The Rumor Mill

I see you're really thinking of this seriously, John.

So....be sure to check out the budget busters of CA, to wit: PROPERTY TAXES. Compared to here, they are brutally high. ASSOCIATION FEES. Many neighborhoods have large grassy areas in the midst of an essentially desert climate, so each development assesses the fees to have watering and gardening done. Water costs more there than it does here. So do the gardeners. If you're in a gated community, there are even higher fees to maintain amenities like pools and clubhouses.

The state of CA is broke right now. They partied with the taxpayers' money while the good times rolled, and now......they're looking to hit whoever they can with any taxes they can dream up.

Sometimes, it's the accumulation of matters extraneous to the purchase price that will add up to a big chunk of your income.
CA is a nice place to live. I spent my life there until 2004, but...........

quote="johninajijic"
"Why don't you call him and ask? Maybe he got fed up with the maintenance of these homes which require 10 times the maintenance of any quality US built home."

And the cost is about 10 times more.

gringal wrote:I see you're really thinking of this seriously, John.

So....be sure to check out the budget busters of CA, to wit: PROPERTY TAXES. Compared to here, they are brutally high. ASSOCIATION FEES. Many neighborhoods have large grassy areas in the midst of an essentially desert climate, so each development assesses the fees to have watering and gardening done. Water costs more there than it does here. So do the gardeners. If you're in a gated community, there are even higher fees to maintain amenities like pools and clubhouses.

The state of CA is broke right now. They partied with the taxpayers' money while the good times rolled, and now......they're looking to hit whoever they can with any taxes they can dream up.

Sometimes, it's the accumulation of matters extraneous to the purchase price that will add up to a big chunk of your income.
CA is a nice place to live. I spent my life there until 2004, but...........

Property Taxes on homes $ 350 K - $ 450 K is $ 3,500 - $ 5,500 USD. The Northeast is much higher. I checked out more than 20 homes.

Association Fees: $ 10 - $ 250. I wouldn't buy a home with over $ 110. per month in fees. The house I saw in Temecula for $ 425 K and was $ 85. a month in fees. This was a gorgeous home built in 2002 with clubhouse and pool.

Water: Realtor told me $ 1200. a year. I pay $ 500. USD a year here.

Gardeners in CA: $ 8. per hour (Mexicans and Guatemalans). Maids: $ 10 per hour to $ 15 max.

Fruits & Veggies in CA are CHEAPER than here as is Chicken ($ 1.15/lb) and most other grocery items. Meats are approx the same price as here.

The cost of my private Health Insurance here will outweigh most costs in CA. Edgar will be here this PM with our new ever increasing premiums on Health Insurance, about 10 - 12% a year. I think it will be $ 7,200 USD for two.

Mexico's cost of living rises 4 - 6% a year while I've had no increase in my SS for two years and possibly none next year.

I'm not saying that it won't cost more to live there. It will, but it's not a lot more. And it's so clean unlike Mexico.

oncesubtle - No, 10 times the amount of maintenance not 10 times the cost.

Looks like you've done your homework, John.

The cleanliness is a nice aspect of the place you're considering. Good luck.

[quote="johninajijic"]

gringal wrote:I see you're really thinking of this seriously, John.

So....be sure to check out the budget busters of CA, to wit: PROPERTY TAXES. Compared to here, they are brutally high. ASSOCIATION FEES. Many neighborhoods have large grassy areas in the midst of an essentially desert climate, so each development assesses the fees to have watering and gardening done. Water costs more there than it does here. So do the gardeners. If you're in a gated community, there are even higher fees to maintain amenities like pools and clubhouses.

The state of CA is broke right now. They partied with the taxpayers' money while the good times rolled, and now......they're looking to hit whoever they can with any taxes they can dream up.

Sometimes, it's the accumulation of matters extraneous to the purchase price that will add up to a big chunk of your income.
nice place to live. I spent my life there until 2004, but...........

Property Taxes on homes $ 350 K - $ 450 K is $ 3,500 - $ 5,500 USD. The Northeast is much higher. I checked out more than 20 homes.

Each of our homes in Jalisco and Chiapas are worth about the same price as John´s example and even more if we were not in a soft market. Our property taxes in Chiapas are the equivalent of $20USD a year. In Ajijic, $200USD a year for total of $220USD per annum.


Association Fees: $ 10 - $ 250. I wouldn't buy a home with over $ 110. per month in fees. The house I saw in Temecula for $ 425 K and was $ 85. a month in fees. This was a gorgeous home built in 2002 with clubhouse and pool.

We do not pay association fees as we do not and never will again live in a condominium after our experience on San Francisco´s Russian Hill neighborhood where we discovered everyone from the developer to the city administration was crooked. But let´s compare living here in Ajijic and San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas with living in San Francisco. In San Francisco in the 1990s we had a Chinese woman as a maid who came over once a week for four hours on a Wednesday morning for $200 USD a month and this was to clean a 600SF one bedroom apartment. Today we pay three people, a gardener and two housekeepers who come over five, three and two days a week to garden and meticulously clean two much larger homes for the equivalent of $1,360USD a month. An incomparable savings over California.

Water: Realtor told me $ 1200. a year. I pay $ 500. USD a year here.

We pay perhaps the equivalent of $250 USD a year for two homes for water and the home in Ajijic has a very large garden that needs a lot of water and there is a swimming pool.

Gardeners in CA: $ 8. per hour (Mexicans and Guatemalans). Maids: $ 10 per hour to $ 15 max.

Gardener in Ajijic, the equivalent of $3.30 USDF per hour. Maid in Ajijic, about the equivalent of $3.50 USD per hour and the same in Chiapas. We could never afford domestic staff in San Francisco and never even considered it except for that Chinese maid three hours a week in a condo the size of a Mexican closet.


The costs of basic food items in Chiapas is incredibly cheap compared to the United States and even more so in comparisan to France where we also have family. Food at Lakeside is more expensive than Chiapas but in comparison to the U.S. and France the cost is only a fraction of what it is in those places. We can live and eat like kings in San Cristóbal by buying at the indigenous market at a tiny fraction of what food would cost us in the U.S. and France

The cost of my private Health Insurance here will outweigh most costs in CA. Edgar will be here this PM with our new ever increasing premiums on Health Insurance, about 10 - 12% a year. I think it will be $ 7,200 USD for two.

We pay the equivalent of just under $500USD per month or $6,000 USD a year for major medical health insurance with AXA and that includes unlimited coverage at the best hospitals in Mexico and I am 69 and my wife is 64. We just paid this year´s premium to the outstanding AXA agent Jesus Tejeda who is, without a doubt, the best insurance agent at Lakeside and a totally honorable gent. You are paying way too much for your health isurance it seems to us. Yet you keep bragging about New York Life. Wake up. The equivalent insurance in the U.S. would probably be at least $30,000 per annum. In France, on the other hand, health insurance would be free and cover everything.


Mexico's cost of living rises 4 - 6% a year while I've had no increase in my SS for two years and possibly none next year.

So?

I'm not saying that it won't cost more to live there. It will, but it's not a lot more. And it's so clean unlike Mexico.

[b]Absolute bullsh*t. I could move back to my native Alabama or my wife´s native France and buy a house in the boonies cheaper than here but that is not the point and you don´t get it. It is what it costs you to live in a place that matters. Neither you nor Gingall have a clue.

It actually costs a great deal more to live NOB than here and, quite frankly, John, if you are disaffected here, why not do us all a favor and simply leave. I personally find your posts a bit entertaining but spare us the invitation to share your frustration. We, at one time, considred retiring to Madeira but chose Mexico instead. OK, you can have our designated beach there.

hound dog wrote:

johninajijic wrote: I understand Jeffrey now lives in one of the Penthouse condos at El Dorado.

Really, John? So why would a person of Jeffrey´s obvious means move from his palatial estate on the lakefront to a commoner´s digs in a penthouse apartment among other riffraff? Clearly there were compelling reasons for such an indignity that do not readily meet the eye.

Maybe Jeffrey lost his ass(ets) in the Markets!!

Nothing in North America is more expensive than living in Vancouver, BC. About the only thing I can think of that is more expensive in Mexico is electricity however we are downsizing from a 5 bedroom home with a rental suite, pool and hot tub so my electricity is quite high here anyways. Overall, even when I factor in the cost of private medical, I reckon Mexico will be 50% cheaper to live than up here in the land of political correctness & taxes...........

hound dog quote - "We pay the equivalent of just under $500USD per month or $6,000 USD a year for major medical health insurance with AXA and that includes unlimited coverage at the best hospitals in Mexico and I am 69 and my wife is 64."

Is that "unlimited" coverage for International unlimited Catastrophic Illness?

johninajijic wrote:

hound dog wrote:

johninajijic wrote: I understand Jeffrey now lives in one of the Penthouse condos at El Dorado.

Really, John? So why would a person of Jeffrey´s obvious means move from his palatial estate on the lakefront to a commoner´s digs in a penthouse apartment among other riffraff? Clearly there were compelling reasons for such an indignity that do not readily meet the eye.

Why don't you call him and ask? Maybe he got fed up with the maintenance of these homes which require 10 times the maintenance of any quality US built home.

If I can remember, I will ask my friends who know him and live on Independencia near him when I see them on Friday night.

Who do you think you are kidding, John? You are going to ask your "...friends who know (Jeffrey) well and live on Independencia near (where he used to live) when (you) see them on Friday night." why a man of Jeffrey´s supposed and widely publicized means moved from his palatial estate to a two bit condo in that new tacky highrise? Well. I´ll tell you what. I live in West Ajijic and walk by Jeffrey´s old estate on the lake every day with my dogs so just let me know the names of your buddies down near the lake and I´ll personally save you the trouble of asking your wealthy friends for you by asking them myself.

The presumption that the maintenance of "...these homes which require 10 times the maintenance of any quality US built home." is an absurd propositon on its surface. You must take your fellow forum participants for morons. Push this idiotic issue and Dawg will debate you to the wire.

The last home Dawg owned in the United States was a one bedroom, 1,200 SF home on seven wooded acres above the Napa Valley in the Mayacamas Mountains above St. Helena, California. Tell me it costs me ten times as much to maintain a home here in Ajijic or in San Cristóbal de Las Casas than in the Mayacamas Mountains above the Napa Valley and let´s have a debate. I look forward to that.

Hmmm........since most of the homes there don't even have HVAC systems I can't understand what all the maintenance would be other than paint and maybe roof (if you have a flat top). Unless of course one has purchased a piece of crap to begin with.........

What are all the items that require constant maintenance there vs Arizona or New Mexico John? Just curious.

My home is old and maintenance isn't that much although I run the work crews and do more or less major repairs every year or two and still then only pay 10,000 pesos max each time.

hound dog wrote:

johninajijic wrote: I understand Jeffrey now lives in one of the Penthouse condos at El Dorado.

Really, John? So why would a person of Jeffrey´s obvious means move from his palatial estate on the lakefront to a commoner´s digs in a penthouse apartment among other riffraff? Clearly there were compelling reasons for such an indignity that do not readily meet the eye.

When Jeffrey put his lake front house up for sale there was a rumor he was leaving the area. He published an article in one of the papers at the time that he was not leaving, just down sizing. I had also heard he had trouble with the weekend partiers and a lot of loud music all night long. Hired a lawyer and got the music stopped for awhile. But I've seen the large groups of likely Guadalajaran's camping on the waterfront area and I can imagine it gets pretty noisy and dirty on weekends.

And I heard the same rumor about Omar building a huge complex on the libramienta somewhere. You can see some building going on up there but not sure if that is it or private development.

Federal Police roadblocks at Los Burritos, 2 trucks of heavily armed police pulled into Soriana, something is going down right now.

I know can see what is going on, two things are not related but for safety of police I'll post what is happening in an hour or two.

Might be a Sale on Artichokes

Intercasa wrote:Federal Police roadblocks at Los Burritos, 2 trucks of heavily armed police pulled into Soriana, something is going down right now.

I know can see what is going on, two things are not related but for safety of police I'll post what is happening in an hour or two.

Oops, was going to go to Chapala today. I guess I'll hold off at least until tomorrow.