I may have found the reason of reasons to make a move to Sun City Festival by Del Webb and it’s not what you may think.  Festival is the newest of a series of 55+ communities on the Northwest side of Phoenix.  It benefits from years of builder experience in creating great communities for active adults.

First came the grandaddy of them all, Sun City.  Developer Del Webb realized the coming baby boomer generation may be ready to retire but they wanted more than shuffle board. He opened Sun City on January 1, 1960.  There were 5 models from which to choose. Webb had hoped to draw up to 10,000 people that weekend.  He didn’t, instead one hundred thousand people lined up to see the homes.  Today Sun City has just under 30,000 homes. 

Next in the Sun City series, and that’s what it’s become, is Sun City West. Development started in the late 1970’s. It was sold out in the late 90’s with about 17,000 homes. The Webb company moved to the west and opened Sun City Grand. While there were only 5 floorpans to launch the original Sun City by the time the builder got to Grand they were offering 50 plans.  It was fully developed with just under 10,000 homes by 2006. Then came Sun City Festival.

While Festival is the newest it carries with it over 55 years  of active adult community experience. We have the most modern floorpans and the latest in efficient build technology. There are over 20 floor plans with new plans unveiled every couple of years.  The amenities such as swimming, golf, pickle ball, tennis, running and walking trails, bicycle lanes on all the streets, a fully furnished gym, Arizona State University’s Life Long Learning classes and the list continues.  All of this is great but we came to realize the real reason to choose a community is as Del Webb said years ago, it’s not the buildings that make a community, it’s the people.  We certainly found that out in our own neighborhood.

My wife was stricken with pneumonia and was hospitalized for several days. On her release we discovered what a truly great community this is. Neighbors started bringing complete meals to our house at dinner time. It had been organized through the neighborhood grapevine and one by one they came delivering food while my wife recuperated. 

These columns may from time to time brag about the gorgeous setting, the wonderfully modern homes, amenities galore but just know behind it all is what really counts, the people.  I hope you’ll come visit, stay awhile, let me show you some houses while your here.  Want to build a new house?  Call me and I’ll help you arrange a meeting with new home sales. As we used to say in the farm country where I grew up “we’ll leave a light on for ya”.