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Turn your dreams into a reality overseas

Today's Financial News - Posted December 15, 2008

Our friends at International Living are always hunting down the most wonderful, exotic locations where living well won’t cost you a fortune. Check out their latest find…

By Dan Prescher, Publisher, International Living

“It’s the mountains” I said to Suzan as we sat on our hotel balcony in Cotacachi admiring the soaring Andean peaks.

“It’s the beach,” Suzan said the next day as we walked in the surf with our sandals in our hands.

We were trying to figure out what made Ecuador so special. We were both right, of course.

Ecuador’s beaches are world-class, stretching mile after picture-perfect mile down the country’s Pacific coast. Ecuador’s coves, headlands, and beaches have been compared to Southern California’s coastline too many times to repeat, but the comparison is accurate — except for the prices.

California hasn’t seen beachfront prices like Ecuador’s since… well, I don’t know if California has had $18,000 beachfront lots 40 minutes from a major airport in our lifetime. But we found one near Manta, one of Ecuador’s main coastal cities.

And the mountains. There are few places on earth where you can live on majestic slopes or in fertile valleys at eight thousand feet above sea level with no more than a jacket any time of year.

In fact, there is only one season up there. It’s the Rockies in late spring and Patagonia in late summer…365 days a year.

Suzan and I hadn’t planned on buying anything during our last trip to Ecuador, but we found a very affordable penthouse condo in a 32-unit project going up near the center of town in Cotacachi, about two hours north of Quito. (Quito will be the site for International Living’s 2009 Ultimate Event coming up next March…you can get the whole story here.)

Cotacachi specializes in leather crafts, and it can be a bustling little place during the day when the tour buses are in town. But at night they pretty much roll up the streets, which suits us just fine. That’s why we couldn’t pass up a small penthouse suite in that condo project with a large terrace overlooking the Andes for $46,000.

If we use it just a couple months of the year to beat the summer heat in our hometown of Merida, Mexico, it will be worth it to us. We don’t plan on renting it out the rest of the year, but I think we could if we wanted.

And we won’t have to give up the beach if we base ourselves in the Ecuador highlands. We can leave Cotacachi in the morning, catch a $60 flight from Quito to Manta, and be on the beach in time for a fresh seafood lunch… the perfect way to start a weekend.

I know. It sounds pretty exotic… maybe even extravagant… to have a home in a tropical colonial Mexican city and a summer getaway in the Andes. Makes me feel a little extravagant just thinking about it.

Until I remember that I couldn’t get comparable property in the U.S., even in today’s market, for twice the price… especially when I factor in the huge difference in taxes, utilities, and maintenance costs over what I’d pay back in the States.

Then I don’t feel extravagant. I feel like a smart investor. I even feel like a bit of a tightwad.

I enjoy sitting by my pool in Merida thinking about whether we want the Jacuzzi in the Cotacachi condo under cover or open to the night sky… and feeling like I’m getting great value and future potential out of every penny of my hard-earned money.

That’s the kind of feeling we want every International Living reader to have. It’s not a dream. It’s a concrete, practical reality, and hundreds of thousands of people are living that reality everyday.

In fact, we know people who are living well on a single Social Security check thanks to the practicalities and cost savings of living internationally.

And in today’s economic climate… when it’s hard to tell from day to day which banks will go under, which industries will collapse, which countries will go bankrupt… the real property I live in and use and the savings I gain from living internationally are especially welcome and comforting.

It’s a lifestyle that makes Ecuador such an interesting spot… a spot that lets Suzan and I skip the decision between mountain living and beach living.

Why choose when you can do both, and still come out ahead in the bargain?


Next Article: Time to let go

Posted by Dan Prescher · Filed Under Real Estate 

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