Good (affordable) places to live in Mex for 42 yo single, American woman?

Need your advice, please - am looking for nice, affordable, not too touristy locales to live in Mexico for a single, 42 yo American woman. Want to rent an apt, don't need to live like a queen, just be comfortable. Thoughts on Bucerias? Merida? Lake Chapala? Already know some Spanish, also taking a class this summer. Love the Mex people, food, weather, language, whole culture...need to get away from the rat race, high taxes, road rage, long commute, wretched, cold winters, etc. before it kills my spirit completely. Serious responses only, please. I will not benefit from sarcasm, rudeness, meanness or pessimism. I really do want to do this. Thanks in advance for all your responses. :)

Public Comments

1. Rent is low pretty much in ALL of Mexico. Electricity is high. i live in Acapulco pretty comfortably on $2000 USD a month. The problem is people come here on vacation and think its all puppies and butterflies. ITS NOT. Mexico is a rough place to live. The poverty ,govt , trash in the streets , dog eat dog mentality., stray dogs , they burn everything. Its just not for everybody. You need to find a city your interested in and go visit for about 2 weeks. Leave your tourist glasses at home. Look at it from a residents point of view. Laundry , food , housing , transportation. Seriously I know people that are retired here and just can't hang and disappear. Leave your American views at home - they will only hinder you in your life here. Customs are very different as well. Here is a great website for you to get a feel of living here. http://www.rollybrook.com/Page%20Directory.htm#Useful
2. I completely agree with Mikey. Life here is a lot more relaxed, but there is still a lot of suffering. A lot of people work very hard and don't make very much and some don't even work at all because there just isn't enough work. I've been living in Puerto Vallarta for 7 weeks now and I fell in love with everything. The mountains, beaches, people, food, music and entertainment. I have made friends with the locals here and have really seen what it really is. PV is very safe, but rent is quite expensive, but a nice place to stay if you want to get away from it all yet be close to those who are similiar and speak English. You might think it's touristy, but it's not really if you avoid certain places or areas. There are a lot of nice restaurants and place to hang where you won't see many tourists.
3. The Lake Chapala area is probably the best choice because it has so many North Americans living there already, you can alway find someone to ask, "Where's a good doctor/dentist? or "Where can I find this product?" The webboard on the Chapala.com site is a good place to ask those questions. Watch the video on their home page (on the right, the link says, "Free Video." Bucerias and Merida will be very hot in the summer. But if you can take the heat, they may be OK for you. Another place to think about is San Miguel de Allende. The best thing to do is go down on a tourist visa for 180 days and test out each place for a month or so an see what place you fall in love with.
4. Personally I like Merida. Its a very safe city, lots of culture and not to big but big enough to have everything that you want. It's pretty easy to get to. You can find direct flights from some US cities (but not that many) You'll likely end up connecting in Mexico City, Houston, Miami, Atlanta etc. Alternately you can usually find any number of flights to Cancun (usually cheaper than Merida) and take a the 4 hour bus ride over. Buses are first rate in Mexico but I suspect you know that if you are planing on living here.
5. I would add a bit to what others have said. First, I live near Lake Chapala. It is a good place to start learning to live in Mexico. It has lots of other Gringos and has less of some of the things that tend to greatly upset Gringos such as abject poverty, livestock wandering in the roads, and trash piled by the side of the highways. It also has more than its share of elderly, grumpy, rude Gringos. As I said, it is a great place to start. It has beautiful weather all year round, as opposed to Bucerias and Merida where it is unbearably hot for a good portion of the year. The cost of living is somewhat lower than San Miguel de Allende. A person can live frugally, but not uncomfortably so, on $1200 a month (which is about what you need for an FM3 Visa). Clearly more is better. For a younger single woman, it might be a little boring. There are dozens of volunteer opportunities and lots of special interest organizations, but many are geared toward retirees. I would start in Lake Chapala area, Ajijic being the most expensive village, Chapala and Jocotepec being much cheaper and more "real Mexico" and expect to move on in a few years. Read "Head for Mexico" by Don Adams for a pretty realistic view of living in Mexico plus a lot of laughs. http://www.mexico-insights.com/
6. Hi there i agree with these these answer above here in usa the life is good you can get alot of things you can advance in life alot you can get money etc but in the usa you sometimes feel like a slave becuase you work 8 9 10 11 or 12 or more hours a day after your work 12 hours u go home sleep like 7 hours then eat and you do the same again and again in usa if u don;t work u can not live well or u get homeless in usa u work only to pay rent electric phone cell phone and cable bills i mean that u only work for paying bills and more bills and u can;t have free time in usa to go the to park do some fun things its not very relaxing to live and work in usa but if u want to live good in mexico here are my top 5 places to live in mexico it depends how your lifestyle is also becuase if you used to have a nice so so apt that u live in u might like to have so so apt in mexico also and it depends if what location of a city u like to live i mean if u like to live in central outskirts or between. if u like to live like usa standards almost the best cities are guadalajara and monterrey . Guadalajara is the best city in mexico in terms of safety health and is the second richest city in mexico with annual home income of 19,000 dollars you get that income if u finished high school and if u don;t finish high school u don;t get that income in guadalajara is the most mexican city its the home of tequila mexican floklore and mariachi the city has a airport it makes international flights but only to the states of texas california and arizona in usa and makes also domestic flights . guadalajara has some great shopping malls very ultra modem malls like the Gran Plaza, vista express plaza mall , plaza del sol , they are expense but good shopping mall u find stores like sears radio shack the the aparments to rent are good the prices start from 400 dollars a month to 3k a month and guadalajara its 8 hours from mexico in car web link below. i really recommend to live in this city i don;t recommend monterrey becuase its to bad to live not safety etc to many drug lords. best moderm cities to live in mexico are. - monterrey - guadalajara - cancun - mexico city if u a beach girl like to see the sun alot - cancun - merida -conzumel - puerto vallarta if u historic person [ like to live in azteca colonial towns] -oaxaca city -merida - puebla i like merida its sunny its my second place to me it has alot of historical place to see or live in u can even see chicen itza the standard are low but good puebla its good place but not safe from a scale from 1 to 10 its a 7 the economy its good average 9000 a year cancun forget it to expense puerto vallarta is to cocky streets are to dirty u see in pictures a nice looking city but when u go to the place it diffrent and so u want usa standard i recomment guadalajara or cancun email me my email is creveneu@yahoo.com if u more info on good cities i personal think is guada a good for you don;t go to puerto vallarta or chapalla or those cities u like becuase u gonna like it first when u get there but after a while not becuase u gotta walk like 3 or 4 blocks to but sometime and in other cities not u only walk like 1 block everything is near and u gonna live ina a square apt and other in a 2 room 1 bath apt
7. My family owns a house in merida.. and I spend a few months a year there.. it's laid back and relatively secure. Since you are pretty young.. may I ask what you indent to do to make money.. or are you independently wealthy. As an american.. you really can't work in Mexico.. unless you are a nurse or teacher or some other "needed' profession. You could start your own business of course.. but that takes some $$ also. Make sure you check all the immigration and residency requirements before moving forward. Some people do it the wrong way.. and they suffer the consequences once they have made the move.
8. Bucerias has some small apts for rent...around $5 to $600 or more..... My sister in law has a duplex in Pitillal, just inland from WalMart in Puerto Vallarta, she rents out occaisionally....it's right in the middle of a pure Mexican neighborhood....but the folks are friendly and nice, we've never had a problem at all...Believe she gets $400 a month for it....it's all new.....we walk about 3 or 4 blocks down our dirt street to catch the bus to go into town...Mega and Soriana for groceries, downtown for walking on the malecon, visiting shops, sites to see, etc....Sayulita has a nice little hotel that has been redone, I hear...been a year or so since I've been there.....Nuevo Vallarta is a nice area...we have lots there and plan on building later this year...our retirement home.....also have a lot in Punta de Mita at the end of Banderas Bay..... There are several books written by women around your age that have made the move to Mexico....might check Amazon out....I've read them all and they're pretty good and informative as to what you can expect....Ajijic is suppose to be nice....Been to Lake Chapala, also, but it wasn't my cup of tea...I really need an ocean near by as i love sailing.....Don't forget, I hear PV has around 40,000 expats and Canadians living down there..always can find a club or organization to join in and meet others with similar tastes, hobbies, etc.... Aslo, when I got my FM3, one of the stipulations was, I think, $1,000 of income for myself and $500 for my wife. What many folks do is deposit that money in the bank down there, then draw it out little by little during the month and at the end of the month, just deposit the $1,000 or $1,500 (or whatever) in the bank again. So if income is less than that on a regular basis but you could still live o.k., lots of folks do just that to fool the govt. (in case they ever check or you renew your FM3)....your bank statements then show a consistent whatever deposited every month.... Don't forget, CitiBank in LA is jopined with Banamex.....so when we want additional funds from the states, we just transfer what we need from the US account to our account at Banamex down there.....no fees, either......
9. If you're sick of high taxes WRONG!! Here we have high taxes as well, road rage and long commute, then you shouldn't live in a big city (mexico city, guadalajara, monterrey) Cold winters, then NOT the northern states, but you also said "not too touristy", so... I could think of Puebla, Guanajuato, Mérida, Morelia or Querértaro... And by the way, we don't "burn everything" as someone said in a previous answer... hahahaha
10. not safe..that is all.