Real listings, real neighborhoods, no obligation. Browse what's actually available in Los Cabos before you commit to anything.
Know the city before you search
Los Cabos isn't one place. The right neighborhood depends on how you want to live — not just which one looks best in photos.
The older of the two towns, and the one that still behaves like a town: a shaded plaza, a colonial church, galleries on the side streets, a weekly evening art walk, and errands you can do on foot. Prices sit well below the corridor and the Pacific side. A full private hospital is about ten minutes southwest along the highway. The catch is that visitor blocks and residential blocks are tangled together here, and late summer is humid in a way the brochures skip.
On the hillside above the highway east of Cabo San Lucas, El Tezal is where full-time Los Cabos lives: newer condominium blocks and gated clusters, shopping centers, supermarkets, schools — the unromantic infrastructure of an actual life. Hospitals and clinics are about ten minutes west, down in town. It is a step up in spend from San José's old town and a step down in charm: the streets are steep, the area is still filling in with construction, and you will drive everywhere.
The quiet-and-desirable version: a gated hillside draped over the headland west of the marina, with steep switchback lanes, walls of bougainvillea, and views down onto the harbor and the Pacific. It is the established address in Cabo San Lucas and one of the calmest. Clinics and a hospital are five minutes northeast, down in town. Two honest catches: the gradients are punishing on foot, so walking home from dinner is not really an option, and the Pacific beach below is not one you swim from.
The top of the Los Cabos market sits on the corridor west of San José: a gated headland of single-level villas and low condominium terraces above a rare swimmable bay, wrapped around a golf course and a beach club. Services come to the door, a private hospital is a few minutes west along the highway, and San José's plaza is ten minutes east. What you buy is insulation. There is no town here, no sidewalk life, and no reason to leave the gate except to shop.
Know the building, not just the listing
Mexico's Pacific resort coast is a place of condo towers, hillside villas and older town houses facing an ocean that makes hurricanes. What matters most is how a building handles a storm and where the private property ends.
The Pacific hurricane season runs from mid-May through November, and each of Mexico's big Pacific resort areas has been hit in recent memory. In 2014 Hurricane Odile came ashore at the tip of Baja California as a category 3 storm, blowing out windows in high-rise buildings and cutting power to more than nine people in ten across the state. In 2018 Hurricane Willa made landfall south of Mazatlán, and in 2021 Hurricane Nora's rains flooded rivers and loosened slopes in Puerto Vallarta, damaging homes and buildings. Ask how a building's windows are protected and how it drains.
On a beachfront lot, the first twenty meters of firm ground behind the sand are not private property. Federal law makes that strip the zona federal marítimo terrestre, and using it for a terrace, pool deck or anything else takes a federal concession with fees. If the sea moves inland, land that ends up inside the new strip loses its private status, and owners of beachfront land must allow public access to the beach. For a beachfront home or building, ask whether the strip in front of it is held under concession and whether the fees are current.
How homes store water varies a lot along this coast. At the last census, only about half of homes in Sinaloa had a rooftop tinaco, against about four in five in Baja California Sur and three in four in Jalisco. After Odile, drinking water ran out in San José del Cabo and power was out across the state, so ask whether a building has a cistern, how many days of water it holds, and whether there is a backup generator. In a condo, ask to see the building rules, the reserve fund balance and a no-debt certificate, a constancia de no adeudo, from the administrator.
The big decision
This isn't financial advice — it's the consistent experience of the expat community: don't buy before you've lived somewhere for at least a year.
The path most expats recommend
Worth it for the right circumstances
Before you sign anything
The US taxes worldwide income regardless of where you live. The Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE) and Foreign Tax Credit can help, but this is complicated when you add Social Security, pension distributions, and investment income. An advisor who specializes in US expat taxation is not optional — this is different from standard tax prep.
Foreign nationals cannot directly own property within 50km of Mexico's coastlines or 100km of borders. In restricted zones, property is held in a fideicomiso — a bank trust — where you are the beneficiary with full rights to use, sell, or inherit the property. Outside restricted zones, foreigners can hold direct title. A Mexican notario is mandatory for all transactions.
Most American retirees pursue Temporary Residency first (1–4 year permit, renewable), then Permanent Residency after 4 years. Income requirements apply — verify current INAMI thresholds, which are updated annually. Mexico generally does not tax foreign passive income for non-working residents, but confirm with a Mexican tax advisor before relying on this.
This is context, not legal or tax advice. Property in Mexico involves Mexican property law, fideicomiso requirements, and US international tax obligations. Work with a Mexican notario and a US expat tax advisor before committing to anything.
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Don't stop here
Walk the neighborhoods before you sign anything. See if the vibe holds up in person before you commit to anything.
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