Originally Posted by beachmouse

Shopping-wise, there are a lot of things that are cheap and easy to find in the USA that are extremely expensive or impossible to find back home, and it's not just luxury goods either- seems common for the folks I know with South American relatives to end up making big shopping stops at places like Walmart and Target when their extended family is in town.

And in terms of real estate, South Florida has long been a 'safe haven' for affluent folks from somewhat unstable places in the region who wanted a good place to land if conditions at home got weird. It's the same human movement later seen with Hong Kong residents moving to Vancouver when they were concerned about the changeover or affluent Russians who decided it would be good to have a nice little flat in London.