Reply #65: It depends, Doctor.....

[Baja Margie]

Would you commute to work? Are you retired? If you are independently wealthy and secure, you could go just about anywhere. Speaking the language gives you a wonderful advantage. Would you be buying a house, or renting ? What suits you, the ocean or inland ? Baja or the Mainland? Or, maybe you want something to kind of be a 'base camp', while you travel around. Many retirees have homes or trailers further down South, then return up here for the summer.

Our first house was on leased land, owned by a private family. In a situation like that, you own the house, but not the land.This is okay, many summer homes are owned by Americans this way, and if the family is stable, you shouldn't have a problem. Keep in mind though, if they decide to put in a hotel, they simply do not renew your lease - leases are only legal in Mexico for one year, with an exception - and you lose.Leases are only valid legally if you are a documented FM3. Never buy property from an Ejido, look up Punta Banda and you will be able to see what happened to those folks.
We are now in what is called a Fideocomiso, the only way to go . This was an american community 25 years ago, but is now mostly a Mexican neighborhood. This is the exception I was speaking of. We "own" the house and the land - for fifty years. In 50 years, I'll be gone, so I don't care, but say I was still around, the lease is renewable for another 50 years through the bank. We pay taxes to Mexico City, about $360.00 a year. You can still pick up good beach property up North here for very cheap.Forget about living right on the beach, especially up North here, that is the 'federal zone', and they are coming down hard on gringos who live there. Used to be that , at least up North, you could live in the federal zone, build a house, and simply pay taxes to Mexico City yearly.
Beware of complete American communities and "camps". They can turn into gossipy snake pits with alot of alcohol or drug abuse yet others can be very nice. Consider if you will have access to City water and sewer, or have to have a pila or both.

A suggestion would be to try it for a year and see if you like it enough to invest in it. I would recommend reading everything you can get your hands on. talking to people who live here (careful, lot of GOP down here) and physically checking it out. Maybe Zorra and Mexexpat have more suggestions, Zorra and Mexexpat, where are you ?

Hoped this helped.