoy making new friends at dinners, dances, civic events and some 230 unique activity groups at seven different clubhouses.

Laguna Woods Village Brochure

There are more details on Village amenities and activities below.

Homes and Association Fees

Residences -- called "manors" by the associations -- include one- to three-bedroom homes, constructed in attached and detached styles, in single- and multilevel buildings. And ownership is in the form of condominium or stock cooperative associations.

Purchase prices for resales from individual owners can range from $100,000 for one-bedroom, one-bath co-op manors, all the way up to $1,000,000 and more for the prime single-family-style homes. Condos in Rossmoor Towers can be had even more reasonably with about triple the standard association fees for special services such as meal preparation and maid service.

Laguna Woods Village Floorplans

For most Laguna Woods Village residences, homeowner association fees are about $560 a month. Services covered by your fees include water, cable TV, landscaping, sewers and trash collection, as well as insurance coverage for structure exteriors and common areas. Fulltime crews of carpenters, plumbers, and painters handle outside maintenance of condos, including roofs, as well as outside and some inside maintenance of co-ops.

Homeowner association collections for co-ops are higher because they include monthly property tax payments. And fees for the apartment-like Rossmoor Towers units, which can sell for well under $100,000, include meals and housekeeping services, so the HOA fees can run $1300 to $1600 a month, with another $500 or so for a spouse or second resident.

Membership Requirements

Buyers are required by Laguna Woods Village homeowner associations to document $42,000 or more in annual income and total assets of $125,000 MORE than the purchase price of condos. For co-ops income required is $36,000 annually and $125,00 MORE than the purchase price.

State law specifies that in all senior communities one member of each household must be 55 years of age or older, and additional household members 45 years old, but homes can be purchased by younger buyers.

Transit and Security

A free shuttle bus service provides convenient transit throughout the community and beyond. Bus routes visit nearby shopping centers, restaurants and medical facilities, and they connect with the county transit center for service throughout Orange County. And residents also travel throughout the community and beyond aboard their golf carts via specially laid out cart paths.

Laguna Woods is consistently called California's safest city of its size by law enforcement. The resort is a secure, controlled access community with entry gates manned 24 hours a day. Mobile security units patrol the entire community and the city contracts enforcement services with the county sheriff's department.

Overview

Laguna Woods Village makes up nearly the whole of Laguna Woods, an incorporated city in the heart of the Orange County coast . By the numbers, it is home to more than 18,000 residents whose 12,736 dwellings were built from the mid-'60s to the mid-'80s and ramble over 2,100 acres of gently rolling hillsides.

Laguna Woods Village is surrounded by the open land of Laguna Coast Wilderness Park and the neighboring cities of Laguna Hills and Aliso Viejo. The ocean is just seven miles down the canyon at Laguna Beach, Mission San Juan Capistrano is a bit further along El Camino Real (I-5), and Disneyland is about a half-hour away in Anaheim.

More on Amenities and Activities

Residents and their guests enjoy two golf courses -- a highly regarded, championship-level 27-hole circuit -- and a nine-hole, three par executive course. Laguna Woods Village golfers also have use of a driving range, practice putting greens, chipping area, and a pro shop with two fulltime golf professionals. Green fees and golf cart rentals are only a few dollars for residents. And guests can join residents on weekdays.

The Fitness Center at Clubhouse One includes a gymnasium and separate equipment room where residents can work out on treadmills, exercise bikes and weight machines supervised by exercise physiologists. An extensive program of aerobic, conditioning, calisthenics and nutrition classes is tailored to the needs of mature adults. There's a second fitness center in the Laguna Woods Village administration building. Outdoor events like the annual 5k run and the Senior Games competitions always draw a big turnout.

Five clubhouses in the Village have pools and four have hot pools as well. The largest pool adjoins Clubhouse One. There is lap swimming, classes in aqua therapy, and there are hours set aside for visiting grandchildren to use a pool as well.

A ten court tennis complex at the new Clubhouse Seven includes five lighted courts for night play and a ball machine. There are also paddle tennis courts available, as well as bocce ball, lawn bowling, and shuffleboard courts.

The Laguna Woods Village Equestrian Center features a show ring and grandstand. In addition to riding lessons and guided trail rides, the center also rents horses for nominal fees and boards horses as well.

Two Garden Centers allow residents to rent plots for growing flowers and vegetables. Plots range in size from 200 to over 400 square feet.

The fully equipped Computer Lab and workshop in the community administration building serves residents with dozens of work stations. Computer classes are offered for both PC and Mac users.

The community's library offers extended borrowing from it's collection of bound books, audio books, paperbacks and magazines numbering upwards of 140,000 and from a generous selection of feature film videocassettes and DVDs.

More than a hundred classroom college courses are offered at Laguna Woods Village by the Saddleback College Emeritus Program. The Arts and Crafts Center in Clubhouse Four offers workshops and classes for all sorts of activities: woodworking, photography, ceramics, watercolor, acrylic and oil painting, stained glass, sewing and lapidary. A fulltime staff and some 200 resident supervisors volunteer their time to oversee use of individual workshops.

And hundreds of clubs and organizations meet regularly to share interests in everything from the Aquadettes swim team to ballroom dancing to HAM radio to duplicate bridge. In the unlikely event you don't find your particular pastime represented, form a club of your own!

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