From a foreigner’s perspective, Mexico used to be pretty straightforward when it came to looking for a place to live.
Most expats generally came to live in Mexico at or near retirement age, and tended to cluster in beach locations like Puerto Vallarta, Playa del Carmen and Los Cabos or inland locations like Ajijic or San Miguel de Allende.
But things are changing — and quickly. Digital nomads are moving to cities, beach locations, and colonial towns. Younger families are making the move to locations throughout the country. More and more people are retiring early and many others are looking for a second home. The number of retired baby boomers increases every day, and it seems like an increasing number of people from all over the world are more adventurous, curious, and willing to try something new at an earlier age than previous generations.
Mexico draws in more Canadian and U.S. residents to live than any other country. It is estimated that over 400,000 Canadian citizens and over 1.6 million U.S. citizens now live in Mexico — and that number only keeps increasing daily.
Places once relatively unheard of for many foreigners are now becoming hotspots for them to live. Querétaro, San Pancho, Mazunte, Oaxaca City, Mérida, Bacalar, Holbox, Guanajuato, Mexico City, Todos Santos, La Paz, Tulum — the list of places being discovered by foreigners just keeps growing.
Which begs the question, with so many options now increasingly accessible and available, how does one even begin to figure out which location makes sense for you? How do you even begin to narrow the list down?
You might not be like your friend that chose Veracruz. You might have loved that beach location that your cruise ship stopped at for 12 hours, but is that really where you want to live? You might have loved that inland city you visited on a work trip, but is that really where you want to live? You might have read a lot about Mexico’s magical colonial towns, but can you really live without a Costco nearby? This whole process is made even more difficult when most people say that they love the location that they have chosen.
Mexico News Daily is very excited to be bringing you a series that will help you more effectively evaluate and rate Mexico’s top places for expat living.
Starting tomorrow, we will have the first in a series of 15+ articles to help you make sense of the many options available. Every Sunday for four months we will do a deep dive, exploring 32 expat-friendly cities across 13 Mexican states. We will rate the cities across key variables such as climate, connectivity, culture, availability of a Costco and more.
No doubt we will rankle many of you with this series. You may disagree with our criteria, you may disagree with our ratings, you may disagree with the cities we selected or didn’t select.
And that’s good! The objective is to get a healthy discussion and debate going.
So take it with a grain of salt, have some fun with it, tell us what we got right and help us understand why you think we got certain things wrong. The idea is to help you better understand and evaluate the different options. And if you already moved to Mexico and didn’t get it right the first time, that’s OK too. We increasingly come across expats who have moved or are thinking of moving from one location to another within Mexico. This guide will help you with that as well.
Perhaps most importantly, have some fun with this and let’s all use it as a chance to help educate, inform and learn from each other.
So buckle up, and get ready for the first article of the series tomorrow and follow the series each Sunday as we explore this diverse country.
Please send us your comments and feedback — while keeping the debate civil and respectful, of course!
Travis Bembenek is the CEO of Mexico News Daily and has been living, working or playing in Mexico for over 27 years.
Looking forward to this series, been in Qro. for 18 yrs, it’s getting to crowded
Looking forward to this lived in CDMX for two years and Looking for an area to build a home.
Just like the previous poster stated, many of these areas including Mexico City is getting extremely crowded. It’s not the retirees, but ALL the digital nomads that are leaving the USA/Canada because of INFLATION. I’m moving out of the most popular tourist area in CDMX because of how many tourists have landed here. It’s unbearable at times. 6 more weeks and I’m out of this place (Roma Norte)😞 Can’t wait!
Looking forward to this series. I lived in CDMX for 3 years in the 1990s, and have owned a condo in Manzanillo for many years on and off. I’m back there again owning a condo outside of Manzanillo. This will be a good series to follow.
Hi – I expected to see article sstarting in July on individual cities – nothing has appeared. When/what will you be publishing?
Hi Martha – this Sunday is the first one.
great!
Looking fwrd!!
I haven lived in Irapuato, GTO Mexico for 41 years, this town is in the middle of the country, there is an airport close by that can take you to many many different places in the country and outside of it. We have Walmart, Sam’s and a nice mall and we are 40 mins away for Leon(much bigger town) that has many more things. Please look around before you settal down in one place. This area is beautiful, friendly and helpfrul to newcomers.
I’m a little surprised that your respondents haven’t focused more on “climate”. (Yes, I saw it mentioned above, but only in passing). Certainly, for most Canadians, climate would represent a very high part of the quotient, in my opinion. I love where I spend 6 months of the year, and for me, it might represent as much as 50% of the chosen rationale. (BTW a proximate Costco would be somewhere in the 1% consideration!).
There are two other very strong influencers – the cost of living in both Canada and the U.S. have made the attractiveness of Mexico so much higher. And now with the political turmoil in BOTH ex-pat origins has added lots of fuel to the fire, (and probably will for a long time to come).
Finally, (for me), the lack of EV’s in Mexico is substantially off-set by the (relative) lack of traffic in most destinations in the Country, (with the obvious exception of Mexico City). This fact would also be a high-counter on my incentive percentage.
One of my grandfathers a scientist who lived in La Lolla, Imperial Valley, and Ohio always told me that San Diego has a perfect climate. Tijuana on down aways shares that climate.
We have lived in Loreto BCS on and off since 2010. Permanently retired here now for the past 4 years. It’s grown a lot since 2010 but still remains quaint. Wouldn’t dream of living anywhere else.
Looking forward to it, but please, don’t make towns like LaPaz any more attractive to people. We already don’t have enough water, and things cost more here than almost anywhere in Mexico. Plus, more gringos that don’t want to assimilate by learning the language and culture are destroying the quaintness makes the place special.
Unfortunately, that’s happening all around Mexico. The total lack of assimilation.
Have been in San Jose del Cabo for 25 years. Recently purchased a home in a small village in Sinaloa on the coast south of Mazatlan. It’s like going back in time. No bank, no ATM, etc but close enough to Mazatlan for anything you need. Back to the real Mexico.
Ajijic/Lake Chapala is becoming overcrowded. The infrastructure can’t handle the influx of retirees. But yet they keep building and the people keep coming. Several areas already don’t have access to water and have to buy pipas of “potable” water which is expensive. I’ve heard from reliable sources that it is definitely not potable nor would you want to bathe in it without a filtration system. This area is also becoming very expensive. Some of the locals complain that they are being forced out of their homes because they can’t afford to live in this area where they were born and raised. But I don’t want to sound like one of those “I got mine so now let’s close the gate”. Everyone has as much right to be here as I do.
We are settling in Monterrey, NL where we are starting a house remodel. Definitely not for everyone due to it’s climate and large size (Mexico’s 3rd largest city) but we have tons of Mexican friends there and family. We are from San Antonio, TX so very similar weather and culture. We love the the convenience of the metro lines, quick daytrip to the border for future Medicare needs, over 30 HEB grocery stores, multiple Costcos, etc. We are hikers and can be on a mountain trail in minutes. And finally the water reservoirs are full…lol.
San Miguel de Allende, where I having for the last 5 years, is now an American enclave. In 10 days moving to Guadalajara.
Same thing has happened in Mexico City (Condesa/Roma Norte). I’m moving in 5 weeks, to a different part of the city. It’s really unbearable in my opinion. Too many rude tourists that won’t even move out of the way when you’re walking down the sidewalk!
. . . in Chiapas I heard for the first time, referring to San Miguel de Allende as “San Antonio south” . . .
Loreto sounds good. Sherry please elaborate. Thanks. Larry
Really looking forward to the series…
I’m surprised Patzcuaro, Michoacan isn’t on your list. Beautiful city, close to Morelia, the capitol with Costco, airport, etc. At 7500 feet, a little cool for some people. Not yet overrun with expats. Water becoming an issue.
Is there a list?
Every Sunday we will publish an article reviewing multiple cities.
Is this a daily or weekly series? I’m unable to see / find them.
thnx!
Hi Lulu,
It is a weekly series…with the articles being published every Sunday and then permanently residing in the Mexico Living section