Living in The Fairways
The Fairways is the largest community in Mays Landing and the one most often misunderstood by people shopping it from a listing site. It is a 55+ active adult golf course community built around the Mays Landing Country Club, with streets named for the great courses — Pebble Beach, Baltusrol, Muirfield, Troon, Oakmont, Medinah, Turnberry, Loch Lomond, Knollwood, Greenbriar, Burning Tree, Hazeltine. Homes here trade constantly, which means a buyer actually gets to choose rather than take whatever is available.
Start with the thing that explains everything else. Homes in The Fairways sit on leased land. You own the house; you rent the lot it sits on, and that lot rent is a monthly payment for as long as you own. In exchange there is no property tax bill and no purchase price attached to the land underneath you, which is why the sale prices here look the way they do next to the rest of the township. It is a genuinely different form of ownership from a fee-simple house, and it is neither better nor worse — it is a trade, and you should understand both halves of it before you fall for a kitchen.
Two things follow directly. First, when you compare a home here against a house elsewhere in Mays Landing, compare the total monthly cost, not the price. Lot rent, taxes and association dues all have to be on the table at once or the comparison is meaningless. Second, and this matters more: lot rent changes. The rent a current owner pays is not necessarily the rent you will pay, and listings here have disclosed new rent figures taking effect on resale. Ask what the rent will be for you, in writing, before you write an offer. Any agent who cannot answer that has not done the work.
There is also an approval process. Buyers must apply to and be approved by The Fairways before purchasing. That is normal for a community structured this way and it is not usually an obstacle, but it is a step in your timeline that does not exist anywhere else in this township, and it should be started early rather than discovered late.
Now the community itself, which is the reason people want in. The homes are single-level two- and three-bedroom ranches, generally 1,400 to 1,800 square feet, most with a one-car garage, open floor plans, gas fireplaces, walk-in closets and en suite primary baths with separate shower and soaking tub. Many carry a bonus flex room that works as a den, an office or a nook. Covered decks and elevated paver patios are common, and the homes backing directly onto the golf course have panoramic views of the fairways that you simply cannot buy at this number anywhere else in Atlantic County.
The amenity package is the broadest in Mays Landing: an expansive clubhouse with an indoor pool, a fitness center, a library, a billiard room and a party room, plus a full calendar of organized activities. That last part is the actual product. People move here to have something to do and someone to do it with, and the community delivers on it in a way an amenity list does not capture.
The golf course itself has been through a change of hands and a renovation, with an updated course and a new restaurant. That is genuine good news for the community, and it is also the kind of thing worth asking about directly rather than reading in a listing, since ownership and operations at a course can change again.
If you are shopping 55+ in this area, the township's 55+ communities search covers the alternatives, and ranch homes covers single-level living across all of Mays Landing without the land lease. For fee-simple ownership at a similar monthly cost, Meadowbrook and Harding Run 1 are worth a look.
