Retire in One of Europe’s Best Bargain Cities: Valencia

Valencia, Spain was hit hard by the 2008 property crisis and is now awash in bargains. You can do a slow pirouette anywhere in the center of town and see for rent and for sale signs at nearly every angle, some handwritten, including one offering a three-room apartment in the Plaza Espana area for 49,000 euros. It helps if you have a Spanish friend who can make initial inquiries for you, but under any circumstances this is a buyer's market.

Valencia is also a vibrant, accessible, historically interesting and culturally rich city with a beautiful coastline that, inexplicably, has been overlooked as a serious contender for retirement in the region. The weather is pleasant year-round, with an average daytime temperature of 70 degrees. And it's not only the cost of buying a home here that's a bargain right now. The cost of living in Valencia is one of its biggest attractions. You can see a doctor for as little as 35 euros, rent an apartment at the beach starting at 350 euros and enjoy a beer in a coastal bar for one euro. A man can have his hair cut (a good gauge for the cost of living in a place) in a city-center salon for three euros.

Valencia has turned a corner and averted a Greek-style economic tragedy. A few tower cranes are creeping back onto the skyline, and real estate buyers are arriving from Madrid, Barcelona and beyond. This is the time to be shopping.

Now is the best time in a long time to be paying attention to Valencia, but its real assets are timeless. Thanks to its long and complicated history, Valencia is a melting pot that has evolved to have its own distinct culture that is evident in its language, place names and architecture. Valencians are fierce individualists, though not separatist like their Catalan neighbors to the north.

The weather in this part of Spain is ideal for living an active, healthy and outdoors lifestyle, and this part of the western Mediterranean offers some of the finest beaches in southern Europe, including in the city of Valencia and to the north and south. Valencia's beaches are well preserved, well maintained and surprisingly unspoiled. The main city beaches include El Cabanal, Las Arenas and Malvarossa, all with Blue Flag status, as well as El Saler to the south inside the Albufera Natural Park. In addition, the mountains are within easy reach.

To get a good sense of Valencian culture, take in a flamenco show. In addition, this city offers many venues for live theater, ballet and music, from the Berklee-affiliated Palau de la Musica (Palace of Music), where you can hear world class jazz and visit hip clubs and bars.

Many museums and other cultural and historic attractions in Valencia are free or offer entrance at a negligible cost (one to two euros). An all-day, all-museum pass costs six euros. This is a city that is proud of its culture, history and heritage, and wants to make it as accessible as possible to residents and visitors.

Valencia is well known for its annual celebrations, including and especially the Fallas celebration every March. The name translates literally as "the fires," and this annual fiesta has been called the best fireworks party in the world. Over these four days every March, this city is lit up by both fireworks and bonfires burning monstrous-sized satirical effigies.

The current cost of living is affordable for Americans thanks to the dollar's strength versus the euro. And the bottomed-out property market additionally makes buying a house or an apartment in Valencia particularly interesting right now. At today's values, you could buy a two-bedroom, two-bath furnished apartment in a historic and central neighborhood for as little as 150,000 euros. At the current rate of exchange, that's about $165,000.

A reasonable overall budget for living in Valencia is $1,500 per month. This means that Valencia offers the chance to embrace a cosmopolitan Continental lifestyle for less than the cost of living in most other developed cities in Europe. Indeed, it's hard to imagine living for less in a city that offers a lifestyle on par with some of the most interesting cities in the world.

Kathleen Peddicord is the founder of the Live and Invest Overseas publishing group.