This may be more an opinion than a factual question so I’m putting this here instead of GQ-
A friend’s mother wants to retire and is considering going to Europe or South America. What would be an idea country where she could purchase a house and land very cheap, preferably without the presence of guerillas or revolutionaries? G Also, it’s preferable that it not get too cold or too hot, but remains temperate? The presence of an U.S. community would also be a plus.
Oh. I thought this was going to be “Pick a country that needs to be retired”. I was going to go with French Guyana, because what the hell is that all about?
Unless she has EU citizenship, he will have a hard time getting anything other than a tourist visa to most European countries, which typically wouldn’t let her stay for more than 6 months at a time.
I don’t know about the Americas.
Lima has mild weather and all the amenities.
Some places will give you a visa if you can show significant income and not need to work. IIRC Spain wanted us to prove we have $70K/yr in income from outside Spain. France was a bit less, Germany a bit more.
Uruguay has similar (and cheaper) requirements as does Panama (not quite S. America tho).
So, Desert Nomad, sounds like you have lived in a variety of places. What country would you recommend to the OP?
The “not too hot or too cold” makes it a bit harder. I have lived most of the time in the Czech Republic and UAE. One gets really cold - one gets really hot (which is why we did summers in Prague and winters in Dubai for a number of years). One year for various reasons we had to reverse that - not too fun!
Spain might be doable - you can find places that are not too expensive (lots of Brits leaving) and a moderate/slightly hot climate. If you can prove income it should not be too hard.
Other places I would consider are South-West Turkey and Argentina. Finding an American community is going to be hard… Americans don’t get out much, but if she’s ok hanging out with Brits, Aussies and South Africans, it might be ok.
If she’s never lived overseas, be prepared for a year of culture shock and difficult times - everything will be different and things that are easy at home (e.g. getting a dishwasher fixed) will seem very difficult in comparison. Does she speak any other languages?
Aside from visa/immigration and language issues, I think she’d struggle to find ‘very cheap’ in most desirable parts of Europe.
I know folks that swear by Croatia. Cheaper than Italy or France, but with a beautiful Adriatic coast and good weather. Pretty quiet since the last Bosnian conflict died down.
Anywhere in Europe that I would want to live in is much too expensive. At the rate the US is borrowing, it is likely to get worse. Just let China get nervous and start cashing its markers.
From all I’ve heard, Costa Rica may be the best. Trouble is that retired people are likely to have to worry about medical care. For me, if the medical care were more reliable, I might choose to live in Barbados. Wonderful people, wonderful climate (however, they do have mosquitoes and some dengue fever). But not much in the way of music, however.
We went on vacatin to the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico last summer, there was a noticeable ex-pat community there. Where we were (Carribean side) ISTM it’s more Canadian and European but it is English speaking. It was cheapER than a major US city, but not, you know, pennies on the dollar cheap. But, they seemed to have a very stable infrastructure, relative to other parts of Latin America.
Actually I’m now realizing you asked for South American, not Latin America. Honestly, I’m not sure you’re going to find all of these in the same place:
Going by the people they show on House Hunters International, Costa Rica, Belize, and Mexico are the usual suspects for Americans retiring abroad. However, as sugar and spice points out, once a bunch of ex-pats move there, the prices go up.
The real question is what the OP’s mom is looking for and how much adventure is she willing to undergo. Does she just want a turn-key property and neighbors that speak English or can she be more adventurous? Also, would she be okay living in the city, or is having land a must?