Depressed snowbird housing market - Yuma

[okiejoe]

Well, my in laws just sold their snowbird home in Yuma at a major loss, lots of properties for sale there, it's definitely a buyers market. My in laws hated to sell but at the ages of 83 & 79 with one of them in the early stages of Dementia it was time. They had 20 Great Years going to Yuma every winter and made many friends. It's sad to see that the snowbird population is migrating a different direction. Their home was in the Foothills area. They started with a 36ft 5th wheel and ended with a double wide park model. Helping them get their place ready and listed was a very hard thing to do. You could see that they were very saddened to end this part of their life and move on to a new part of life with uncertainty of what's to come. They have a great family of children & grandchildren who love them and will give them the support they need, most of all they have God on their side as well.
Please pray for them and pray for Grandma & strength for Grampa

[John___Angela]

bstark wrote:
Take heart gitane59; if there is one thing I can assure you of; the pendulum will swing. You will however, find a way to realize your dream plan regardless if it doesn't.

Full retirement brings with it a completely different perspective of assigning priorities.

The old guard leaving are in reality making room for the newbies in a facsimile of the age old cycle of life.

Whatever your choice of retirement lifestyle, the single greatest imperative is to fill every moment of free time with what you want to do. Should the wheels fall off, you then have fewer regrets of the "if I'd only done that".....kind.

Best wishes to you both.

Excellent post. We started snowbirding at 41 years old and just working summers. We are fortunate to have jobs that facilitate that. The dollar was 62 cents when we started. We just found a way and lived frugally. For health reasons we avoid restaurants other than maybe every couple months. We have friends that spend easily a Thousand a month on restaurants. It can really bite into a budget but then again their budget is bigger than ours so why not. We seem to make it on about 3500 per month including wintering down south in the US or Mexico as well as a European trip every second year for three or 4 weeks. Good planning and sometimes a little luck go a long way.

Enjoy life guys. I hope all your dreams come true. We are in our early fifties now and there is still so much to see and do.

[bstark]

Take heart gitane59; if there is one thing I can assure you of; the pendulum will swing. You will however, find a way to realize your dream plan regardless if it doesn't.

Full retirement brings with it a completely different perspective of assigning priorities.

The old guard leaving are in reality making room for the newbies in a facsimile of the age old cycle of life.

Whatever your choice of retirement lifestyle, the single greatest imperative is to fill every moment of free time with what you want to do. Should the wheels fall off, you then have fewer regrets of the "if I'd only done that".....kind.

Best wishes to you both.

[gitane59]

Bstark;
I just hope the old adage "this too shall pass" is true for the extremely low dollar. As people who have dream't to become Snowbirds for years and will both be retired July 2017 with pensions it is our dream to explore the southern US for several month's every winter while we are still young enough (56&57)to hike and explore the outdoors. It is our hope that the dollar recovers to a more reasonable exchange level. I would be happy with an 80-85 cent dollar.
We too are very fortunate that so far my Private Pension Plan will cover out of country medical as well although you are right that our insurer's will likely want us on a plane instantly back to Canada for even minor medical issues.
I do understand the changing of the guard so to speak with one generation of RV'ers sadly moving out of the lifestyle for age, financial and health reason's but with all the baby boomers just starting to retire in droves in the next few years I see a renewal coming for the snowbird areas of the US as long as both countries do not drive health and living costs to the point where the lifestyles of citizens of both countries are severely cramped.

Please lets keep the positive vibes going for the young'ins coming along who want to enjoy the RV snowbird lifestyle in the years ahead.

[bstark]

As in all major financial decisions related to lifestyle choices one must consider the worst case scenario and if not able to completely immunize yourself from total loss, at the very least, mitigate that aspect as much as is possible.

We have met so many wonderful people over our years of snowbirding, suffering from that terrible event of the 2008 meltdown and losing everything due to using their major appreciating asset, their principal home, to finance a depreciating asset RV or other high-dollar "Toy".

I cannot begin to tell you the terrible carnage that one simple decision has created among the now elderly who opted thusly.

Our hearts go out to those who've made plans based upon the then current environment only to have the rug pulled.

Canadians are now facing the spectre of unrestrained and absolutely ridiculous medical costs in the U.S. requiring insurance companies to raise fees and add restrictions as never before. Our out-of-province healthcare is provided by our Private Pension Plan but even so, we are cautioned that if we can be stabilized; our arses will be on a med flight out of the U.S. so fast, the U.S. hospital computer will still be printing the vital stat's & admissions paperwork.

A wide dollar disparity only exacerbates any costs associated with Canadians needing U.S. medical intervention.

Friends with a house near us in Lakeland Fla. have decided to sell based upon his advancing age and pre-existing conditions of diabetes bringing with it horrendous medical insurance costs and along with the dollar disparity virtually doubling home maintenance and entertainment costs. They now intend to travel to locations worldwide at far lower quoted insurance costs without the prospect of a U.S. realty millstone around their necks.

Contrary to most discussion on here; they were fortunate to be in a locale with a resultant bidding war for their property. Americans are replacing a significant part of the Canadian exodus created snowbird void in this area of the U.S.

I fully understand how these decisions are influenced. My wife and I are among the very fortunate who both have fully paid up CRA allowed 70% maxed-out pensions with a host of paid optional medical provisions that allow us the luxury of maintaining our snowbird lifestyle without consideration to anything other than our entertainment costs wherever in the world we choose to go.

The downside is watching our pool of snowbird friends, both Canadian and American, dwindle around us due to both financial AND age impact.

For those arriving at that juncture in their lives, we send commiserations with the knowledge we'll be along shortly to join you, so please leave a light on for us, eh?

[colliehauler]

Just a guess on my part but I would think changing demographics would affect snowbird areas. The baby boomers are just starting to retire in meaningful numbers. A lot of the older retirees are simply getting to the point they don't want to travel anymore or can't do to health or financial reasons.

Add that to all the other reasons people have already stated.

[moisheh]

Paul: Just hope that the reason you will give up snowbirding is money not health.

Moisheh

[Tequila]

I am not naive enough to think I will always be able to snowbird. That is why I am making the most of it now. It's depressing.

I can offset some of it by leading caravans, but even with that I wont eventually be able to afford it.

[John___Angela]

moisheh wrote:
Hi J&A: I looked into repatriation insurance. It seems to be alright if you have a serious medical issue. Say a heart attack. But otherwise they don't fly you out without a Dr saying you have to be transported. Some of the non expensive policies do not fly you home. Only to the nearest decent medical facility. For snowbirds some of the insurance companies have a new game. They will not pay any medical costs until you are out of the hospital and have filed all the paperwork. Not a big deal if the costs are say $1000. But what if your bill is $50,000 or more. Not everyone has that amount sitting around in cash! Years ago US Hospitals used to accept Canadian insurance but that seems to have changed.

Moisheh

Hi Moisheh.

I hear ya. I think for this approach you need to be comfortable with coming up with at least in the short term twenty to thirty thousand dollars. So for example if you need a major bypass operation in Spain you need to have the roughly 12000 to 15000 dollars to pay the procedure and hospital bill and then another roughly 5000 to 7000 for an attended plane trip back home. Obviously the medical would be reimbursed by provincial health care but the accompanied plane trip is all your dime. Although I think this would negate some of the more budget imposed snowbirds although I think many would be able to manage the just in case scenario. Let's put it this way. If you are paying even three grand a year in insurance to travel to the US, take that money and stash it away every year you don't need it and within a few years you are ready for an "event". ??

[moisheh]

Hi J&A: I looked into repatriation insurance. It seems to be alright if you have a serious medical issue. Say a heart attack. But otherwise they don't fly you out without a Dr saying you have to be transported. Some of the non expensive policies do not fly you home. Only to the nearest decent medical facility. For snowbirds some of the insurance companies have a new game. They will not pay any medical costs until you are out of the hospital and have filed all the paperwork. Not a big deal if the costs are say $1000. But what if your bill is $50,000 or more. Not everyone has that amount sitting around in cash! Years ago US Hospitals used to accept Canadian insurance but that seems to have changed.

Moisheh

[John___Angela]

moisheh wrote:
Tequila has brought up an interesting point. Not only has Health Insurance gone up it is harder to get coverage if you have any pre existing condition. Some Canadians are on fixed incomes and have not budgeted for all of the extra costs. Unless oil goes up we can look forward to a much weaker dollar. Our new Government turns off a lot of foreign investors!

Moisheh

I agree re the health insurance affecting decisions. We are seeing that in our neighbourhood down south. At least 2 are choosing countries next year where they either don't need a travel insurance policy or just need a repatriation policy. I think this will probably happen more in the future. For us we are in our early 50's and it's still not too expensive (850 bucks for 6 months for the two of us). Our neighbour is paying north of 10,000 for six months but he is 80 and him and his wife have prexisting conditions. They own their property here so they don't want to deal with switching to another country at this point. For us once we are fully retired at 60 we will probably switch to a country where we don't need extra coverage but will probably always get a repatriation package which is obviously a lot cheaper. We will be in spain in about 3 weeks looking a little closer at a snowbird destination for our retirement years. Until then we still enjoy our SOCAL winters. We have enjoyed Mexican winters as well but the Andalucia region of spain is a great jumping off point for other destinations in Europe and North Africa. Another neighbour is looking into Greece but I'm not sure how that system compares to Canada for procedural and hospital expenses. It will be interesting to hear what he finds.

[moisheh]

Tequila has brought up an interesting point. Not only has Health Insurance gone up it is harder to get coverage if you have any pre existing condition. Some Canadians are on fixed incomes and have not budgeted for all of the extra costs. Unless oil goes up we can look forward to a much weaker dollar. Our new Government turns off a lot of foreign investors!

Moisheh

[Tequila]

I think you can blame the Canadian dolalr for the downturn. I am seeing more Canadians in Mexico this year even though it really is not that much cheaper down here with the higher fuel, but if you stay in one place it is. I suspect some are simply cutting back on their time. Its not just the exchange, medical insurance premiums for Canadians are skyrocketing for stays in the US. Cheaper to leave the RV at home, fly to a cheaper sun spot further south & use a hotel.

[Scottiemom]

For the most part, the places in our park that are for sale have 3 prices on them. There seem to be a lot of people looking. I see many unfamiliar cars with out of state plates cruising around pausing at the for sale signs. The local realtor seems to be showing more houses than I have seen her show in years past. There have been some sales this year. I was surprised to learn what the original price was and what they were purchased for. Seems someone may have gotten smart and accepted a reasonable offer on at least one of them. So I think properties will sell if there is a reasonable price placed on them. Ours is an ownership park. It's cheap living. $250 annual HOA fees and taxes (depending on whether you have an exemption) can vary from under $100 to $800. Nice, clean, safe place.

Dale

[BarbaraOK]

2gypsies wrote:
We never thought it to be a good idea to buy anything related to a RV such as Park Models or to buy a lot in a RV park. When it's time to sell, people typically don't look at old ones. They want newer ones. They also don't want to live in an older park. They want newer ones with more facilities.

We have found the best way to have multiple dwellings and moving with the temperatures or to visit with family for long periods of time is just to own one RV for traveling; hence, go full-time. It worked very well for us for 16 years.

We bought an older park model (though the floor plan is the same as the new ones and it has been well taken care of) When we have to move onto an assisted living or some other place, we will simply have it pulled out by a company that then takes possession and uses them as temporary housing for work camps. We never expect to make a dime on it - just want a comfortable place for the winter. Someday we will be too old to drive our rig or health concerns will get in the way and now we have someplace to stop on our journey through life.