Mexico Takes a Look at Pricey Airport Taxis, and Home Prices Keep Climbing

It’s warm and overcast in Puerto Vallarta this afternoon, the kind of weather that makes an iced coffee sound about right. I’ve been looking at what it costs to get out of an airport in Mexico, and I think I’ll spend a little more time with the bus map before my next flight.

What’ll it cost to get out of the airport?

President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that Mexico’s federal transport ministry is talking with airport taxi operators about bringing fares down. She also called on state governments to deal with unauthorized taxis. For now, the talks are ongoing, with fares and timing still open.

A reporter raised complaints about high fares and unlicensed drivers at airports, including Guadalajara and Monterrey. Sheinbaum pointed out that some taxis have federal permits and others have state permits. At Mexico City’s Benito Juárez airport, an authorized taxi to Coyoacán was quoted at 440 to 490 pesos in the same report.

With a carry-on, I’d check Mexico City’s 30-peso Metrobús Line 4 from either terminal or Guadalajara’s 11-peso bus to Parque Agua Azul. In Guadalajara, you buy your taxi ticket at a counter inside the terminal, and N+ reported a fare of 460 pesos to downtown earlier this year. In Monterrey, there’s an express bus with a 15-peso cash fare to Y Griega metro station, and an authorized taxi company lets you price the ride to your door.

What else is making news today

Two cartel cases at opposite ends of Mexico. Federal officers arrested a man known as Beto Leyva in Tijuana. Investigators say he coordinated migrant smuggling into California for a Sinaloa Cartel faction and link him to kidnappings in which families in the U.S. were asked for ransom.

Separately, officers arrested 14 suspected cartel members in Benemérito de las Américas, Chiapas, near Guatemala, including two alleged regional leaders, according to El Economista. The ransom allegations are the detail I’d watch as the Tijuana case moves forward.

Home prices depend on where you’re looking. Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal, Mexico’s federal mortgage agency, says appraised values for homes bought with a mortgage rose 7.6% from January through September compared with the same period last year. In the third quarter alone, values were up 7% year over year.

If I were house hunting, I’d start with local sales, especially since the index leaves out cash purchases. Through September, Mexico City was up 3.8%, Jalisco and Quintana Roo each rose 10.3%, and Tamaulipas led at 12.8%, according to Real Estate Market & Lifestyle.

More people stayed the night. INEGI, Mexico’s statistics agency, counted 3.30 million international visitors who stayed at least one night in September, up 2.7% from a year earlier. Total international arrivals fell 0.5% as day trips dropped, while spending by all international travelers rose 5.7%.

Day-trippers still outnumbered overnight guests, with about 3.95 million visits that ended the same day, according to INEGI’s September count. A run across the border for lunch and a week at the beach both go into that arrivals total.

Today’s phrase, ¿Cuánto sale hasta…?, is an easy way to ask how much it costs to get somewhere. Hit reply and tell me what you paid on your last ride from the airport.

Talk soon,
Ian