Over the Last Year, Our Scouts Have Been Scouring the Globe in Search of The Best Beachfront Properties for Sale at the Lowest Possible Prices.
We’ve Identified 20 Little-known Beach Towns that You Need to Know About Now!
A motorcycle-loving, rock-n-rolling free spirit…a former surfer from Huntington Beach, California and a die-hard beach lover. That about sums up Mike Sager…or so he says.
But there’s something else you should know about Mike. He escaped the rat race… and the hard-scrabble life, where he was working hard every day and barely making ends meet.
In California, Mike put in long hours as a mail carrier. He lived a few miles from the closest beach, but rarely had time to go there — and when he did, he had to get there early to stake out his piece of sand before the crowds arrived.
Fortunately, Mike no longer has to worry about making his way to a costly, crowded California beach. Because today he lives in the picturesque fishing town of Olón on the Pacific Coast of Ecuador. His home is smack-on-the-beach…no housing projects or boardwalk…not even a road in front of it. He walks out the door and his toes hit the sand. A few steps more and he’s at the water’s edge.
“Olón is just north of Montanita, which is considered to be Ecuador’s surfing capital,” Mike says. “It looks incredibly like Huntington Beach—the water’s warmer—but it’s got that great surf and similar clifflines.” Though Olón is popular with surfers, Mike (who sticks to boogy boarding and body surfing nowadays) says it’s perfect for all swimmers. “The beach is one of Ecuador’s prettiest—no cross currents, and a gradual incline makes it safe. You could walk out a hundred yards and still be in waist-deep water…the surfers have to go out further.”
Mike’s home is no beach shack, either. It’s a well-built, two-story home with three bedrooms and two-and-a-half bathrooms. The upper floor has a covered balcony facing the sea…this is where he hangs his hammock. Downstairs, a long covered terrace is the perfect place to watch sunsets and strum a little guitar in the evenings.
How much did this idyllic home on the beach set him back? He paid just $50,000.
Sounds pretty incredible, doesn’t it? But believe me, there are plenty of properties out there just like the one that Mike bought. All you need to know is how to find them.
That’s where we come in. This last year, we gave our scouts – our writers, correspondents, and global real estate editors – a challenge: to go out and find the most attractive beaches in the world — but we asked them to only report on the ones that offer the best property buys on the market today…
…And They Found the Best Beach Buys on the Planet…
Seriously, our crew trekked up and down the coasts of Mexico, Central and South America…countries with arguably some of the best beaches in the world. They traveled literally thousands of miles of coastline…visited big cities and small pueblos…and apparently ate a lot of fresh seafood according to expense reports. (I can’t complain, though…$3.50 for a mound of camarones al ajillo (shrimp sautéed in fresh garlic and olive oil) with a side order of rice and a salad doesn’t upset me…just makes me jealous. Those $1 beers, though, are pushing it!)
When I read the reports that started coming in, I was more than envious. Especially when Roving Editor Lee Harrison told me about the beach house on an island in Brazil he’s buying for himself.
“The house has 2,034 square feet) of living space,” Lee said, “plus features like porches, a garage, etc. It has three bedroom suites (each with its own bath), a winter garden inside…and it’s right on the water.”
Lee is one of the most frugal guys I know, so I steadied myself as I asked how much he paid for it. Still, I wasn’t prepared for his answer.
“Thanks to a favorable exchange rate of the dollar against the Brazilian real,” he said, “we paid $62,300.”
Are you kidding me? That’s less than my cocky attorney friend in Omaha paid for his BMW last year…a car so small I can’t fold myself into it…a car that won’t even hold its value into next week!
Needless to say, I wanted to hop on the first plane out and go see all of these beach towns and properties for myself. And I plan to do just that when my schedule allows.
But until then, I have a job to do. And that job is to share the information our scouts uncovered with you.
And to that end we created a Special Report called 20 Beach Towns Where the Dollar is Still King. In it you’ll find all the information you need to track down beach bargains like Mike Sager and Lee Harrison found.
In the report we name 20 beach towns where you can get the best value for your dollar… beachfront houses for less than $100,000…lots for $20,000, on which you can build your very own dream home in paradise.
And don’t worry, these are not places that are dangerous, rat-infested, or miles from civilization! They just happen to be in countries where, for various reasons, your dollar will still go far.
Take Brazil for example, with its very favorable dollar/real exchange rate…or Ecuador, where the legal tender is the U.S. dollar but prices are like the U.S. of 50 years ago or more. (Could you buy a house on the beach in Huntington Beach in 1959 for $50,000? I doubt it. But you can buy one today in Ecuador. And frankly, I’d rather be in Ecuador…I know firsthand that a couple can live very well there on $1,000 per month or less!)
In truth, I’d happily live in any of the beach towns listed in our Special Report. A couple of them are major resort areas where you can go sport fishing, golfing, hiking, horseback riding, boating, surfing, scuba diving, snorkeling…
One holds the title of the world’s second greenest city (according to the UN), thanks to almost 1,300 acres of rainforest within the city limits.
Another, says one of our editors, reminds her of Panama City 10 years ago, back before the current real estate boom and the sky-high prices.
And no worries, if Panama is your place, we’ve got you covered. We tell you where to find a 3,000-square-foot beach house for just $65,000. There are only a few foreigners living in this welcoming little beach town, and that means you’ll find some of the lowest property prices in Panama.
Here are a few examples of some of the properties we found:
- A two-story house on a tropical island, accessible from a beach lane only, with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and loads of potential. With a swimming pool in the back and the ocean out front, how can you go wrong? From your porch you can enjoy the ocean breeze, and watch the fishermen bringing in their catch. Price: $84,000
- A fifth-floor condo of 1,500-square-foot, with two bedrooms and two bathrooms. The home has great views of both the bay and the ocean. And it’s in a city that has it all—nice beaches, shopping, and wonderful waterfront restaurants. The asking price? A negotiable $70,000.
- Brand new waterfront condos on the country’s best stretch of beach, with two bedrooms, two bathrooms…built around a nice pool. The prices quoted by the developer start at $33,000.
- Want to build your dream home? We’ve found 1/4-acre beachfront lots starting at $20,000 – two of them on an internationally renowned surfer’s beach.
By the way, we don’t just profile the best beach buys on the planet in this report, we also provide the contact information you need should you decide to follow up on any of them. We give you phone numbers, websites, and e-mail addresses.
So how can you get your hands on our new Special Report, “20 Beach Towns Where the Dollar is Still King”?
Well, I’ll send it to you – at absolutely no charge. All I ask in exchange is that you take a no-risk look at our monthly magazine, International Living.
I owe my (new and stress-free) life to International Living!
“I owe thanks to International Living. After reading what they wrote about Ecuador, I booked a ticket. The rest is history… I paid $50,000 for my beach house in Olón. If you could find a home like it in Huntington Beach (even now with the crunch there) it would cost at least $800,000 ….only 16 times what I paid for my place and a whole lot more people on the beach in front of the house than my place. Peace and tranquility….priceless!!!”
Mike Sager, Olón, Ecuador