The Daily Soak - November 17

"Pura Vida": Costa Rica Emerges As Florida Alternative

In his stand-up routines, Jerry Seinfeld used to talk about his aging parents who moved to Florida because..."Well, it's the law." The Herald-Tribune validates that mentality in the days when "Florida was just a given...the place you moved to at a certain age to enjoy a daily dose of sunshine, a cheap house with palm trees and a pool, low taxes, plentiful local food, and a light-hearted sense of adventure." Now that those days are officially over, Latin American destinations like Costa Rica and Mexico are gaining market share of U.S. retirees and aging Boomers. 72-year-old Carlos Torres left Miami in 2002 and retired in Costa Rica buying a 4-bedroom house for $94,000. Carlos explains his decision, "I love Miami, don't get me wrong, but it is expensive as hell. My limited income with my Social Security and some investments I had saved-I could see that the money could go a hell of a lot further than in the States."


141 West Palm Condos Might Be Bought for 50% Haircut

According to Alexandra Clough at the Palm Beach Post, a buyer may have come forward to purchase the remaining unsold inventory at The Whitney Condo in West Palm Beach. Units in the mid-rise originally sold for around $300/square foot, but only 69 of the original 210 units were sold. An interested buyer may be willing to pay $26 million for the remaining inventory of 141 units. That translates into a purchase per unit of $184,000 per unit or only $150/square foot. In the same column, Clough reports that struggling Palm Beach-based restaurant franchise, R.J. Gator's, is ready for the auction block once again. The current owners bought the franchise out of bankruptcy just 14 months ago. Six franchisees have filed a separate lawsuit claiming the current owners switched the restaurant's theme from a "sea grill" to a "sports bar."


Dwellings + Simple Online Bookmarking = Dwellicious

Pete Cashmore at Mashable gives a review of a new real estate tool and website set to launch next January. According to Cashmore, Boca Raton-based Dwellicious will allow you to "add a bookmarklet to your browser and click it when you see a real estate listing you like, anywhere on the web. Unlike generic bookmarking sites, Dwellicious is optimized to work with Century21, Coldwellbanker, Frontdoor.com, Har.com, Homes.com, Realtor.com, Redfin, Remax, Rentals.com, Trulia, Yahoo Real Estate and Zillow." And Cashmore adds, one of the biggest enhancements over social bookmarking sites like Delicious.com, "Dwellicious knows where to grab the data from on these pages, and bookmarks all the relevant info with ease." The site is currently in beta testing but Dwellicious will launch on January 7th 2009 at the Inman Real Estate Connect Conference in New York City.