How about in the bay of San Juan del Sur or on Balboa Avenue, Panama City? The results, from a revealrealestate study carried out in August 2008, are below:

Is this what you would expect?

Ambergris Caye, Tamarindo, Panama City (Balboa) and San Juan del Sur are prime real estate areas. Each tops the table for tourism and real estate investment activity for their respective country.

San Juan del Sur and Tamarindo are similar in character and geography (dramatic coastline and sweeping bay) but Tamarindo has better infrastructure links (less than 1 hr to Liberia international airport) is more established as a vacation destination (less than 1 hr to multiple golf courses) and Costa Rica has been on the second home investment map for decades.

You might expect Ambergris Caye to rank higher but Belize seems to be often overlooked as an investment market. Balboa Avenue is one of the most sought after addresses in Panama City. The price per sq/ft is higher than on Punta Pacifica or Costa de Este, although the gap is narrowing. Coronado and the San Carlos/Farallon area, 60-90 minutes from Panama City, are more your classic beach destination. These come in a little lower at around the $240 sq/ft mark.

You’ll find regular commentary on real estate markets in Costa Rica, Panama, Nicaragua and Belize in mainstream press. But it’s Costa Rica that racks up the highest amount of coverage on the blogosphere. Costa Rica has been a destination for vacation home buyers for decades and is now home to an impressive array of hospitality brands. The other markets are newer and at an earlier stage in their development cycles.

The image counts the number of real estate blogs per country according to Technorati.com, the blog search-engine. The results broadly correspond to the relative number of online searches for real estate. It’s a useful proxy for the maturity of, and buzz around, the different real estate markets.

Our goal is to help real estate investors make smarter decisions by providing valuable data and information.

Costa Rica, Belize, Panama and Nicaragua have all come onto the radar of international real estate investors. But there is an information gap that we are planning to fill.

We’re working behing the scenes to provide the hard and soft market information that investors need. Armed with this information, investors can take action with more confidence.

We are in beta at the moment and will provide updates during the second half of 2008 as we start to build out the site. We don’t want to start with global coverage that feels in-complete. So the first phase will focus on Costa Rica real estate, Panama real estate, Nicaragua real estate and Belize real estate.

And don’t wait for one breakthrough launch. We’re going to be adding layers of information over time as we compile and analyze the data and build our network.

Could we be witnessing the beginnings of a green movement in Nicaragua real estate?

On a hillside a few kilometers south of San Juan del Sur on Nicaragua’s Pacfic coast, a green community, completely off-grid, is being born.

A team from Earthship Biotecture (gurus in green building from the US) and a local Nicaraguan crew have joined forces to build the first Nicaraguan Earthship - a house made out of all recycled materials that generates its own energy, recyles its own waste and harvests its own water.

A day-to-day property construction blog is being written and we are currently on Day 24.

If you are interested in the green movement or green real estate of any kind - this is something to watch. In the words of Dave Kniffen:

Developments happen everywhere, so we’ve made a choice on how we are going to develop. If we don’t do it this way, someone else will do it their way. Maybe our way helps the local community, instead of using them to help ourselves. Maybe our way is a little better for the environment than the conventional build. At the end of the day though, it’s a logical decision.

We live in a world, especially in Nicaragua, of limited resources. A sustainable home gives you total freedom and independence. The decision to build or live in an “off grid” home is not moral, it just makes sense. Who you rely on is who controls your life.

Create your own electricity, capture your own water, treat your own sewage, and grow your own food and then you are not talking about ideals of independence or freedom, you’re living them.

Read more about Dave’s vision for this green real estate community and help spread the word.

The National Association of Realtors released a report this month that pulls together data and trends on Americans living abroad. This kind of data is hard to come by making this white paper an important contribution to the field.

Download the paper here.

The data does not include Americans still living in the US who have bought second homes and investment property abroad. This number is likely to exceed the number who have moved abroad.

Belize offers some of the most affordable Carribean real estate in the region.  And some of the properties for sale are magnificent.  Have a look at this private island for $650,000.

Click here for a Video Tour

Central America continues to attract investors and tourists alike.  But not all countries have the same pulling power. 

The graph below shows which countries rack up the highest number of searches for real estate online based on the generic country-followed-by-real-estate search phrase.  As you can see, there are more searches made for “costa rica real estate” than for “el salvador real estate.”  And every day the search term ”belize real estate” is typed into search engines more times than “guatemala real estate.”

The results that underpin the graph above are for July 07.  But the trends have stayed the same for a number of years.  Perhaps we will see the numbers of searches for “Panama real estate” and “Belize real estate” catch up with “Costa Rica real estate.”  At the moment though, Costa Rica is the leader for real estate searching online.

There are over 100 real estate developments dotted along Nicaragua’s Pacific coast.  Most are located in the southern part of the coastline between El Astillero and the border with Costa Rica with the fishing town of San Juan del Sur emerging as the major investment hub for the region. 

The “Tola Riviera” lies within this southern stretch slightly to the North of San Juan del Sur and is home to some of the oldest and most established beachfront projects.  See the links below from Coldwell Banker Nicaragua for location maps showing the major developments.

Map of real estate developments south of San Juan del Sur
Map of real estate developments San Juan del Sur and to the North
Map of real estate developments on the Tola Rivieria

Further north lies Nicaragua’s Central Pacific Coast.  A stretch due west of Nicaragua’s capital city, Managua and closeset to the international airport.  A number of high end real estate developments are taking advantage of this strategic location.

Map of real estate developments on Nicaragua’s central Pacific coast

The real estate opportunities available in Central America span a range of risk / reward profiles.  There is real estate on offer to suit different investment goals.  Properties that are good candidates for short term capital appreciation exist as well as properties in lower risk environments with the promise of an immediate rental income. 

Of course there are markets within markets so the graphic provides only a general representation of relative position of the country as a whole. The Costa Rica real estate market is the most mature, Panama and Belize real estate represent classic middle markets - not quite emerging and not quite developed - with Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador and Guatemala at earlier stages of the development curve.  We plan to dig a little deeper and highlight the relative positions and profile of different real estate areas within each country.  More on this to follow…

National real estate associations exist for most counties in Central America.  And, given the sharp growth of real estate investment in the region, these bodies seem to be getting more active. There are some big ticket items on the table not least the question of licencing, code of ethics and ultimately (maybe) development of an MLS.   The associations are as follows:

• The Costa Rica Chamber of Real Estate (CCCBR), Costa Rica Global Association of REALTORS® (CRGAR),
• Camara Salvadoreña de Bienes Raíces (CSBR),
• Asociacion Nacional de Agencias de Bienes Raíces de Honduras (ANABIR),
• Camara Nicaraguense de Corredores de Bienes Raíces (CNCBR),
• Asociacion Panamena de Corredores y Promotores de Bienes Raices (ACOBIR),
• Camara de Corredores de Bienes Raices de Guatemala (CCBRG)
• Association of Real Estate Brokers of Belize
• Federation of Real Estate Associations of Central America and the Caribbean (FeCePAC) - an umbrella organisation that ties the other bodies together with a focus on integration and networking.

The recent activity is a good sign.  The FeCePAC and CNCBR conference held in Managua, Nicaragua last week had a strong turnout with some key action steps to take for more regional integration of real estate approaches and standards.  We were also pleased to see the recent announcement that the Association of Real Estate Brokers of Belize will be working together with the government to establish a code of conduct and general property industry standards.   The US National Association of Realtors (NAR) currently has bilateral agreements with real estate associations in Costa Rica, El Salvador, and Panama and is affiliated with the Federation of Real Estate Associations of Central America.