Affordability at the beach is a town-level story, not a country-level one. Mexico has million-dollar Tulum and $70,000 Chelem. Italy has Portofino and Riace. Averaging a whole country tells you almost nothing, which is why this ranking works at the level of the actual town you would live in.
For each locality in our catalogue we convert every listing to USD, average them, and sort from cheapest upward. Towns with a single listing still qualify, but the count is shown so you can judge how deep the market is. A town with six homes under $80,000 is a genuinely cheap market; a town with one is a lucky listing.
