Four Seasons at Mirage

Four Seasons at Mirage is a gated 55+ active adult community in Barnegat, New Jersey, built by K. Hovnanian between 1998 and 2007. Set on the mainland side of Ocean County just 1.5 miles west of Garden State Parkway Exit 67, the community contains roughly 1,200 single-family homes — a mix of ranches and two-story homes with lofts, ranging from about 1,200 to 3,400 square feet, with 2 to 4 bedrooms, 1-2 car garages, 9-foot (and higher) ceilings, open floor plans, and many lots backing to wooded preserves. The centerpiece is an impressive 23,000-square-foot clubhouse housing a fitness center with spa and sauna (men's and women's), an indoor pool with a wheelchair lift, a grand ballroom used for concerts, parties, comedians and the community's New Year's Eve gala, a library, five activity rooms, card rooms, a billiards room, and space for woodworking and ceramics shops. Outdoors, residents have a heated outdoor pool with terrace, picnic pavilion, tennis courts, pickleball, bocce courts, horseshoe pits, shuffleboard, a putting green, softball, and scenic ponds with fountains. A full-time activities director coordinates an extraordinarily deep club roster — line dancing, golf, Mah Jongg, poker, the Mirage Players theater troupe, book club, bowling, bridge, computer group, billiards, quilters, tennis, woodworking, ceramics, Red Hats, men's club, women's club, drama, travel, and more — plus regular bus trips to Atlantic City and New York, band nights, football Sundays, meet-and-greets, and continuous social programming. Security is a defining feature: a staffed main gate, individual resident IDs for both gate and clubhouse access, prohibitions on outside soliciting, and interior/exterior security cameras. Monthly HOA of $215 covers lawn mowing, leaf collection, fertilizing, underground sprinkler maintenance, snow removal, trash collection, and all common-area and clubhouse amenities — homeowners' only outdoor chores are landscaping accents and, as residents joke, building snowmen. The location is a major draw: Long Beach Island beaches are about 15 minutes away, Tuckerton Seaport 15 minutes, Barnegat Lighthouse about 30 minutes, Atlantic City 35 minutes, and both Philadelphia and New York City are within roughly 90 minutes. Barnegat itself is a quieter alternative to Brick or Toms River, with a historic district, antique shops, a public boardwalk for fishing and crabbing on Barnegat Bay, and easy access to the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge. The community celebrated its 20th year in recent memory and residents consistently describe the facilities as kept 'as good as new.'