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Cost Of Living Lakeside


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Well I watched this and didn't identify much with this couple, particularly when it comes to food.

Having lived here for nearly 12 years, this has been our experience.  This is based on our experience of living in NM, updated with our frequent trips there.

Car expense:  More actual maintenance required, more frequent tire replacement but cost other than tires generally less.  Car insurance considerably less.  Gasoline considerably more but use considerably less of it.  Tolls and gas prices make auto touring in this country much more expensive.  On balance, a wash.

Energy and utilities:  Considerably more but offset by using considerably less.  No need to heat or cool.  When cost of treating municipal water included, water is considerably more expensive.  On balance, a wash.

Property taxes:  Much less but little received for what is paid out.  

Food:  Using markets and shopping Mexican, considerably less, particularly for fresh fruits.  Go to Costco for the American stuff.  Significantly higher particularly when you include the two hour round trip to get there.  Keep that expense down by only going every 2-3 months.  Still definitely cheaper here.

Eating out:  Not nearly as cheap as it used to be.  Can be a bargain but often just a wash.  Eating out has gone up here percentage wise far more than in NM.

Housing:  Was pretty moderate when we moved here, has gone up a lot.  Rents in NM are less than they are here.  But you are paying for the "resort" location with superb weather.  Buying in a premium location here more than it is in NM now.

Internet, cell phones, land lines, MUCH cheaper.  We are shocked at what our U.S. and Canadian friends spend for cell phones.  Very easy to cheaply stream the U.S. TV you want to watch, no real need for cable or satellite IMO.

Household help:  Basically unaffordable in the U.S. and Canada, still affordable here.

House maintenance labor:  Far, far cheaper here.  Variable quality, you really have to do your homework to get good work.

Year round outdoor living and mild climate:  Priceless!

YMMV

 

 

 

 

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I live in Ajijic about 8 months per year, and I have about the same costs as Mainecoons except for the added expense of having a satellite service providing me what I consider my hometown stations of Vancouver, BC and Seattle, WA (where I live about 4 months per year).

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I think restaurants here are pricing themselves out of business.  The snowbirds will pay the prices but in the slow season the restaurants will suffer especially with all competition popping up.  Rent has gone crazy!  Landlords want the same amount they get from snowbirds from a full time long term  tenant.  Locals find it very hard to find a rental they can afford and they can not afford to buy.  The gringos are making it very hard for the working Mexican to afford to live here.   Don't want this to become a town of mostly gringos and we only see Mexicans doing labor but not able  to live in the community.  

Part of the love of living here is being able to live next door to our wonderful Mexican friends 

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9 hours ago, bontepar said:

The problem of rising costs is ...too many yenkees with too much money to throw around 

So how does that explain the rising cost of living in GDL with 5 million people in the Metropolitan area and not that many foreigners to affect any thing.  COL is going up everywhere and restaurants of the same type of foods and degree of quality or more expensive in GDL than the Chapala area.  Most all the horde of Tapatios that come here on the weekends, holidays, and fiestas think this place is a real bargain.  Even the real estate prices are lower,  if you compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges.  10,000 vehicles that come here just about every weekend from the big city, are not coming because it´s too expensive.

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For sure the cell phone deals are amazing. My Canadian friends are blown away that I pay the equivalent of about $10 Canadian for 3 weeks of unlimited calling and texting to anywhere in North America. I call my friends and family and yak for an hour but they can't even receive a text from me without being charged for it.

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15 minutes ago, tycobb1020 said:

An important factor in this discussion . . . in 2014 exchange rate was about 12 pesos to the US dollar . . . now that rate is pushing 20 pesos to the US dollar. That's about a 60% increase in value of the US dollar.

In the eight years I've lived down here I would guess; (and I mean guess)

- gasoline  and propane have doubled in cost

- restaurant meals are up 60 to 70%

- groceries are up 50%

- I don't know about rents. I own but electricity and water are probably up 50%

- property taxes up 20 to 30 %.

and as tycobb said all of this offset by the peso decline

SunFan

 

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5 minutes ago, SunFan said:

In the eight years I've lived down here I would guess; (and I mean guess)

- gasoline  and propane have doubled in cost

- restaurant meals are up 60 to 70%

- groceries are up 50%

- I don't know about rents. I own but electricity and water are probably up 50%

- property taxes up 20 to 30 %.

and as tycobb said all of this offset by the peso decline

SunFan

 

And when the mexicans only have pesos??

This is real inflation. 

 

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5 hours ago, slainte39 said:

So how does that explain the rising cost of living in GDL with 5 million people in the Metropolitan area and not that many foreigners to affect any thing.  COL is going up everywhere and restaurants of the same type of foods and degree of quality or more expensive in GDL than the Chapala area.  Most all the horde of Tapatios that come here on the weekends, holidays, and fiestas think this place is a real bargain.  Even the real estate prices are lower,  if you compare apples to apples and not apples to oranges.  10,000 vehicles that come here just about every weekend from the big city, are not coming because it´s too expensive.

My rent was 1000 a month until an American offered 13000 a month a 30% increase

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1 hour ago, barcelonaman said:

Yet another case of newbies throwing their cash around willy nilly. They just dont understand what negative impact they are having on the local economy.

Whatever happened to common sense?

People like that don't give a shyte about anyone else. They do what pleases them.

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We got here in 2001 when the peso was 8 to the dollar---- so yes big difference , We could live like kings on th interest of our money.. so things change..  Yes someone offering 500 pesos for 3 hour work or someone offering an insane amount of money for rent makes things go up. However  a Tapatio offered to buy our house for a nice bundle so things could be worse.. We are not gong anywhere, the climate s great and if you do not buy imported goods  life is still reasonable

Maincoons you forget Santa Fe in NM which is still a whole lot more expensive than here..Desirable places are expensive anywhere  n the world. The trick is to move to a place that has not been discovered...

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The impact of the foreigners is seen in the prices of the services.. In Chiapas a mason is 200 pesos a day , I am trying to get 250 for a mason who knows how to do kilns  and people are bitching because they can get masons to work for 180 pesos a day...Yes if it is too expensive here move somewhere else in Mexico but do not expect the same leverl of services ..

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True, I wasn't referring to Santa Fe, which many New Mexicans don't consider to be part of the state at all since it is full of New Yorkers and Californians.  I was comparing to Albuquerque where we lived or Las Cruces where we would go if we have to move back.

When I compare costs here to similar resort type locations in the U.S., such as the CA or east coast beach towns we are vastly less expensive.  As for the restaurant prices sometimes I wonder if the Tapatios are influencing that more than we are since my experience of GDL is restaurants tend to be pretty pricey there.  Interestingly, I've had Mexicans from Mexico City comment on how pricey restaurants are in GDL.

On the other hand, where our artisan family lives just south of Oaxaca the cost of living is astoundingly low in comparison to here.  If you didn't live in Oaxaca centro I would guess it would be easy to live there on a Social Security check.

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It is cheaper here too if you do not live in a big city or around the lake, t s the same everywhere, go away from city dwellers or  a desirable place and prices go way down an the climate is  still good..

Yes in Oaxaca same deal , San Martn is way cheaper than the center of Oaxaca or the Etlas..

 

Santa Fe was full of oil people from Denver, then Texans, then Californians then New yorker.. and do not forget artists from all over the place.. My distributor  was married to Nedra Matteucci, besides her gallery she has a house on Canyon drive and  a mural by Diego Rivera in her garage.. Apparently he visited  the place or stayed for a while and painted a mural in what is now the garage...   Unlike some other people the Matteuccis were from Roswell NM..

Santa Fe is a buble just like San Miguel, Lakeside and other places popular with outsiders.. Valle de Bravo is not cheap either  but then t is full of people from Mexico City on week-ends as well.

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You can have the same climate and much lower prices just by moving to the south side of the lake.  But hardly anybody does it, it's more fun to complain about prices going up. Human nature, nothing more, nothing less.

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47 minutes ago, pappysmarket said:

You can have the same climate and much lower prices just by moving to the south side of the lake.  But hardly anybody does it, it's more fun to complain about prices going up. Human nature, nothing more, nothing less.

The reason more people do not move to the south side of the lake is it is a completely different life style from here. The ones who successfully make the move want to get away from what is drawing so many people here. It is an entirely different experience.

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