True Dat! Actually, here in the Rio Grande Valley a large proportion of the residents speak both Spanish and English. The first language is almost always Spanish but their English is usually better than your Spanish so you end up speaking English. Frustrating after living in Mexico where your Spanish is better than their English so you get to practice your Spanish. Some, obviously, don't speak any English and then knowing Spanish is a big advantage, especially over the Winter Texans that are baffled over Hola. Spanish is surely the predominant language you hear people speaking in almost any store you go into. We live in Alamo which is closer to McAllen than Brownsville. Our subdivision is Alamo Country Club, which has 524 homes around a 9 hole golf course. Consistently voted best 55+ community in the Valley. There are about 80% stick built homes and the rest MH but no more mobiles are allowed even if your home would burn down. We are in a MH of about 1300 sq. ft. which would sell for about 115 K if we put it for sale. Many people here walk across the bridge to Progreso for dental work and generic prescriptions along with hair care, pedicures, etc. We all have golf carts to get around the subdivision and our HOA fee is $190/Mo. which includes golf, pool, etc. and best of all 24 hour security at the gate. In almost 5 years here I have never heard of any crime whatsoever. Alamo is starting to grow just as the whole Valley itself is. COL is definitely lower than the Houston area with food probably about the same but housing still lower. Our property tax is just under $900/Yr. with the Homestead exemption. Those who remember RV Gringo on this board may know they lived here for a while before returning to Yuma where he passed. Our Medicare Advantage plan prevents us from seeking medical care in Mexico and thus we needed to get back to the US but we only made it about 10 miles inside the border. We love being in Hidalgo County which is 87% Hispanic. If anyone else finds a need to get inside the US for any reason I would suggest Googling this area. Traffic is nothing like Guadalajara or even Lakeside for that matter.