And now for something completely different, returning to the subject of the thread. My wife is always trying to get me to buy real estate in her country of Origin, Peru. Strangely enough real estate in an of the barrios where a gringo can even live is just as or more expensive as real estate here in most middle class areas. Worse still it’s almost all condos. I scratch my head every time I see asking prices; knowing nobody in the local economy can afford that. Certain areas it’s just gringos and Peruvians who emigrated returning with USD. Other more natively populated areas are cheaper but still ridiculous when you start looking at income to price ratios.
Partly as I said before I think it’s because of demand for land in the capital. Partly I think materials are more expensive. Partly I think that when your currency is really unstable you invest in real estate as a hedge and families seldom let things go. Inherently that creates a supply problem which would tend to drive prices up.
