Michael: Location, location, location

The moon at sunrise
Is more of a phantom than
It is at midnight.

Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2015

Real estate in Panama works just like any other place in the world. Fortunately for us, we don’t want to live in what’s considered the prime location in Panama: Panama City where building a house would be upwards of $80 a square foot.

We like it here in the highlands. On the net I’ve read building costs here ranging from a much more reasonable $40-$50 a square foot. Boquete, being the town with the most ex-pats, is pushing the high end of that spectrum, while on our side of the volcano would be a little less. But even at $50 a square foot that would make a 1,000 square ft. home a reasonable $50,000 to build here in Volcan. As an adult, I’ve never lived in a place with more than 1,000 square feet and I’ve always felt I had enough space. For me, It’s much more about the layout, sound, light and location than it is the square footage.

Like most people, our resources our limited, so where to build our house is going to take some time and luck to figure out. We could get more land for our buck if we’re willing to slide down the hill a bit and head toward the ocean. For example, we’re going to look at land in Cuesta de Piedra, which is about 10 kilometers down the road from us. Because it’s about a 1,000 ft. drop in altitude the temperature rises from an average low at night in the mid 60s to the mid to upper 80s during the day. It’s also not as populated as Volcan so therefore doesn’t have as many conveniences or well stocked stores. We’d have to make a drive into Volcan at least once a week.

 But what we’re really hoping for is to get lucky enough to find a decent sized lot that fits our requirements where we’re at in Volcan. I’m just going to have to temper my enthusiasm and be patient. But I can’t wait to start building a home I helped design.