To all you various apologists for CR, I think each side is missing the point.
First for all you live-like-a tico advocates, VB raises some good points. While it is certainly true one can avoid the worst of the gringo-caused price creep by living like a Tico, most of us are not going to want to live in a typical tico bario, which is significantly poorer and more crime-ridden than most of us are used to or alternatively go to the more remote but less expensive communities to get away from the excesses of SJ. That doesn't mean we have to go completely the other way by loading up on familiar brand-name but espensive imported goods and living in "Gringozu" (I never heard that nickname before but love it). But to the extent we want to live reasonably close to SJ (or the beach) where we can walk around after dark, in something more than a shack and treat ourselves to some imported luxuries, we will find the prices going up.
Besides ask most Ticos and they will tell you that even Ticos can't live like Ticos used to live. The problem of the squeezing of the middle class is just as severe and probably more so in CR than it is back in the US. For them it is not so much the big things but all the little things that add up. The recent rise in taxi prices is one example of that. Longer lines at budget-squeezed public health facilities is another example. I'm not saying these forms of inflation are due to Gringos bidding up prices but it still exists.
The most extreme example of gringo-caused price inflation is with the cost of beachfront property in most places around CR, even places with only relatively modest homes. One of the big advertising pitches for would-be gringo retirees is the prices charged for beachfront property vs. what it would cost back home. Its still much cheaper than in the US, but due to gringo buyers prices are increasing rapidly and is now out of the reach of most Ticos. There are beach areas that are comparatively less expensive (e.g. Playa Flamingo vs. Dominical). But as prices shoot up in Flamingo, more and more gringos search farther afield and even beach properties near Golfito increase in cost. If one compares the average cost of a beachfront property in CR to what it cost even just 10 years ago, one will see the prices are going up significantly everywhere. It doesn't matter much whether you're a tico or a gringo, you're going to have to pay much more for such properties than you used to.
In the Central Valley, the most egregious example is Gringozu but as more retirees come down and get sticker shock when they shop around such traditional gringo enclaves they also look in other nicer areas such as Rohrmoser, Sabana Sur, Bario Dent, San Pedro or even further out in areas around Heredia, Alajuela even out to Atenas. R.E. prices in all these areas have also been going up significantly and can be expected to go up even more as more gringos arrive.
This brings me to my next point. Comparing one community within CR versus another only camouflages the fact that prices are going up significantly everywhere in CR. Of course, it is much worse in the some places than others. But look in any given place and you will see that the prices are higher today than they were for similar places in the exact same area just a few years ago.
VegasBob wrote: To me one of the highlights of living here is the wonderful lifestyle the you can enjoy for less money than a much lesser lifestyle would cost in the States. Sorry, Bob, but that argument sounds suspiciously like the rationale some gringos use when they pay CIEN/HORA at the BM. The point is not what it costs compared to the US. The point is what it costs now compared to what it used to cost HERE. AND what its GOING to cost not so far down the road when even more gringos such as yourself make the jump to CR and continue to bid up prices using that reasoning. I don't think costs will ever catch up to the US, so you're probably right that it will always be cheaper than the US. Part of that is because there are other factors or trade-offs that make it less desirable for most gringos to want to live here even with the cheaper prices. But as long as many gringos do move here and are willing and able to pay higher prices, the cost of living will continue to "chase" that in the US.
BTW, VB, I pay $22/mo for my gym membership here in the US (and from what I've seen of PT's in CR, they're pretty useless)
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