IL Postcard

Costa Rica Is Still Affordable: Where to Find a $7,500 House

Date: 11/20/2007

November 21, 2007

I can’t stop thinking about Costa Rica. The picture of those lush green mountains and the first sight of the ocean far below is stuck in my head like a skipping record. Only this one I don’t mind replaying.

My husband, Dan, and I were married in Costa Rica 10 years ago and this was our first trip back there together since. We were there to take part in IL’s Live & Prosper in Costa Rica seminar….and we couldn’t wait to see if the country felt the same to us as it did when we were newlyweds. We weren’t disappointed.

Costa Rica has a lot going for it…it’s a nature-lover’s dream, with green-carpeted mountains, oh-wow volcanoes, and that blue, blue ocean. It’s got top-quality, affordable health care and a long-standing tradition of democracy. There’s no army here…instead, the government spends money on social issues like the environment and education…I didn’t run into a single Costa Rican on this trip who didn’t speak a good amount of English. But is Costa Rica still a worthy place for the expat, I wondered? And most importantly, is it still affordable?

I wasn’t disappointed there, either. One expat, Sally, told us that she rents a 5,000-square-foot, five-bedroom house with a beautiful Central Valley view for $1,100 per month. You can rent a small apartment (I’m told) for $200-300. But it was property sales prices I was interested in…

In the Central Valley suburb of Heredia, a brand-new two-bedroom condo can be found for as little as $80,000. Homes like the one Sally’s family lives in start at about $100,000. These are upscale homes, but of course you can find tico-style homes for even less. And yes, you can certainly pay more. In the more popular beach areas of Guanacaste and along the central Pacific coast, you won’t find an ocean-view condo close to the beach under $300,000. But I was interested in learning about two areas in particular…

When Dan and I ambled through Costa Rica on our honeymoon, two places struck our fancy. One was the Lake Arenal area to the north of San Jose. The other was the beach community of Dominical, far to the south. How much are homes going for in these places, I wondered?

Just 20 minutes north of Lake Arenal, a two-bedroom, two-bath house on a half-acre lot is $39,000. A short walk from the town of Arenal, a three-bedroom, three-bath house with a garage (completely modern and updated) on a quarter-acre lot is offered for $139,000. If you have more to spend you can buy six acres of wooded lakefront or 30 acres with hot springs and waterfalls for $240,000. You can also find really cheap property such as a one-bedroom, one-bath house on a quarter-acre lot bordering a river (and also a walk away from Arenal town) for $7,500. No, that’s not a misprint…the price is $7,500! It needs renovation, but as the man sitting next to me said, “You can’t make a mistake at that price.”

Arenal is one of the only places in Costa Rica that has yet to hit its stride as far as appreciating prices go. Maybe that’s because it’s not near the beach. But I remember it from 10 years ago as a breath of fresh air. A pristine tropical mountain lake with Arenal Volcano looming majestically at one end. It spurts red blasts at night…quite a spectacle and not a danger; releasing energy routinely keeps it from a full-blown eruption..

The other area of interest to me is on the coast south of Dominical (currently a five-hour drive from San Jose), where a new international airport is scheduled to be built. There’s a community there where the lush jungle mountains overlooking some of Costa Rica’s most pristine beaches come right down to the water. View lots here (minimum size of 1,000 square feet) start at $55,000 and custom construction costs about $75 per square foot. The nearby town is small, but a friend who lives there says it has a lively expat crowd and some excellent small hotels and restaurants.

I hope to return to Costa Rica soon. Look for my report in 2008 about what I find there.

Regards,

Suzan Haskins
For International Living

P.S. I almost forgot…if you think you might like to check out Costa Rica, there is one resource you shouldn’t be without--and that’s IL’s brand-new Costa Rica: The Owner’s Manual. It’s the latest and greatest in our Owner’s Manual series…well researched and written by Don Ediger, and just now edited and sent off to the printer’s as I write this. Our editorial staff is making you a special offer: Order now…before the manual is printed…and get a 25% discount. You won’t get it for a few weeks…until the printing and binding are finished…but a PDF version will be rushed to you ASAP…to tide you over until your copy arrives in the mail. Once the new Costa Rica: The Owner’s Manual hits the IL bookstore, it will sell for $69. It will never again be offered at this low, pre-printing price of 25% off…or $51.75. Interested?