There’s little doubt that short days, gloomy, rain-filled days and interminable periods of minus 20 temperatures (in other words, a ‘true Canadian winter’) can take their toll. As baby boomers net worth increases every year due to hot housing markets and rising stock prices, many folks in their fifties realize that they can purchase a condo in Arizona’s Valley of the Sun or a building lot a remote stretch of Baja coastline and have enough money in their pockets to visit the grandkids.
Just about every country south of the 49th parallel offers refuge from what can seem like an endless and unrelenting winter.Some of the popular Canadian snowbird spots like Palm Springs and Scottsdale are well known; but Canadians are also building vacation homes in Mexico (Vivo Resort south of the surfing village of Puerto Escondido is owned by former Olympic downhill skier Carey Mullen), Belize (Placencia, a funky fishing village on the east coast),and Costa Rica (Manitoba premier Brian Pallister runs provincial affairs from his estate in Tamarindo). From trailer parks in central Florida to beachfront mansions in Maui, the lure of El Sol is pretty much universal.