Housing Project

Today on the way into town Dr Ortiz takes us through a housing project. You  have to prove financial need to qualify for government housing. Otherwise a 2.5 acre piece of land here without a house on it costs about $50,000. Pretty good by US standards, but the average schoolteacher here makes around $500/month and a physician starts out at $3,000/month. That being said rent is very cheap costing something like $200/month for a 2 bedroom home, usually with a spectacular view. Then again you are living in a town with 3 restaurants, 2 grocery stores, and where the nearest movie theatre is a 3 hour drive away. Like many of the roads in Costa Rica, the one winding through the neighborhood is a disaster. Raw materials for concrete must be shipped in all the way from San Jose which makes it very expensive to make a paved road. This particular neighborhood has a school. And of course it has a Casa de Salud (more on this later)

So anyways that $50,000 is tough to come by in a town with minimal industry except coffee production. Once the land is gifted out and the concrete foundation poured, electricity wired, and plumbing plumbed the raw materials for the house are dropped off and the neighbors all pitch in to build the home. Just like the Amish. And cheaper than hiring a construction crew, of course.



The houses are all of the same construction: a concrete slab with wood or concrete frame, synthetic paneling and a tin roof. All single story. Most have cars parked outside. A few have some vegetables or flowers growing nearby. ALL of them have potable drinking water provided by the government free of charge. Likewise electricity with the corresponding network of poles and cables overhead. In fact the percent of Costa Ricans who have potable water and electricity is something like 98%. That's pretty amazing when you consider that the terrain here is rainforest/jungle with mountains and frequent flash floods.

Local gradeschool

This lot with this view is for sale for just $48,000