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March 27, 2008
Apartment Hunting
Our friend Aaron returned to teach English in Guadalajara, so we have been helping him find an apartment.
After looking through listings online and in El Informador, he generated a list of 5-10 places and Charles took us around to look at them. Some were apartments and some were rooms in family homes, and the prices and amenities varied greatly. One apartment had no gas line whatsoever, but it did come with ceiling fans. One of the rooms he was shown had its own private bathroom, a 36" TV, and an instant surrogate family provided by many framed photos arranged on the walls and the dresser, but it turned out the guy that took him upstairs was showing him the wrong room.
He decided to take an apartment that is across the street from our local grocery store, only about six blocks from us. It is an interior-view, two-bedroom apartment on the second floor. He will be paying MXN $2800 (about USD $260) per month, plus gas and electricity. Now he has the fun of going about and shopping for all the things he needs to fill an apartment here: mattress, refrigerator, stove, table, chairs, pots, pans, towels, sheets, lights, etc.
I thought it might be helpful to anyone looking for housing in Guadalajara if I provided links to the online resources we used to look for Aaron's place. These generally require a fair knowledge of Spanish (or at least a dictionary), but if you are looking for a place to live in Guadalajara, you probably have that already.
- El Informador - This is the online classified section for the local paper with the most complete listings for houses, apartments and rooms.
- MexPlaza - Part of the University of Guadalajara network, this lists houses and apartments.
- Arkredi - Until recently, this worked fairly well. Now it gives only a photo and a blank listing for each property. Maybe it's under repair and will return to being a helpful resource again soon.
Posted by crispy at March 27, 2008 03:49 PM
Comments
"Now he has the fun of going about and shopping for all the things he needs to fill an apartment here: mattress, refrigerator, stove, table, chairs, pots, pans, towels, sheets, lights, etc."
That sounds like the same kind of stuff with which we fill dwellings in Amerika!
Maybe I was wrong when I say of every other nationality, "They're not like us."
Posted by: Mark Allen at March 28, 2008 05:33 AM
$260!!! I'm paying $700 for a drafty bedroom in a 5 bedroom house!
[crispy says: Much cheaper housing is only one of the benefits of living in Mexico. Bear in mind though, people also make considerably less.]
Posted by: Akira at March 29, 2008 12:43 PM
Kind of like life in Olney. You can buy a mansion for 100 grand, but who can afford something so outrageously expensive?
Posted by: Mark Allen at March 30, 2008 05:48 PM