Snow birding is much more expensive. But if you have the disposable income, perhaps less tolerant of the hot and humid Florida summers, or have extended family ties up north, then snow birding might be for you.

It’s true that you need two of almost everything, unless you want the hassles of hauling things back and forth. If you don’t have duplicate almost everything, then you’ll need things that are a thousand miles away, at the other house. You have to maintain two homes over a thousand miles apart from each other, which is a hassle. You need to setup each home so that you can monitor things remotely, like remote controllable thermostats, cameras, etc.

You can solve all those issues by simply dumping a lot of money on all those things. If you’re flushed with extra money, you can’t take the money with you after you pass on.

We considered being snowbirds, but decided it would be just too many hassles for us. We could have afforded to duplicate almost everything, and pay people to maintain the homes, but the hassles were just too much.

We would have probably only used the Minnesota properties 3 to 4 months a year at the most, because the rest of the year, the weather in Minnesota is too cold.

We sold the Minnesota home to an in law, where we occasionally stay for a couple to a few weeks in the summertime. We have a place to stay in Minnesota, without all the hassles and expenses.

Driving back and forth 1,600 miles gets old quickly, and is a big hassle. Driving is also more dangerous than flying. We would end up needing two sets of cars, four cars total, if we were snowbirds. Snow birding could also increase your income taxes too. For example, in Minnesota there are 26 residency intention factors. One of the residency intention factors is where you license, insure, and store your vehicles. If you violate the residency intention factors, then Minnesota can force you to pay the Minnesota state income taxes, even if you are a Florida resident. Other states could have similar income tax laws.

Renting for months in the wintertime in Florida can be extremely expensive, when the rent prices escalated. But when you’re renting, then you have to haul a lot of stuff, or do without that stuff. Plus, your Florida home won’t feel like your living in your own home. You’ll feel like a temporary renter.

The best solution for us was to be full time in Florida. The summertime heat and humidity isn’t that bad, compared to the lousy cold, icy, snowy, and dreary winter weather in Minnesota. Plus, all the hassles of snow birding, for us, wasn’t worth the benefits of being snowbirds.

two homes
 

Nope, two homes, here and up North. We would drive down and back every year. Drive changed from one overnight to two nights. Not an aggressive driver anymore, changed to a more defensive, age you know came knocking. Flying now is so nice, 2 1/2 hours, direct flight up and down, have a pickup at airport, to home, can't get much nicer that.
One of us still wants to hold on to the house up North, very hard to let go what was. As long as we have family checking on our place it works out, but lose that and we have a problem. Home watch services is not as prevalent as it is here.
Food for future thought...........

If you’re putting a windmill on your garage, get ARC approval or the clip board ladies will get you.

Why comment if you do not care?

OP, it appears that you think you and “the people who live in TV year round” are less wealthy than the snowbirds. Why are you concerned about other people’s wealth? The only person’s wealth you should be concerned about is your own.

FYI - Some people who buy electric vehicles do not do it to be green. Perhaps someone buys an electric golf cart for the quiet and smooth ride which is free of gas fumes, has low maintenance, and no gas station stops. I'm just saying...

What!
 

What’s the point? Sounds like the green eye monster is lurking around!

You Forgot
 

In addition to the expenses you list, you forgot my jet to get back and forth between the two.

More power to snowbirds . What
pleasure in life having the means to
live 6 months in the summer up north and 6 months in the summer
in a warm climate. Different lifestyles every six months.
Like vacations .

We are talking electric cars here. Please read entire thread - specifically posts 16,19, 21, 23, 28, 29, 31, and 33 before piping up. Context is important.

Heyyyyyyy, us also! E. TN? West 865?

I know people who live here year around who bought the smallest houses here fifteen or twenty years ago, paid cash after selling their houses up north, and are living on small Social Security checks alone and barely scraping by. That will be much harder to do for the people they sell to in the next few years. I also know people who live here year around and live in houses that would sell for a million and who have several million in investments on which they can draw. That’s wealthier than most people, true, but still not really wealthy, and the taxes on their house here may be as much as your SS income. I think that for many people here part of the year, whether they own or rent, they long to escape the cold of northern winters, but they have children and grandchildren they want to see a lot. It’s not cheap, but so it goes. They do what it takes.

It doesn’t have to be too expensive. They may own their northern home outright. (They also may have used savings to buy a less-expensive house here for cash.) They may live in a state that never reassesses real estate until it is sold and so pay very little in taxes. Doctors charge by services rendered, so having two sets costs nothing extra. It’s easy to furnish a courtyard villa for two with used furniture for $5,000. For a couple hundred bucks, they can have their homes winterized and leave the heat off entirely and turn off the lights and refrigerator. They can leave an inexpensive, paid-off car in the garage here or there. They leave their golf cart here and learn to get by with one car instead of two each place. Two wardrobes? Are there no suitcases?

When I bought a home here a couple years ago, I thought I would summer up north. Keeping my little paid-for house in Pennsylvania cost me a total of $1,000 a month, half of which was community fees. (The rest was electricity, propane, taxes.) But I like it here. I’m enjoying being involved in what I like doing, which is performing music, all year around. I realized I don’t play golf, and in Pennsylvania I spent most of the summer in air conditioned comfort, avoiding the heat and humidity there. But I can do that here, too. I don’t often go outside in the summer, either place. I have no grandchildren, and my children lived an hour away from me in Pennsylvania but still never seem interested in seeing me. So I sold the house up north at the beginning of the summer. Now I’m a frog: here until I croak. This saves me $12,000 a year. Nice! Unfortunately, my mortgage, insurance, taxes, and yard care eats up every penny of my Social Security. Fortunately, I have some retirement funds. And an extra $12,000 a year.

But don’t assume that people with two houses are “wealthy.” Most aren’t. Not what I would consider wealthy. They may be wealthier than you if you are scraping by on Social Security, but that isn’t the same thing.

^ This! Absolutely well thought out and articulated. One does not need to be "wealthy" to snowbird. Yes, I used snowbird as a verb. No, it probably isn't really a verb.

Look outside the Villages and see what Home values are! Hard to find anything, on one level, for under 400k… I don’t judge but sometimes being rich is a curse

If I had a choice would take being rich over poor