Jalisco leads the way in rising housing prices in Mexico

Andrés Gallegos

The increase in housing sale and rental prices is a problem with strong impacts in Jalisco, making it difficult to access this right with costs that far exceed household income levels.

For example, the Ayamonte neighborhood (Zapopan) has the most expensive houses in all of Mexico, with average prices of 55 million 183 thousand pesos, while Lomas del Valle (Zapopan) is the second with the highest rents in the nation, with an average of more than 93 thousand pesos per month.

The average monthly rent in the state is 29,457 pesos, the sixth highest in the country. The average sale price of a house in Jalisco is 7.4 million pesos, the fourth highest in the country, behind only Nuevo León, the State of Mexico, and Mexico City.

These and other data are included in issue number 30 of the ITESO Business School's Economic Analysis Bulletin (ENI), dedicated to the rental and sales market for housing nationwide. The study compared the prices of 820,000 homes listed on the main digital real estate advertising platforms, updated to December 2025.

“Sale and rental prices indicate that housing affordability is a greater challenge, and restrictions on accessing this right are increasing,” warns Mireya Pasillas, an academic at ENI and editorial coordinator of the newsletter. “The most valuable properties are geared toward being acquired by people with very high incomes, not by the general population.”

Pasillas adds that increases in housing costs create a real estate bubble where houses "are built and sold as an investment, rather than to actually live in them, leaving a very high percentage of the population without access to housing."

According to the ENI analysis, the average monthly rent for housing nationwide is 28,589 pesos. Furthermore, buying a house or apartment has an average cost of approximately 6.5 million pesos.

The median rent in Mexico is 22,000 pesos per month, meaning that half of all rental properties cost less than that amount and the other half cost more. The median sale price is four million pesos.

Mexico City has the highest average rents in the country, exceeding 40,000 pesos per month. Nuevo León is the state with the most expensive homes, with an average value of 10.7 million pesos, thanks to its wealthiest municipalities like San Pedro Garza García.

The latest edition of the Economic Analysis Bulletin lists the 50 municipalities with the highest income levels and the 50 cities with the most expensive homes in the country. It also breaks down the most expensive neighborhoods nationwide, in Mexico City, and in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Area (ZMG).

Dzemul, in Yucatán, has the most expensive average rent (almost 69,000 pesos per month), while San Pedro Garza García shows the most expensive homes, at an average of close to 25 million pesos.

In the case of the most expensive neighborhoods, Ayamonte (Zapopan) has the most expensive houses for sale, while Jardines del Pedregal (Mexico City) has the highest rents in the country, with an average figure exceeding 97,000 pesos per month.

Jalisco is a major player in these indicators, as it has four municipalities within the 50 with the most expensive rents: Zapopan (19th place), Guadalajara (28th), Puerto Vallarta (33rd) and Chapala (37th).

Furthermore, the Zapopan neighborhoods of Lomas del Valle and Puerta Las Lomas are among the top 10 most expensive areas in Mexico. Six other neighborhoods in the same city are among the 20 neighborhoods with the most luxurious homes in the country (Ayamonte, Los Frailes, Colinas de San Javier, Lomas del Bosque, El Alcázar, and Lomas del Valle).

Who pays these prices?

The study infers that these high costs mean fewer families can have full access to housing, forcing them to pay increasingly expensive rents and pushing them to the outskirts of urban areas, with longer commutes and fewer basic services such as drinking water, electricity, or sewage.

For example, if a family wants to buy a house for four million pesos, they need a monthly income of 122,795 pesos. The problem is that the average monthly income of Mexican households is 21,355 pesos, a gap six times greater.

“The evidence presented in this analysis shows a growing disconnect between household income levels and housing prices, suggesting that the current functioning of the market, by itself, is not guaranteeing such access in a broad manner,” the report states on page 33.

Pasillas asserts that the State must intervene to enforce the constitutional right to housing, without imposing price controls, as this measure “creates other kinds of problems.” “We need to design interventions that expand the supply, reduce barriers to access, and promote greater competition.”

Some of the public policy measures proposed in the bulletin include greater promotion of remote work in companies to avoid long commutes, tax incentives to promote affordable rents, and temporary rent subsidies.

The special study on housing can be found at https://ite.so/boleconomi30 .