Quote:
Originally posted by KenoshaChris
It takes three flights in one day to get to anywhere I really want to be in Costa Rica. Mexico is too expensive. The Puerto la Cruz area of Venezuela is one of my favorite places in the world but again, three flights in one day, leaving here at six in the morning and getting there at nine at night. They can have Florida and I just don't like Puerto Rico that much. What I have on the north coast would cost me at least twice as much in any of these places and I could imagine what the price tag would be if it was in the Virgin Islands. My sense is that if the real estate market isn't at bottom, then its very close.
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The thing I love most about Puerto la Cruz is the restaurants and ceasar salads. It seems as if the restaurants compete on who makes the best!
I enjoy Margarita Island also.
If you go to Costa Rica, you need to fly into San Jose which is not near the water, stay the night, drive a back breaking 2.5-4 hours to hit an area I would care to live in and pay 3x the money for a condo you would pay in Sosua.
I take a direct flight to the DR from NYC in 3 hours and 20 minutes (eat your heart out Chris) as opposed to 2 days of travel to Costa Rica or Boquete Panama. Mexico just plain sucks. What a dead country.
Again, the best time to purchase property is when things appear to be at their worst. For the life of me I can't see this place getting any worse than it is now. If the money from the IMF comes through you will see a difference in 12 months in the economy once there is some sense of things stabilizing.
One thing that most people fail to keep in mind is that the DR has a much better infrastructure than any other "LIKE" place I have been to. Better roads, 6-7 international airports that put you close to most places you would care to stay and a President that is beyond reproach in regards to morals. (ok so one exageration
).
One of the lots I put an offer on but was turned down on was just sold for 2x what I offered and paid for what I consider to be a nicer lot with a much nicer view.
The least expensive condo available NOW in my complex is listed for 69k. The second least is asking 85-90k and the next is 100k. Out of 18 condos in the complex 5 have sold in the last 6 weeks. I see prices starting to firm and move up regardless of what anyone may say.
I put up a website to rent my condo when I am not there. It has been up for about 6-7 weeks and I have rented about 12 weeks from it already. I just rented my condo and another condo in my complex out for approx 10 days. I also have it rented out for February and possibly another in the complex for Feb as well. There appears to be a high demand since I have rented out approx twice as many weeks out as weeks in existance of the website.
If this is what some consider a crash, I welcome more of it.
While I am just finishing a 25 year career in Real Estate in NYS and retiring on a high note since the prices have been in an upward spiral for 2 years now I do not have the same urge to get in as hot and heavy as I had been previously. I plan on just diddling with R.E. here because it is in my blood. I won't do anything that will make it feel like a job again.
I have lived through the ups and downs of real estate. One thing I would like to mention is that when prices were going down my rental prices were going up. Never for one moment was I NOT making a lot of money. For those that don't know what the point of R.E. is I have the short answer... The point is to make money and that is it. I am getting a good return already on my investments in the DR. End of story.
When I decided to sell the prices were up. Retirement just came a little earlier for me because the market was driven higher.
Hey just my 2 centavos, and you know what opinions are like, right?
What we have here in this thread is just like what we have in every other real estate thread. Those of us that are buying and believe in what we are doing or just too damn proud to ever admit we can be making a mistake and those that can't afford to get into it or just too possessed by the ugly demons
Time will ultimately tell.
Escott
Who knows . . . . .
