What does the market you're buying into cost?

A strong dollar story on a documented basis: the comfortable tier is 43% of a comparable US city, with rent carrying most of the gap. Healthcare here is the WHO out-of-pocket figure — what households spend out of pocket per person, not an insurance premium — which is why the headline is lower than premium-based estimates. The arbitrage is real but uneven across the country: read the city pages, where the same instrument moves the number a lot.

On the documented formula Costa Rica lands at 41% of a comparable US city. Housing and daily living are Numbeo USD primitives; Food is the Numbeo Groceries Index (59.2) converted to dollars at the disclosed site-wide anchor; Healthcare is the WHO out-of-pocket figure ($23/mo per person) — not an insurance premium. PPP cross-check (World Bank price-level ratio, 2024) is 0.62, consistent with the read.

On the documented formula Panama lands at 40% of a comparable US city — an A-. Housing and daily living are Numbeo USD primitives; Food is the Numbeo Groceries Index (51.3) at the disclosed site-wide anchor; Healthcare is the WHO out-of-pocket figure ($53/mo per person), not a doubled premium. PPP cross-check (World Bank price-level ratio, 2024) is 0.46 — a USD-pegged economy, no FX risk on the conversion.

On the documented formula Portugal lands at 43% of a comparable US city. Housing and daily living are Numbeo USD-served primitives (native EUR recorded); Food is the Numbeo Groceries Index (46.9) at the disclosed site-wide anchor; Healthcare is the WHO out-of-pocket figure ($70/mo per person, 2024), not a broker senior-premium quote. PPP cross-check (World Bank price-level ratio, 2024) is 0.57.

On the documented formula Spain lands at 43% of a comparable US city. Housing and daily living are Numbeo USD-served primitives (native EUR recorded); Food is the Numbeo Groceries Index (50.6) at the disclosed site-wide anchor; Healthcare is the WHO out-of-pocket figure ($54/mo per person), the same basis as every market. PPP cross-check (World Bank price-level ratio, 2024) is 0.62.

On the documented formula Belize lands at 29% of a comparable US city → A-. But this is the thinnest dataset in the round: Numbeo carries only 13 contributors, so housing and daily living are sourced but weakly supported. Food is the Numbeo Groceries Index (52.6, also thin-sample) at the disclosed site-wide anchor; Healthcare ($6.91/mo per person, WHO GHED) is high-confidence institutional data. Read the grade with the low-confidence caveat in mind. PPP cross-check (World Bank price-level ratio, 2024) is 0.56.

The documented formula resolves what the DR record previously could not publish: it lands at 28% of a comparable US city → A-, the cheapest of the eight markets. Housing and daily living are Numbeo USD primitives; Food is the Numbeo Groceries Index (38.9, the lowest of the eight) at the disclosed site-wide anchor; Healthcare is the WHO out-of-pocket figure ($10/mo per person). PPP cross-check (World Bank price-level ratio, 2024) is 0.39, the cheapest of the eight on that measure too.

On the documented formula Italy lands at 43% of a comparable US city — the least cheap of the eight, but still strongly affordable against the $4,240 US anchor. Housing and daily living are Numbeo USD-served primitives (native EUR recorded); Food is the Numbeo Groceries Index (62.7, the highest of the eight) at the disclosed site-wide anchor; Healthcare is the WHO out-of-pocket figure ($63/mo per person, 2024). PPP cross-check (World Bank price-level ratio, 2024) is 0.66, the least cheap of the eight on that measure too.