By Fabio Rodriguez
San Miguel de Allende is a charming town northwest of Mexico City. It seduces visitors with its Spanish Colonial city center, cafes and restaurants. It helps that it is driving distance from Texas, but one of the major allures is that the cost of living is much lower. For example, a gardener charges around $2 an hour, a house cleaner that cooks and cleans is around $80 a week (in the states, this would cost a minimum of $80 a day). More than 10% of the town’s residents hail from the United States or Canada. As millions Americans face retirement in an economy that has ravaged their savings, places like San Miguel de Allende have an extra appeal. Another area where savings are to be had is in the real estate market. In Florida, property tax on a $500,000 home is around $10,000 a year and you’d have to add another $10,000 or more for hurricane insurance. The property taxes on a nice house in Mexico range from just a couple hundred dollars a year to a thousand. Most of the homes in San Miguel don’t require home owners insurance because houses are stone and stucco so they don’t run a high fire risk.
Despite the recession or maybe because of it, many Americans are still coming to San Miguel. On the edge of town you can find condos for around $250,000, you’ll find starter homes on a golf course for $200,000. It also may surprise you to find Starbucks, Home Depot, Office Depot, Costco, Blockbuster and of course a McDonald’s, however if you are in Mexico, I would suggest the Posole instead of burgers!
Jack Watson, President Carter’s former Chief of Staff, is now a San Miguel resident. He was recently asked, “As this town grows and becomes more American, is there a danger that is it going to lose its flavor?”
He responds, “Absolutely, I’m concerned about the influx of lots of people because one of the really special things about this place is the nature of the place, so if it is overwhelmed by people coming from the United States or from where ever, you’ve got lots of problems.”
Hurricane insurance! San Miguel is in the center of Mexico. Many of the big stores you mention are not in SMA but in Quretero.
Hi Georgene,
Thanks for stopping by. I am familiar with the location of San Miguel, the reference to hurricane insurance is meant to compare the additional costs associated with owning a home in another retirement destination, Florida. You obviously don’t need hurricane insurance if you buy a home in the center of Mexico. Thank you for the corrections about the location of the big stores. How far are they from downtown SMA?
Costco, Sam’s, Walmart and Home Depot are in Celaya (about 45 minutes from San Miguel) and Queretero (about an hour from San Miguel.) San Miguel does have an Office Depot, Starbucks, Blockbuster and, sigh, MacDonalds.
Thanks for the info Hope. It would be nice if the golden arches would try to assimilate their menu a bit more to the location the store is in…at least something besides the monotonous quarter pounders. At least you arent from Kentucky like I am. Everywhere i go i get “¡ahhh, como Kentucky Fried Chicken!” Yes, just like KFC.
San Miguel de Allende, know for its culture and diversity is a nourishing city with an exotic population and although small the town is very know world wide. The city located central Mexico which makes it a major tourist attractor is also a great retire location for all ages. I strongly recommend that families with children below the age of 20 do not come to this city due to increased drug abuse within the town. Although the cons may be strong the city is great for elder people, and as a resident with the time of ten years i still love the city and its people.
Boy, watch 48 hours tonight, and the kidnapping, 7 months in a hole, husband mexican, wife from U.S., no thanks. Even the wife said, they want it swept under the rug not to hurt development. Too close to the Denzel Washington movie (which was somewhat based on fact of Mexico City Kidnappings, Man on Fire). If your living down there, better know how to defend yourself and family, then start that thought process for a month and you will find you can just get small town USA. The police are on the take, the politicians are worse than ours, their FBI is a joke, your on your own, don’t think your going to get help without paying cash for it.. Sounds great, prices great, construction beautiful weather great, too good to be true, maybe it is. Take your chances, read the stats on kidnapping on San Miguel, then look at them on Mexico City (unbelievable for Americans). The drug cartels are getting so large, they own condo’s down the shore in Cancun. Last year saw army trucks of troops running all around to prevent their economy. Scary while your eating your dinner, looks like your in a war zone for a few minutes.
My trips are done, not bringing two teen age girls to the area anymore, or allow them there, you get hurt, your paying cash, forget your health insurance, you will wait in an E.R. until you wire money. Too much risk, some seedy characters, sad, but true. If you got a few million, good, pay a Blackwater agent in your servants quarters.
After watching the Dateline special “Desperate Hours”, I wouldn’t step foot in Mexico, let alone a city known for attracting monied expats, who can attract these horrible kidnappers. That family lived through hell. The government of Mexico is filled with corruption. My heart broke for that beautiful family. They are decent, lawabiding people who just wanted to live a good life. They employed local people and follow all the rules and the gov’t. of Mexico failed to protect them. I will not step foot in Mexico ever again.
It is interesting how people feel confident in making such broad, firm statements (unsubstantiated) statements, such as S. Musial does about life in Mexico. Yes, there are problems, but the drug trade & crime related issues are located in specific zones, many of them close to the U.S. boarder.
The Dateline piece on the San Miguel kidnapping refers to one, specific case, and there is much talk in the town of San Miguel that the individual in question had involvement with many shady deals himself, and wasn’t above reproach. My point being that this individual was targeted for specific reasons beyond just being “an American”.
How much crime goes on in the United States? As a Canadian, I would certainly be uncomfortable going to many locations in the U.S. (Chicago, Houston for example, with the highest murder rates in the country), Cleveland had 140 murders last year, this for a population of 420,000! To a Canadian, these types of murder statistics are mind boggling. In Toronto where I live, with a population of 2.5 million people, we had 59 murders last year. So, let’s get some perspective. This is why I find it fascinating that an American would vilify Mexico in such extreme terms. Someone is watching too much TV!
I’ve spent time in San Miguel de Allende, and it is a truly beautiful, stunningly beautiful place. There is an expatriate population there of close to 15,000. The infrastructure for expats in unparalleled, and the community is robust with culture. The media loves to focus on a sensationalistic story .. but, if you believed everything the media told you, you’d hide behind your bed and never leave the house!
Come LIVE in San Miguel!
David
Here are some statistics about crime in Mexico versus the city of Houston: We have 49.46 crimes per 100,000 population (our population, is 2,238,895 not counting Harris County). Crime rate in Mexico for 2004 was 1503.71 per 100,000 population, and rising!
So, David, stay in Mexico, your turn is comming up!
David, Aren’t your comments typical! Blame or accuse the victim? The Bamboo Telegraph (aka gringo gossip) is the problem. This man was the son of a (deceased) newspaper mogul in Mexico and the kidnappers seriously screwed up in thinking he had tons of money. He didn’t. Kidnappings are done for money, not for business deals people didn’t like? Hello!
That was NOT an isolated incident in the area and if you think it is, you are seriously misinformed. Remember the guy missing all the fingers, when his wife couldn’t come up with the ransom demand?? Most of them don’t get talked about, ever, so you have no idea. I live in Mexico and have for 10 years, so I have a pretty good idea what goes on. It’s a reality, and for you to poo-poo it as an isolated incident shows your ignorance of things THROUGHOUT Mexico. SMA is NO exception.
Having lived in Southern California for most of my life I have spent quite a few vacations in Mexico. I have always thought of Mexico as a little bit dangerous but worth it for the food, beaches, history, and other cultural jewels that it offers.
My view has changed with the increasing power of the drug cartels. I have seen the mexican people change as well. I see a lot more bling and flash in their culture these days (the Norteno culture of big trucks and fancy cowboy boots, jewelry, and hats). It saddens me greatly to think that I no longer feel that it is safe to go to Mexico. Maybe I am just reacting to the mix of truth and fiction that I have been exposed to, (Man on Fire, Traffic, Dateline show about San Miguel de Allende, the news of 70 immigrants murdered by drug cartel, the stories of drug mules…)
Maybe it is because I am getting older and more cautious. Maybe it is because I have personally been screwed over by some mexican co-workers that I considered to be friends when I was a waitress (they borrowed money from me to pay their brother’s coyote and acted like I was lying when I asked for repayment, $950.00).
Unfortunatley Mexico scares me more than it intruiges me these days.
Actually David MacLean is a realtor who arranges group tours from Toronto to San Miguel for prospective buyers, so who can blame him really for his comments?
David is right in saying San Miguel is a safe city. It’s funny how Amercans get all of their “expertise” in Mexico from watching a (rather mediocre) film with Denzel Washington in it. The drug trafficking problem in Mexico is a huge problem, however, it is NOT a generalized problem, meaning it is spread throughout all of Mexico. Most of the country is still quite a safe place to be, but then again, who can convince such an ignorant bunch, I mean, the user called “Luisa Helling” posted that the muder rate in Mexico is 1507 per 100K inhabitants, “and rising” He/she even remarks, well, that is not just ridiculous but impossible, that would mean a full-fledged war was taking place. According to Wikipedia, in 2009, the murder rate per 100K for Mexico was 15, according to NationMaster, the crime, per capita, for mexico, was 0.135 for every 1000.
I’ve lived in San Miguel de Allende for 4 years:
1. Since when do americans believe anything that has been on sensationalistic american TV.
2. The crime in our city is burglaries, purse snatching and other minor crimes reported weekly in The Atencion. Violent crime is extremely rare in this small town of 80,000.
3. The drug cartels are active in the border cities (mainly Juarez and Tijuana)and along the coast (Acapulco and Michoacan) and some other places mostly in Northern Mexico (Monterey..)
Mexico is a huge country and thankfully the rate of crime outside of these areas is equivalent to Wyoming.
4.When we moved here, we were surprised at the number of stores that carried what we asw gringos crave. If you are missing something, Via Organica, Luna de Queso or Mega will get it.The new highway to Celaya and Home depot and Costco cuts that trip to 30 minutes.
5.I’ll stay in San Miguel. If you want to move to Houston be my guest. “Crime Rankings 2010-2011,” published by CQ Press, ranks Houston’s crime as ninth-highest for big cities nationwide, placing it on a list with the likes of Detroit and Columbus, Ohio.,
Some 15 years ago we took a road trip through Mexico and checked out San Miguel on the advice of a friend, and what a great place it was. At the time there was a large crowd of european students and it was easy to imagine you were overseas instead of south of the border. Food and lodging were excellent, and very inexpensive, about $40 for a week’s stay for the two of us. This was like an island paradise compared to the rest of the country. The more we traveled south from there the more we wanted to turn back, which we did. Stayed five more days before the long return back to our jobs in Louisiana.
So now that I’m retired I’m looking for real estate there and disappointed to see figures like $250k for a condo when back then our cab driver mentioned that the really nice houses we saw at the top of the hill were going for $10-20k. Sigh.