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drmike

Feb 28, 2010, 7:54 AM

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visit to mi casa

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I am coming down to visit my casa this next week in order to pay the property taxes and the annual water bill. I've been gone for well over a year as I returned to Arizona for medical care. How much have prices risen in the past year in Mexico? I know in the US prices have gone up quite a bit. Is the same true for Mexico? Any information?
Dr. Mike

http://www.smarthealthchoices.blogspot.com

There are hundreds of paths up the mountain,
all leading in the same direction,
so it doesn't matter which path you take.
The only one wasting time is the one
who runs around and around the mountain,
telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.

Hindu teaching

Papirex

Feb 28, 2010, 8:45 AM

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Re: [drmike] visit to mi casa

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drmike, I can't speak for the area your house is in, but here in Cuernavaca in the central highlands, prices have gone up a little, but that is more than offset by the falling value of the Peso. A year ago the exchange rate for the Peso was about 9.5 to the US Dollar. Today it is about 12.5 to the US Dollar.

My own unscientific calculations are that prices for many things here have risen by an average of 12% here, but I am getting an average of 30% more Pesos per Dollar at the ATM machines that I normally use to get cash here, so my Dollars are 18% more valuable this year than last. This is mostly guesswork on my part, with no real statistics to back it up, but the slight rise in prices here has been a non-issue for me, in fact I am a little better off financially lately. That may change of course, but for now it is fine.

Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

Oscar2

Feb 28, 2010, 11:54 AM

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Re: [Papirex] visit to mi casa

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Dr. Mike,
This is interesting and kind of paradoxical due in part that the US economy admittedly is upside down, unemployment lines are almost at depression levels and I too have noticed prices are going UP! I don’t get it. Is it due in part that there are less dollars to spend thus the lack of business to stay afloat requires higher prices to keep from closing the doors. Don’t know, by no stretch of the imagination am I an economist but yes, it is a bit puzzling.

Last November while in Oaxaca and staying in a relatively nice hotel on the a very popular corner of the Main Zocolo, although the accommodations were above average, unlike other 3-4 star hotels stayed in, they would only allow one small bottle of water per day, per person. Hardly enough in our case and when I requested another bottle the hotel desk informed me it was $15 pesos per small bottle. Comparing this to most hotels I’ve stood at, water is no biggy. Just prior to staying at this hotel, we stood at the Francis hotel (3 star)in Guad and they routinely put in place a jarro of water outside your door in the lobby for patron consumption. The differences in policy vary to the extent that the porter knocked on our hotel door and supposedly agreed with the inequity of the water policy, suggested and volunteered to go to the local store and get us the more convenient larger double liter bottles for our coffee and whatever. A propina was given.

Taxis in Oaxaca as opposed to Morelia, where slightly higher in price but colectivos were much less. We flew and rode buses, taxis and collectivos throughout our one month stay in Mexico without incident and quite frankly we had allot of fun doing so. In fact contact/immersion with more of Mexico in some way was genuinely felt, maybe it was due in part to the more obvious contact and conversation with other locals while in the process. This is kind of a first for us, because usually we fly/drive or just drive ourselves in Mexico. Yes, it was definitely different and kind of convenient just to sit back and let someone else manage and do the driving while relaxing, taking in the sights, reading, watching a movie or whatever, at a very reasonable price while in Mexico. Albeit, driving your own vehicle and exploring while cruising through the nooks and crannies of side streets and more is also interesting and habitual for us, we would have taxi drivers do this for us with the addition of voiced trivia, history and more from a driver which in many cases was born in the city of travel.

Overall, in a way prices in Mexico are more affordable, then what is currently going on in the US. At least this is our take, for now. You’d think the opposite would hold true in times of a recession…..

drmike

Mar 3, 2010, 7:28 AM

Post #4 of 9 (2129 views)

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Re: [Oscar2] visit to mi casa

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Thanks Rex and Oscar. When I exchange my dollars for Peso's would I get a better rate at the Cambio at the Mexico City Airport, or wait until I get to our village and use the ATM? Where's the best exchange rate?
Dr. Mike

http://www.smarthealthchoices.blogspot.com

There are hundreds of paths up the mountain,
all leading in the same direction,
so it doesn't matter which path you take.
The only one wasting time is the one
who runs around and around the mountain,
telling everyone that his or her path is wrong.

Hindu teaching

joaquinx

Mar 3, 2010, 8:11 AM

Post #5 of 9 (2113 views)

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Re: [drmike] visit to mi casa

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I would believe that the cambio at the airport would be the worst place to exchange dollars for pesos. Any ATM will give you a better rate. Check with your bank in the US and see if they have any agreements with banks in Mexico where any fee, either theirs or the Mexican bank's, would be waved.

Papirex

Mar 3, 2010, 9:23 AM

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Re: [drmike] visit to mi casa

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drmike, you will always get a better exchange rate from an ATM than you will at any cambio. The cambios are not a government service and they are not owned by any bank. They are private businesses and they make their money on the “spread” by giving you a lesser exchange rate than the norm for the day. That is not illegal.

The Mexican Peso exchange rate is not set by law, it “floats.” That means it depends on the demand for them. It changes hourly as it depends on the ask, bid, and sell price for them at any given time. If a lower exchange rate is given, instead of the current rate, that is just good business, not a crime.

Back in the 1980s it was almost a necessity for a visitor to exchange foreign currency at a cambio. There were no ATM machines in México at that time, and all of the banks had been nationalized. Political supporters of the national government had been appointed to run all of the banks. All of the experienced bank employees had been fired, and replaced with inexperienced political supporters and relatives.

If you went to a bank to exchange money, you would find about a hundred people lined up in front of a single teller who was spending most of his/er time telling clients that they had made a mistake, offering no solutions, and telling them to step out of line. The clients of course didn't want to do that, so a lot of time consuming arguing was going on at the head of the line.

The Peso was dropping like a rock every day, it went from 32 to the Dollar in 1982 to a low of 3,121 to the Dollar on Jan. 3, 1993, so I would only exchange one or two hundred US Dollars at a time, I got more Pesos for each Dollar every day. It was a necessity to bring several thousand US Dollars in cash for every visit to Mexico, cashing a certified, or travelers check was an impossibility. Coins had become worthless, all public telephones were coin operated, so Telmex, which was still government owned, made them free to use.

All taxis in México City had meters in them in those days. When you got to your destination, the driver would read the meter, and then consult about 30 or 40 computer printed pages to compare the meter reading to the current price for the day.

When the first ATM machines appeared in México in the early 1990s, I asked my US credit union if our ATM cards would work in México. I was told that they were working on an agreement with all of the Mexican banks, and it would be six months before we could use our cards in México. Six months turned out to be two years.

For me, things are great in México now.

Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

chicois8

Mar 4, 2010, 9:58 AM

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Re: [Papirex] visit to mi casa

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"drmike, I can't speak for the area your house is in, but here in Cuernavaca in the central highlands, prices have gone up a little, but that is more than offset by the falling value of the Peso. A year ago the exchange rate for the Peso was about 9.5 to the US Dollar. Today it is about 12.5 to the US Dollar."

Accually on Feb.27 2009 ( a year ago ) the exchange rate was 15.13 pesos to the US Dollar.......

Papirex

Mar 4, 2010, 11:40 AM

Post #8 of 9 (1969 views)

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Re: [chicois8] visit to mi casa

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Yes, you are probably right, I probably should have done a little more research to get the exact dates, or used the qualifier “about”. I keep forgetting that there are always some snipers on these boards that will seize on any inexactitude to make negative comments. The Peso has been weakening for the past couple of years at around 9 or 10 to the US Dollar. It does “float” and it changes every hour.

We did benefit early last May when the Peso dropped to over 15 to the US Dollar for a couple of weeks. Our old CRT TV had died, and we bought a new Samsung 32” LCD TV at Sams' Club here. It was priced at $7,000 Pesos. At the time we bought it, that was the Dollar equivalent of about $460 US Dollars. A good friend in San Jose, California wrote me that he had just bought the same model of TV for $1000 US Dollars there. Sams' Club raised the prices for that same model to $8700 Pesos about a week later.

We use our US issued ATM cards to get Pesos here. Our daily withdrawal limit is $505 US dollars for each of our 2 cards, it cannot be raised. 8 or 10 years ago, the maximum amount we could withdraw in Pesos was usually about $4600 Pesos sometimes as much as $5000 Pesos without reaching our daily Dollar withdrawal limit. Recently, we have been able to withdraw $6400 to $6500 Pesos per day.

The Peso is definitely weakening to our benefit, and the slight price rises locally have not had much effect.

Rex

"The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved" - Victor Hugo

wynco

Mar 12, 2010, 1:46 PM

Post #9 of 9 (1740 views)

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Re: [Papirex] visit to mi casa

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I have always in the passed changed my money at the airport as I seemed to do better than at a bank in my village or at the ATM machine.
I have also heard through a friend who is in the business that all money changing can not be done by private individuals only through some sort of Gov office. I didnt understand fully but the guy I know his business is currency conversion and he thinks he will be put out of business soon.