I am planning on moving to mexico next month and i have some questions regarding renting an apartment.
Is CDMX cheaper than the coastal cities in terms of rent? I guess there is not a big difference. And what is the best way to rent?
I am spanish so that would make things much easier.

Here's a great site for comparing living costs between two cities:

https://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/comparison.jsp

By coastal cities do you mean Puerto Vallarta, Cancun? Probably not too much difference. CDMX a bit cheaper if you’re looking to be right on the beach, otherwise those cities might be slightly cheaper. Could probably find lots of coastal cities that are quite a bit cheaper if you don’t need to be in one of the big, touristy beach cities.

I’ve only ever used AirBNB to rent. Usually I’ll do 1-3 months at first and then ask the owner for a private arrangement. I guess you could try a site like Vivanuncios, but I think you run into problems b/c a lot of places will require a fiador, I.e. someone who owns a property to vouch for you. So AirBNB is way easier.

One downside is that CDMX passed a new law that taxes AirBNB rentals at like 15%, so that adds another $100 or so to your bill. AirBNB fees also seem to creep up every time I check too. So the place that says it’s $700 is almost 1k after taxes/fees.

another problem with vivaanuncios is I think they are mostly looking for 6 month to 1 year leases. afaik the fiador thing is more a mexico city problem than a mexico problem tho, but that's just based on what i've read online so take it with a grain of salt

Well you can compare rental costs online. It differs from city to city, like Rosarito and Tijuana are quite expensive imo. Cancun actually has a lot of cheap places. I stayed at one place where my rent was like $100 a month. It was pretty ghetto obviously, but then they moved me to the other place which was $200 a month and it was reasonable (including free wifi which was perfectly stable for grinding). For sure there are lots of solid options in the $300-$700 range. But just from looking online even really desirable locations like Acapulco or Puerto Vallarta have tons of reasonable options.

Great, so yeah I will just rent an airnb for the first months and then being spanish I think it will be easy to find a good deal. Also probably will stay en CDMX the first months, what parts do you recomend in terms of safety? Thanks!

Budget of $800-1100 USD/month

Condesa and Roma is you prefer a more Bohemian vibe with parks, cafes, trees, restaurants (most foreigners choose these 2) and Juarez or Cuauhtemoc if you like a more urban vibe w/ skyscrapers (Paseo de la Reforma is the main Avenue here with all the skyscrapers).

If you want more luxurious, then Polanco.

For budget of $500-800 look at Narvarte or Del Valle, possibly Centro.

Coyoacan is also cool and prob like $900-1200 budget wise but way far from the other attractions, so prob not recommended if you’re new to the city and have little time. I’d prob visit though if you aren’t in a big rush.

All these areas should be fine in terms of safety. Centro is prob the most sketch and I’d only walk the main streets at night. Del Valle and Narvarte I don’t know too well, but I believe they’re safe enough. The other areas I’ve felt fine walking even late at night.

Will look into it, I am going cheapest as possible without being a dump or having a lot of safety concerns, thanks!

cdmx is the most expensive city in mexico for rent in a decent area. this applies to most capital cities throughout the world. its still mexico ie 3rd world prices, but if you are looking to rent for as cheap as possible in a good neighborhood then its the nut worst option

Yeah I'm seeing that, everything i have seen is underwhelming not only in CDMX. So I will probably end up going to eastern europe until Asia is easier to enter.
Makes a lot of other things easier too.

We just got back from a 5-day trip to Mazatlan, first trip there. Another thumbs up vote in this thread.

Kind of reminded me of a bigger PV, with cool colonial architecture mixed in in Centro (some depressingly in disrepair). Lots of new condo projects going up all over.

Anywhere from Zona Dorada to Centro was easily accessible via the pulmonia taxis (souped up golf carts). We Airbnb’d it about half-way in between.

Few Americans, lots of Mexican tourists, could probably get by on little Spanish if needed, decent prices even in tourist spots. Just got Morelia to move their soccer team, so has Winter baseball & 1st division soccer for local gathering/shared identity.

Would love to go back to spend a month there (in Winter).

Yah, Mazatlán is a great beach option. Not really a great partying spot like some of the other more well-known beaches in Mexico, but has an incredible boardwalk, nice beaches, nice mix of architecture, culture, food, etc. and not nearly as expensive or touristy as Cancún, PV, los Cabos.

The soccer team is fairly new and didn't even exist when I was there, otherwise I would've liked to have gone. Only thing that sucks is the new stadium is quite far from Zona Dorada/Centro. The baseball stadium has an elite location and those games are a good time.

Mazatlán's also going through a growth phase. They're planning aquarium expansions to make it one of the best in the world and they've got a huge Central Park project with museums and different attractions. On top of that, there are seemingly thousands of new condos/hotels going up along the coast. I think it will be a super popular destination in 10-20 years. As Gramps mentioned, very few Americans. There are actually more Canadians there, but mostly a place for locals or Mexican tourists so you get more of an authentic experience.

That's good to hear they have more cultural infrastructure investments, et al lined up.

Tijuana & Mazatlan are the two Mexican cities where one of my early thoughts was, "I should buy property here".

Hopefully it can continue to keep it's unique charm and not end up as Cabo-lite (no intended knock on Cabo for what it is).

Yah, I've also debated buying a small condo in Mazatlán. I think it could pay off nicely down the road.

No idea how it will turn out, but I wouldn't be surprised if it goes in the direction of Cabo once the infrastructure improvements are done.

Haha funny thread, I am going to Mexico in 2 weeks, will stay for 5 weeks before going to the US for the Pacific Crest Trail. Also checking out Bumble and tinder options and a few girls just go straight to "I wanna kiss you" and pretty much are in the offensive, something you would never really see in europe

Still curious if they end up trying to sell me some webcam **** show or not, soon I will find out! ^^

interesting to hear about mazatlan. I'm revisiting the possibility of there due to surfing - had my sights set on puerto escondido but maza seems way better infrastructure and more year round. I also need to stay in mexico for 2-3 years straight at some point without leaving to do citizenship stuff, and will probably buy something for that stint. Guadalajara is kinda my mexi 'home base' but I don't see huge growth opps for real estate there at least for rental markets - but mazatlan could be more accessible both in terms of price, growth potential, and rentability.

Where did you stay there greg? is the 'golden zone' that packed with retirees and have an exclusive type feel about it, or still has mexican charm without being so 'fresa?'

Surprised its not a big partying spot. think ill go in June and scope things out on my way to gdl

From what I've been reading in the digital nomad scene, Puerto Escondido doesn't have great infrastructure and the internet isn't stable enough for most to work from there.

I stayed near the historic center. Only visited the Golden Zone a couple nights as it's not really my thing. Lots of resort type hotels and condo buildings, tons of foreigners, not really a Mexican feel at all. Some might prefer it, but for me it's just a place to hit up once every week or 2.

Nightlife is a lot worse than places like Cancún, PdC, Cabo SL, but probably better than I give it credit for. The foreign visitors tend to be really old, so that doesn't help a whole lot, but locals seem to go pretty hard. On weekend nights there are a lot of impromptu street parties along the malecon. I only stayed a month, but if you're pretty well connected then the nightlife scene is probably pretty solid.

I like CDMX a lot, but the pollution is kinda getting out of control. Due to covid, Mexico has had excess oil that they haven't been able to sell abroad and now they've been burning it off to use as fuel. My girlfriend told me CDMX had one of their worst pollution days ever recently. As a result I haven't felt all that well (headaches and dizzyness, esp. after grinding poker 2+ hours).

Originally, my plan was to stay in CDMX until October, then head to Buenos Aires, to check that out. But I changed my plan and am going to Puerto Vallarta in late April until October (if Argentina is even open by then). Currently I'm in Baja California Sur, checking out La Paz and then Los Cabos next week. I had high hopes for La Paz, and it's fairly nice, but not quite a long-term city for me. That leaves Mazatlán and Puerto Vallarta as my 2 most likely long-term options if I decide to stay in Mexico. I don't know PV yet, so we'll see how I like it.

I'll be in PV until at least October so you'll have to swing by at some point if you're in Jalisco.

LOL

Great thread! I'll be moving to CDMX in a few months and was wondering if there are any live casino cash games there? It seems like there are many casinos with table games but I haven't been able to find specific info about what, if any, cash games are running on a regular basis.

Any info from someone with boots on the ground would be super helpful! Cheers

I get it man, 90% of this forum lives above the poverty level and $1k/mo rent for a sick place is nothing. I've had locals think its insane when a taco costs 13 pesos by my house instead of the 8 pesos it costs next to where they live. it's all free to me, but that doesn't mean there's not a difference in prices. sure you can live busto in any city as well, but if ur looking to live in the best part of the city and save money, mexico city is bottom of the list when a similar place in bumfck mexico would be a quarter of the price. my first thought at something cheap and not super jank would be san cristobal:

thanks for the input fossil, mazatlan looks to be my plan for june to scope it out, as its the largest city in mexico with warm water and close surf as well. Buying a place also makes so much more sense in a beach city/tourist market than a commercial city like gdl/cdmx, and im too broke for PV/tulum beach houses

Just spent the last 2 weeks going through the main cities in Baja California Sur: La Paz, Cabo San Lucas, and San Jose del Cabo. Had fairly high hopes for LP and SJ, knew I'd probably hate CSL and tbh all were a bit worse than what I thought going in.

An expat couple I know well and have very similar interests were raving about La Paz, so I thought I'd really love it, and it was fairly nice, but seemed a bit meh. Really nice malecón/boardwalk (which is a huge plus for me) and some beautiful beaches, but they're 5+ kms from the center, where you'd be staying. The beaches in the center are crap. The historic center is quite small, especially if you compare it to Mazatlan, and most of the central area is pretty ugly. It's a nice alternative to CSL if you want to run into fewer gringos and want a way less developed beach area, but I thought it'd be a contender for a place to move to, but not really. If you want the best shrimp tacos in the world, Tacos El Estadio.

Cabo San Lucas, is what it is. I knew it wouldn't be my type of place, but I thought it'd be a bit more interesting outside of the marina. There's nothing interesting in the downtown area near the marina, and the area next to the marina with the clubs, souvenir shops, restaus, and massage places seems kinda trashy and touristy to a ridiculous degree. Medano Beach and the area around the Arch are pretty cool and there are some beautiful areas if you take a boat ride out to explore. For me, it's my least favorite of the big touristy beaches, I'd rather go to Cancun or Playa del Carmen.

In between Cabo San Lucas and San Jose del Cabo, you have about a 30km stretch called the tourist corridor, which is a really scenic drive and you can see all the elite golf courses, massive houses, occasional resorts and beaches, etc. The real value of Los Cabos for me, would probably be renting a car, golfing with the bros, etc. or sport fishing (although I know little about it, just heard it's amazing here).

San Jose del Cabo is more interesting than its sister city CSL, with a really nice historic center with a couple blocks of walkable streets filled with restaus and galleries and a nice central square to draw people in. It's just a bit too small to be interesting for me as a place to live.

Prices are also jacked up just to fleece the large # of white idiots who are ever present in the area. I get the impression that 95% of these people would never even think about visiting central Mexico. For example, in La Paz, the most amazing fish tacos in the world are 30 pesos each, and absolutely massive, 2-3 would be a good meal. In Los Cabos, you'll pay 40-60 pesos each for a worse tasting and smaller taco (4-5 for a meal).

All in all, would possibly re-visit La Paz someday, but not quite interesting enough as an option to live. Los Cabos, never, unless the right group of friends decides on it as a party vacation and I'd agree.

I'm becoming more convinced that I'd like to live long-term in a coastal area, but can't say that I'll be adding any of the cities in BCS as contenders. So far it's looking like Mazatlan, or possibly Puerto Vallarta. I'm moving to PV for 6 months starting next week, and have done a ridiculous amount of research. Obviously the Zona Romantica sounds interesting but insanely touristy, but I've been reading about lots of secondary areas that are close to the action, but more laid back with a very Mexican feel.

If one of those areas grabs my attention, then I might be looking to buy in a year or 2. The plan would be to live there 6-9 months out of the year, and then rent it out when PV gets way overcrowded. You could probably make a month + in rent just during Semana Santa when all the Mexicans will be there, and gringo season Dec-Feb would also be a great time to rent the place out and do some traveling/visiting family of our own instead.

Yah, that's the huge advantage Brazil has over Mexico, most of their biggest and best cities are on the coast, whereas it's the complete opposite in Mexico. Cancun and Acapulco would be the largest, but both come in at slightly under a million metro population. Brazil has a dozen or more big cities on the beach.

One final thing to note is that AirBNB is starting to get out of control here. Between the Mexican gov't slapping a ~15% tax on rental properties and AirBNB fees perpetually creeping up, it's not nearly as easy to find that super affordable place. Prices are still a lot better than USA, but probably not as low as many would expect.

Regarding air pollution, have you tried using an air filter? When I was living in a city with high PM2.5 levels during the winter I would close the door of my office or bedroom with a Xiaomi Mi air filter running and it seemed to help quite a bit. I guess mileage may vary depending how drafty or sealed off your apartment is and how powerful your air filter is. The Xiamoi was rated for 40m2 so it seemed to handle a single room just fine.

It sounds like CDMX has comparable PM2.5 levels to Medellin and 25% more than Buenos Aires. It seems like a clear +EV decision to invest in air filtration in most big Latin American cities.

I am also debating between Buenos Aires and CDMX and leaning towards trying the latter. I spent two years in BsAs and a couple years in PdC off and on but find the touristy beach scene too lacking in culture for the long term, but liked the friends I made from CDMX.

BsAs is a cool city but the constantly revolving door of foreigners makes a long term English speaking social circle a bit of a challenge. As one would expect, Argentines on average do not speak English nearly as well as Mexicans. Argentine women are probably more attractive on average but they are more difficult, can be time wasters and most will require advanced Spanish/social circle to date more so than the average Mexican woman. The day killer eleven hour flight to NYC had me visiting family a lot less than I did than when I was in Mexico and it wins pretty bigly in logistics in general.