Clear tropical waters, great beaches, and perfect weather…combined with a safe environment and low property prices. That’s how I’d sum up the state of Paraíba in northeastern Brazil.

Paraíba’s capital city, João Pessoa, is a clean, modern, and cheerful city of 670,000 that has miles of popular beaches. Its boardwalk is busy with joggers, strollers, and bicycle riders day and night. It’s as nice as any coastal city I’ve seen in Brazil–nicer than most–but it operates at a slower, more easy-going pace. Both north and south of the city, the white sandy beaches and calm waters stretch on for miles. It’s typical of northeastern Brazil’s beachfront–beautiful coastline, dotted with small towns, fishing villages, stunning cliffs, and long stretches of pristine sand.

My favorite spot was Pitimbú. It’s a small fishing village with a genuine homely feel. The attractive, cobblestoned town center had a fresh fish market (the lobster was $5 per pound), stores, and even a public library. It felt like a community, instead of a collection of weekend vacation homes.

And the prices for everything from lobster to beer to beachfront lots were noticeably less that we saw in João Pessoa.

Brazil Beachfront: My Favorite House

We visited a number of beachfront properties in the area–in all price ranges. The least expensive beachfront house that we saw (that I’d want to live in) was a two-bedroom house on a single lot for $30,000. Beachfront lots started at $17,000 for a small parcel on a nice beach, with my personal favorite lot coming in at only $22,000.

The best-value house I found was priced far under similar homes in the Pitimbú area. The 3,142-square-foot home had six bedrooms, four baths, and a large wrap-around porch. This is true Brazil beachfront: right on the sand and just a few minutes’ walk from the center of Pitimbú. The asking price is only $108,000–that’s $34 per square foot. (And the house comes completely furnished.)

For more information on this house as well as the others I mentioned, I’ll be giving out the contact details on a free teleconference with global real estate expert Ronan McMahon.

I’m just back from a research trip covering the entire northeast coast of Brazil. The state of Paraíba has been somewhat bypassed in the rush to Brazil’s beaches these past three years, but that’s changing. Property prices–while still noticeably lower than average on this coast–have been rising rapidly, as people discover the anomaly. On my trip, I discovered some beautiful areas with exceptionally low real estate prices. I’ll share the details with you on Wednesday, when we’ll discuss Brazil’s Recession-Beating Secret. You can listen in FREE on Wednesday (Dec. 10) at 1 p.m. EST–just sign-up here.

Lee Harrison
Roving Latin America Editor, International Living