In 2026, Del Webb broke ground on two Columbus-area communities within a few miles of each other. Search "Del Webb Columbus" and both come up, same builder logo, same marketing polish. Only one of them is actually age-restricted. Confusing the two isn't a hypothetical — it's an easy mistake given how the names and branding overlap.
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Talk to a Specialist →Plain City · 711 homes planned · from the low $400ks
Sunbury · nearby · same builder brand
Neither community is better or worse — they're simply answering a different question. But if the entire reason you're moving is to live surrounded by other 55+ households, the difference between these two isn't a footnote. It's the whole decision, and the shared "Del Webb" name is precisely what makes it easy to miss during a quick search or a first phone call to a sales office.
Del Webb built its entire national brand on age-restricted living, so buyers reasonably assume anything carrying that name follows the same rule. Builders increasingly use a recognizable brand name across both age-restricted and open-to-all product lines in the same metro, banking on the general reputation to sell homes either way. Columbus is now one of those metros. Ask the sales office directly — "is this specific community deed-restricted 55+?" — rather than trusting the brand name to answer that question for you.
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Outside these two new arrivals, Columbus's 55+ market is still overwhelmingly built by Epcon Communities — dozens of "Courtyards" neighborhoods under 150 homes apiece, spread across Franklin, Delaware, Union, and Licking counties. That part of the market hasn't changed; Del Webb's arrival adds a genuinely new, larger-scale option, it doesn't replace the smaller boutique communities that still make up most of the map.
None of this is a reason to skip Columbus. It's a genuinely improving market — Del Webb's arrival signals real national-builder confidence in Central Ohio as a retirement destination, and the Epcon product has thirty-plus years of track record here. It just means two specific verification steps belong on your list before you tour anything: confirm the age restriction in writing for any "Del Webb" community, and price the property tax by county, not by the school district's reputation.
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