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La Reserva


zakjaderex

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Its my lucky day; a question I can answer!

We have owned in La Reserva for 5 years, but we just moved in 2 weeks ago.  Club dues are $1972 MXP per month; this gives you access to the bar/restaurant/pool/small gym and the right to rent the 20 or so guest rooms (which go for $1900 MXP per night).  The rooms are very nice, with a small kitchenette and either mountain or lake view.  There is also a boat storage area and boat launch. Club is closed every Tuesday.

The HOA feels are $1942 MXP per quarter, which includes grounds-keeping and trash collection.  Water bill based on lot size; ours ran $232 MXP for last quarter.

There are about 70 homes in the east development, which is almost complete. Many Tapatios, some of whom come down on weekends, but clearly not every weekend.  There were a lot more people around on the Constitution day long weekend than on the other weekends we have been here. Some children, but I haven't seen more than 4-5 around at any time. Not at all noisy: we haven't heard anything from the two nearest eventos.  We can sometimes hear a guard dog outside the community, and of course roosters every morning.

The west development, which has more than 100 planned homes, has been cleared but no construction has started. It is on the other side of the entrance road to the club. The club truly is gorgeous, with a long grassy field down from the pool to the breakwater. There is a children's playground, a trampoline, volleyball court, and hot tub in addition to the pool. Visitors have to pay just to access the club, but the fee (about $150 MXP) is applied to your drink/food purchase. Some expats find the club dues too pricey for around here, and I certainly get that.  The development was designed to attract Tapatios with an exclusive club that they could not get elsewhere at lakeside, so some of the offerings are indeed "high-end."

We have been very happy thus far, and our expat neighbors agree.  The biggest "con" is being so far west of Ajijic, but we are close to the Farmers' Market and the route to Guad (Costco/Mega/Home Depot) via Jocotepec.

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So the total of Club dues, HOA, and water are 32,352 per year. That seems like a lot. Can it be?

It is a nice development and a beautiful spot but that is about twice as much as i pay in my Fraccionamiento. 

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16 minutes ago, cedros said:

So the total of Club dues, HOA, and water are 32,352 per year. That seems like a lot. Can it be?

 

16 minutes ago, cedros said:

So the total of Club dues, HOA, and water are 32,352 per year. That seems like a lot. Can it be?

170 homes total sounds like a lot.  We live in a development built by the same developer we have 60 homes but a larger gym, a larger club house and larger pool no restaurant.  Seems like a lot of people for the public area

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1 hour ago, cedros said:

So the total of Club dues, HOA, and water are 32,352 per year. That seems like a lot. Can it be?

I double checked my bills, and that's what I paid.  It hasn't changed in 5 years.

 

48 minutes ago, Kyle said:

 

170 homes total sounds like a lot.  We live in a development built by the same developer we have 60 homes but a larger gym, a larger club house and larger pool no restaurant.  Seems like a lot of people for the public area

I may be wrong about the 100 number; I heard it in passing 5 years ago. The west development is at least as large as the east development, but maybe the houses/lots will be larger. I think 140 units total is a solid wager. If the development were intended for year-round occupancy, that might make it crowded, but the Tapatios are coming down on the weekends, when they come at all. The club is certainly more crowded then; but it never seems overwhelmed.  They set up tables out on the lawn, and even erect event tents out there.  The grassy area is huge, probably two football fields side-by-side.

Kyle, I am curious, which development are you in?

Here's a view from the club overlooking the pool. If you enlarge it, you can see my wife standing in the distance, giving you an idea how large the space is.

pool.jpg

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I would not ignore the statement about being west of town and the traffic.  After a few months, you start dreading any trip that takes you through all those stoplights to get anywhere east.  An errand becomes a major chore because of the traffic that we now have here year round which worsens with the snow birds. I stuck it out 10mos, and even used O'Campo/Constitucion often to avoid the Carretera, but the traffic was still a major distraction for me and not worth it.

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That's an important point and the traffic has gotten far heavier in a very short time here.  I believe that traffic is more home grown than seasonal at this point.  There is a rapid expansion of car ownership going on in this state as reflected by the sales data and the lakeside area is attracting more and more weekenders from that very big city just to the north of us.

If you follow the news it is being reported that places like PV are also experiencing a very large growth in visitor traffic from GDL.

The people in charge of the roads around here not only don't keep them repaired, they are totally clueless as to how to manage traffic.  No better example of this than those two lights in San Antonio that are causing backups into the Libremiento intersection and beyond these days.

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Interesting points, MC. I am getting to dread trips to town. I have blamed that on getting older and lazier, but indeed the traffic has increased a lot in the last year or so. I think Ajijic is becoming a commuter suburb for Guad. I knew that would happen some day, but I did not expect it this soon!

I love living west of Ajijic--it is very quiet most of the time. Granted, it was a shorter distance to SuperLake, WalMart and Chapala when I lived in Chula Vista. But, the distance does save money, as I actually PLAN where I am going and what I am buying. No more going to SuperLake 3 times in one day, as was my previous record.

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For other newbies here (like me), its useful to remember that the talk about traffic lakeside is a frame of reference issue. I came here recently from Washington, DC, where a 90 minute commute (each way) was typical, and going anywhere on the weekend was a crap-shoot, because there was no traffic flow.  

Last weekend, we faced a 15 minute delay on the carretera due to the parade and chilli cook-off.  I heard several locals howling about it. So its all depends on what you are used to experiencing.  One friend told me "you'll know you're a local when you start complaining about the traffic." ^_^

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