IL Postcard

The Solution to Sky-high Taxes and Rocketing Health Care Costs

Date: 02/18/2008

Tuesday, Feb. 19, 2008
Mérida, Mexico

Read more about Mexico in International Living Postcards—your daily escape

Over cocktails with a friend recently, discussion soon turned to real estate. My friend was a real estate broker for 30 years in the U.S. before moving to Mexico six years ago. Here in Mérida, he’s back in the game…couldn’t stop himself, he says, since he sees so much potential here.

We talked about the real estate debacle in the U.S. right now…how prices have fallen and may continue to do so. In some places, U.S. real estate prices are now comparable to prices in Mexico. For what you might spend on a luxury home in Mérida these days, for example, you could buy a very comfortable home in Tulsa, Topeka, Omaha (where I’m from), and even Dallas, where my friend lived for awhile.

“But who wants to live in those places,” my friend asked, “especially after living here in Mérida?”

What makes living in Mérida so special? The always-warm weather, the lively cultural scene, the happy people, and the affordability. Sure, property prices aren’t that much better than some places in the U.S., but when you compare apples with apples, the Mérida resident comes out far ahead. Living in Mérida is, in fact, more akin to living in some of the most fashionable U.S. cities.

“Mérida is like the French Quarter, but cleaner and safer, like Santa Fe but cheaper, and it’s what Key West used to be,” said my friend.

I agree. Here in Yucatan, our homes are works of art, with fountains and swimming pools, contemporary outdoor kitchens, tropical gardens and rooftop terraces that we can enjoy all year long. Can’t do that in Tulsa or Topeka. Every night there is live music in Mérida…for free…outside, under the stars. You won’t find that in Omaha or Dallas.

But the real differences are found in big-ticket items:

The low cost (and high quality) of health care is phenomenal here in Mérida. Another friend recently spent a week in intensive care followed by five days in a private room in one of Mérida’s finest hospitals. She had many tests and lab work done, including an MRI. She received advanced medication therapy and spent the entire time hooked up to a host of high-tech machines. Total bill: $15,000. I asked some U.S. medical experts for a rough guess of what a similar stay in a U.S. hospital would cost—the general consensus was $80,000 or more.

Annual property taxes, too, are extraordinarily low in Mérida. My real estate agent friend pays about $200 per year in annual property taxes for his home, which I’d guess to be worth $500,000 on the local market. Another friend pays just $60 per year for her commercial building in the heart of Mérida’s downtown area. I recently paid the annual taxes for our own 6,400-square-foot home: $160. Our one-third-acre unimproved beachfront lot on the coast near here costs a whopping $10 in property taxes each year.

As we sat on the terrace by the pool, tinkling the ice cubes in our cocktails refreshed by my friend’s full-time housekeeper, we got down to the nitty-gritty of what this means. “I pay $200 here in Mérida for my property taxes,” he said, “in Dallas, I would pay $12,000 in annual taxes for a home comparable to what I have here in Mérida—and the $11,800 I save helps pay for a very nice lifestyle.”

Suzan Haskins
Latin America Editor, International Living

P.S. I’ll be writing more about the affordability and appeal of Mérida in next month’s issue of Mexico Insider. I’ll tell you why this market makes sense right now…big things are happening here…and I’ll provide all the details you need to find your perfect dream home or vacation property. Merida is one of Mexico’s best (and last) little-explored, low-cost, and high-value destinations.

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