Marvin Golden Speaks at July 14 CSRC Meeting
Marvin Golden of Lake Chapala Real Estate, one of the most successful brokers in the area gave a talk about real estate sales at Lakeside. He has seventeen sales agents and four staff and training new people. Across Lakeside, there are a total of about 120 sales agents and 14 brokers.
Real estate sales, here as elsewhere, run in cycles which can be quite wide. In 2008 the local real estate market collapsed as people decided to rent rather than buy. But the good news is that there’s been a revival in the market over the past few years. His firm had 23 sales in 2012, 32 in 2013, 41 in 2014, and 101 in 2015 (representing gross annual sales ofof $18.5 million USD). In the first half of this year, they’e had 96 sales with a gross of $19 million USD. The average home sale price is from $188,000 to $207,000 USD.
Meanwhile, currency fluctuations have caused major changes in the market here. In 2009 the peso was about 13 to the US dollar. Today it’s over 18 to the dollar. in the same time period, the Canadian dollar went from 10.5 pesos to over 14 pesos. (The Canadian-to-US dollar exchange is about 1.35.) This USD to peso rate is very advantageous to those with US income or savings. Even with increased prices, it’s still a buyers market. There are 460 houses on the market at the moment in Lakeside.
Golden also spoke on the issue of capital gains taxes for US or Canadian citizens. If a home you sell here is not over $300,000 USD (3.5 million pesos) you pay no capital gains. But you’ll pay about 35% tax on anything over that level. A good notario can help reduce the capital gains tax you or your heirs have to pay. (Sales of lots always produces capital gains taxes, since they cannot be your principal residence.