Calling All CDA/Sandpoint Snowbirds!! (Clark Fork, Hope: rentals, condo, vacation home)

[NC_Cpl]

We are a North Carolina couple looking to retire next year. Had our eye on CDA for some time although with COVID we have not been able to check out the area in person (may take a trip out in next 1-2 months), but lets not get sidetracked on that point. We realize and accept that living in N Idaho comes with a LOT of SNOW, and therefore, also accept that we'll likely become snowbirds. So...I'd love to hear from those who are retired and depart for sunnier places every year. To keep the responses focused, here are my questions:

1) WHEN do you leave the area (assuming its driven by weather as the primary factor)?
2) Are there many others who also depart? In other words, is "snowbirding" reasonably common among retirees in the area?
3) WHEN do you feel the weather is good enough to return?
4) Do you OWN, RENT or RV during your time away? What drove your choice?
5) When you take into consideration all the benefits and hassles....how well has snowbirding worked for you and do you intend to continue?
6) If you're willing to share -- where do you go? Same place every year?

We have considered the opposite annual migration option, "sunbirding," where we spend the majority of the year somewhere hot and travel to cooler climate during the sweltering summer months, but I think we'd get more months of enjoyment the other way.

Please - Respectfully...I'm not looking for opinions as to whether this is a good plan or not....or that there are extra costs involved - we are have taken all that into account. I'm mostly interested in learning from the experiences of those who actually do it. ALSO - We both come from wintery climates originally (Chicago and Omaha) so we are well-informed as to what winters are like and require.

Thanks!!

[volosong]

Originally Posted by NC_Cpl

2) Are there many others who also depart? In other words, is "snowbirding" reasonably common among retirees in the area?

I live in a 55+ community of about 280 individual housing units. There is still a percentage who are still in the working world, however, most are retired. All ages, and the community is advertised as an "active 55+ community", even though we do have those who are pretty sedentary, (who are mostly older).

Even though I personally do not go south for the winter, it is obvious in my community who does, (because their driveways are never plowed). Even though I never counted, there are several unplowed driveways on each street. That equates to about 25-35 couples/families to leave for the winter. So, "reasonably common", (maybe 10%-20%?).

I do not know where they go. Or when they go. It is difficult to tell until the first couple of snows when one notices their unplowed driveways. Pretty sure they tend to come back in late March or April.

Hope this helps. It is just in my little enclave.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

I can't tell who stays and who goes. The next door neighbors on both sides are part time residents, but they have a plowing service that keeps their driveways plowed and clean, In the summer, they both use a gardening service. So, the only reason I know they are here or gone is because I am next door.


The people directly across are here all year, I see the husband out plowing their driveway. The people kitty corner across are here all year. I know because rain, shine, snow, or blizzard, he walks his dog every day. Often he and the dog will walk by as I am plowing my own driveway.



As for everyone else, their driveways are plowed, which means nothing. Most don't walk their dogs when there is snow on the road and that would be the only time I ever see them.

[oregonwoodsmoke]

The place I moved here from (Crooked River Ranch) in Oregon, about half the residents left for the winter. They would fire up their gigantic motor home (rolling condo) and head out for Arizona for the winter.


As far as I know, only one of my neighbors here owns a gigantic motor home, so if my neighbors are leaving for the winter they aren't going by motor home. I see travel trailers and lots of boats, a camper or two, and yesterday, someone rolled out with one of those little class C motor homes. Maybe residents or maybe they had visitors.

[NC_Cpl]

I ask not just because we no longer have an attraction to snow (OK maybe at Christmas but thats about it) but also because of the obvious slip/fall risk it poses as one gets older. I had an orthopedic surgeon tell me that something like 8 out of ten seniors who slip and break a hip at dead within a year. Yes, we are far to young to worry about that now...but ..as I envision the years passing I don't want us to become shut-ins and I don't want to move again (especially in my late 70's or later). Snowbirding seems the answer if we want to enjoy CDA for 8-9 months and go warm for the other three.


I like the plowed driveway as an indicator. Makes sense especially if its the same driveways unplowed for multiple consecutive days.

[banjomike]

Quite a few folks I know don't south for the entire winter. Most go for a month or two at most. February and March seem to be the most popular months to leave.

[Cnynrat]

We are not snowbirds, so no relevant experience.

This may help with your question 2: A mile down the road from us is a small bay on Lake Pend Oreille with about 25 homes. Out of those, there are only 3-4 that are occupied during winter. One resident leaves to spend winters up at the local ski area. There are a number of homes that are not occupied full time at all, but are vacation homes and/or short term rentals (which all happen during summer). I don't know exactly how many fall into that category, but I'd guess it could be a half dozen or so.

So, at least among that sample there are more sunbirds than there are year round residents. I suspect that number is somewhat unique to those who own lakefront property. I would guess they are more likely to be here only during the warmer months than the average Bonner county resident. Of the rest of the homes in our neighborhood that aren't on the lake I don't know of anyone who is a snowbird.

I don't have a lot of direct observations about the timing of when people are here and when they aren't. My casual observation is that there is quite a bit of variation in when folks depart and when they return. It ranges from people who are pretty much here just for the summer (~May-Aug) to those who only leave pretty much just for the winter (~Dec-Mar).

Hope that helps.

Dave

[NC_Cpl]

Thanks, although I wouldn't consider vacation homes or short term rentals folks as snowbirds (their motivation and/or occupancy is driven by different factors like investment/profit or just a using it as a "vacation" home). For my purposes, I'm interested in people who fit these criteria:

1) Make it their "primary" residence, and,
2) Leave for anywhere from 2-4 months every year, between Nov and March, for the primary purpose of avoiding winter.

That's how I'm defining a snowbird.

[Cnynrat]

I don't consider the vacation homeowners snowbirds either. I only mentioned that so you could take that number out of my estimate of how many snowbirds there are out of that particular sample.

Dave

[Clark Fork Fantast]

Originally Posted by NC_Cpl

Thanks, although I wouldn't consider vacation homes or short term rentals folks as snowbirds (their motivation and/or occupancy is driven by different factors like investment/profit or just a using it as a "vacation" home). For my purposes, I'm interested in people who fit these criteria:

1) Make it their "primary" residence, and,
2) Leave for anywhere from 2-4 months every year, between Nov and March, for the primary purpose of avoiding winter.

That's how I'm defining a snowbird.

Okay, I guess you don't really want to hear from me, then, but I think I may be the closest you're going to get to a sunbird/snowbird here in the Idaho forum!

We're building a retirement home in NID, but we have spent every summer there for over 10 years, and we have long summers off. (Of course this year is an aberration. We haven't been able to travel ) We anticipate having a number of years coming up soon where I'll be on half retirement, working in the spring in SoCal and having the fall off, so this is what we know/anticipate:
1) Leaving NID after Thanksgiving. We've been there that late in the year, and temperature-wise it's absolutely fine for us. (We're both from a cold climate originally, just like you.)
2) Nobody else is "snowbirding" in our area, everybody is a year-round resident. Not even vacationers. At this point we're the only ones. Our neighbors look after our place when we're not there!
3) Since we have spent several spring vacations in NID, we'd feel comfortable arriving around May 1, hypothetically.
4) We own our home in both places. We're used to packing everything up and closing the places down, or have a house sitter in our SoCal home over the summer.
5) So far we think it's going to work out fine for several years, but the ultimate goal is to make our NID place our permanent retirement home, unless health concerns force us to make other plans such as maintaining a small, second winter home in a warmer climate.
6) Yep, same place. Clark Fork!

One thing I would like to add: Since we've done the "summer months in NID" life style for years now, one thing is a constant problem: the mail. The post office will not hold mail longer than 1 month, and mail transfers apparently can't be temporary. We've had house sitters and neighbors forward mail to us in prepaid envelopes, but that is a hassle and an imposition. Bills can be paid online, but somebody still has to take in the mail, so the house doesn't look abandoned. We could set up a P.O. Box, I suppose, but then we'd still risk missing important mail. If anybody has a good solution to that problem, we'd love to hear it!