Living in Cabo San Lucas vs. San Jose del Cabo (cont)

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Established developments on the ocean side of the highway like Cabo Bello, Cabo del Sol and so on until you get all the way to San Jose are like gold. Some have private (by default behind gates) and semi-private beaches, beach clubs, and full resort amenities such as found in Cabo de Sol or Palmilla. Homes in these areas will range from around $500,000usd on up to ten or more million dollars. Prices are catching up to Southern California fast. How fast? Well, the new Puerto Los Cabos development on the East side of the San Jose estuary was selling ocean front building lots two years ago for 1.5 million dollars. They are now going for almost four million. The limited number of ocean front lots in the El Dorado Country club (which went private last year) are going for twelve million dollars. But across the highway, and still with an ocean view (a half mile away) you can buy a town home with a community pool for under $200,000. This year..

Downtown San Jose del Cabo has a traditional plaza dominated by a Cathedral, a Victorian bandstand in a quaint plaza with a Municipal Palace (city hall) around the corner. There are fine restaurants to experience such as Morgans, La Dolce, El Chilar, and Don Emilianos. Shoppers enjoy the low-key galleries, silver shops, boutiques and absence of time-share sales people every ten steps along the sidewalks. International Bi-lingual schools for children through high school are available in Cabo and San Jose. And the tuition is ridiculously inexpensive. Maybe $300 a year. More folks should consider bringing the little ones to live here. Its safer than the big cities back in the States, the school kids respect their teachers, and there’s a lot of desert and water oriented fun things to do close at hand.

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West San Jose del Cabo features the famous Costa Azul beach with its world-renowned surf breaks. Many retired Gringos reside in the hills in this area including some surf legends from the early days of California surfing. Many more fine, secluded, virtually uninhabited and little used surf breaks are to be found along the East Cape. Along with the residences of some famous Hollywood types, more surf legends and some famous politicos both Mexican and American.  I have attempted to drive the East Cape on more than one occasion and I’ve been told that it only takes 90 minutes from San Jose to make the journey. But I always get only ten or so miles when I start discovering these fabulous coves with incredible surf breaks and I get distracted – for several hours. By the time I’m finished from having all the waves I can handle, without anyone else to fight over them with, it’s always too late to complete my East Cape expedition, so I head back to San Jose. Someday, when I get really, really old (I’m almost sixty now) and can’t surf anymore, I’ll learn to play golf and I’ll drive around the East Cape without surfing.
 

A jungle of palms and bougainvillea line Mijares Boulevard in downtown San Jose adding grace to the colonial architecture. Here, in the evenings one can mingle with un-tethered horses, cows, dogs, chickens and local families gamboling about as in a slow motion film on old Mexico. San Jose del Cabo is a little town trying hard not to grow up. There are four-star hotels on the nearby oceanfront as well as a horse rodeo stadium, and Palenque (arena) for cockfights. Locals raise fighting cocks at home. Dogs and iguanas can be seen on rooftops, chickens do cross the road and horses, burros and cows from the ranches along the wildlife estuary come to town to munch on local gardens.

Activities around the estuary include bird watching, horseback riding, ATV excursions, mountain bike and motorbike rentals, surfing, surf fishing and swimming. Leatherback turtles lay their eggs on the beaches and the little ones can sometimes be found crawling their way back to the sea when hatched. Pangas can be rented for sportfishing in the former fishing village of La Playita located a mile away from town across the estuary. La Playita is twenty miles closer to the famous Gorda Banks fishing spot for big game fish than Cabo San Lucas. Larger boats can be rented departing the hotel Palmilla also located in San Jose del Cabo.

Puerto Los Cabos being developed in the Playita area of San Jose is the largest development in Mexico at this time. It has incorporated the village of Playita into its master plan along with thousands of acres of luxury homes, a new marina to rival Cabos, boutique hotels, luxury condos, Jack Nicklaus and Greg Norman signature golf courses and more. A marina for 500 yachts is nearly excavated, the breakwater is nearly completed and the infrastructure i.e. roads, sewers etc. in. Golf courses are being built now with completion on the horizon. If you missed out on Malibu in the 1940’s, Tahoe in the 50’s, or Napa Sonoma in the 60’s, buying in Los Cabos, or the East Cape will be your second chance to get in on the action. Todos Santos, La Paz and Loreto – all on the Mexican governments departments of tourism and development radar screen – and are not far behind. It may be just a year or so before they become as hot as Los Cabos. Look to BajaInsider for detailed info and the right people to contact if you are interested in any of these areas.

San Jose developments in San Jose proper include many inexpensive condos around the Mayan Palace (old San Jose) golf course. Unfortunately, all the old and new inventory is sold out as of the middle of this year (2006) and prices are rising 2-5% per month on the resales that come up.  Ex. One year ago Loma Linda, a 40 unit condo project with 2,000 sq.’ 2brm, 2bth units began selling for $157,000usd. Little over a year later, the first resale came in at $335,000. Down the street (closer to the ocean and golf with a better view) the new Alegranza project of 100 similar sized units started selling at $380,000. in April of 2006.  26 of the 100 units have sold in the first month of sales – before groundbreaking! And its expected prices will climb as it’s the very best convenient to town (ten min. walk) , Palmilla bay and golf course view location in the city. Below along the golf fairways is the fifteen year old Finnisterra residential area with homes ranging from $350,000 to several million, some with views of the golf greens others with ocean views. Across the highway is the upscale Mexican residential development of Majisterial with home prices ranging from $150,000 for a small two bedroom to upwards of $500,000 or more. West above the highway in San Jose are the luxury home developments of La Jolla, Gringo Hill, Querencia and the Palmilla resort. Here you can close your eyes and fantasize you are living in La Jolla California – or much better, given the amenities, tranquility, and ambience. The team at BajaInsider has the inside track on all these places as well as land for building your dream home on or for building a major development.

On the waterfront in the Hotel Zone of San Jose del Cabo, can be found first class hotels including the Presidente Inter-Continental Los Cabos, the Royal Solaris Los Cabos Resort and the newest the Crown Plaza Los Cabos Beach Resort with its landmark lighthouse tower. Take time to visit the lighthouse tower at the Crown Plaza, have a drink and enjoy the sunset over the beautiful Sierra de la Laguna mountains. It’s a great place to view all the development going on from Palmilla to Punta Gorda with Puerto Los Cabos in between. For more information about Los Cabos properties or business investments contact David Mandich, call him at: 044 624 119 6168

Click here to contact Baja Real Estate and Consulting  by Email Reply Form

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Or Call:
Baja California Real Estate & Consulting
Cabo San Lucas • Las Vegas, NV
(702)-953-8756 or
Cabo San Lucas
624-143-4327

David Mandich is a Real Estate, Travel, Medical & Dental Vacation writer. A former American Banker who specialized in construction lending, he makes his home in San Jose with wife Dra. Rosy Peña the Dentist with the Touch of an Angel

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Additional Resources

Map of Baja California
Map of San Jose del Cabo Airport
Cabo San Lucas Activities
Map os San Jose del Cabo
Golf in Los Cabos