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Guest Kathie b

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Guest Kathie b

I watch the multiple listing of homes in Ajijic and lake chapala, the prices seem very high compared to us prices in Oregon and Arizona ect.. What they want for 300,000 to 500,000 is pretty out of balance, has it always been this way, we built a home in Mexico once and the price was great about 7yrs ago and sold for a small profit. I've looked at a listing today for around 325,000 older home, no view and needed everything updated, and small yard, not even a garage. Do people not know what Americans can get in the USA for that price?

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There are less expensive homes on the chapalamls than the price you are quoting..  There are also very expensive ones, so I'm not sure what you are looking at.  I do agree though that most are overpriced.  Also, it's difficult to compare apples to oranges, so to speak.  I think location matters greatly even within the Chapala area, just as it does in the US.  I had looked around at homes on line in Oregon and found them to be expensive, compared to where we were living in Texas.

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This is the largest natural lake in Mexico with some of the best balance hot and cold weather anywhere near a city of 4 to 6 million people with a great airport.  Yes it will be more expensive than many other areas of Mexico.  People want to live here so prices are higher. You will find higher prices also in SMA the other big not on the coast expat/ tourist area.  Yes I know I can live in Eastern Oregon for almost nothing but try to buy a house in the Willamette Valley on the west part of the state where I would want to live and not so inexpensive.  A friend just sold a mundane three bedroom ranch way north of SF in one day over the asking price at 800K.  A nice 25 year old four bedroom house in Bellevue Wa. across the lakes from Seattle is between 750K and 1 million now.   I know nothing about anything other than the west coast of USA but where I want to live in USA is out of my budget.

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Kathie, the prices anywhere are based on the market not apples to oranges as I'm sure you well know.   I think you need to factor in things like municipal taxes.   My Las Vegas house was 7,000 usd a year, here it's 300 usd.   Often the media and some retirement advocates have unrealistic views of Mexico.   My suggestion is come down and check things out to see if it will fit your budget.

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Thanks, I was a realtor for 25 yrs, so I know location is always a factor, I have been to Ajijic and San Miguel Allende, ect.., still find homes in Ajijic expensive for what you get, I sold a home in Salem Oregon on golf course, had 2500 ft for , completely redone, for 398,000.i love Ajijic, just seems the prices are higher than I thought they would be, but quess you can always offer less. Thanks for all the Unput, I appreciate it.

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The MLS here is very secretive.  The listings do not display the number of  "days on market."  Maybe because there are houses near me in Ajijic that have been on the market for 4 years!  And after the sale, the sales prices are not disclosed publicly so no one knows the true market values, only the asking price.  I have heard of some tremendous differences between asking and selling prices.  Usually 15% lately. 

It would be better if the Chapala MLS would show this sort of info that is commonly shown on MLS's in the US, so that potential buyers and potential sellers could get a better feel for the market.  Or maybe they feel that ignorance is bliss. 

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Kathie:

Homes here in Ajijic very depending on location, view, sq footage, etc. what is not evident is the savings in taxes and utilities over locations NOB. In our case, we will save upwards of $10k annually on taxes and utilities... Not having a need for heat or cooling dramatically reduces ones annual expenditures. 

I see Ajijic as a place not for flipping homes but rather a great place to live out one's time.

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Kathy B,  you could look further West of Ajijic, for instance Jocotepec where I live.  We love the country, the trees, birds, and the peacefulness.  I wouldn't like to live in Ajijic, too much noise, late night bands, traffic.  Joco has a number of foreigners living here, a nice coffee place on the plaza, lovely lake walks, good shops at lower prices than Ajijic, and we are 50 minutes from Guadalajara..  Properties are much lower priced here, but Ajijic Realtors don't want to be bothered "coming all the way out to Joco"...a half hour journey or less.  You don't need to speak Spanish to live here either, although it is a delightfully Mexican town, something that Ajijic lost along with the development and popularity. You can contact me at rosfreed @ yahoo.com if you would like more info.

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I will probably get crucified for this. Houses here ARE overpriced, by a lot. Considering labour costs, the fact that there are no mechanical systems like a/c, heating, no basements, prices are really out of whack. But it is a place that expats want to live, to be near each other. Everything here, as in any of the expat colonies in Mexico is overpriced., and priced to the American dollar. You can buy or build a home in an area away from here that is a fraction of the price, and live less expensively, too. There is a lot of stale real estate, and empty, or abandoned houses on the market, and it can and does take years for most people to sell their homes.  Often, sellers are getting no offers, and if they are, the sellers want to hang on, hoping for a better price, because they naturally want to recoup their buying price, and any updates and improvements they put in.  Comparing taxes to American house taxes is unrealistic. You will pay less for house taxes here, but you get a lot less, too. The infrastucture here in Mexico, is nowhere near what you have in other more developed countries.

Rent. Rent Rent. if you feel a strong need to buy, get over it. 

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Just like other people have mentioned, living in the real Mexico is dirt cheap, living in an expat community in Mexico can be much more expensive.  Lake Chapala could be considered Jalisco's version of Lake Tahoe (you may need a bit of an imagination for that one!)  Another beautiful lake in an even more expensive area would be Valle del Bravo not far from Mexico City, that place I hear is unbelievably expensive.  For our area, the further one gets from the gringo epicenter of Ajijic, the cheaper houses and living get.  In many ways Chapala could be considered as being nicer, much cheaper and all around easier place to live than Ajijic due to the accessibility of things because of the wider smoother sidewalks, availability of shopping and the lack of having to climb up hills (unless you live in the Barrio of San Miguel or Tepehua, of course!) and Chapala is just a couple minutes down the road from Ajijic.  Another very beautiful area that many people forget about is Lake Cajititlan, just about 20 minutes from here, it is equally as beautiful as Lake Chapala, be it a smaller lake and much deeper, so it appears much more pristine in appearance.  Cajititlan is what Ajijic may have looked like 20 years ago or so, I would guess that real estate there could be got for quite a bargain compared to Lakeside.

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6 hours ago, Saturn said:

I will probably get crucified for this. Houses here ARE overpriced, by a lot. Considering labour costs, the fact that there are no mechanical systems like a/c, heating, no basements, prices are really out of whack. But it is a place that expats want to live, to be near each other. Everything here, as in any of the expat colonies in Mexico is overpriced., and priced to the American dollar. You can buy or build a home in an area away from here that is a fraction of the price, and live less expensively, too. There is a lot of stale real estate, and empty, or abandoned houses on the market, and it can and does take years for most people to sell their homes.  Often, sellers are getting no offers, and if they are, the sellers want to hang on, hoping for a better price, because they naturally want to recoup their buying price, and any updates and improvements they put in.  Comparing taxes to American house taxes is unrealistic. You will pay less for house taxes here, but you get a lot less, too. The infrastucture here in Mexico, is nowhere near what you have in other more developed countries.

Rent. Rent Rent. if you feel a strong need to buy, get over it. 

 

While there's a lot of truth in your post, bear in mind that it is not just the expats affecting prices here.  This area attracts a significant and growing number of Tapatios who are drawn to the ambiance and convenience to jobs in the many industries around the airport.  There isn't a lot of "stale" property on the market in the areas where people want to live.  Under $200K the local market is pretty strong.  Things have rebounded very strongly in the area of SE Ajijic where we live and I understand this is also true of La Floresta.  Location is everything in this area.

You definitely can live cheaper, if less conveniently, away from here.  Roca Azul, for example has some very nice and well priced property.

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If you like the area rent. Then buy a lot and get bids on building what you want. Some things cost more here. Appliances for instances are higher than some deal prices inbthe US. You can build if you are here to manage it and dole out the funds in stages.Great lots are over $300-$500 UDS per M square.

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17 minutes ago, geeser said:

If you like the area rent. Then buy a lot and get bids on building what you want. Some things cost more here. Appliances for instances are higher than some deal prices inbthe US. You can build if you are here to manage it and dole out the funds in stages.Great lots are over $300-$500 UDS per M square.

I can tell you from personal experience, that it is far more expensive to build than to buy.  Which would lead one to conclude that the real estate market here is NOT over-priced -- if I can buy cheaper than I can build, then the current real estate is priced below its replacement cost.   

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Houses here went way up in price during the "boom" seven or eight years ago. Saturn is absolutely right: many of them remain overpriced. The owners refuse to come back to reality, while the rest of the area already has. I disagree with El Salto; that's a misleading argument.

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2 hours ago, holdrja said:

I can tell you from personal experience, that it is far more expensive to build than to buy.  Which would lead one to conclude that the real estate market here is NOT over-priced -- if I can buy cheaper than I can build, then the current real estate is priced below its replacement cost.   

In my case, we built a house, in a supposedly prestige area here, with a terrific view, far less expensively than buying one of similar quality, size, and location. And, if the builder hadn't cheated us, it would have cost even less.  I could have built the same house, for about half the price, away from this area. 

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14 hours ago, El Saltos said:

Houses are worth the $ they're selling for, not someone's opinion of whether they are overpriced or bargain priced.  When we moved here in 2005 we thought the price we paid for our house was fair and frankly gave us a lot for what we spent.

Yep, that is how it works.  We sold up north and bought here both at the top of the market.  The house up there just resold for nearly $200K less than we sold it for, the one here dipped some and I am told has recovered this year.  The in demand locations are selling well at prices near the peak.  A seriously over priced house on our block that had been for sale for 7 years and needing a lot of work sold late last year to a retired Tapatio couple.  

At this point there is only one house anywhere near us for sale and it is sitting because it is badly impacted by the nuisance noisy bar in the neighborhood.  On the surface it looks like a screaming bargain but people we know who were shown it were told by the agent not to touch it because of the bar next door.

The lesson in that among other things is that these nuisance businesses can really kill your property values if they are too close.  Think twice before you support them, you may be next.  The other lesson is that location can only go so far to make a property attractive and a good investment.  Bad neighbor(s) will overwhelm the positives.  Don't assume all houses in a great location are equally worth while.  Look carefully at what is next door and nearby.  

I agree with the recommendation to the OP to rent but keep in mind all good things come to an end and that seems to be the case with the waning buyers market here.  I know a number of agents and they all tell me that they have sold more in the last six months than the previous 2 or 3 years.  

 

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I agree with holdrja that building is (could be) more expensive than buying and a lot more trouble.

What many people forget when they compare is that when you build, you get a price per square meter (feet) but then, you don’t have the lot, the furniture, the landscape, and there’s always things to be added or improved as the contractors don’t see everything and leave a bit too fast.

We added so many things to our house since we had it built, which get lost in the calculation of per square footage estimate. If we consider all of it, our house is worth more than what the RE calculated it should be listed for—most of the time their estimate is on the low side.

You also have to consider that building a house here is not for the weak heart. You’re lucky if you don’t run into problems and delays. Knowing all this today, and seeing the choice on the market now, I would prefer to buy than build. But I would not rent for a few reasons, mainly, I don’t like to pay for someone else’s house—to me it’s like money out the window that I give every month and I’m not home.

We cannot generalize, of course, and I do see run down houses with a high price tag.  

 

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1 hour ago, nana said:

I agree with holdrja that building is (could be) more expensive than buying and a lot more trouble.

What many people forget when they compare is that when you build, you get a price per square meter (feet) but then, you don’t have the lot, the furniture, the landscape, and there’s always things to be added or improved as the contractors don’t see everything and leave a bit too fast.

We added so many things to our house since we had it built, which get lost in the calculation of per square footage estimate. If we consider all of it, our house is worth more than what the RE calculated it should be listed for—most of the time their estimate is on the low side.

You also have to consider that building a house here is not for the weak heart. You’re lucky if you don’t run into problems and delays. Knowing all this today, and seeing the choice on the market now, I would prefer to buy than build. But I would not rent for a few reasons, mainly, I don’t like to pay for someone else’s house—to me it’s like money out the window that I give every month and I’m not home.

We cannot generalize, of course, and I do see run down houses with a high price tag.  

 

 

Not my experience still all. Way cheaper to build than buy here, for us. We planned it out, did what we planned, and no need to make additional costs, that weren't in the plan. Included everything ...land, bulding costs, finiquito, manifest of construction, etc. One thing people don't sometimes think of when buying or building is what did they buy pesos for at that time. And what will the peso be when they sell.

But for sure, building is not for the faint of heart. I know of two cases where the stress seemed to literally cause heart attacks. 

 

 

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