Retiring in Gainesville, GA: The Best Communities

Warm weather and a  low cost of living make Georgia a top retirement destination, and the Gainesville area offers plenty of options for retirees. Let’s cover all the available options that you have in the Gainesville hall county area. I help many retirees downsize and relocate from all across the state, and from out of state as well. People love retiring in Gainesville- not only because of the great weather we have here, but also because of our location. We are located about an hour north of Atlanta and about an hour south of the North Georgia Mountains. Gainesville is located on Lake Lanier which provides for endless entertainment and enjoyment. Retirees love the affordability of housing here, and we have excellent health care. Not only do we have North Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville and Braselton, but we also have many specialists and outpatient facilities as well. Let’s look at some of the top retirement neighborhoods that you have available to you in the Gainesville Hall County area.

One of our area’s newest retirement  communities is Cresswind at Twin Lakes. This community is located near Downtown Hoschton, which is really close to Braselton, so you’re gonna have lots of restaurants and development happening. It also gives you great, easy access to 985 and 85. This community is brand new. They are just building out their first phase and there are tons of lots available, but you have to know this community is selling out fast! It’s one of the area’s most affordable  55+ communities that you can buy a brand new home in right now, and you have to check out their spec homes that they’ve built, or take a look at their 12 different model homes that are fully decorated. You could spend the entire day browsing and find your dream retirement home. You can build your home from the ground up, or you can purchase a spec home where the builder has already built that home so that you can come along and buy one without having to wait for the entire build process. You have two bedroom, two bathroom homes in this neighborhood that are about 2,000 square feet and those are going to start at $247,000 or you can go up to a three bedroom, two and a half bath all the way up to 3,500  square feet and that’s going to top out around $400,000. This neighborhood has a great clubhouse and amenity center that includes a fitness center with yoga and aerobics studio, pickleball courts galore, and they also have tennis courts, an event lawn, resort style pool, arts and crafts studio with a kiln, and more! You also have an indoor pool that is planned as part of phase two. I mentioned those pickleball courts, right? So you need to know that they’re going  to have over 30 plus courts, and an eagles nest viewing area for tournaments as well. This is going to be something that people that live in the neighborhood are truly going to love and enjoy and if you know anything about retirement communities, pickleball courts are storming the nation. Upon completion, this pickleball center at Cresswind is going to be the largest private pickleball facility in the state of Georgia. One thing you need to know here is that the HOA fees are expected to be in the mid $200s with reduced fees of $99 monthly until some of those amenities are complete. You need to move quickly though if you want to purchase a home in this community- like I said, the homes are selling very quickly and you need to go check them out. Pick out your lot and plan your next home!

Another Cresswind community that you need to consider is Cresswind at Lake Lanier. This is located in Gainesville and it sits directly on Lake Lanier. One thing that you need to know about this community is that they are no longer building any more new construction homes. The neighborhood is completely built out, so you’re only going to have resale options. However, people buy and sell homes there all the time so you’re still going to have plenty of options and you’re going to have prices that are maybe a little bit more affordable than a brand new construction home.  They started building Cresswind at Lake Lanier  in 2011 and the clubhouse in the community cost over $8 million dollars, and frankly, you can tell- It’s an amazing facility. You’re looking at prices ranging anywhere from $300,000 all the way up to $675,000 and you’ve got square footage ranging from about 1,300 square feet all the way up to 3,000 square feet on basement lots. Now we talked about how great that amazing clubhouse is, it’s three stories with a state-of-the-art fitness center, aerobics studio, indoor pool, as well as tennis courts,  pickleball, bocce ball, and horseshoes. They even have  a community garden, dog park, and a playground for your grandkids. Cresswind at Lake Lanier is located on a wide finger lake of Lake Lanier, and you can purchase a boat slip at the dock behind the community clubhouse, or you can use the dock there for day use and put in kayaks or just simply go down and sit and enjoy the water. This community is located really convenient to Downtown Gainesville, and you’ve got plenty of shopping, restaurants, the lake obviously, and it’s really convenient to Northeast Georgia Medical Center.

Another community located on Lake Lanier that you need to add to your list to check out is Stephens Point. This brand-new new construction community started in 2020 and it has plans to build over 174 houses in the neighborhood. You’ve got eight different floor plans that you’re going to be able to choose from, and your price range is going to be from about $320,000 all the way up to $400,000 for a three bedroom, two bath,  two thousand square foot house. You currently have some spec homes that are already built, and they’re move-in ready. At the time that this video is being recorded, they have five that are move-in- ready right now, with prices ranging from $338,000 all the way up to $382,000 thousand dollars. The amenities that are going to have here at Stephens Point are a clubhouse, you’ve got a swimming pool, lake access, and a boat dock with14  boat slips on a first come, first serve basis. You also have four sides of full service lawn care, pickleball courts, and private gated community entry. Not only do you have the clubhouse and the pool,  you also have amenities that have not been built yet, but construction is going to start soon. This is another neighborhood that is located on Lake Lanier, so if you are looking for neighborhoods that are going to give you the access to the lake and be able to enjoy everything that the lake has to offer, and even have your boat here at the community,  you are going to want to put Stephens Point on your neighborhood list to check out, as well as Cresswind at Lake Lanier. Now, your HOA fees here in Stephens Point are going to be approximately $200 a month. Stephens Point is also located in Gainesville, so you’re only about eight minutes away from Cresswind at Lake Lanier, which means you’ll have easy access to the lake. You’re also really conveniently located near Downtown Gainesville and the hospital that we mentioned earlier, restaurants and more. It truly is a great community that’s located right off of McEver Road in Gainesville, and you’re really going to love that location and heck, it’s on the lake! 

If you have not added the Village at Deaton Creek to your list, well- you need to add it. This community is located in Hoschton so it’s convenient to Highway 211  and I-85. It’s also very close to Chateau Elan, which is going to give you  plenty of shopping and restaurants, and it’s located really close to the Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Braselton. This is one of the older 55+ communities in the Gainesville-Hall County area. They first began building this community in 2005, with the first home being completed in 2006. Now you need to know that there are no more new construction homes in this neighborhood, it is resale only, and you can find some garden type homes that are about  1,100  square feet all the way up to 3,000 plus square feet homes on basement lots. This is one of the larger retirement communities in the area with over 1,100 homes in the gated community. It has an amazing two-story 35,000 square feet clubhouse that offers state-of-the-art fitness facilities- you’ve got an indoor swimming pool, tons of classrooms for cooking class demonstrations, everything that you can imagine. Man, I want to live there!  Every time I show a client in this community, I think about how I cannot wait until I am able to purchase a home and live in this community. It always looks like the residents are having so much fun and living such a great life. Not only do you have the great fitness facilities, but you also have a dance studio, there’s also a grand ballroom, we talked about the indoor pool with a spa, and you’ve got a library, the demonstration kitchen, and you’ve got several hobby and craft studios. They also offer over a hundred different social clubs and interest groups that include everything from sports, intellectual groups, faith-based groups, hobbies, crafts, everything. Anything that you could think of, there is a club for that, and there’s lots of people in the community that are going to share those same interests that you have. At the time of filming this video,  there were about 13 homes for sale in the neighborhood ranging anywhere from  $270,000 all the way up to $545,000. Your HOA fees at Village at Deaton Creek are going to run you about $300 a month. 

Right across the street from Village at Deaton Creek in the Braselton/ Hoschton area is Del Webb Chateau Elan. Since it’s right across the street, it is also going to give you really great convenient access to downtown Braselton and I-85. This is a newer community and construction started  in 2018, and they’re still continuing to build other phases in this community. You’ve got nine different floor plans that you can choose from, and you get anywhere from two bedrooms to five bedrooms, and you even have homes that are built on basement lots. Like I said, they are still building new construction homes in this community and you’ve got prices ranging from the high $200,000’s  all the way up to the low $400,000s. There’s endless options for recreation and socialization, just like in the other communities that we’ve discussed. Village at Deaton Creek is right across the street and it gives you a great comparison as to what an older community has to offer versus this newer community. Chateau Del Webb is going to offer you 19,000 square feet at this clubhouse. They’re still adding on to that and it has a fitness center, a heated indoor lap pool, you’ve got social areas, a ballroom, you’ve got multi-purpose rooms and you’ve got an arts and crafts studio. There are great tennis courts and they also offer pickleball courts, bocce ball courts, dog park, you got walking and biking trails, a playground for your grandkids, and even an event lawn. I have personally helped several people buy in this community, and there is a fantastic builder for this neighborhood, and you can customize  some of the features in your home as well. If you have not added this to your list to check out, it’s a must.

If you are looking for a bit of a smaller community and you don’t want the full-fledged 55+ community experience with the great amenities that some of these communities have to offer, you need to add McEver Mill to your list. McEver Mill is a new construction community, and they first started building these homes in late 2019 and beginning of 2020. It’s located in Oakwood which is just in between Gainesville and Flowery Branch, so really convenient to Interstate 985, restaurants, grocery stores, everything that you could want, and great access to Downtown Gainesville. You’re also only one mile from Lake Lanier. Upon completion, this neighborhood is going to consist of 105 low maintenance attached homes with luxury features, such as first floor master suites and spacious open floor plans. You’ve got private patios and all of these homes are going to offer a  one and a half story ranch floor plans. They currently have five homes listed for sale and this is definitely a more affordable community, and the prices there range from $231,000 to $241,000. and your HOA fees there are slightly lower too. Those are only $189 a month, and that’s going to include all of your exterior building maintenance, landscaping, mowing, edging, trimming bushes, all that kind of good stuff and the HOA also provides weekly curbside trash service and common area maintenance. This is a smaller community so you’re not going to have the big amenities that you have in some of these other neighborhoods. It does not have a pool, pickleball court, or a large clubhouse that the other communities have, but it was designed for buyers who are just not interested in all those typical neighborhood amenities. But, if you want a stylish well-built 55+ community with lower HOA fees, this is definitely a community that you need to check out.

If you’ve considered retiring or downsizing to the Gainesville area, I would love to help you. In the meantime, please check out my YouTube Channel for more videos about the Gainesville/Hall County Area.