Well, we'd have a home in northern Colorado for the summer and a home in ? for the winter. Doubt very seriously that the "?" would be in Florida, since that's the state we want out of. From what I understand, any "Snowbirds" in Colorado have a winter home in either Las Vegas or Phoenix, but those two cities are extremely crowded with their share of crime. Of course, the finances would definitely have to be there to support both, as well as descent enough health to travel and physically upkeep both. We know two couples that are Snowbirds and, sooner or later, they will have to make the decision on which house to live in full-time and what to do with the other. They will either have to live in a snow area, as in lower Michigan for one couple, or the mountain area of PA for the other couple or stay full-time here in Florida and endure the summer weather here. I really do wonder how long a Senior couple can stay as Snowbirds?
Many seniors cannot bear the winters here, so they move en masse to somewhere warmer. Many use Hawaii as their winter home if they can afford it, and others go somewhere in Arizona. My wife LOVES Hawaii, but it is too crowded for me. I have invited her to move out of Alaska and live somewhere else, but she has a network of friends here and she enjoys the summers. We are moving into fall now, with lower temps and leaves falling. If we have a clear night, we expect a frost. We can, freeze and root cellar a lot of our food, so it is not practical for us to "snowbird" unless we completely change our (very satisfying) lifestyle. We DO travel when we can, and we have two trips planned this fall, one in October and one in December. My wife does taxes, so we cannot travel between January and April, and our bedding plant business is going most of that time as well.
No thanks! I don't even want one house....my goal is to be footloose and fancy free....call my daughter's home base and then spend a couple months with family...I have someone in every time zone and climate. Hopefully I'll reach this goal in about a year.
My oldest brother and his wife have been living in Florida in the winter and the UP of Michigan in the summer. They have their own small place in a trailer park, although it's not a trailer. The park manager rents it out for them in the summer, which pays their taxes and lot rentals. They have both been working at Disneyworld while they are there, so they haven't had to dip into their savings. Plus, they both have retirement income from their former jobs. He was a teacher and she was a manager at a Goodyear plant. If it were practical to do so, I would probably winter in the Rio Grande Valley of Texas. A lot of people winter there, and I'm familiar with the place. Although, maybe I'd decide to go to someplace where I haven't lived before.
I would love to do that, if it were possible financially, and feasible to have two homes. I think that I would probably spend the summers in northern Idaho, and then winter along the ocean somewhere, maybe in Florida, or maybe just in Western Washington or Oregon. The only reason I am living in Alabama, is because my daughter lives here, and I like being able to see her when I can. And it does meet our needs as far as that there is seldom any snow in the winter. However, it is hot and muggy all summer, and wet and dreary all winter; so not enjoyable as a climate except for a few weeks in the spring and again in the fall (assuming that it does not just jump from winter to summer and skip the nice parts). We have good doctors and hospitals here, and both of us enjoy going to the fitness center and exercising; so even when the weather is too hot or too cold, we can enjoy being at the controlled atmosphere of the gym. I don’t think that i would want to make the long drive back and forth like some snowbirds do; so if I were going to be a snowbird, I would want to just jump on a train and travel back and forth that way, or even a plane (I hate planes!) if I needed to hurry from one place to the other. As for how practical it would be for seniors, I am not sure about that part either. We all just keep getting older, and eventually would probably not want to keep making the trips.
Even though we know two couples that are Snowbirds here in Florida, and I've talked to both, and they aren't concerned at all about a tropical storm or hurricane hitting their home and destroying it. "If it happened, it happened", I was told. "When we are at our summer home, what can we do? All we know is that we don't want, at all, to be in Florida during the summer. Just too hot and humid." Well, they definitely don't have to tell us about how hot and humid it gets...….been experiencing that for the last 9 1/2 years and have no idea how we have handled it.
Cody: when I was cruising special George town in the Bahamas it would fill up in the winter time with snow birds all sailed down there from Canada and Northern US and as spring came along they all would go north again. George town along has over 400 boats in there for the winter most snow birds