By Rudy Matthews

Overall, Costa Rica cost of living is positive but it depends on your lifestyle. Recently there has been quite a few articles written about how expensive Costa Rica is. Certainly the price of gas here and any goods imported have a higher price than where imported from. Costa Rica Restaurants that are medium to upscale are not cheap and hotels have to understand that pricing by person is not giving anyone a special deal for sure .The cost of food seems very comparable to the states and if you decide on American brands you will pay more - local brands are cheaper. New and used cars are expensive and if you bring a car in, the import tax can be a factor. There are probably many more points of expense to discuss but a friend and I were talking about the subject of expense and came up with some interesting points.

By Ivo Henfling

Who knows what a Costa Rica condominium is really all about? Our real estate company has a wide selection of condominiums for sale in Costa Rica.

My webmaster has complained that I should write more about real estate and tell you less stories about the holes in the roads in Escazu or about the Bishop of San Jose trying to confess the citizens. Therefore, you will find more blogs about real estate related issues than ever before. But I promise, I will try to keep them informative as usual.

By Ivo Henfling

One of the best things I've ever done for myself: Lasik eye surgery. When you move or retire  to Costa Rica, you migth want to do yourself a favor and see if you're a candidate for Lasik Eye surgery. Costa Rica offers lots of medical tourism, and you can get yourself new teeth, new eyes, new eyelids and many other new " things" for yourself at half the cost of what it would cost in the US or Europe. Costa Rica medical services are very much up to date, as the following blog will show you.

I've used glasses since I was like 9 or 10 I believe as I had myopia. I always hated it. I've always done lots of sports (I know, you wouldn't tell right now) and nothing worse than having to use glasses. As a kid, I've broken plenty. How can you expect from a kid who is invited to a soccer game on the street to tell his friends to "hang on, I need to go change glasses".

By Ivo Henfling

Costa Rica Real Estate,The Catholic Church, getting dunk during Easter and confession. You´ll ask yourself what this is all about. Well, real estate in Costa Rica went on vacation as all city realtors were at the beach and all beach realtors in San Jose. I tried to get hold of an couple of real estate attorneys for clients on Monday, but to no avail.

I'm born and raised Catholic, but that's about all the religious effort I will ever make. During my first years in grade school, the teachers would keep track of the Sundays we would attend mass. I've found early in life that religion doesn't do anything for me. I'm happy without, though I believe there's a God, whatever his name is. My first wife spent her days praying, while forgetting about her husband and children, so I got enough of that. I like eveyone to have their own believes and not to bother me with it. I'm sure religion does a lot for many and I'm happy for them.

By Ivo Henfling

Everyone is talking about how much tourism got hurt with the 2009 - 2011 world crisis. Surprise! Costa Rica does not seem to have any problems as San José shows empty and everyone seems to be at the beach. During most of Easter week, San Jose is like a ghost town.

This means there is still money in Costa Rica, unless everyone is using his credit-card. Dany and I used to go to our apartment in Jaco Beach during holidays like this, but since real estate developers Joshua and Jerry ten Brink of Desarrollos Naturales got slam dunked by the banks, we have not been able to use our apartment for exactly one year now.

By Ivo Henfling

Great service, delicious food and easy to find location

When you plan to do your Multiplaza or Pricemart shopping around lunchtime, you need to take the time to stop by Sole Mío, an Italian Restaurant located 500 meters south of Multi Plaza in Escazu (that means going toward the Paco, or my office).

Dany, my wife went several times with her group of girlfriends, so I asked her to invite me the other day and she did.....

By Ivo Henfling

This week, Daniel Langlois, moderator of a forum on Yahoo called CostaRicaCentralValleyLiving asked me to reply on a small discussion some people were having.

I checked it out and though it a very interesting issue and as most of you know, I love to reply on a variety of issues, but mostly when I think people are sooooo wrong..... :-)

It went like this:

Posted question: Anyone know if $159k is a good price for a property in Grecia with a river
running through it and is on a mountainside? The property is 4800 sq meters and
is on a paved road at edge of town- thank you

by Ivo Henfling

Sometimes I get the comment that realtors only tell about the "good news" and never about the bad news. I don't think there is no good and bad news, its just news. If you watch the news on TV, most of it is murders and stuff, which shouldn't give us a reason to even want to watch it. In this blog, we (that's my agents and me), try to tell you a bit about what is going on in our community, "good or bad".

I have reported about the water company A y A putting in huge water pipes and covering the ditches, which will create a mess in the next rainy season. For those who don't know this road, it is called "calle vieja", which stands for "old road", which is an important artery as it connects downtown Escazu with the highway and downtown Escazu with Santa Ana. So hundreds of cars use this road daily. See in this pictures below how they covered the storm ditch and left behind the mess. And this is what today's story is all about.

By Isabelle Jones

SOLD - SOLD - SOLD. Now that I just posted a blog about yoga classes a couple of days ago, I'd like to stay in the same mood and tell you all about this incredibly beautiful Bali style estate I just listed a couple of weeks ago.

Linda and Fred, the owners, have built a Bali style home in Atenas before and Linda, a home made interior designer with a great flair for tropical Asian style architecture and design, has had lots of fun building this mansion.

By Isabelle Jones

Now you finally retired and you have all this time on your hands. You've already been to the Farmer's market on Friday and you go twice a week to the gym I've recommended in another blog. You can of course go play golf every day as Shell recommended but you also need to do something for the mind, body and spirit now that you have the time to do so. If you are living in Atenas or the surrounding areas like Grecia or Palmares, we just found you some entertainment. Even Escazu is only 20 minutes away.

Leah MacLauchlan hosts and guides yoga classes on her open air platform on Mondays, Wednesdays and Friday mornings from 7 a.m. until 8:30 a.m. She has been a yoga certified instructor for 3 years but has been actively involved in yoga for 10 years.  It is a beautiful way to begin your day in a breathtaking setting.  Leah incorporates breathing, yoga postures and exercise in her 90 minute classes. Drop-in classes cost 2,500 colones per class or 20,000 colones per month.

By Isabelle Jones

One of the reasons that people really enjoy living in Costa Rica is that the fresh fruits and vegetables taste so much better in Costa Rica than they do back home. The reason for this is that Costa Rican soil is volcanic and we say here "you stick it in the ground and it grows".

Everything grows better, faster and more tasteful here. The fruits in Costa Rica are amazing and so are the vegetables. That's why so many expats love to go to the Friday farmer's market in Atenas.

By Rudy Matthews

I share with you comments that I hope will be informational and helpful concerning Costa Rica Real estate to you, family and friends . My comments are based on my personal perspective of the Real Estate market here in Costa Rica .
 
Not too long ago I was at a meeting with a few people and one person stated " When The Boom Returns To Costa Rica " I questioned what criteria he used to make the assumption and why he thought this would happen . He did not have much substance to go on . Let me be the first or last person to tell you - the boom is over here in Costa Rica and many other places in the world .

By Shell Johanson

In a recent blog, I told you all about a listing I have in Los Arcos and about Los Arcos de Heredia in Costa Rica, explaining about this beautiful area and about how close the golf course of the Cariari Country Club is.

COURSE   PAR 72 - YARDAGE   6590 -  SLOPE 132 - RATING 71.9  

Today I would like you tell you a bit more about the Cariari Country Club and specifically about golf in Cariari and the golf course. Some other day, I will tell you more about all the other amenities that the Cariari Country Club has to offer it's members, like tennis, swimming and some others.

By Ivo Henfling

When the ower called me asking to list his property in San Pedro Poas, I wasn't really interested because of the distance I'd have to drive from Escazu. But when he described the property, I wanted to see it. And it was well worth the drive. Its only like 30 minutes from the International airport Juan Santamaria and 20 minutes from downtown Alajuela.

The drive is an easy one, either through Alajuela and by Barrio San Jose or taking the road to La Garita (by Zooave and Martino Hotel) all the way up to Barrio San Jose. Once you hit the seafood restaurant "La Princesa Marina" you turn left and at the famous "Las Orquideas" Bed & Breakfast turn right and then up till you get to San Pedor Poas.