The 60-Second Overview
The Towns Collection is the entry rung of Newbrook, Toll Brothers' gated village of roughly 550 homes inside SilverLeaf: two-story townhomes of about 1,800-2,100+ square feet with 3 bedrooms, 2.5 baths, first-floor primary options, covered lanais, and 1-2 car garages, listed from roughly $399K to the $450s with first move-ins targeted around 2026.
The product is rare on its face, a gated, luxury-builder townhome in the county that built its brand on schools, but the structural story is rarer still: SilverLeaf, master-developed by The Hutson Companies, was built with no CDD anywhere in the plan. Every competing townhome at Shearwater and Beacon Lake carries a community development district line on the tax bill, every year, for decades. This one never will.
Know what matters before you buy: at this tier the tax line moves the math more than the brochure does, and the Towns Collection is the only Toll Brothers townhome on the corridor that gets to skip it.
The honest catches: Toll quality prices above commodity townhomes, much of the collection delivers around 2026 rather than today, and resale comps are thin while the phase launches. The trade is structure over spectacle, no lazy river, no paddling lake, but a permanently cleaner carrying cost inside a double amenity layer. Whether that trade wins depends on your math, and we run it with real numbers.
The No-CDD Edge: SilverLeaf's Carrying-Cost Math
Most new master plans in Northeast Florida finance their roads, pipes, and amenity campuses through a community development district, a bond repaid through a line on every owner's tax bill, typically for decades. SilverLeaf's developer chose the other path: infrastructure funded without a CDD, anywhere in the plan, and made that line the community's centerpiece. The Towns Collection inherits it in full.
That changes how a townhome here compares against the corridor's CDD rivals. A Shearwater or Beacon Lake townhome at the same list price carries its CDD on top of the HOA, so the real monthly runs meaningfully higher than the sticker comparison suggests, and that gap compounds across a normal hold. The honest comparison is never list against list; it is all-in monthly against all-in monthly, with the CDD's bond and operations components priced in on the other side.
What you still pay here: a Newbrook association plus the SilverLeaf master layer, and on a townhome the coverage details, exteriors, insurance splits, maintenance layers, matter as much as the amounts. Confirm both in the documents, in writing. No CDD does not mean no fees; it means one entire category of cost, the one you can never vote away, simply is not there.
The Village: Newbrook Inside SilverLeaf
SilverLeaf grows as a system of villages, each with its own builder, gate posture, and amenity layer, sharing the master plan's campuses, parks, and trail network. Newbrook is the Toll Brothers village: gated, roughly 550 homes across six collections, from the Towns Collection's townhomes through Cypress, Dogwood, Juniper, and River Birch single-family rungs up to the $951K+ Spruce luxury tier, all behind one gate with private resident amenities of its own.
For a townhome buyer, the village structure is the point. The Towns Collection shares its gate, streetscapes, and amenity layer with homes listing past $1 million, which anchors the entry tier in a way standalone townhome communities cannot replicate. On top of the village sits SilverLeaf's master layer: amenity campuses with pools, a splash park, pickleball and tennis courts, playgrounds, and dog parks, plus the parks and trails threading the plan, and a K-8 school planned inside SilverLeaf itself, targeted around the 2026-27 timeframe (verify current status). Two amenity layers, one gate, zero CDD funding any of it.
The Townhomes: Plans, Options & the Builder Lane
The plans run roughly 1,800 to 2,100+ square feet, two stories, 3 bedrooms and 2.5 baths, and the format details separate them from commodity townhomes: first-floor primary options, a genuine downsizer and aging-in-place lever rare at this tier, covered lanais, and 1-2 car garages. To-be-built homes run through the Toll Brothers Design Studio, where options add real money; we help clients separate resale-relevant choices from sunk-cost ones before the appointment, not after.
Buying in a launching collection is a discipline exercise. Toll Brothers' sales office represents the builder, incentives are often tied to the builder's lender (run that rate-versus-credit math against outside financing every time), and the live price sheet anchors every negotiation in both directions. Quick move-in homes trade against to-be-built plans with different leverage; deposit structures and build timelines, with first deliveries targeted around 2026, deserve contract-level attention. Buyer representation costs you nothing extra here, register your agent on the first visit, and gets all of it negotiated on your side.
Schools
The Towns Collection rides St. Johns County, the school district that built this county's housing demand. Addresses in the SilverLeaf zone have generally fed Wards Creek Elementary, Pacetti Bay Middle, and Tocoi Creek High, and the headline on the horizon is the K-8 planned within SilverLeaf itself, targeted around the 2026-27 timeframe, which would put a district school inside the master plan.
Zoning here genuinely moves as the plan builds and new schools open; confirm the current assignment and the K-8's status by address before relying on either.
More on Living in the Towns Collection
The depth without the wall of text. Open what matters to you.
Location and commute
The townhome format in practice
The two amenity layers
Insurance and new construction
5 Mistakes Buyers Make at the Towns Collection
A launching builder collection inside a no-CDD master plan has its own traps. These five cost buyers the most, and every one is avoidable.
Comparing list prices instead of tax bills
A Shearwater or Beacon Lake townhome at the same sticker carries a CDD this one skips. Model the all-in monthly on both sides first, or you will misrank every option on the corridor.
Taking lender-tied incentives at face value
Toll Brothers credits tied to the builder's lender can cost more in rate than they give in credit. Run the math against outside financing every time, before you fall for the headline number.
Walking in without representation
The sales office works for the builder. Registering your own agent on the first visit costs nothing extra and puts the incentive fine print, position premiums, and contract terms on your side of the table.
Overspending at the Design Studio
Options add real money, and not all of it comes back at resale. Separate the resale-relevant choices from the sunk-cost ones before the appointment, with a budget set in advance.
Skipping the HOA coverage read
No CDD does not mean no fees: the Newbrook and SilverLeaf layers and their townhome coverage details define your real monthly and your insurance bill. Read the documents before the offer, not at closing.
Which Positions Hold Value Best
In a townhome collection, position is the lot
With one builder and one era, end units and preserve or pond-backing positions are what separate addresses, and the first-floor primary plans add a second axis: the configuration itself widens the resale buyer pool.
The village is the equalizer: every position shares Newbrook's gate and both amenity layers, which keeps even the value lane resilient here.
What to Check Before You Sign
Before you sign on any Towns Collection home, to-be-built or quick move-in, run this list. Missing any one of them is how buyers overpay or inherit a problem.
- Current pricing and incentives for the exact plan, in writing, dated
- Lender-tied incentive math against your own outside financing
- Newbrook and SilverLeaf HOA amounts and townhome coverage read in the documents
- The parcel tax bill, confirming the no-CDD line for yourself
- Build timeline and deposit structure on to-be-built contracts (deliveries target ~2026)
- Position premium against what comparable releases priced at
- Warranty terms and what transfers on a future resale
- Leasing rules in both association layers if rental flexibility matters
A gated Toll Brothers townhome with no CDD, in this school county, from the low $400s, is close to a category of one. The corridor's other townhome plays buy you bigger spectacle, Shearwater's lazy river, Beacon Lake's paddling lake, and bill you for it on the tax line for decades. The Towns Collection buys you structure: real square footage, first-floor primary options, two amenity layers, and a carrying cost the CDD rivals cannot match at the same list price.
The discipline is the builder lane: incentives that need outside-financing math, Design Studio budgets set in advance, and your own representation registered on the first visit. Cross-shop it honestly against Waterford Lakes in-plan and Beacon Lake Townhomes across the CDD line, and we will prove the math or disprove it with your numbers.
Towns Collection vs. Comparable Communities
The honest way to place the Towns Collection is against the other townhome and village options a St. Johns buyer is realistically weighing. Each trades something different.
| Community | How it compares to the Towns Collection |
|---|---|
| Newbrook (full village) | The same gate's single-family rungs, Cypress through $951K+ Spruce. The Towns are the attainable door into the identical village life; the SF collections buy land and size. |
| Waterford Lakes at SilverLeaf | The other no-CDD townhome lane inside the master plan, different builder and format. Same structural math, different product; the head-to-head is plan quality and position. |
| Beacon Lake Townhomes | The CR-210 lake-club rival: a 43-acre paddling lake and in-plan K-8, with an HOA-plus-CDD stack the Towns Collection skips. Amenity value versus the tax line, run with real numbers. |
| Shearwater | The big-campus master plan with a lazy river, kayak launch, and townhome phases, plus a full CDD on the bill. More spectacle, heavier stack. |
| Holly Landing at SilverLeaf | The Dream Finders gated village in-plan: single-family with a village campus, same no-CDD math. The format fork at the next budget rung. |
| SilverLeaf (master plan) | The full village system around the collection: every builder, every tier, one clean tax line. The context that makes the Towns' entry price structural rather than promotional. |
The collection's case is structure-per-dollar: the corridor's only gated, no-CDD, luxury-builder townhome. The case against it is the Toll premium over commodity product, the ~2026 delivery wait on much of the inventory, and a resale market still finding its comps.
The Honest Trade-offs
Pros
- No CDD anywhere in SilverLeaf: a permanent carrying-cost edge over Shearwater and Beacon Lake townhomes.
- Gated Toll Brothers village shared with homes to $1M+, anchoring the entry tier.
- Real townhome square footage, ~1,800-2,100+, with first-floor primary options.
- Two amenity layers: private Newbrook plus SilverLeaf's campuses and trails.
- Design Studio personalization on to-be-built homes.
- St. Johns schools, with a K-8 planned inside the master plan.
Cons
- Toll quality lists above commodity townhomes on the corridor.
- Shared walls and townhome density; no private yard.
- Much of the collection delivers around 2026; waiting is part of the price.
- Launching phase: thin resale comps for now.
- No signature water amenity; structure over spectacle is the pitch.
- SilverLeaf is still building: construction traffic and evolving roads.
The Towns Collection Playbook
If we were buying here, this is the order of operations we would run, and the one we run for our clients.
- Model the tax lines first. All-in monthly here versus Shearwater and Beacon Lake townhomes, CDD included, before touring anything.
- Register representation on visit one. The sales office works for Toll Brothers; your agent should work for you, at no extra cost.
- Get the live sheet. Current pricing, incentives, and release schedule anchor every negotiation, both directions.
- Run the lender math. Tied incentives against outside financing, rate and credit together, in writing.
- Pick the position and plan deliberately. End unit, preserve, first-floor primary, or mid-row value, priced as exactly that.
Questions We'd Ask Before Buying Here Ourselves
The questions a local who knows SilverLeaf asks are different from the ones a sales office volunteers. On any specific Towns Collection home, we want to know:
- What does the parcel tax bill actually show, confirming the no-CDD line in writing?
- What do the Newbrook and SilverLeaf layers cost, and exactly what does the townhome coverage include?
- What is the builder's live package for the comparable plan this month, and what did earlier releases price at?
- What does the lender-tied incentive really cost against outside financing?
- What is the realistic delivery date, and how is the deposit protected on a to-be-built contract?
- What are the leasing rules across both association layers?
The Towns Collection May Not Be Right For You If
We would rather tell you the truth than sell you the wrong community. This collection may not be the right fit if any of these are deal-breakers, and that is a property question, not a personal one.
Consider elsewhere if you want
- The cheapest possible townhome on the corridor.
- A detached house with a private yard.
- A lazy river, lagoon, or lake as the daily centerpiece.
- Move-in-now certainty across the whole inventory.
- Deep resale history and settled comps.
The Towns Collection fits if you want
- Toll Brothers townhome quality behind a gate, from the low $400s.
- No CDD on the tax bill, ever, by design.
- First-floor primary options and 1-2 car garages in townhome format.
- Two amenity layers inside a village-system master plan.
- St. Johns schools, with a K-8 planned in-plan.