Costa Rica Real Estate, from Coast to Coast, the Right Way!!!

Hail to Heredia

By Jack Obrean, who is a long time client of Xinia Salazar

Development-wise, Escazu and Santa Ana have already had their day in the sun, driving up prices, of land of building and rentals and therefore of everything else required for living, so that by now investment in those areas is largely by those who figure to buy now and sell later at a thumping profit. But that’s a pretty risky assumption, requiring nerves of steel and loads of time, more suitable for gamblers than retirees.

This is why it is now time to sing the praises of Heredia, where you don’t have to be millionaire to buy or rent and remain without the constant prospect of being driven away by relentlessly increasing prices and taxes. But this claim requires justification, so let’s talk a bit about how and why developers first concentrated on the southwest side of the Central Valley.

It is undeniable that the town of Heredia lies on the lower slopes of long extinct volcano- Barva, and like the say, once a volcano, always a volcano. In point of fact, even if Barva again became active in some distant future, the prevailing wind from the northeast would ensure that ash and scoria would fall on Alajuela to the southwest and not on Heredia, and the lie of the land would conduct any lava flow in the same direction. Nevertheless, when choosing a site, prospective homeowners are on balance likely to prefer a simple hill to the slopes of a volcano, however quiescent and however far away. That is why savvy developers first choose Escazu and then Santa Ana, and since the homeowners when they came were largely well-off Americans, we have a little America already established there, with malls and boutique shops and services on the U.S. model, further attracting North American house-seekers.

But little old Heredia has not stayed on the sidelines. Now we have malls and supermarkets to rival anything on the south side, a super new hospital is getting ready to open, a prestigious University and, above all, much lower prices than the Escazu, Santa Ana areas. Needless to say, Heredia to will eventually price itself out of the property market, and we shall have to think about developing further and further away from San Jose and the Government offices which we must visit from time to time. So now is probably the very best time, the window of opportunity which in a few years will close forever, to get in on the ground floor of a development boom.

HAVE AT IT!.

This article was written by Jack Obrean, who is a long time client of Xinia Salazar in Heredia. When you are looking for someone to help you find your new home in the Heredia area, feel free to contact her. She lives, loves and breathes Heredia and lives there herself. Xinia has been a professional real estate agent for over eighteen years.