Parallel Towns in opposite climates

You find two townsites, one in a northern climate and one in a sub-tropical climate, and you build two near-identical towns. You set up your property deed system so that the purchaser of lot #F-12, for example, in the northern town would also have to purchase F-12 in the sub-tropical town. Everyone would have the same address and phone number in both towns, and arrangements would be made with the post office so your mail always came to the right place.

You would have only one town government and one set of public service employees, and they would all (as a condition of their employment) move south on a set date in the fall, and move north in the spring. Commercial establishments would follow suit. Only a few caretakers would remain behind, and live year-round in the same place. Houses would be designed and landscaped in such a way as to enable minimal maintenance when uninhabited.

Houses could be much smaller, as there would be much less need to stay indoors during bad weather. Heating and cooling costs would also be much less. These savings would partially offset the cost of two sets of infrastructure. The value of not having to live through a Michigan winter or a South Texas summer....priceless.

I would envision that this model is best suited to retirement communities. However, if most of the industry that employed the inhabitants was information-based, it could work for mainstream communities as well.

Many retirees buy a motorhome and become snowbirds--a system that works well enough until you become too old to handle the motorhome. Then you are stuck in a house that is too big for you to maintain and has snow in the winter or heat and humidity in the summer. With this housing model, you could remain comfortable in a familiar house with familiar neighbors until you became too frail to travel cross-country in a luxury chartered bus.