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*About us: Caribbean Real Estate e-Magazine features articles on various islands and countries in the Caribbean basin, providing you with general background information, regulations and fees regarding foreign ownership of real estate and a review of current prices and investing climate. By doing the leg-work for you, we help maximize your investing efficiency - allowing you to focus on the Caribbean destination(s) most likely to give you what it is you desire. Our goal is to do remotely for you what might take you years and countless trips to accomplish. THIS WEBSITE HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED AS AN IMPARTIAL INFORMATION SOURCE TO ASSIST PROSPECTIVE REAL ESTATE INVESTORS IN ASCERTAINING THE POSSIBLE OPPORTUNITIES AVAILABLE IN THE CARIBBEAN BASIN. WE ARE NOT A REAL ESTATE BROKER, REALTOR, MORTGAGE BROKER, BANKER NOR ANY ONE ELSE WHO IS TRYING TO SELL YOU ANYTHING OR EARN YOUR BUSINESS.*
WHY THE CARIBBEAN? (1) Despite recent slow-downs, properties in United States coastal markets have appreciated substantially in price, moving them out of the range of affordability for most buyers (e.g., condominiums in Florida routinely command upward of $500/s.f. and in Southern California, higher still); (2) Many investors would still prefer a real estate investment to perceived risks in equity markets or low-yield bonds while the American real estate market is undergoing a period of correction (some refer to it as a "bubble") - and being in the Caribbean/outside the US market will make the investment less subject to US cycles; (3) Currently, the overall US market is soft with rising inventories, longer holding periods and fewer housing starts. By way of example, it is now common in coastal Florida areas to see fully zoned projects sold, as pre-sales of individual units did not meet developers' (or lenders') expectations. Contrast this to triple-digit growth in many Caribbean basin areas;
(4) The rising interest rate environment means that prospective buyers will be able to afford "less" than before - e.g., each percent increase in interest rate on a $500,000, 30-yr fixed mortgage raises the monthly payment by 10% or, viewed another way, each percent increase in rate can be estimated to equal $50,000 "less" buying power for the same payment; (5) Aside from Hawaii (and to a degree the Florida Keys), there are no US-domestic locations with the year-round, consistency of air and water temperatures offered throughout much of the Caribbean; (6) In terms of value for the price, many parts of the Caribbean offer unrivaled location, size and features when compared to similar US locations (imagine $25,000 for a sea-view acre of land - it's not fiction);
(7) When weathering a difficult housing climate, waterfront and water-view properties offer considerable security as they will always be in demand and offer incomparable value-added features to other homes/land - i.e., they should be last down and first up in corrective cycles; (8) There can be tremendous financial advantages to Caribbean offshore property, including a number of islands with no capital gains or property taxes or no state income taxes for US residents of the US Virgin Islands; (9) If a second home/rental home investor's greatest fear is being stuck holding a property through a protracted slump in real estate markets, it should be much more appealing to hold Caribbean property - either as rental or for speculation. After all, it will be far more enjoyable to use (i.e., would you rather be sitting-on a 3/2 condo in Chicago or one in St Thomas during a soft market?); and (10) There exists tremendous diversity in terms of topography, climate, demographics, history, population and ecology throughout the Caribbean basin. By way of example, you have Spanish or French-speaking countries, rainforests, coral reefs and atolls, Mayan ruins, truly third-world areas, volcanoes, and myriad other unique qualities from country to country or island to island, which you cannot find domestically in the US.
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Copyright 2007, 2008. |
