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Over the past year or so France has been having a fire sale on property. We have been in the US due to CoVid19 restrictions on travel and just as glad to be here in the PNW. The key to living somewhere "far away" is to be comfortable there. Not $wise but you as a person feel good about being there.
If you speak the language that is a very helpful thing but you can learn easily while living there and people will help and laugh with you. Except for cities the countryside in many countries is very inexpensive and if it is close to a rail line you can do all the shopping you wish in town or take the train to a major area. On your checkoff list should be age of property, a reliable agent and running water. You'll be surprised who $250k can buy you...but
He also had a home in a nice coastal area. Did he choose to stay there since you think it's supposedly safe? That's a BIG FAT NO. Obviously, his experience and therefore opinion is significantly different than yours.
He is disgruntled because his big ranch and making waves caught the attention of local thugs. I never said his ranch is safe since I don't know anything about it, what I objected to was you implying retirees need to be careful not to run afoul of drug cartels in Mexico. Your evidence that retirees face problems was drug carts was an article you read about some wealthy guy who is buying up land, being an activist, running a large business, etc. which clearly isn't a retiree.
The overwhelming majority of expats are just fine, you bringing up some corner case ranch owner activist and implying it exemplifies problems expats face is just naive.
Where did you live in Mexico again? Anywhere, or just expertise by reading this guy's rant online?
Who the heck would want to live in Europe when you can live in the greatest, most powerful, most advanced nation in world history?
I've heard many reasons from people who have lived in both and prefer Europe, the most common being work/life balance and worker protections. "Greatest" is subjective, living within the borders of the most powerful doesn't necessarily equate to happiness, and advancement of USA versus other developed countries isn't really relevant to day-to-day living. China is far more powerful than Austria, do you think that means people in Austria would rather move to China? Nope. Does the USA being the most advanced mean people in Belgium are missing out on some key components to happiness? Nope. Nod to the mighty garbage disposal.
USA is a great country, offering the most opportunity (IMO) and outstanding cultural and geographic diversity. Anyone born in USA got lucky right out of the gate. It has so much going for it, and on the subjective "greatest" yeah I'd probably put it #1 on my list. That said, pondering who would rather live anywhere else demonstrates either arrogance or naivety, likely a combination of both.
It seems like it's mostly liberals who extoll the virtues of Europe, so why don't they move there en masse? Those of us who prefer the traditional American way of life can stay here, and bring things back under control.
I am still waiting for those liberals to leave the USA when Trump became president.
Over the past year or so France has been having a fire sale on property. We have been in the US due to CoVid19 restrictions on travel and just as glad to be here in the PNW. The key to living somewhere "far away" is to be comfortable there. Not $wise but you as a person feel good about being there.
If you speak the language that is a very helpful thing but you can learn easily while living there and people will help and laugh with you. Except for cities the countryside in many countries is very inexpensive and if it is close to a rail line you can do all the shopping you wish in town or take the train to a major area. On your checkoff list should be age of property, a reliable agent and running water. You'll be surprised who $250k can buy you...but
Get to know the culture 1st.
Absolutely. Do NOT be an "ugly American" by moving to a foreign country and then expecting everything to be like it is in the US. It won't be. It's THEIR country. You adapt to THEM and THEIR culture, not the other way around.
This reminds me of liberals who flee blue states to red states and then complain endlessly that things are different in the red state and work tirelessly to change things in their new home state to reflect the politics and policies of where they came from, never recognizing that they're changing their new home into exactly what they hated enough to flee. Idiots.
Over the past year or so France has been having a fire sale on property. We have been in the US due to CoVid19 restrictions on travel and just as glad to be here in the PNW. The key to living somewhere "far away" is to be comfortable there. Not $wise but you as a person feel good about being there.
If you speak the language that is a very helpful thing but you can learn easily while living there and people will help and laugh with you. Except for cities the countryside in many countries is very inexpensive and if it is close to a rail line you can do all the shopping you wish in town or take the train to a major area. On your checkoff list should be age of property, a reliable agent and running water. You'll be surprised who $250k can buy you...but
Get to know the culture 1st.
Your observations about finding some smaller cities in France also applies here in Germany. I live in what I believe is the most inexpensive medium-sized city in Germany, where there are thousands of vacant apartments available at reasonable prices. I did a search on apartments of at least 50 square meters (about 520 square feet) and above, that have a monthly base rent of no more than 500 Euro (almost the same in US dollars) and under. I got over 2000 results (sorry web site is in German). Many of these are nicely renovated apartments, and usually quite clean.
Anybody that wants to live in Europe should start off as a renter, and spend a year or two in a place to make sure they like it for the long term. Medium-sized cities can be almost as low priced as small cities when you add in the easy access to services, good transportation, entertainment and amenities.
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