We never thought we’d have two places for all the reasons anyone would list, so it’s weird to me that we are in that situation, but our second place is in Maine where we’ve been going every summer for 25 years anyway, so eventually it just made sense to put a fork in it and recognize that Maine is where we like to be. Worst case if it doesn’t work out? We sell the place and move on.
I was worried about maintenance issues in a place with brutal winters but, really, I don’t think there’ll be any (anything serious anyway). We flush the pipes/sinks/toilets before we leave and turn the heat off completely, so no burst issues, and we turn off all electricity except the one breaker that hosts our wifi/security cameras. We have a new, very steeply pitched metal roof so no concerns about snow buildup. We’re in the woods, but none of the trees are close enough to fall on the cabin. We just lock and leave.
We consider AZ our home base but will probably downsize again here (sigh). We aren’t concerned about residential water supply in the Phoenix metro area but, should that ever become an issue, we’d probably make the cabin with its private well and generator our primary home and perhaps rent in the winter near wherever our son happens to be living at the time, should that make sense.
Hard to predict the future or future needs. One day at a time.