How's the economy in Chapala and Ajijic, Mexico?
Spencer McMullen - Chapala Law
There’s a lot of potential growth for tourism in Chapala and Ajijic. The local people just haven’t grasped it yet. There are other lake areas in Mexico where they get more watersports and other areas where they have a really nice tourist downtown center. In Chapala and Ajijic, there are still some trash collection issues, some potholes in the streets, and the general appearance of the area is not spiced up to appeal to a higher end tourist. ...
There’s a lot of potential growth for tourism in Chapala and Ajijic. The local people just haven’t grasped it yet. There are other lake areas in Mexico where they get more watersports and other areas where they have a really nice tourist downtown center. In Chapala and Ajijic, there are still some trash collection issues, some potholes in the streets, and the general appearance of the area is not spiced up to appeal to a higher end tourist. There are places in Mexico one to two hours away from here such as Mazamitla or Tapalpa that have a nicer downtown plaza, which is more set for tourism and they have finer restaurants that are open with a broad range food. If I’m in Chapala and I want to eat after 6 o’clock at night, it’s going to be pizza or tacos. If it’s after 10, the pizza won’t deliver.
Mazamitla is a mountain community where you can go rent a cabin go horseback riding and ride quads and where the city centers have restaurants that are open later and are cleaner. You’re not going to see people drinking beer in the plaza. Instead, you’re going to see a higher end of tourism, which is attracting the higher end of people who are going to spend more money and stay in fancier hotels and stay overnight because of the things they can do. Chapala and Ajijic haven’t advanced as far as watersports and things that they can use the lake for after eight or nine o’clock and there’s no taxi service.
I mention Mazamitla and Tapalpa as examples of somewhat direct competition to Lake Chapala as a tourist getaway. To me Chapala is to Guadalajara as Santa Barbara is to Los Angeles. Chapala would be where people go from Guadalajara to get away for a day or for the weekend just like Santa Barbara is where people from Los Angeles go for the same thing.
(Mazamitla, Jalisco, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted January 6, 2016
Santiago Hernandez - Chapala Med
The economy of Chapala and Ajijic is ever growing. Mexico, in general is no longer a Third World country. I have read reports that it is now a Second World Economy. The lakeside area of Chapala and Ajijic, in particular, is very dependent on the expat population for its economic stability or growth. With the devaluation of the peso and people starting to think in dollars, people are now more apt to spend money. As an example, I have a loan that I have to pay in dollar amounts. I tend to...
The economy of Chapala and Ajijic is ever growing. Mexico, in general is no longer a Third World country. I have read reports that it is now a Second World Economy. The lakeside area of Chapala and Ajijic, in particular, is very dependent on the expat population for its economic stability or growth. With the devaluation of the peso and people starting to think in dollars, people are now more apt to spend money. As an example, I have a loan that I have to pay in dollar amounts. I tend to think that this is so cheap in comparison to the US.
There are a lot of opportunities here for someone who is semi-retired because there are quite a lot of things to do. There are lots of job opportunities and if somebody wants to hire help, it is not as expensive to hire help here as compared to the US.
There are a lot of opportunities here for someone who is semi-retired because there are quite a lot of things to do. There are lots of job opportunities and if somebody wants to hire help, it is not as expensive to hire help here as compared to the US.
Posted February 1, 2016
Richard Tingen - Coldwell Banker Chapala Realty
Thanks to tourism and foreigners coming here, our economy is doing very, very well in Chapala and Ajijic. I say that because if you travel the strip between Chapala and Ajijic, you will find new businesses every week. Whether it’s a furniture store, a dentist, a doctor, or whatever, there are businesses opening all the time and that has not happened within the last 20 years until the last 5 years. There is a demand. So we’re doing the supplying. Thanks to tourism and foreigners coming here, our economy is doing very, very well in Chapala and Ajijic. I say that because if you travel the strip between Chapala and Ajijic, you will find new businesses every week. Whether it’s a furniture store, a dentist, a doctor, or whatever, there are businesses opening all the time and that has not happened within the last 20 years until the last 5 years. There is a demand. So we’re doing the supplying. Mexican tourism is principally on the weekends and the holidays. Up until school gets back in session, we have a lot of people here. There are a lot of people from Guadalajara who own homes in Ajijic and who take advantage of those homes during the holidays and during the school vacations. Then, there is the round effect of Americans and Canadians injecting money in the economy.
(Authors Diane Pearl and Anna Elena Berlin promoting their self- help books, Ajijic, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted August 29, 2016
Michael Kavanaugh - Continental Realty
The economy in the Chapala area, including Ajijic, is good, even though the real estate business is a bit slow this year. The deterioration in the exchange rate between the peso and the US dollar has not necessarily affected the local community that much because most of the goods that are purchased here are made in Mexico. [Editor’s note: When the US dollar becomes more stronger relative to the Mexican peso, for people in Mexico who have their...
The economy in the Chapala area, including Ajijic, is good, even though the real estate business is a bit slow this year. The deterioration in the exchange rate between the peso and the US dollar has not necessarily affected the local community that much because most of the goods that are purchased here are made in Mexico. [Editor’s note: When the US dollar becomes more stronger relative to the Mexican peso, for people in Mexico who have their funds in dollars, they’ll be able to buy more pesos for their dollars. So therefore the prices in pesos are cheaper for the people who have US dollars. However, for the Mexicans here who buy in pesos, anything that’s imported from the US is going to be more expensive.]
The Mexican economy is large enough and diverse enough to provide the products that most people need, so they are not buying a lot of imported products, so therefore, the US dollar – Mexican exchange rate hasn’t really changed much for the locals. Mexico has a huge economy. You can pretty much buy everything made in Mexico that you want to buy. This is one of the reasons why construction costs in Mexico by US standards are so low, because if you are from the US and you’re buying with US dollars, you get the advantage of the exchange rate. As of now, you’re almost doubling your money by using the US dollar.
As for the future, when the oil price drops, it affects the value of the peso. And when the US dollar gets stronger, the Mexican dollar goes down. In the 8 years that I have lived here, I remember buying pesos at only 8 to the dollar, while now, I can buy pesos at 18.5 to the dollar.
(Patio in Ajijic, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted September 4, 2016
Percy Pinklebutt - Percy Pinklebutt Enteprises
The economy of Chapala and Ajijic has been up and down but we’ve seen a tremendous amount of change here over the last 15 years. We have a healthy flow of people from Guadalajara every weekend who love to retreat to the peacefulness of the lake and this is a great stimulant for local businesses. We do have quite a lot of new construction, a very attractive mall area with an outside food court, two movie theaters, Dominoes Pizza etc., so things have grown and changed, but we still...The economy of Chapala and Ajijic has been up and down but we’ve seen a tremendous amount of change here over the last 15 years. We have a healthy flow of people from Guadalajara every weekend who love to retreat to the peacefulness of the lake and this is a great stimulant for local businesses. We do have quite a lot of new construction, a very attractive mall area with an outside food court, two movie theaters, Dominoes Pizza etc., so things have grown and changed, but we still seem to have managed to keep the small town feel. There are about 120,000 people living here between the four towns across the Lake Chapala: Chapala, Ajijic, San Juan Cosala, and Jocotepec. People love it here because you’re 45 minutes away from Guadalajara by car and from the international airport, which makes travel back to loved ones pretty easy. That’s one of the reasons my family likes Chapala; easy access to an international airport can make life a lot simpler.
The economy here in Chapala and Ajijic is somewhat based on tourism. This is a weekend retreat for many of the people from the big city of Guadalajara. They have houses down here and on the weekends the families arrive and bring friends to relax and enjoy the lake. This is the biggest lake in Mexico and it is well used by boats and people enjoying water sports. There are some super restaurants here with awesome lake views . All of this means that on the weekends, things get a little hectic but it also means that the town certainly feels a lot livelier.
We do have every business we need to sustain a great life for the locals pet shops, veterinarians, doctors, restaurants, organic market, bars, furniture stores, hardware stores, etc. Our largest industry here now is the berry industry. We produce some great berries, most of which are exported. Another positive of the industry is the great availability and price of these berries lakeside. Strawberries, blueberries, raspberries and blackberries are all about 20 pesos a liter.
Posted September 12, 2016
Marvin Golden
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The economy in Chapala and Ajijic is good. When housing went in the toilet in late 2008 in the US, the builders here just kept on building. Prices went down but they were building. They couldn’t just close up shop. It was tough because the prices went down but the economy kept on moving. Over the years it has not settled down and prices still haven’t gone up to the point where they were in 2007 in many cases. Now that the US dollar is so high, I think it is going to really...The economy in Chapala and Ajijic is good. When housing went in the toilet in late 2008 in the US, the builders here just kept on building. Prices went down but they were building. They couldn’t just close up shop. It was tough because the prices went down but the economy kept on moving. Over the years it has not settled down and prices still haven’t gone up to the point where they were in 2007 in many cases. Now that the US dollar is so high, I think it is going to really help us to sell a lot more houses because the builders can build cheaply. The Americans can come down and get a good buy. I used to say the resale houses were up to 20% lower than the new homes and so you could buy a resale house and do some fixing and changing. Now because of the changes in the US dollar to the Mexican peso, the new homes can be built many times for less than the previous homes and they have more in them. So we are more and more saying to people to take a look at building because they could do better and get exactly what they want. The thing is a lot of people are afraid to build. They wouldn’t know how to design a house and they are scared of all the problems that could happen so they just do not do it.
There are some really good buys in the resale market, many times if somebody dies, or somebody needs to go back to his home country. In these cases, the prices could come way down. Nothing is hard and fast.
(Courtyard home with reduced price, Lake Chapala, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted October 26, 2016
Jeff Smith - DocTours
Mexicans understand that gringos bring prosperity. Mexicans tend to be a friendly, fun-loving people, anyway. But bringing dollars by the bushel full helps, too. And the Chapala Riviera has tons of visitors -- from the far North (US and Canada) and the near North (Guadalajara), so you see lots of economic activity. However, ferry across the lake and you'll see a different story re: standard of living (same story re: friendliness). So Mexicans move there...
Mexicans understand that gringos bring prosperity. Mexicans tend to be a friendly, fun-loving people, anyway. But bringing dollars by the bushel full helps, too. And the Chapala Riviera has tons of visitors -- from the far North (US and Canada) and the near North (Guadalajara), so you see lots of economic activity. However, ferry across the lake and you'll see a different story re: standard of living (same story re: friendliness). So Mexicans move there and find jobs around Chapala. Hence, the area seems to have a bigger middle class. The government does stuff like create bike lanes. Residents do things like give care to animals. All that is for the good.
(Touring Lake Chapala, Mexico, pictured.)
Posted February 13, 2017
Magy Carmona - Magy Carmona at Lake Chapala Realty
The area of Chapala and Ajijic is prosperous, so it's a good place to start a business if you do it honestly, with quality and of course if your business is something original. Due to the enriching cultural mix that we form between foreigners and Mexicans, the panorama of options is very broad. It is a place where you can still dream and make your project come true.
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Personally I have had a very satisfactory experience since I started...
The area of Chapala and Ajijic is prosperous, so it's a good place to start a business if you do it honestly, with quality and of course if your business is something original. Due to the enriching cultural mix that we form between foreigners and Mexicans, the panorama of options is very broad. It is a place where you can still dream and make your project come true.
Personally I have had a very satisfactory experience since I started my consignment shop as a hobby and I have seen it become a real business that I am passionate about. I started as a Realtor selling houses and now I can sell the house and all the contents of it..-Two birds in one shot!!
Posted December 8, 2017