Construction costs in Mexico? 2009 last quarter.

Construction costs are different all over Mexico. I remember when I lived in Puerto Penasco (Rocky Point, Sonora) I couldn't believe the amount of construction that was going on - and yet I thought, where are they getting the workers from!? Penasco was closer to Phoenix and Tucson than it was to Hermosillo or any other major Mexican city. Here in Guadalajara, with a population of 6 million we have hundreds of thousands of skilled construction workers to choose from. Penasco has 50,000 inhabitents, the majority with fishing background or service but not high end skyscraper condo construction workers! Penasco had to IMPORT their construction workers, offer them housing, food, and even " dorm mothers " to keep things under control. They had to send them back home for visits every few months in order to keep up the moral and have the incentive to come back to finish projects. Lots of the interior architecture finishes in Penasco needed highly skilled artesans to build out the " boveda " ceilings that are so popular with Americans when they purchase homes in Mexico!

Here in Guadalajara you just hire locally and at the end of the day they all go home to their families..No extra costs there!!

Here are some prices that are from Monterrey (third largest city in Mexico) This is calculated by experts at BIMSA who for many years have kept the data base for construction costs in Mexico. Obviously there are different types of quality construction

                          LOW                               MEDIUM                                    HIGH

SINGLE HOME   $5,173 PESOS SQ. MT           $6,661                                    $8,205

HIGH RISE       $4,458                                $6,510                                    $10,272

OFFICE            $5,697                                $7,666                                    $8,835

So, you are saying? what the #$%$%? How can I figure out pesos & sq. meter!!

Here is the challenge that we real estate agents ALWAYS have down here in Mexico! The Mexicanos want it in Pesos and in Sq. Mt. and the Americans and Canadians and other foreigners - want to know in sq. ft. and US Dollars as from there they can figure prices out and compare.

So, this is what we do...lets pick a highend CONDO highrise, which are the " in " construction now days here and at all the beaches. We get $10,272 pesos and divide by $13.00. There are 13 pesos aproximately (this fluctuates daily) per US dollar. We get $790 dollars a SQ. METER OF CONSTRUCTION. But, to change it into SQ. FT. we need to divide the $790 USD by 10.76 (there are 10.76 ft. in each sq. meter) and we get $73.42 USD per sq.ft for a high end condo being built in MONTERREY.

Now you can do the calculations on all the above table!! Cause I think in pesos and sq. meters after so many years!! What I would like to know , is how does this COMPARE TO THE USA?? Send in your comments!!