Azores forum < moving to azores

  • Re: My 2 cents(5)

    posted by Deleted user in Azores forum 

    David,

    Thank you so much for your interesting, friendly and welcome "2 cents"!
    I enjoyed reading your take (on the subject of 'moving to the Azores') very much.
    And it is exactly what I had hoped: that there are a variety of islands within the Azores, so there must be a variety of environments and people, different degrees of warmth and/or receptiveness to visitors or new residents, varying amenities (be they progress and technology, or spartan and simple) etc.
    And I also understand the things that sadden you, as well: too much progress can be a bad thing if the very things that made a place charming and unique in the first place become that which is 'updated' (ie: replaced by the newer, more improved way of life). And I have witnessed the property values rocket skyward, in just the two or three years I've been researching the Azores. A quaint but well-appointed (ie: MODERN and quite habitable, but sans upscale things like swimming pool, wine cellar, garages, chef kitchens, etc.) cottage of 2 bedrooms/1 bath east of Sao Miguel by just a few easy miles was going for around $47,000 USD the first time I looked at its listing, a little over 2 years ago. Now, even the RUINS properties are going for well over $150,000 USD, and you couldn't TOUCH that little cottage I spoke of, now, for less than $200,000. THAT saddens ME. ;-(
    So I've instead resigned myself to looking at apartment rentals, and have been stunned to find those went up, meteorically, too (from around $250/month for a 3 room to over $700/month now for the same).
    Several years ago, a friend of mine watched this happen to BULGARIA, of all places. He was getting ready to dive in, buy an $11,000 property (very liveable 3 bedroom country house, some small repairs, mostly cosmetic, and on almost 4 acres with several outbuildings, near the Turkish and Greece borders to the west) but he hesitated, waited a few months to get some things in order, and then found the Seller had turned around and sold it for THREE TIMES THAT to a couple from Germany (STILL a bargain! but an indication something was happening, and it was happening FAST...).
    I think this is the case all over the world right now. People, in general, are looking for a better life, even if across the world, simpler, less complicated and as far away from political war gamers as possible.

    At any rate. I'm still convinced this is where I'm going to live, to spend this half of my life at (the Azores), simply because the CLIMATE and relative isolation appeal to me, and my health, at this point of my life (no 'millions' of people, complicated over-funded/under-staffed agencies and organizations and all the corruption and woes that go with all that in America). As much as I love my country, its sheer size and increasing unrest has made me yearn for a 'home away' from the cacaphony and unrest.
    If the end of the world were to come one day, in the next few years, I'd much rather be somewhere smaller, reasonably-self-sufficient, than a country with several billion and the potential for huge areas of civil unrest and disaster... It's not the 'end of the world' I'm afraid of: it's the PEOPLE I'm living amongst, that I'd be afraid of.
    Anyway. I'm rambling now. ;-)
    Thanks again for your post.
    I STILL have the question about my cats, unanswered, though. Is there a problem, in the Azores, with my bringing with my three indoor (healthy, spayed/neutered, etc.) cats with me?

    Shea

    I thank you for your honest and friendly post. ;-)

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