?Costa Rica.? For many, what comes to mind when that phrase is uttered are potent coffee grains, plush rain forests, and dozens of coastal Costa Rican beach properties where tourists can soak up the sun. While those are all accurate visuals, there is much more to Costa Rica than that. After all, the beautiful Costa Rica land is more than just a vacation destination. It is also home to over 4,000,000 people.

For Costa Ricans, ?home? is 32,600 miles of varied terrain that is landlocked to the north by Nicaragua and in the south by Panama. Also it is flanked by the Pacific Ocean as well as the Caribbean Sea. The nation, which is suspected to have a history 10,000 years long, marks its modern day founding in the mid-1500s. From then, the nation developed slowly but by the late 1800s, a solid government had been set up and politicians were making bold national policies such as implementing free primary and secondary education for all citizens and abolishing the death penalty. The 1900's saw even more bold political actions. Last century, Costa Rica became a democratic nation, women and blacks were given the right to vote, the national military was disbanded permanently, and Costa Rica declared itself a perpetually neutral nation. The nation's citizens also enjoy free healthcare.

The political arena is not the only area in which Costa Rica has prevailed as a progressive nation. Costa Rica land is rich, providing the nation with a healthy export business in coffee and bananas, and the nation has used those resources to the point where they are the foundation of much of the country's economy. Agricultural goods, however, are not the only items helping the nation's economy to grow. Costa Rica also enjoys a sizeable income from tourism and the export of a number of other goods such as electronics, textiles and exotic flowers, to name a few. Despite the success of the country's survival, growth, and economic stabilization through those means, Costa Rica real estate is presently proving to be the country's most sought after commodity.

Recently, real estate in Costa Rica has proven to be a steadily growing commodity. This is undoubtedly due to the fact that Costa Rican officials have been offering irresistible incentives to buyers investing in Costa Rica real estate along the coast as well as inland real estate in Costa Rica. While developing Costa Rica real estate is a focus to improve commerce in the nation, government officials have put many measures in place to insure that the country's beautiful beaches, rainforests, and other exotic elements indigenous to the region are preserved.

by David Lovendahl, Developing Paradise TM