A snowbird is a person who moves from the higher latitudes and colder climates of the northern United States and Canada and migrates southward in winter to warmer locales such as Florida, California, Arizona, Texas, or elsewhere along the Sun Belt of the southern United States, Mexico, and areas of the Caribbean.
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Snowbirds are typically retirees who wish to avoid the snow and cold temperatures of northern winter, but maintain ties with family and friends by staying there the rest of the year. In recent years, younger people with jobs tied to seasonal tourists, often migrate southward following the tourist season to southern resorts. Some are also business owners who have a second home in a warmer location or whose business can be easily moved from place to place, such as food services, and flea market and swap meet vendors. Some are people who suffer from seasonal affective disorder who wish to enjoy the longer daylight hours in the southern latitudes in winter. Some snowbirds bring their homes with them, as campers (mounted on bus or truck frames) or as boats following the East Coast Intracoastal waterway southward.
RVers
A significant portion of the snowbird community is made up of recreational vehicle users (RVers). Many own a motorhome for the sole purpose of traveling south in the winter. Often they go to the same location every year and consider the other RVers that do the same a "second family". Many RV parks label themselves "snowbird friendly" and get the majority of their income from the influx of RVing snowbirds. Several areas in Florida and Arizona have large RV communities that appear and disappear seasonally. Quartzsite, Arizona, that have been labeled "white city", because from a bird's-eye view all the motorhomes cover the landscape in white and then in the summer are gone. While historically Florida and Arizona have been the top RV snowbird locations, other southern U.S. states are experiencing a boom from snowbirds enjoying the southern climate.
Legal status
Many of these "snowbirds" also use their vacation time to declare permanent residency in low- or no-tax income tax states (where the tax bases are augmented by high tourism taxes), and claim lower non-resident income taxes in their home states. Canadian snowbirds usually retain residency in Canada in order to retain health benefits. Due to the implementation of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act there are now additional implications for Canadian snowbirds in the United States.
In the United States, the right to vote for local office is governed by local and state law, so it may be possible to vote for local offices in both places if the locality permits nonresident voting based on property ownership. However, representation in the United States Congress is for residents as enumerated by the decennial census and voting in U.S. federal elections in more than one jurisdiction is deemed to be electoral fraud.