You have no idea what the community will be. Low income? Rentals? HOA? How many homes? Traffic?

You know nothing.

I'd keep looking.

Living through all that construction right next door will be painful. Nevermind what is actually being constructed.

Then once it is built depending on what type of retirement community there will be the emergency calls if you have a problem with hearing sirens. Probably will become so used to the sound after awhile that you will not even notice them. Then if it is successful the owners will want your land for expansion. As said above keep looking.

Summers around here the 55+ communities that are being built include independent, assisted, and nursing home all in one community. Perhaps it is not that way where you live or you have just not noticed. It may not be that way now where the OP lives but it is the most common type of community that is currently being built in most areas of the country.

Would not work for me. Living next to a major construction site is not usually a good time. Think trucks running nonstop for hours at a time, lots of mud on the roads (if/when it rains), pounding, machine noises, back-up beepers (one local site starts work at 7 am and got behind, so started working 7 days a week), construction debris laying around and occasionally blowing around...

And that doesn't even factor in what the facility or homes may look like when done.

Nor does it factor in what may end up there if this 55 + idea gets abandoned, shifted, or completely redesigned.

I recently bought a vacation home and deliberately passed on new homes in developments which are still under construction. It's just too much for me, but only you know what your tolerances are for that kind of chaos and upheaval. Heck, maybe you enjoy watching bull dozers taking down trees, pushing dirt around, installing infastructure, generators running for hours on end, back up beepers getting into your skull and rattling around in there for hours....

:)

And the non-stop dust. Don't plan on having your windows open while the construction is on-going. If it's not muddy, then it's dusty.

Thanks for pointing it out. The ones in our neighborhood are like ranch style townhouses. :-)

It’s in upstate NY, so definitely mud, not dust, haha. I’ve seen colonial style condo homes built here, and also smaller full-sized homes where you pay HOA fees to have everything taken care of. I’m not sure if it’s something that progresses to assisted living. I definitely wouldn’t want to be next to it if that were the case. I’ve emailed the real estate agent to see if she has more information, but I’m guessing I’d have to go to the town hall itself to see what it would really be like. The proposed plans should be accessible to the public, right? I have young kids who would love the construction vehicles, but I wouldn’t love the safety hazard that I know they’d want to explore as it’s being built. It’s so frustrating to find a house that is really everything you want until you find out that someone wants to build something next to it. It’s an old home, and solid stone, so it’s not something I could reproduce on purchased land for a reasonable cost. It’s also not the type of home you see available very often. It’s frustrating.

With young kids, I would be concerned about the neighborhood. It is nice if kids have friends in the neighborhood, which is unlikely when your neighbors are 55+.

Also, are these multifamily units? I'd worry that could affect the value of your home.

Construction is temporary and I wouldn't worry too much about that. I'd worry more about what comes after.

Do you really love the house? If you do, nothing is going to change your heart. Just like the moment you met your wife, it didn’t matter if she had crazy families or not. If the house meant to be yours, that’s your destiny! :-)