Best place to buy a house in retirement - NYC.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Layout the numbers for buying and renting and expenses and I'm sure investors can make heads or tails if it makes sense. If you are willing to landlord it might be better to take that $100k and dump it elsewhere in the US where you can generate a lot of return on investment. Do it where I see people here buying under $100k properties that rent for $1000+/month. Very high rates of return.

I think the risk is still there and hinging on more money. Also I think it might be different to carry a property with high potential returns versus one that you may have to help carry.

[clatoden99]

Depends on your level of toleration for things not American. For low cost, good weather and tolerant locals popular retirement places for Americans include Mexico, central America like Costa Rica, Panama and Belize. All have large expat english speaking communities. Housing and food is much cheaper than US. For the more adventurous try Bali, Thailand and Vietnam though property ownership is complex. If you have more money and want a western culture, New Zealand, Spain and Portugal have large retirement communities of Americans , Brits and Canadian.

Do your research on their financial systems. Some countries tax you on money transfers and deposits, ie Social Security. Others have no or little income and capital gains taxes. You will need to convert your US generated income into local currencies and if you are an American citizen you still need to file your income taxes annually.

Also, examine health care systems. You can get global health insurance to cover you in other countries. Medicare and most US base health insurances either won't cover anything or just emergency care.

[snafu]

Most Americans are unaware of the huge medical/dental international tourism industry. The international rich and famous retain anonymity at the famous Bumrungrad Hospital in BKK where a majority of surgeons have credentials from Mayo Clinic. It operates more like a five star hotel. Dental tourism in Costa Rica offers a resort and adventure tours with dental implants for a reasonable cost. Costs seem even more reasonable because of inflated USD.

[Nika]

I lived abroad before and quite enjoyed it. Currently I spend close to two month out of they year abroad (between vacations and work).

I've had some experience having to get medical care in Asia and Europe, and it is nowhere as expensive and a lot less hassle than in the US. US is only better if you need a cutting edge treatment for a rare condition AND you have stellar insurance or lots of money. If you are in NYC AND have stellar insurance, and your fetus needs rare in-utero surgery of which 4 a year are performed country-wide, than it is the best place to be. If you just caught pneumonia, than going to a British trained Dr. in Hong Kong, you will have no wait, polite staff, and pay $50 for a visit, and that includes your antibiotics, which will be given to you on site is much nicer.

My idea is not to buy abroad, but use the rental income to rent in different locations each year, while having a back-up base in a stable and desirable rental market of NYC. You can live really nicely on 5K a month in a beach town in Viet Nam (a lush villa with a servant), and fly to HK or Thailand if you need some kind of more serious medical care.

Again, not buying this now. Just preparing positions for that option. Never would I buy a 100K place on the east coast. I don't know if it is different in the south, or middle of the country, but 3+ hours or so from NYC, the only places you can get for that price are in economically depressed, pretty horrible areas, with horrible section 8 tenants (anyone else who is "normal" and lives anywhere in that area, could easily afford to buy).

My MIL owns properties and manages them, I observe her and I would never call real estate "passive income". She spends incredible amount of time dealing with them. Going to court, dealing with tickets (garbage, recycling, sweeping), dealing with tenants, dealing with construction companies. It is not passive at all, it is a lot of stress and a lot of work. If I ever go a rental route, one unit in an expensive area with a high income tenant (the ones that can afford 6K+ rent usually know how to function in society, hold on to a job and pay their bills) is a way to minimize these problems. Still, dividends are a passive income, real estate is NOT.

[LivingAlmostLarge]

Does it cost a lot to get a unit that that would throw off $6k/month? I would expect it to be quite a bit.