Tracking invisible residents: how does this phenomenon impact city government?

This article introduces an emerging demographic trend, invisible residents, or retired persons who travel extensively seeking better climates during the winter. In this article, we articulate the costs and benefits these temporary residents could have on cities they visit in four areas: economic development, local government revenues, city service demands and indirect and intangible effects. We conclude that changes in city revenue structures may more closely align who uses and who pays for government services. However, the dearth of empirical evidence prohibits making strong conclusions about the relative attractiveness of this population to cities. Future research documenting this age-based phenomenon, currently estimated to include 10 million persons, is warranted as competition to attract these visitors heats up between Sunbelt cities.