Are Canada’s snowbirds becoming extinct?

Bernie and Gail Moisey started holidaying in Phoenix in 1992, when a U.S. financial crisis allowed the couple to buy a condo there for a song. When they retired in 2003 and 2004 respectively, they ramped up those visits, officially becoming snowbirds.

“We chose Arizona for the sunshine and mild weather, at the time [of the property purchase] we resided in Edmonton so it was convenient to get to,” says Gail, who worked at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) for 20 years, most recently as manager of financial planning. “We visited a few weeks per year up until the time we retired. In 2004, we started going down to Arizona for the winter season, from mid-October to mid-April, returning for Christmas to spend time with kids and grandchildren.”

Escaping the winters in Guelph, Ont., where the couple now lives, is the perfect set-up for Gail and Bernie, who taught electrical engineering technology at NAIT for 35 years.

They’re living the dream that more than a quarter of working Canadians aged 50 and older aspire to. According to the RBC 2013 Retirement Myths & Realities poll, 27 per cent of pre-retirees expect to be snowbirds in retirement by “regularly going somewhere warm in the winter”. However, the survey also found that only 16 per cent of retired Canadians described snowbirding as one of the top 10 ways to spend retirement. (The most highly rated activities were taking time for yourself, travelling, and spending more time with your spouse.)

Perhaps flying south wasn’t given top nods because of insolvency rates and record-high debt levels among seniors. According to a CIBC poll released earlier this year, 59 per cent of retired Canadians reported that they’re carrying debt, with 19 per cent of those saying that their debt level had increased over the past year.

And Canadians over age 65 have the highest insolvency and bankruptcy rates in the country, a 2011/12 report by the Vanier Institute for the Family found.

Nevertheless, it doesn’t seem as if snowbirds are about to become an endangered species anytime soon. “This trend is increasing every year as Canada’s population ages,” says Douglas Gray, author of The Canadian Snowbird Guide: Everything You Need to Know about Living Part-Time in the USA and Mexico. In fact, more than a million Canucks make the trek every year.

Heading south for the winter can be done affordably, Gray says, with some Canadians even finding that they come out ahead financially because of the lower cost of living in the U.S. and Mexico. It’s possible to rent a mobile home or RV pad for a s little as $300 a month, he explains in his book, while a used mobile home in a park can be found for about $7,000. Bargains can often be found at the end of the season in April. Being away from Canada during the winter months also saves a bundle in heating costs.

“When you amortize the costs over 10 years, it can be very affordable,” Gray says. “You also have use of all the facilities and amenities at a mobile home or RV park, which is generally included in your pad lease fee. Naturally, expenses can be higher in some parks, but you would normally select the type of park or condominium that meets your budget as well as other needs.”

Having a detailed budget is crucial for any wannabe snowbird. The Moiseys were able to make it work because they downsized from a large house to a condo two years before they retired and invested some of the sale proceeds, were debt-free several years before retirement, and maxed out their RRSP contributions every year.