Good things happening in Mexico”s real estate market

Time was not too long ago when Mexico was probably one of the nicest places on earth to spend a vacation — especially in Baja. It was surely one of the most inexpensive places to travel in even a decade ago. No longer. People were still great. There is an amazing variety of things to do. And, then there is Baja and the Sea of Cortez, and it just costs more.

We recently flew a light airplane from the Northwest chill to those warmer climes some 1,500 miles south of Spokane. Instead of being 30,000 feet in the air in a commercial airliner and the view of the country that altitude provides, with a small Cessna we were able to drop much lower to a couple of hundred feet above the waters of the Sea of Cortez, check some of the beach homes and, occasionally, spot some whales at play.

The people who live in the small Mexican towns of both sides of Baja Peninsula are family oriented, kind, interesting and fine folks. As an example, the shirts that the boys and girls generally wear when going to school are laundered so white that you need sunglasses to cut the glow from the cloth.

It has been eight years since we returned to Loreto. Prices continue to rise here as elsewhere. A small town about halfway down the Baja peninsula on the Sea of Cortez, Loreto was the first Spanish settlement built on that land by Jesuit priests. There is a boom going on here.

About 7 miles south of Loreto, the government of Mexico has given 8,000 acres from the mountains to the sea to The Loreto Bay project, a waterfront resort that will focus on a pedestrian-friendly village arrangement with Baja Adobe architecture. Styles will be from custom beachfront homes to courtyard casitas, to golf-course villas and mountainside hacienda properties.

The first construction phase of a 10-to-15-year plan began last fall. When complete, there will be 6,000 homes, none more than five minutes from some portion of the 3 miles of beachfront, largely devoid of automobiles. Area transportation will be special electric golf-type carts. Cars will be in parking lots.

The Villages of Loreto Bay project began as David Butterfield, president of the Trust for Sustainable Development, searched for a place to retire. A resident of Victoria, British Columbia, he was looking for a dry climate close to the ocean to retire. He found Southern California too busy and expensive. He discovered Loreto while doing some work in La Paz.

It was great timing. The beautiful government-run hotel facility at Loreto was not properly managed. It’s been said that for more than a decade visitors could play on the sprawling, lovely golf course by the sea at no charge. Good for the golfers, not good for the local economy.

Key to this turnaround, Butterfield focused on individual family ownership for the villages. Rather than time-shares, he expects 60 to 80 percent of the homeowners will participate in a rental program that will make home rentals available to visitors.

There will be plenty to do. Those who wish to do so can play golf on the two championship golf courses, plus there’s a terrific tennis set-up, a marina and sports fishing center. Restaurants, too.

Principal among its sustainability objectives are to harvest more potable water than it consumes, through reuse, groundwater retention and desalination; plus, through solar power, create more electricity than it uses and enhance the habitat.

This is a “heavyweight” program that has the blessing of Vincente Fox, president of Mexico. The village concept has turned into reality as the first areas in the plan are being built. The average price for one of these dwellings is $200,000 or more. That figure will continue to grow.

“The Villages at Loreto Bay will showcase what eco-friendly, planned growth can do,” Butterfield says.

Baja is growing in value. One development a few miles south of Loreto Bay is offering land on the beach for $1 million — without the house.

I’m betting on Butterfield and his group of sustainability experts to have all their bases covered. This could be another major earth-safe event that could set standards on living and improving land as we go. Good stuff.