An article in the American magazine Forbes has recommended to readers that a search for a second home should include Mexico, Chile, Colombia or Brazil.
They are the “four best places to buy a house abroad in 2019” because of “the current strength of the dollar is creating opportunities in some of the most attractive places in the world to have a home.”
The magazine highlights the revaluation of the dollar in the last 12 months against the Brazilian real (16.5 percent), the Colombian peso (6.1 percent), the Mexican peso (5.5 percent) and the Chilean peso (7.8 percent).
“Mexico is a big place with a bad reputation,” Kathleen Peddicord writes while also highlighting the country’s coasts, mountain towns, colonial cities, Mayan ruins and nature.
In Brazil, Forbes proposes buying on the coast, both in large cities such as Rio de Janeiro and in smaller towns such as Florianopolis.
In particular she recommends Maceió, the capital of the state of Alagoas, on the east coast between Recife and Salvador de Bahia.
In Colombia, the city of Medellín stands out, which the writer represents as an opportunity both for investment and retirement.
“I predict that in five or seven years, when you say ‘Medellin’ to an average American, he will think: Retirement,” she writes while warning about bureaucratic restrictions and high taxes.
The writer, a former International Living editor who owns the Live And Invest Overseas website, singles out Mazatlan, on the Pacific coast, as a well-priced option with beautiful beaches and Spanish-colonial city center.
Finally, Forbes highlights Chile as the nation where it can be easier to settle for expats and retirees because of its highways, communications and high standards of living, as well as for its prosperity, security ,and stability.
In this fourth country, the publication recommends the coastal town of La Serena, in front of Santiago de Chile, which it describes as a “great and modern city” but with “high levels of pollution.”
But it’s Mexico that she describes as “the most accessible refuge abroad from the United States.” She says that more than one million Americans already reside in Mexico, and half of them own their own home.
Sources: The Los Angeles Times, Forbes, via the Mazatlan Post
