Housing Boom Mexican Style

In the beach communities which line the coast of the Sea of Cortez, the prime land is ocean front property, just like in the United States.

Everyone wants a full view of the sea when they wake up in the morning or go to sleep at night.

Most of these properties are taken and the government of Mexico rarely allows new ones.

In Mexico all beaches are public, however the access to them may be difficult if not impossible.

In our area it’s difficult but not impossible to access the beach if you don’t live here, however the occasional visitor comes down through the community to launch his or her kayak.

The beach front properties seldom change hands, however in these tough economic times, one will come up for sale now and then, and it is snapped up immediately.

That is, if there isn’t something major wrong with it.
This includes the price being too high.

One place for sale, had the second story blown off in the last hurricane, another had termites and another had the price set at twice the normal for $200,000.

The norm is about $100,000, however one beach front house went for $70,000 and was bought. The purchasers, in turn, put their house (not beach front) on the market for $50,000. Mind you in Mexico you can not own the property so all one
is buying is the assets on top of the land.

In our community the land is owned by the Mexican government and it provides a concession for the manager of the area to operate and maintain it. The concession owner charges a fee to lease the land and provides all utilities, such as water, electricity (from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m.) sewer, garbage and security. The total rent costs approximately $4,000 a year or $4,500 if you are on the beach.

Another couple actually gave up their home on the beach and moved onto the hill. While this is very unusual, the couple wanted more privacy and the homes on the hill have excellent unobstructed views of the sea. While they are looking for a buyer, they have to pay double rents which all adds to the incentive to find a buyer.

Despite what realtors say, no foreigner can own a home in Mexico. It is written into the constitution. When Americans say they own their home, they really mean, the bank owns the home and they have a trust with the bank. Unfortunately what they don’t realize is that with a change in the Mexico government, all these trusts could become null and void and the so called owner would own nothing.

Our theory is that we are only care takers of the property. It is much the same as the philosophy of the Indians in the United States. The land belongs to everyone and they just use it while they are here on earth.

Let’s face it, when we go to the final resting place, none of our earthly belongings go with us.

We have no allusions about owning our house in Mexico. It’s on government land or “land reclaimed from the sea.”  We accept that at sometime it could be taken from us by the government or other circumstances. But while we are here we want to enjoy what we have.

And that's we are doing.