After a three-year run on real estate that has driven prices up by at least 20% annually in parts of Florida, Las Vegas and other retirement havens, buying the ideal retirement home seems like a pipe dream for many folks.
But then you hear stories from people like Jack Molan, 50, of Cannon Beach, Ore., who picked up an 1,800-square-foot three-bedroom home overlooking a pristine beach for $260,000. Or Ernie and Marti Williams of Riverside, Calif., who bought a half-acre hillside lot overlooking miles of ocean for just $35,000.
Their secret: They bought real estate overseas. Not in places that have been drawing retirees for years, such as Spain, Barbados, the Cayman Islands, Costa Rica and the like, where you need $1 million or $2 million for a piece of paradise. The Williams' lot is on one of Honduras' Bay Islands, Roatan.
These are some of the newest, off-the-beaten-path retirement destinations that recently have been attracting Americans who dream of warmer climates and affordable living.
In these places, beach-front and other prime properties can be had at a fraction of the cost in the U.S. What's more, Americans often find they can afford a much higher standard of living than they could dream of at home. "For maybe $1,200 or $1,400 a month, you can live in a foreign country, have a really nice place, have a domestic servant and eat well," says Tony Macaluso, owner of Portside Properties, a real-estate firm in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla.
True, it takes an adventurous spirit to move abroad,
"An amazing number of baby boomers are looking for adventure in retirement," says Tom Kelly, coauthor of Cashing In on a Second Home in Mexico (Crabman Publishing; 2005).
Real-estate consultants and brokers report a sharp spike in retirees looking for foreign havens. "The inquiries for foreign properties usually slow down at this time of the year, but they aren't stopping -- it's bizarre," says George Egosarian, owner of Resort Consultants in Boston. Inquiries from folks aged 40 to 60 have exploded from a typical 5,000 a year to about 8,000 this year, he says, adding that many of these folks appear to be planning ahead for retirement.
Ernie and Marti Williams plan to retire in a few years to Roatan, a 40-mile long island that struck them as the ideal balance between adventure (snorkeling along coral reefs, hiking through inland jungles) and comfort (direct flights to Miami and Houston, an island hospital and a largely English-speaking population).
They are about to break ground on an 1,800-square-foot home with a 700-square-foot deck, which should run them about $160,000. Before buying the land, they considered a half-acre lot in the hills surrounding Los Angeles. "It was for $399,000, no view, just dirt," says Ernie, who owns an insurance inspection service with Marti. With Roatan still in early stages of development, he figures his property will appreciate nicely.