By now we have heard the constant drum about the Aurora massacre by a young San Diego man. But we Americans, being in the 24-hour news cycle, have short attention spans because there always seems to be a crisis going with another right around the corner. I’m so exhausted.I really do need a break, but the real estate market is hotter than a firecracker right now. I mean seriously my first interest rate was 8.5 percent in 1978 on a $72,000 house in Goleta/Santa Barbara. My payment was $615 for everything and we were sleeping on foam mattresses on the floor and using orange crates for end tables to bean bag chairs. We ate lots of beans and tortillas.
Because mortgage rates can be had at 2.75 to 3.25 percent, in 1978 dollars I could have bought a $220,000 house back then. But what once cost $1 in 1978 costs $4 today. Keeping all things equal, that would mean the income I made in 1978 carried forward to 2012 dollars based upon inflation, would allow me to buy an $880,000 house today. All I can tell you is the market is going nuts right now up to about $700,000 so real estate agents are busy and worse yet, there really isn’t that much inventory.
So I retire and now I’m busy again. I can’t break away to my beachfront condo I paid $135,000 for in Puerto Vallarta last year during the low end of their slump. Even though it’s hot and humid down there in the tropics in the summer, it is still so gorgeous. What is really great is there are no bugs. They aren’t on the streets, they’re not in the condos on the beach and that’s all I care about. Maybe up in the forests but not at the beach or in town.
I go sweat by the ocean and the pool but I don’t care. At night the sky becomes nature’s fireworks as the clouds roll in from the southeast over the Sierra Madre Mountains and slam up against the barometric pressure of the ocean and boom, some of the greatest light shows and sounds you’ll ever see. Next day, same thing. A few clouds in the morning give way to sunshine that sucks the moisture back out of the ground, nighttime comes and boom. Deja vu all over again.
I’m bummed. I want to go. At least one of my agents is taking advantage of it in August while it isn’t rented. It is a bit difficult to get Americans to go down there but the Canadians, whew, they are all over the place from fall through spring. In the summer, the inland Mexican folks head to the coast. It is so nice down there. And peaceful despite the horrors you hear in the news. I wonder how the Mexican people feel about recent events in Aurora and Chicago.
If you’re thinking of a quick getaway just go to VRBO to check out condo rentals in Puerto Vallarta. You can bargain like mad right now. I’m sure if there was another Mexican city you have ever visited that you used to love you will get the same great opportunities. The only Americans in the last five years who have been murdered in Mexico were dual citizen Mexicans in the drug trade.
Despite what you hear, Mexico is still beautiful, the people are fantastic and the bargains are there for the taking. Its vacation time! Go find your peace.
