Holiday Weekend - Aniversario de la Constitución Mexicana

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

A long three day weekend for Mexicans.  Actually, here in the north kids are having a five day weekend as the cold kept them from going to school.  Funny, here in Monterrey most public schools have heat and air conditioning so there was really no reason for parents not to send their kids.  Afterall, instead of going to school they were up earlier than usual so they could go to the Parque Chipinque to see the snow and ice.

Yesterday we got up early, well I was up at 5 a.m., I didn't stay up to watch SNL.  I read my RvTravel.com newsletter, had some coffee and then we headed out for breakfast.  What a huge disappointment.  Stick with what you know.   I had put a pot of beans on the crockpot Saturday night, they were ready in the morning.  No, let's go out for a change.  We went to Chili's on our way to look at a new subdivision on the northside of Monterrey.  Commercial food sucks, plain and simple.  We decided we like to cook at home and like our food better.

We drove forever and a day to get to Valle de Lincoln which is just minutes away from the periferico to Saltillo.  It is a huge development with hundreds of low-priced homes ranging from 200,000 to 250,000 pesos (16,000 to 20,000 U.S.).  Lots are very small and so are the houses.  Imagine fitting a three bedroom home into 600 sq ft?  Some of the construction or one story homes are pretty cool.  They are prefabricated concrete and heavily insulated.  Finally builders in Mexico are providing decent housing that can actually be comfortable.

We saw a cool one bedroom on a corner lot, 590 sq ft of contstrucion and 1400 sq ft lot.  Very nice for 20,000 dollars.  All the houses are prepped for the addition of a second story.  They have nice parks and guard entrances for all the neighborhoods.  The problem is the density.  The houses are cute, they have nice trim around the doors and windows outside, painted nice colors, not bright blue and green, with tile roof facades across the front.  Too many people in a small area and it will turn dumpy within the first year. 

We were interested in the apartments they offer.  They are 230,000 pesos apiece and there are four in a building each with 2 bedrooms and 1 bath.  Well designed and layed out.  They offered us the fourplex (the whole building) for 67,000 dollars.  We figure monthly rentals would produce 1200 dollars a month and would be of interest for those younger folks driving everyday from Saltillo to Monterrey.  Never hurts to check and keep our eyes open on what the real estate market is doing.

Here is what it looks like: