There is plenty of cheap land out there but you won't find it using a real estate office. Last year I bought 2 lots a little north of Dajabon , one for 100k DOP and the other for 180k DOP. Yes they are out in the country a ways but they have water, electric, and cable available. You need to get out and look or have friends that can look for you.
- Thread starter InvictusMD
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Cost of Living in the Dominican Republic 2011
There is plenty of cheap land out there but you won't find it using a real estate office. Last year I bought 2 lots a little north of Dajabon , one for 100k DOP and the other for 180k DOP. Yes they are out in the country a ways but they have water, electric, and cable available. You need to get out and look or have friends that can look for you.
No, actually I travelled... Grenada, Tahiti, Austrialia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Guatemala, Haiti, Puerto Rico.....
But I had been planning to relocate for thirty years
Costa Rica would be my second choice to here...... but it gets too hot on the Nicoya Peninsula and too far to get to the beach from San Jose.
I do not know how you can judge whether a place will suit you by asking strangers whom you do not know.
You have feel comfortable in a place.....
As for the cost of living... there are folks who say that it can be done on $500 a month.. others who say $3000,, but most will agree that $1500 for two will get you a decent North American lifestyle.
Costa Rica is the one I try to fet info about. I've been there in a resort for a week, end of December, very hot around 29C. Arid compared to DR, but I think much safer than DR. To continue with comparison: houses much more expensiv for a lower quality (I find them quite ugly)
What can I tell you, I cannot afford to travel around the world and stay in every country to see if it fits, I ask first.
I have been reading a lot of different ideas here on how much it costs to live in the DR. I think it all comes down to how you want to live. I think if you want to live as you did in (for example) the US, I think it will cost more in the DR. then in the states. If you want to live the "Island Life" it will be considerably cheaper. For example, I help maintain my girlfriends mother. ( I am told its my honor to do so??) this women has her own house so she does not pay rent. Her three sons each give her around 1000 to 1500 DOP monthly. I pay another 100 USD monthly . From what I can see she lives on about 200USD a month. This pays her phone ( land line, no cel ) water, cable, (TV only , no internet) electric and food. She is also on some medication which is another expense for her. Granted this not cover emergencies. But day to day living costs. I am not saying I want to live like her but what I am getting at is you can live on 200USD if need be. Can you live on 200 USD monthly in the States ? I doubt it. From what I remember that would not even pay your real estate taxes. I am guessing that a single person can live for about 500USD monthly ( with out rent) . It all depends what you want to do. In general things are less expensive, but not all.
Today is your lucky day! I am also a mother, and only require 50USD a month! In return you will be provided with the satisfaction of knowing you are providing support for a fellow human being!
Fair trade.
I disagree.. I live much better here than I did in the States for much less. It is the rent/re tax that killed me in the States.. and the price of medical insurance, and the maintaining the car and the insurance.
You can live here on $500 a month excluding rent..but there are lots of folks who live on that in the US as well.
But I cannot imagine any message board in the US (or England, or France or Germany) where folks would be talking about having the "good life" at $2k a month.. Surviving, yes. But living well, with all you want to eat, and good services.. no.
In the US, I think that you do even worse because of the high medical costs.. but I may be wrong since I have not lived in Europe.
We had an old thread here about moving to the DR on a low budget.. and the OP asked whether we should encourage folks who had less than $1000 a month to move here. Most posters,as I recall, kept coming on and saying "no" .. you will run into trouble and not have a way to get out of it, you will be forced into the public health system, and .. finally.. you will end up a burden to the rest of the expat community.. Well, perhaps that is our motivation in sticking to our prices.. we do not want to have to subsize you, to front you rent money, to pick up the bar tab
OK, show of hands here... are there ex pats here who have NOT helped another foreigner who was in strained financial circumstances?
I understand your point. I did not mean to suggest that someone on a fixed income of 200 or even 500 dollars with nothing in reserve should plan on moving and living in another country. I just meant that you are able to meet the basic requirements ( 3 hots and a cot ). I still don't think that's possible in the US unless you are content with eating Ramen noodles ever day. :ermm:
I understand your point. I did not mean to suggest that someone on a fixed income of 200 or even 500 dollars with nothing in reserve should plan on moving and living in another country. I just meant that you are able to meet the basic requirements ( 3 hots and a cot ). I still don't think that's possible in the US unless you are content with eating Ramen noodles ever day. :ermm:
The USA/Canada/Europe/Australia/NZland,All Have "Systems" In Place For the "POOR"...
and those in need of assistance.
The DR has "Family"!
If you don't have "Money",or a "Family" in the DR,DON"T COME!!!"
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and those in need of assistance.
The DR has "Family"!
If you don't have "Money",or a "Family" in the DR,DON"T COME!!!"
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I have been reading what you write for a while now and though you make many valid points we must or should I say understand that everyone has their right to choose their level of comfort. There are some that spend $5000.00 like some spend $50.00 Can we honestly judge and say because they bought an import that they are wrong? On that I disagree. I do agree with being responsible in taking care of the world we live in in order to have something to pass to our children. Maybe you grew up with a lot of money and turn your back on that spend-thrift way but some choose that way of life and the wonderful thing is that we all have a choice.
It's that simple. No one can tell how the little details of daily life somewhere will affect another.
A good litmus test for cost of ex-pat living requirements is savings (from my Dad).
"When you can't stash away at least 20% of your gross income, it's time to move on."
:cheeky:
I've found that yanandu makes much more sense when you read his posts in this voice:
[video=youtube;-mF6dCD8n2E]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mF6dCD8n2E&feature=related[/video]
I have to agree with you. The land terrain, the environment, the sheer size of the DR can not sustain all 20 million or so inhabitants of Hispaniola to live a 1ST world lifestyle. I remember speaking to a Dominican professor of OEM and he told me that Hispaniola was constructed to allow a comfortable life for only 2 million inhabitants. The indigenous people probably knew this and it perhaps played a role in their population size.
The DR is too small to allow anything else. You can see the effects the population is having on the environment. Most live poorly and yet water is in shortage affording most just a trickle every other day. Even, if many reading my post disagree, we must all agree there is a physical limitation to which Hispaniola can endure. Any population amount over that number will degrade the DR into an environmental catastrophe. I mean, it's not like Hispaniola can chop down every tree and divert every river without it having serious consequences.
Rivers are diverted for hydroelectric purposes, for agricultural purposes, etc. Many riverbeds are exposed. Large tracts of land have been stripped of forested areas in exchange for produce and food for cattle. I don't believe this is sustainable. It sure is a serious problem as long as we seek over gratification over the environments sustainability. As long as we believe that we can seek our comfort without realizing our individual and collective responsibility to the environment, we are seeing a bleak future indeed.
Good observations.
I've commented before that every area has resources able to take care of a finite number of people. That number may be zero.
I use the phrase "rats in a cage" to demonstrate what you say. Assume a cage has finite resources (food, water and sanitation): there is a point where incremental population reduces per capita resources and increased competition for scarce resources causes disorder and chaos as societal rules collapse. Cannibalism, literally, is the end result.
Humans don't like to think of themselves as rats, understood. It's just that on a different scale we exhibit similar reactions to scarce resources.