Snowbirds Where are all these people from? (Miami, Orlando: 2015, renters)

[Cardiff by the Sea]

The Herald Tribune tells us where the snowbirds who own property here live the rest of the year.

Backtracking the flight of the snowbird | HeraldTribune.com

New Yorkers own 13,110 properties in Sarasota and Manatee counties
Ohio 7,903
Illinois 7,586
Michigan 7,540

Rounding out the top 10 with no numbers provided: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Indiana, California and Connecticut.

International ownership:

Canadians own 9,517 parcels
United Kingdom 1,685

"Roughly a quarter of the all the properties in Sarasota and Manatee are owned by people from out of state."

That sort of explains why traffic is up 30% in season.

[mr&mrssunshine]

I suspect in charlotte cty(specifically Rotonda)the Canadian and European numbers might be higher

[motordavid]

Seasonal from the Mtns of far western NC here, after 30 yrs just outside NYC...
We were downtown today: hit the orchid show, rolled onto Siesta Key to say hi to a friend, lunchola, etc.
Traffic is not a problem here in Sarasota/Venice, and area, imo.

For those that think it is crowded 'here' via the seasonal people like me, go spend a week in Naples/Ft Myers, Miami/Ft Laud, greater Orlando, et al.

Or, imagine you are heading crosstown, mid Manhattan, on any work day evening, any season.
GL, mD

[Cardiff by the Sea]

I didn't mean for this thread to sound like a complaint about traffic. Before I moved here, it was always a mystery to me how much traffic increased, which was recently revealed in another Herald Tribune article. It increases 30%, but to me that seems like no big deal.

I had always heard that Sarasota attracted people from the Midwest, so it was very interesting to hear the the largest group was from New York.

[sware2cod]

That news article is only counting the snowbirds that don't list FL as their primary residence.

There are many snowbirds that go to other states for the summer but consider the summer state their secondary residence and Florida is their primary residence. They have FL tags.

[rusty78]

In a recent news article, JUST Palm Beach County increased in population by 500,000+ people during the snow bird season. I can only guess that brings at least 250,000+ vehicles with it!! But you only have to try an early bird special to realize you got there to late and the snowbirds have all the seats..

[loves2read]

I can't really speak to traffic in other parts of this area but our subdivision borders 41--the entrance/exit has no light--
it is very easy for us to see the difference in seasonal traffic when we are here in the summer vs now...
there are times now when we take a right to merge into traffic so we can make a U-turn a half-block away and go south...

[motordavid]

Originally Posted by Cardiff by the Sea

I didn't mean for this thread to sound like a complaint about traffic. Before I moved here, it was always a mystery to me how much traffic increased, which was recently revealed in another Herald Tribune article. It increases 30%, but to me that seems like no big deal.

I had always heard that Sarasota attracted people from the Midwest, so it was very interesting to hear the the largest group was from New York.

My apology if I sounded again like 'traffic isn't a problem' rant...I misunderstood the point of your post.
Wonder if the HT really did the digging it would take, combing through tax roles, to see where an owner is legally domiciled? Might be a fairly simply sort, but it is a lot of data to copy/paste before one gets to the kind of sort the article's results implied.

And, that doesn't even begin to assess/guess on the number of people that don't own a damn thing here in SW FL, but show up to rent or stay with friends or stay in hotels. FL is the third most populated state, with a large percentage of that pop. living within ~20 miles of all the coast. Add in the non rez, (like me), the renters and tourists, and the place is packed, so to speak.

My observations are simply slightly empirical and mostly anecdotal, but Sarasota county simply seems a lot less 'big', and a lot less crowded in the 5+ months we are here, vs the same duration we spent in Collier county.

I was surprised by the supposed number of NY'ers, as it has seemed to us that most of the Midwest has a joint here in SW FL and that much of the FL east coast was from NJ/NY/New England, but that may just be another urban legend and generality.
GL, mD

[Cardiff by the Sea]

Just came from Costco. Read the license plates on the row we parked in.

New York
Vermont
Ohio
Ontario
Kentucky
Texas

Saw two gray haired ladies in a convertible with the top down with Wisconsin tags. I had a hard time imagining them driving it down.

I figure they all the people at Costco were stocking their vacation homes with enough toilet paper to last the season.


Not to drag the topic back to traffic, but I have a fresh observation. Both Bee Ridge and the Trail were packed. On the other hand, we could see no additional traffic above normal on the majority of Proctor or McIntosh.

One of our friends who has lived here a long time told us the locals use Tuttle instead of the Trail in season. I think the most obvious thoroughfares are more jammed because the seasonal people are not so aware of alternate routes.


One other seasonal observation. In November when the first of the snowbirds started rolling in, I started seeing really high end cars come calling out of the woodwork--Maserati, Lamborghini, restored vintage Porsches, Mustangs, etc. And now it seems like at least of third of the cars are Mercedes, BMWs, Lexus, Porsche, and Audi, but mostly Mercedes. In the summer it seems like mostly American cars and the big trucks.

I guess it is hard to talk about snowbirds without talking about their cars and traffic, even if the point is where they are from.

[La-La land]

I live in a 1 horse hicktown in Canada, and the population swells to 50,000 during the summer months due to Provincial Park tourism, and the one and only main road is gridlocked from May-Sept every single year. Plates from everywhere, all through the US and Canada, RV's driving 30mph, 'Citiots' who think their are no laws 'back here'. Anyways, point being that tourism is everywhere where people want to be. Even forgotten old lumber towns.