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I swear, in the last few weeks here in Miami, I have come across a half dozen people who I find are planning to retire to Costa Rica: The car dealer salesman, my ex next door neighbor whom I hadn’t spoken to in a few months, a customer, A Customs inspector and two other people with whom I held an informal friendly conversation at the marina. I hope they are all just daydreaming because if they are not, I fear it may get crowded down there by the time I make the move.
Don’t you fret! The US will put immigration controls in place within the next ten years so that people will have to apply to retire outside of the us – FOR YOUR PROTECTION. So Costa Rica won’t be as busy as your thinking
That an the detention centers there building in the US is all part of the plan to keep us Gringos well and truly secure. Ha!
And for those of you who think that as fine upstanding patriots wont have to worry bout this stuff? YOU – the ones who believe in the Constitution, the REAL patriots – YOU are the one who will be placed in the detention camps first,
In the 80s very few people knew about CR in the US and many thought I was talking about Puerto Rico and now just about everyone has heard of it here and in Europe. Not to mention that there should be another wave of interest coming in from Asia now that China has linked itself so closely with CR. In spite of CR’s ever growing popularity, the recorded expat population is still only at about 2% (not incl the Nicaraguan people) of the national population. Sure, there are a lot more “unrecorded” expats and expats that come to CR only seasonally, but there are still many places that are not crowded nor overly developed. Besides, from everything you have posted, you don’t want to come to CR and become part of an elitist enclave so you should feel very much at home once you land. I’m sure the locals will soon treat and care for you as another neighbor because your intention is to enjoy their country & way of life and you don’t come trying to impose something on them…Those that think CR is just a cute resort country or just a bunch of easily manipulated group of people akin to the ‘banana republics’ of the past either must stay within resort walls or soon realize that they are not in Ticolandia and adjust or leave. Costa Rica has wonderful aspects and other things that we, as expats, may not be accustomed to, but are well worth the trade offs. It’s not what some may expect so there are some that change their minds once they live in CR for a bit and prefer to return to their familiar places than adjust — Everyone should expect some adjustment time and if you’ve come to CR knowing some of it’s everyday shortcomings and it’s philosophy on life (as it seems), then you should be fine–I actually have to adjust every time I come back to the States (lol)…
I read that about 40% of all expats return for good to where they came from after a few years. Others never really become full time residents and visit CR as an extended vacation place. I have no idea what the perfect mix of foreign nationals to natives would be for my tastes. I am just concerned about crowding more than anything else. In the last 25 years here in Miami, I have seen a depressing transformation happen before my eyes. The long lines in traffic and crowded state and national parks and beaches and the ensuing pollution has just been heart breaking to watch.
I hope my CR property can keep the rural ambiance it has right now. But I am only about 20 minutes out of San Ramon and every time I go back, there is more development and more land for sale…and more north american faces all over town.
Would someone PLEASE give me the source of this information – “about 40% of all expats return for good to where they came from after a few years” – because until it is shown to come from a reliable source, I will continue to insist that it’s just pulled out of thin air…
Scott Oliver – Founder
WeLoveCostaRica.comI remember reading this too in a book about relocation to CR. Also, I have seen it in internet articles They are not substantiated by any source at all. I do have friends that have two friends of theirs who have relocated to CR. They are still there, and I believe, have been for more than 10 years.
I think some authors put the statement in their books and articles to reinforce the thought that by reading their book, or publication, you will have all the information necessary to permanently relocate.
If you make the commitment, and do the research to permanently move, usually you will put in the effort, and adjust in order remain. If the total is more than 10%, I would be surprised. Family, health and other considerations would have to be factored in as well. Why would 40% go through all the preparation of relocating just to pack it in “if” it didn’t work out? Doesn’t make sense.
Hey Scott! I’m not sure that you’ll find any reliable source to back-up the 40% figure. Much like most of the info about Costa Rica including real estate prices, Expats living in CR, and folks working illegally… it’s nothing more then an educated guess. I don’t even know what data you’d use to come up with a realist defendable figure. I’d say it’s a pretty good guess however, but no different than that of folks that relocate for the wrong reasons, don’t do their homework or move with unrealistic expectations. Living in New York we see many folks relocate south (Florida, Georgia, and such)… and my experience is that darn near 40% come back in a few years not finding what they’re looking for! They miss friends and family etc. or find that all the “reasons” they relocated having followed them. Costa Rica is no different. I’ve seen a number of folks come and go over the years! Many not doing their homework or complaining that CR was not the states! DUH! 🙂
Let’s see what your members think about the 40% figure. I’ll vote that it’s pretty close!
Imexploring, I don’t know where that 40% figure comes and I have never seen it in print, but it’s obviously a number that gets used often and I wouldn’t imagine putting a number on it for many reasons–it would truly be a difficult number to quantify. However, the 2% expat population that I mentioned comes from the last census completed in CR. Of course, like I mentioned, this will not include those expats living in CR on “extended” tourist visas (in & out every 90 days),all of those that just live there seasonally nor does it include the Nicaraguan population which is the largest expat pop living in CR. I agree that there must be a good amount of people that just “fall in love” with CR, move w/o doing their homework and then become disenchanted and move back, but also like Alfred mentioned, there are those that for other reasons (such as medical) are forced to go back to their original countries.
I imagined population growth and movement of population into and out of Costa Rica would be a hard number to pin down for a number of reasons, hence the the reliance on anecdotal evidence.
Scott is in a business where he would have at least a feel for such trends if they exist.
The relative cost of real estate is dependent upon the movement of people. The problem with having a “feel” for a situation is that our feelings are heavily influenced by desires, hopes and fears and other personal interests. Have you ever noticed that once you are interested in a particular car model, you begin to see that model everywhere? So, of course, I take anectdotal evidence with a large grain of salt. But having nothing else to rely upon, opinions begin to weight more heavily. I think there has been a decidedly large increase in North Americans looking into the Central Valley for retirement in the last year…and it feels like it is snowballing.Edited on Mar 04, 2008 04:49
I, too, have read this figure someplace or another, and I, too, am highly skeptical. We’ve been here two and a half years and we’ve been in touch with a pretty substantial number of expats living here. In that time, I’ve encountered a total of one who was planning to return to the U.S. He had advanced multiple sclerosis and would soon need nursing home care which he could not obtain here.
So let’s do an experiment. How’s about everyone who actually lives in Costa Rica or spends considerable time here cite those whom they KNOW to have returned to their home countries even if, like the man with MS, you cannot name the name. If the figure is anything even remotely like forty percent, we should be able to develop enough of a list to begin to substantiate it. Otherwise, we can conclude that it’s a number pulled out of thin air or elsewhere.
BTW, isn’t it interesting that these figures always come out to an even ten percent? Thirty-six percent of expats don’t leave; forty-two percent don’t. It’s always forty point zero percent. Odd, huh?
So, the list of known instances stands at one . . .
We can gather a list David, I personally know of 6 people including myself due to my daughter’s medical needs, but that has been over a 26 year period–I couldn’t give you a per year number and that info would still be anecdotal since we don’t really have a baseline to compare it to. Not even the census really takes into account all of the expats currently living in the country because there are so many that live there and still don’t have their legal status formalized which might not have been taken into account in the census. So there’s a response bias and how would we determine that percentage? Per year, as of a certain date, based on the total number of expats that ever thought they would move there/actually lived there (How would we ever come up with that number?) or based on the total number of expats that applied for residency? Costa Rica has historically been a bridge environmentally & for populations, but we keep talking about US citizens so would we only consider US expats? It’s really a very difficult number to assess because even if they took into account the number of expats who have had residencies that they let lapse/or gave back who left the country, etc. it still doesn’t include the fairly large group (I speak anecdotally of course) of expats that start out and sometimes remain for many years in CR NOT as legal residents, but who certainly live there and some may choose to go elsewhere after a while. Not to mention, that if we’re talking about retirees, the age bracket alone would require that we consider mortality rates since some may have “left” CR not for their country of origin, but for even further horizons…Of course, I’m no statistician, but I would assume that this task can be accomplished in spite of the limitations. I agree with you, I also don’t believe that it has been done in any formal way in CR and that it’s more of a gut feeling that some people have perpetuated….In any case, I guess now the list stands at 7… 🙂
No need to be to exact on this. Rebaregon has 6, David has 1….out of how many total?
I think an informal count can be tallied and only those expats who decided to leave for the specific reason that they didn’t like the conditions enough to stay should be counted. This is, after all, the only reason a count like this would have any value to those who are considering a move.
I have a brother who moved to Ireland 5 years ago. He is still there but warns me constantly of “surprises” that one never counts on when moving to another country. The specifics he lists seem inconsequential to me..things such as not finding a store open on Sunday or not being able to find peanut butter. Personally, I don’c consider these things, no matter how many compile over time, to be sufficient to make staying ina foregn country too uncomfortable.
But people are funny….very funny. I have read numerous postings by north americans who gave reasons for not liking CR which seemed just plain silly to me. I get the impression these people are never meant to wander too far from the place where they were born and have lived all their lives.Sprite, that’s the point, out of how many? Well, based on what? The issue is that it happens and it doesn’t seem to be corroborated (unless someone can bring up a study done on this). In any case, your original concern wasn’t about the people that left CR, but about the number of expats moving in and whether you would start to feel it was becoming overcrowded like what has happened in your hometown…I can most assuredly tell you, it’s a lot more crowded now than it was back when I fell in love with the place (80s) and it will probably be a lot more crowded in the near future (lol)– People become intoxicated with CR and I can certainly understand their passion, but just like a torrid romance, things don’t always work out for a million reasons and the things that originally made you fall in love with the person/place later drive you mad….Take good care!
good point and one which I consider a lot. Passion can either be long lasting or short lived. All outside factors a side, “Know thyself” might be the salient point here. So far, nearly everything for which I have developed a strong passion has been long lived and I have stayed with them…my wife, sea kayaking, a love for dogs and several other things including Costa Rica. As long as Costa Rica remains faithful by staying beautiful and simple and attainable, I think I will stay connected.
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