Panama Retirement : Hot Off the Press- "Timing of Panama"

Panama Retirement Now

Panama :

"Get Ahead of The Game. Invest in Panama."

Panama retirement: Panama- One of the top 5 Caribbean Destinations
National Geographic Traveler, 2003


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Panama retirement: “The Skinny on Six-to-Die-for Second Home Destinations-Your Piece of Paradise”
Conde Nast Traveler October 2004

Panama is the new Central American bargain where the US dollar- the market currency- goes a long way. A former gas company executive spent a year and a half researching a retirement spot with his wife before settling on a 2.4 acre lot on a beach resort near Coronado. “We wanted a tropical place with an ocean view in a politically and economically stable country” he said. “Panama just kept coming up.”

Panama retirement: How To Retire Abroad
Newsweek, March 14, 2005

A trend that demographers say will only increase as baby boomers start cashing their Social Security checks: Americans are retiring in other countries where the prices are low and the living is easy. Hot spots like Costa Rica, Panama and Belize look like Florida circa 1970.
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Janet 51 and Newton Osborne 68The Osbornes had been thumbing through retirement community brochures from all over the U.S. when Newton, a professor of obstetrics at Howard University, considered the possibility of retiring in Panama—the country where he was born. "There are certain advantages to Panama," says Osborne, who has lived in the U.S. for 45 years and is planning to retire in the next few months. "I won’t have to shovel snow, and I won’t have to pay property tax for the next 20 years." So in 2001 he took a trip to visit both a coastal and a mountain community. He chose the latter and brought Janet to Boquete a few months later to look at property. They purchased a lot on a hill overlooking a golf course and have built a three-bedroom white-stucco house with a red-tile roof (total cost: about $250,000). "You can hear the sound of rivers here," says Janet. "It’s very peaceful."
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"Using places like Panama City's TocumenInternationalAirport as a regional hub instead of Miami…It is just one way in which Panama is taking advantage of thepost-Sept. 11 environment to help itself -- usually at the expense of Miami. The small isthmus nation, normally off the radar of international travelers andinvestors, also is luring banks that want to protect back-officeoperations from terrorist attack and is pitching itself as a safe but friendlyport-of-call for businesses as diverse as cruise ships and call centers.Panama's historical ties to the U.S. and its relatively large number ofEnglish speakers -- 14% of the population -- also make it anattractive alternative to Miami."

Panama retirement: "Nicaragua, Honduras, Panama Vie to Be the Next Florida"
The Wall Street Journal, June 2004

"The quality of life, the cost of living is a lot better" than the U.S., says Mr. LaFoley, 56 years old, who owns a shopping center in Massachusetts.Countries like these are rolling out the welcome mat to Americans with a variety of financial incentives. The LaFoleys, for instance, are in Panama on a pensionado visa similar to what is available in Honduras, which lets them live there after proving they have $500 a month a piece in income. Panama also lets retirees import a car tax-free every two years, import $10,000 of household items tax-free, and buy property tax-free if it is the owner's only home.

Panama retirement: A Budding Affection for Boquete
Los Angeles Times, November 2002
On the mountain town of Boquete: "Far from the monotony of the historic canal, this endearing and little-known town in the cool, lush Panamanian highlands boasts a wild bounty of colorful flora, fauna and scenery. A contributor to the San Francisco Chronicle, my hometown newspaper, wrote about a Panamanian Shangri-La in the cool highlands of Chiriquí where there were rushing trout-filled streams, a lush mountain rain forest, abundant orange groves and coffee plantations, and a picture-postcard town chockablock with flower gardens. This idyllic place, the writer went on to say, was known only to the well-to-do of Panama ... we too had become smitten with the place.

An Eco-Mission in Pristine Panama“Panama is calling to Preserve Its Edens”
The New York Times April 2005
Story about members of New York’s cultural elite who are relocating to Panama to work with Yale University and the Smithsonian Institute for Tropical Reseach to restore native vegetation to its original state.

Beauty and Tax Breaks Lure Buyers to Panama
New York Times, February 2005

Little wonder that Panama is increasingly lighting up the radar screens of those searching for an affordable alternative to more traditional south-of-the-border retreats in Mexico, Costa Rica and the Caribbean, where escalating prices increasingly rival those along America's own beachfronts.

Touted as the "next Costa Rica" by travel magazines and newsletters like International Living, Panama is undergoing a land rush as its Tocumen Airport fills with planeloads of eager foreigners with cash in hand.

Yet despite the price increases, property here remains a fraction of what one would pay for similar real estate in the United States. And with enticements like a 20-year suspension of property taxes to those who build houses or renovate in a historic district, and an income tax hiatus for those starting some small businesses, the opportunities are appealing not only for those seeking a place to retire but also for entrepreneurs.

At least that is what Douglas Lonneker, 39, and Gloria Esguerra, 28, are counting on. Eager to spend a few years in a foreign country before their 2-year-old child is old enough to go to school, the couple recently bought, as an investment, development property in the western highlands near Boquete and in Bocas Del Toro along the Caribbean Coast, as well as an apartment in downtown Panama City, where they plan to live full-time. A real estate investor and stock market trader, Mr. Lonneker was attracted by Panama City's thriving business community, including more than 100 international banks and a tax-free manufacturing zone, as well as a technological sophistication, including high-speed Internet service in his new apartment. "Everything works," he said. "And because it's a financial center for Latin America, it's easy to establish banking relationships and locate money managers and accountants. You don't get that in places like Costa Rica."

Then, of course, there is the lure of Panama City's urban lifestyle, including a young, hip population and a bevy of good restaurants, bars and nightlife.