International Living Sunday Edition

Sunday, Oct. 12, 2008

Dear International Living Reader,

Petroleo Brasileiro is about to help Fortaleza, Brazil, condo owners with their occupancy rates.

Brazil’s state-controlled oil company plans an $11.1 billion refinery half an hour down the coast.

According to Ronan McMahon, our friend over at Pathfinder, “This new oil plant will process 300,000 barrels of oil a day. Something that big takes a long time to plan and build, and all the highly paid executives involved are going to stay in Fortaleza during the next decade.”

Ronan is the guy who opened up Fortaleza for his Real Estate Trend Alert readers, and he tells me he has other early-in deals that his readers will have first shot at in this booming Brazilian beach area.

Colombia is supposedly the home of the legendary El Dorado, a lake of pure gold. They haven’t found the lake, but they have cracked down on leftist rebels enough to open up Colombia’s very real gold fields.

Colombia will produce 1.463 million ounces of gold this year...twice what it did before the government went on the attack against the guerrillas six years ago.

Here’s hoping the new production makes it past the vaults of market manipulators and into the hands of the rest of us.

It’s hard times for everyone...and even harder times for Mexicans working in the U.S. and sending money back home.

Remittances going back to Mexico from workers who couldn’t find Mexican jobs are drying up, helping spread the pain of the U.S. financial crash even further.

The flip side is that fewer illegal immigrants are heading north. Apprehensions have fallen by 78% around Yuma, Ariz., and more than 60% around El Paso.

For the first time in nearly a decade, the number of migrants entering the country illegally was lower than the number arriving through legal channels.

Mexico Insider Editor Glynna Prentice is watching the situation closely.

Here’s another one from Ronan McMahon for all you new condo owners in Fortaleza, Brazil:

“Flying from the U.S. to our favorite Brazilian city will get a whole lot easier from December,” says Ronan.

“In August I told Real Estate Trend Alert readers that the U.S. and Brazil had agreed to increase the number of flights between the two countries by 50%. Most importantly, for those of us invested in Fortaleza, this agreement allows U.S. carriers to serve five new cities in Brazil, including Fortaleza.

“Delta has moved fast. Starting Dec. 22 it will fly to Fortaleza from Atlanta. Not quite direct...the flight will go via Recife. Nevertheless, you’ll save 3.5 hours on the current Atlanta-Fortaleza route...and I believe a true direct flight is just around the corner.

“In Europe, this trend is dubbed ‘The Ryanair Effect.’ As soon as budget airline, Ryanair, announces a new flight route from one of its hubs in northern Europe to a destination in southern Europe, real estate prices immediately increase.”

Stay healthy and happy,

Dan Prescher
Publisher, International Living