snow bird vs. FT resident?
 

Has anyone started out as a snow bird and then changed to be come a full-time villages resident? What made you change your mind?

Going back North!!!!!!!

And maybe high taxes after retirement?

We started out as snowbirds from Michigan. I worried about the condo the whole winter long--did the heat stay on, did the pipes burst, is the roof leaking (this last one happened). One time two days before we left to come south, the furnace quit working. The day the new owner was coming for a walkthrough, the water heater gave out. I got tired of it, and as beautiful as Lake Michigan is in the summer, the summer is very short. The year we left for good (2013), moving day was July 4, and it had yet to reach 70 degrees in our part of town down by the lake, and it had been raining for two weeks.

However, the summer heat down here got to me. So now we're snowbirds again, splitting 7 & 5 months.

Bird at first
 

Snowbirded for 5 years. Came during summer and found it's a completely different, uncrowded place. Sold our place at the beach up north, which was crowded in the summer and just as hot as here.

NC friends said, "Florida has bugs and heat", lest they forget, NC has bugs and heat!!!!, no brainer, oh, btw, kids live in Winter Park!!!!!!

Totally agree. We are from Charlotte, NC and the heat and humidity is brutal. Now if you have a place in the mountains, that's a different story.

Love living here full time. We can go wherever we want for a change without the responsibility of a second home. Different strokes....

We were snowbirds for two years with a home here and one in Northern NH. What a pain. Constantly worried about whether someone had broken in during the winter, worried about burst pipes, worried about anything we could worry about. Put the house on the market, sold it to the first looker for full price and came here. We have NEVER regretted it. Yes, it is too hot for me in the summer, but my husband has real problems with the cold, plus we take off and stay with the kids for a week or so during the fall, because their summer is almost as hot as ours and they do it with no AC.

Oh, I forgot the NH Bugs .............. big as jet liners, both mosquitoes and black flies and horse flies, you name it they got it!

We've done things in a somewhat backwards fashion, being owners for two plus years and experiencing the three non-peak seasons. Being 20 year residents of Atlanta, and a refugee from the frigid and snowy tundra of Upstate NY, the weather during the silly season is a no brainer - we'll trade the crowds for the temperate climate. Spending a month in the heat of summer answered a lingering question - was the heat really unbearable ? Conclusion - with 20 summers in Hotlanta, The Villages was very doable. So, we'll make the permanent move shortly - the temperature delta these past three months is very appealing.

We still have our up north home, come and go (we definitely leave the Florida summers behind) as we please. Sometimes one stays north longer, not sure we will ever be FT, I enjoy the change of seasons. We have a full time live in when we leave northern home, so no worries on what’s not working

Decided what it would cost me to be a snowbird with a place up north, and the cost wasn't worth it. I rent via airbnb whenever i feel i need to go north. No headaches.

If it wasn't for sitting on my quiet Chesapeake Bay beach with my feet in the water, boating on the bay, fishing, crabbing, family all around, golf, friends, etc. I would live here year round.

Working from home (FL) most of the time and in the office (North) about once a month. Retired and left the North.

Health Care
 

You can still be a Florida resident, live there at least six months then go back to your other house (down size maybe) and keep all your health care providers

Do you need to stay 6 months every year after the 1st year?