Options aboundMexico remains the most popular destination for Americans seeking property beyond the borders, with more than 500,000 Americans living in the country, according to US State Dept. figures. US developers recently have stepped up their activity in the country. Sales of condominiums in Donald Trump's planned Trump Ocean Resort on Mexico's Baja coast are proceeding briskly, despite the fact that construction isn't planned to begin until March 2007.
Costa Rica was the darling of the Central American set several years ago. However, prices there have risen and the infrastructure has not kept pace with growth, according to Lief Simon, real estate editor for International Living, a Paris-based magazine that also provides referral services and organizes tours for potential overseas buyers. Panama, however, is quickly becoming a favored locale for Americans seeking vacation or retirement real estate, with the US State Dept. estimating some 25,000 Americans now calling the country home.
"Panama is probably our biggest destination," Simon says. "And second-home buyers probably make up about 50 percent of that number."
That country has certainly proven its charms to Harry Hunt, a Massachusetts-realtor-turned-Panamanian-developer (www.ownboquete.com), who says he only spent three weeks in the US in 2006.
"You can really live there," he says. "It's got community resources, good health care and very reasonable prices."
