“Central America” and “great golf courses” haven’t exactly gone together like chocolate and peanut butter, despite all the opportunities for scenic vistas and locations next to the sea. Mostly this has been a matter of economics since the local demand wasn’t there and the stream of upscale tourists wasn’t dependable enough.

In some places the situation is improving though in the lands south of Mexico and La Reunion outside of Antigua, Guatemala is a great example. We just posted a review of La Reunion Golf Resort in our luxury Guatemala hotels section. Even if you’re not a golfer, how about that view in the picture here? If you’re a golfer, can you think of any other place where you’ve teed off having a view of four volcanoes? Nice.

“Its designers, Pete and Perry Dye, gleaned inspiration from the Mayan Solar Calendar, which consists of 18 twenty-day months. Each of the course’s 18 holes is named after its corresponding month on the Mayan calendar. The 19th month, Wayeb, is a five-day month dedicated to rest and contemplation and so makes a fitting name for the bar and restaurant. Facilities include a driving range, putting green, chipping green, practice bunker, and pro shop. Incidentally, Pete’s eldest son Perry Dye recently spent the last days of 2009 on vacation at the resort with his family and nailed a 178-yard hole-in-one on the course’s 12th hole.”

This review was from the author of the Moon Handbook Guatemala guidebook and Living in Guatemala. See our interview with Al Argueta for more.

Up the road from Los Cabos, some new golf resort communities are springing up. We’ve got the lowdown on them in this new Mexican real estate article we just posted: Golf Communities Sprout in La Paz, Mexico.

This probably sounded like a better idea when there was a flood of California real estate bubble money flowing south, so the developers spared no expense in designing the golf courses and working out the water issues with desalinization and specialized turf. Homes are going up in phases, with the developers targeting those retirees and vacation home owners who find themselves priced out of Los Cabos—or just wanting to get more for their money.

If you’re interested in buying real estate on the Baja Peninsula but your eyes bulged out when you saw the prices in Cabo, read our article and follow the links on golf real estate in La Paz.

Al Argueta is one of the premier Guatemala travel experts, now working on the third edition of Moon Handbook Guatemala and a contributor to our luxury Guatemala hotel reviews. He first traveled to Guatemala with his father and later moved to the country for two years, allowing him to formally learn Spanish and experience Guatemala’s culture firsthand. His new book is a guide to experience this yourself: Living Abroad in Guatemala.

What are some advantages of living in Guatemala in terms of having a vacation home or a retirement home? How do prices compare to Mexico and other countries in Central America?

Probably the biggest advantage is the lower cost of living. You can still get land for relatively cheap, especially compared to other destinations in Central America such as Panama and Costa Rica. It’s also much less overrun with tourists. Another huge advantage here is the weather. It’s quite simply perfect most of the year.

What are some of the most popular areas for foreigners?

Colonial La Antigua Guatemala has always been a favorite due to its charming atmosphere, dramatic volcanic backdrop and proximity to the capital. Lake Atitlan is another popular locale due to the rugged, sheer beauty of it, though lately there have been concerns with the lake’s eutrophication. Guatemalans and expat residents alike are in a fight to save the lake from pollution and a cyanobacteria algae growth now covering part of its surface. Guatemala City is popular because many international corporations have offices here and so executives often need to move here. A number of other Guatemalan locales have become increasingly popular over the years, as people seek places off the beaten path. Guatemala seems to have something for everyone.

Are there restrictions on what kind of land you can buy as a foreigner? (And are there any ways to get around them?)

There are restrictions on land adjacent to waterways, which includes the coast lines, rivers and lakes. You can’t outright own these areas, just lease them from the government for 30 years at a time. This applies to foreigners and Guatemalan citizens alike. Foreigners can’t technically own land in areas considered national parks (Lake Atitlan is one example), though the easy way to get around this is to invest via the formation of a Sociedad Anonima (S.A.), which is similar to a U.S. corporation. You’ll need at least one Guatemalan among your investors, though their role can be limited to that of just a front-man for your S.A.

What can a potential buyer expect in terms of infrastructure, things like high-speed Internet, air connections, and road conditions?

Internet in Guatemala is highly competitive, with various providers available. You’ll find almost every town or village has internet service. Similarly, cell phone service is widely available and there are numerous competitors. Unlike in say, Costa Rica, internet and cell phone service have been deregulated in Guatemala since the 1990s. These are no longer a government monopoly and so free market economics have prevailed. You’ll find your iPhone 3G also works in Guatemala and is available with three different carriers, unlike in the U.S.

Continue to the full interview…

If someone has to drop the asking price of their house from $85 million to $72 million, should we feel sorry for them? That’s what has happened to poor Mohamed Hadid, who is best known for building Ritz-Carlton hotels in the 1980s. If you’re in the market for a 48,000-square-foot mansion, here’s the listing.

While much of the press attention regarding the U.S. property bubble has been about subprime loads and foreclosures in the rust belt, the most breathtaking declines have been in California and Florida—the two states that got the most inflated to start with. Many buyers who got in on their ideal gated community around a golf course are finding that it’s not so lovely when the developer goes bankrupt and the weeds start growing in the bunkers.

So what does this have to do with Latin America? Well for one thing, I’d argue as always that you have to know when things are getting frothy and when there’s still plenty of appreciation left. Parts of Costa Rica and the Los Cabos area of Mexico were looking like nosebleed territory three years ago. Now that the flipping up north has stopped, there are fewer buyers willing to pay California prices for a strip of sand or a penthouse. In most of the rest of Latin America, however, there’s not much downside.

But (and there’s always a but), some developers will always get into trouble by overextending. The Wall Street Journal reported this week that Marriott is halting all development of its luxury building projects for owners. “The pullback affects all three formats that Marriott sells under its Marriott and Ritz-Carlton brands…Marriott is permanently exiting development of luxury-residential projects…” The article says that the company basically made no money whatsoever on its own projects after subtracting write-downs.

Sometimes bigger isn’t better.

Brazil hasn’t gotten much attention as a real estate investment play for U.S. investors until recently. There’s plenty of beautiful coastline and prices have been good, but it just hasn’t been on the radar here. The flight connections to northern Brazil have left something to be desired, plus there’s the Portuguese language—not nearly as useful as Spanish, the expensive visa each time, and concerns about high crime.

The flights are getting easier though: there are now flights directly from Atlanta to the northeastern city of Fortaleza. Crime is mostly an issue in the big megacities of Brazil, not the sleepy coastal regions up north.

The Europeans have been buying beach property in Brazil for a long time though. The Portuguese, of course, but also oddly enough—as I learned in this article—the Norwegians. See our rundown on the real estate market in one particular stretch of coast: The Draw of Ceará: Real Estate in Northeastern Brazil.