• Dual citizen Michael Stiege was raised in Canada but spent many years working in the US.
• The darkness and cold climate of Canada pushed him to sunny California.
• For Americans thinking they can simply move up north, it's not that easy, he said.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Michael Stiege, 75, a dual citizen of the US and Canada. Stiege was raised in Canada and spent roughly 30 years working in California before moving back to Canada 15 years ago. He soon plans to split his time between the US and Canada. The conversation was edited for length and clarity.

Because I'm a dual citizen of America and Canada, traveling between the two countries is virtually a non-issue.

If you're an American coming to Canada, you can travel visa-free. Still, if you're planning to move here and be able to work here, that's another story.

You can visit for six months as long as you leave before the end of the six-month period. You can do that back and forth all the time — but you won't get access to the social system and healthcare.

My friends, who used to live in Chicago, moved to California and said, "We're going to move up to Canada when we retire," but they couldn't get a visa.

This fellow's a Ph.D. and a really smart technical guy — and his wife is pretty bright, too. They couldn't get a visa because they were simply too old. Once you're — let's say 50 — the immigration system disadvantages you. They have a merit-based point system and start worrying about things like age. That's the thinking. Once you reach a certain age, or if you don't have certain other legs up, the criteria by which you can get a working visa is stacked against you.

[In Canada's Comprehensive Ranking System (CRS) — which rates potential immigrants based on age, language fluency, education, professional expertise, and if you have a Canadian partner — applicants 45 years old or older receive 0 points.]

Whereas if you're a young guy just out of college, you have some reasonable skills, and you even know a few words of French, you probably wouldn't have a problem.

There are ways around it, but if the expectation is, "I'm just going to go up there and apply for a visa and get a visa," it may not happen like that.

I needed a change from the cold and long nights in Canada

I was born in Stuttgart, Germany. When my parents and I moved to Canada, I was about 3 and written into my parents' passports.

They got their visas and eventually became naturalized Canadians, which was bestowed on me. So, for all practical purposes, I'm a Canadian.

I grew up in Toronto, went to school in Toronto, and it wasn't until the early side of my career that I moved out into western Canada to Calgary and British Columbia.

I have an engineering degree and an MBA — which, at that time, was a pretty good combination to earn a job and make a living. I looked at the available jobs in the market and thought, "Go to Silicon Valley, where your skills will be valued the most."

I applied to a couple of things and got a call one day. It said, "Are you interested in coming down?" I said yeah, and there I was.

I needed warmer weather, and I was able to get rid of Canada's long winter nights. The summers in Canada were great — you could golf at 11 p.m. — but the winters were awful.

Seasonal affective disorder really got to me. It's not so much the cold as the long winter nights. It's dark. My wife says I had started hibernating, so I wanted to leave that behind.

I rented in the US and bought a home in Canada

When I moved to the US, I found that if I pushed myself, I could've bought a house, but I kept holding off. I found it easy to rent — it was affordable. I could get by without any problem. What I didn't put into a mortgage, I put into stocks and stuff like that.

I lived there for almost 30 years in two or three residences. I paid about $3,200 monthly in Los Altos Hills, California, right by Stanford University.

I came close to buying a couple of times, but the property tax burden in California is significantly higher than what you would find in Canada.

If you buy a house in California for $3 million, you're looking at $40,000 yearly in property taxes. [Zillow estimates a $3 million home in Santa Clara County would cost $36,300 annually in property taxes.] I could go on a trip for six months on that.

If I did the same thing in Toronto, I might spend between $6,000 and $8,000 — and that's a big difference. [According to the city of Toronto, a $3 million home costs $21,459 in city, education, and building fund taxes.]

I moved back to Canada about 15 years ago. My father was 96 then, and I said, "Let's go back." My wife is Canadian, and we have family up here. We settled in and bought our house.

We have a summer home up north in the lake country. It's not bad, but it gets cold in the winter.

If I ever move back to the US, my preference is California.

• Florida is one of the most popular destinations for people moving from one US state to another.
• New census data shows that many more people moved into Florida than left between 2022 and 2023.
• The number of people leaving is up over issues such as rising costs and natural disasters.

When Derek Edwards was living in Wisconsin and Colorado, he often traveled to the Caribbean via Florida.

He liked his layovers so much that he decided to move to Miami when he was 28. Edwards, a teacher, said the weather has been worth it even if rent and groceries are more expensive.

"It's just beautiful," he told Business Insider earlier this year. "Just in case I don't stay in Florida forever, I'm going to go to the beach as much as I can."

Drawn by the balmy climate, numerous outdoor activities, and more, hundreds of thousands of movers like Edwards choose Florida every year. Census data released on October 17 indicates that between 2022 and 2023, nearly 637,000 people moved to Florida from another state, while nearly 511,000 left the Sunshine State for somewhere else in the US.

Those estimates come from the Census Bureau's release on state-to-state migration flows based on results from the 2023 American Community Survey. The annual survey asks, among many demographic and economic topics, whether respondents moved in the past year and, if so, which state they used to live in.

The net inflow during this period, however, was not as dramatic as in the previous year. From 2021 to 2022, nearly 739,000 people moved to Florida, while almost 490,000 left for another state.

Florida leavers have told BI in interviews that they are motivated by various factors, including increasing insurance costs, a rising cost of living overall, and the increasing intensity of natural disasters.

Read on for an analysis of where movers to Florida came from, based on census estimates — and where Sunshine State leavers headed for greener pastures.

New Yorkers continue flocking to Florida

New Yorkers still move to Florida in droves.

The New York-to-Florida route taken by over 71,000 people was the second-most-popular route for all movers within the US between 2022 and 2023 — behind only California to Texas. Still, it's a big drop from the 91,000 movers from New York to Florida between 2021 and 2022.

Many New Yorkers flee south in search of a cheaper life and better weather, though SmartAsset's analysis of IRS tax data found those who made the move in 2023 didn't save as much as those in previous years.

Most still do save money: Someone making $100,000 in New York could save $37,166 yearly in Miami in 2023, compared with the $51,273 they might have saved in 2019, SmartAsset found. This is partly due to Florida's rising utilities and housing costs.

Nearly 44,500 people moved from Georgia to Florida between 2022 and 2023 — even though about 55,000 people moved from Florida to Georgia, likely driven by Georgia's relatively lower cost of living.

Over 39,000 left California for Florida in that same period. Some people who moved out of the Golden State told BI their decisions were due to rising costs and shifting politics. Terry Gilliam, who moved from California to Florida over weather and political concerns, has started Facebook groups helping others make similar moves, which have attracted almost 300,000 members in total.

People who move out of Florida tend to stay in the South

Like in last year's release, Georgia was the most-popular state for those leaving Florida.

Some former Florida residents who moved to Georgia have said they wanted a similar climate but needed to leave as the Sunshine State became more expensive and commercialized. Others cited skyrocketing home-insurance costs.

• A small town in Italy is offering homes for 1 euro to attract Americans amid the recent election cycle.
• Ollolai's initiative is part of Italy's broader "Case a 1 euro" program started in the 2010s.
• There is also an option for digital nomads to work there for a month for only 1 euro.

In the lead-up to an administration change, you might hear someone say they're leaving the country for good. A small comune on the island of Sardinia in Italy is listening.

Ollolai, a town of 1,154 people, according to the Italian National Institute of Statistics, created a website geared toward helping Americans find homes in its town for just 1 euro (or about $1.05), taking advantage of the latest election cycle.

"Are you worned out by global politics," the new website reads. "Looking to embrace a more balanced lifestyle while securing new opportunities? It's time to start building your European escape in the stunning paradise of Sardinia."

Roughly one dollar for a home in a picturesque town in the middle of an Italian island — about 50 miles from the beach — might sound too good to be true. The homes offered aren't in the best condition and would require about $25,000 in renovations which must be completed within three years, according to previous reporting from Business Insider.

But if you're willing to put some effort into your home, Ollolai will welcome you.

"We just really want, and will focus on, Americans above all," Mayor Francesco Columbu told CNN. "We can't of course ban people from other countries to apply, but Americans will have a fast-track procedure. We are betting on them to help us revive the village, they are our winning card."

"Of course, we can't specifically mention the name of one US president who just got elected, but we all know that he's the one from whom many Americans want to get away from now and leave the country," Columbo told CNN.

The transition team for President elect-Donald Trump did not respond to Business Insider's request for comment.

This isn't a new program — and Ollolai isn't even the first town to try the approach.

"Case a 1 euro," which means "houses at 1 euro," is a program across Italy that launched in the 2010s to revitalize the dwindling populations in more rural towns. Ollolai started offering 1-euro homes in 2018, but other towns, like Sicilian commune Gangi, started giving away vacant houses in 2015.

Americans moving to Europe, and Italy specifically, has been a somewhat common trend. But if you don't want to commit fully to moving across the ocean, a redirect from the Ollolai website luring potential buyers offers an option for digital nomads.

"Work from Ollolai" is a program that lets "successful professionals" live in the municipality for just 1 euro as long as they "promote an exchange of information" to rural communities through presentations, classes, or projects.

That covers rent and, according to the website, guests can stay for a maximum of one month.