The Mexican town of Álamos was founded in the late 1600s, after silver was discovered in the area. The huge wealth generated by the mines allowed the residents of Álamos to build dozens of colonial mansions and hundreds of colonial homes throughout the downtown. Decades ago, foreign retirees in search of affordable and appealing options for where to spend their retirement years discovered what Álamos has to offer. Today, this charming city is home to a big and growing expat community taking advantage of the high quality of life, affordable cost of living and truly bargain real estate prices. All those classic Colonial haciendas are available for incredibly low prices.
Álamos was declared a national monument in 2000 by Mexico’s President Zedillo and was named a Pueblo Mágico in 2005. The latter is a designation reserved for towns that offer a “magical” experience, thanks to their beauty, historical significance and cultural riches.
Álamos has worked hard to recover and restore its original 17th century charm. This is a uniquely impressive city with cobblestoned streets, narrow alleys and passageways, a magnificent church, a lovely town square and a significant number of stately colonial mansions. The town of fewer than 25,000 is nestled in a small valley surrounded on all sides by mountains and wild countryside. Its active expat community includes artists, writers and musicians, as well as nature lovers. This region of Mexico is known for birdwatching, hiking and bass fishing.
Álamos has a great deal to offer retirees, including an appealing lifestyle and an affordable cost of living. Its inventory of original colonial houses is available for almost unbelievably low prices. Indeed, property values in this town are lower than they’ve been for many years. Prices still have not recovered from the collapse of values post-2008, and a generation of resident Álamos expats is moving on, creating a surplus inventory. Many long-time expat owners are now in their 80s and 90s and no longer want to be home owners.
Prices are down 40 percent and more from pre-2008 highs, and the average difference between the listing price and the eventual sale price is a hefty 18 percent. Only 16 homes in Álamos changed hands in 2014, and that was significantly more than in 2013. It seems the market is beginning to turn, though. More properties have been sold in the first quarter of 2015 than in all of 2014. Prices are not rising, but inventory is moving.
You could buy a home in Álamos for less than $50,000. For that, you wouldn’t be in the town center or investing in one of the city’s Spanish-colonial treasures. But you would be able to take advantage of the rich lifestyle on offer here on a very modest budget. And if your budget allows it, you also have the opportunity to own a piece of Álamos’ Spanish-colonial history for a price that would be hard to match in any other Spanish-colonial city.
If you’re not familiar with the style, a typical Spanish colonial can appear simple and plain when viewed from the outside. The door to the street hides what’s inside. The rooms are built around a large center courtyard with gardens and sitting areas. A true Spanish-colonial home is one built during the colonial period prior to the second half of the 19th century, before Spanish America’s independence from Spain. In addition, in Spanish-colonial America, you also find cities with colonial-style houses built in the 20th century. These can be lovely, though not as rare or as valuable as a home from the Spanish-colonial era. Álamos is one of the very few places where you find both true colonial homes from the colonial period and a good selection of colonial-style homes built within the last 100 years.
Cuenca, Ecuador, is another city known for its Spanish-colonial structures. One difference between Álamos and Cuenca is that the colonial houses in Álamos are more manageable as personal residences. In Cuenca, Ecuador, many of the downtown colonials are two or even three stories tall, with as many as three interior courtyards, while in Álamos, although houses have a large footprint, most are single story.
One Spanish-colonial house currently on the market in Álamos was built prior to 1800 and has 3,000 square feet of living space in addition to almost 8,000 square feet in the courtyard. The giant kitchen has all the modern amenities, but still manages to look like an 18th century kitchen. This house also has two excellent features for this market: a water well and enclosed, off-street parking. The asking price is $275,000.
Another example of what you could buy is a Spanish-colonial structure built before 1800 with five bedrooms, three baths and 3,600 square feet of living space. The asking price is $195,000.
A particularly great value is a Spanish-colonial home built in 1787 (the year the U.S. Constitution was written). This house has more than 4,000 square feet of living space around a large courtyard of more than 8,200 feet that features a swimming pool. There’s a fireplace in every room. The asking price is $345,000.
Kathleen Peddicord is the founder of the Live and Invest Overseas publishing group .
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Retire to a Pueblo Mágico originally appeared on usnews.com
