Live Better Updates
Corrections and additions to Live Better South of the Border
Any time you write a book, your errors are immortalized. While I did a pretty good job of trying to correct them in the 4th edition of Live Better South of the Border, there are a few. I will post them as they are revealed by eagle-eyed readers and my own research. It is still a darn good book, according to the thousands of you who bought it. Still, I like to be honest with my readers. I made mistakes.
Housing prices are for comparison purposes only. I think I mentioned this, but don't want you to take them as gospel. In general, my low-end prices exist, but are not likely to be found by most people. I did a lot of research on them, and knew that they would change. I low-balled some areas. This was due to some information from locals, filtered through my own prejudice. Mexican housing is way overpriced, in my opinion. When I put in a low price for a house, it was for a non-gringo area of town, and not a price you will see advertised or find without Mexican friends and luck. Rental prices seem to have held up pretty well, though, they, too have gone up. I was recently offered a nice apartment in San Miguel de Allende for $600 a month including electricity and high-speed Internet.
Overall, the cost of buying a house or condo has gone up at least 30% and in the beach communities by 50% or more.
In the case of Morelia, I was way off and can't blame anyone but myself. You cannot buy a house in Morelia for $25,000. Try upping the lower end to $40,000 and you might find something. Morelia still remains a bargain, probably due to the fact that there aren't a lot of Americans there. It is not for everyone, thank God, so be sure to read my description of it before moving there.
Prices in the Cancun corridor have actually doubled in 2007 and are still going up.
Pto. Peñasco (Rocky Point), Sonora has exploded and are now as high as, or higher than Baja.
San Felipe, BCN, is experiencing a housing boom and prices are soaring.
Canadian Tax Info Wrong.
Dear Mike:
I just finished reading your book. It is excellent. One small thing, on page 85 you say Canadians pay tax like Americans do on their world-wide income. Your statement is incorrect, Canadian taxes apply only to income of its residents--which include corporations and trusts, as well as individuals within the country. The Canadian government does not tax foreign assets or income earned by non-resident citizens who live abroad. You might make this correction for your next edition. Jerry
Durango, DGO, I recently (August, 2007) talked to a man who bought a very nice house near Durango for $40,000. He had family to negotiate for him, so the gringo price might be $50,000. Still a bargain.