Mexico Housing

With mortgages out of reach for blue-collar workers in Mexico, Adrian Trejo ordinarily would have to salt pesos away for 15 years before he could buy a house with cash. Then he'd have to find something suitable, a tall order in this booming desert city across the border from El Paso, where prosperity and population growth have has caused a 60,000-unit housing shortfall.

Living stones and baby toes. Creeping devils and elephants. Welcome to Steven Brack's kingdom of cacti, which resides on a sandy patch of desert atop a mesa in the heart of New Mexico. Never heard of his Mesa Garden? Not surprising. But to connoisseurs of cactus, he's the prince of prickly, the sultan of succulents, who keeps them flush with seeds both rare and common. Brack reckons he's about the only full-time producer and exporter of cactus and succulent seeds in North America.

Rosa Maria Mendez understands far more about the bad-loan portfolio of Mexican banks than she ever wanted to. The 39-year-old housewife and former secretary is, reluctantly, part of the problem. She has not made a mortgage payment on her two-bedroom condominium in the three years she has lived in a housing project on the outskirts of this beach resort. Mendez and the other 360 families in the complex are refusing to pay until their homes are completed correctly by a problematic contractor.

President Vicente Fox is trying to breathe life into Mexico's moribund housing industry by creating a viable mortgage market in a country where home loans are often too expensive or unavailable on any terms to potential buyers. Loan scarcity is a big reason why Mexico's housing shortage is reaching crisis proportions. The country's housing deficit is now at more than 3 million units and growing at 300,000 per year, said panelists at the Mexican Bankers Assn. meeting here over the weekend.

On a dusty hillside nine miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, Maria Luisa Roldan watched in fascination as a storm of about 300 norteamericanos came down on her Colonia Cumbres. They parked their fancy cars and trucks on the dirt street and then offered Roldan, her children and the community a small milagro. "These are good people," Roldan said as emotion swept through her, causing tears to flow from her strong, brown eyes.

The government will spend $2.4 billion this year to build 350,000 public housing units in northern Mexico, the official El Nacional newspaper said this week.

This capital has a housing shortage of 600,000 units, and migration to the city of 17 million will continue to boost demand by 115,000 units annually, the government-sponsored Forum on Housing in Large Cities reported Monday.

President Vicente Fox is trying to breathe life into Mexico's moribund housing industry by creating a viable mortgage market in a country where home loans are often too expensive or unavailable on any terms to potential buyers. Loan scarcity is a big reason why Mexico's housing shortage is reaching crisis proportions. The country's housing deficit is now at more than 3 million units and growing at 300,000 per year, said panelists at the Mexican Bankers Assn. meeting here over the weekend.

With a rollicking 4-3 upset victory over Brazil, Mexico won its first international soccer crown Wednesday night and proved it is on the road to joining the ranks of the world powers. Attacking aggressively from the start, Mexico reversed a half-century of losses to Brazil with its decisive win in the Confederations Cup final before a thunderous home crowd of about 110,000 in the famed Azteca Stadium. Miguel Zepeda, a 23-year-old midfielder, scored twice for Mexico.

Living stones and baby toes. Creeping devils and elephants. Welcome to Steven Brack's kingdom of cacti, which resides on a sandy patch of desert atop a mesa in the heart of New Mexico. Never heard of his Mesa Garden? Not surprising. But to connoisseurs of cactus, he's the prince of prickly, the sultan of succulents, who keeps them flush with seeds both rare and common. Brack reckons he's about the only full-time producer and exporter of cactus and succulent seeds in North America.

With a rollicking 4-3 upset victory over Brazil, Mexico won its first international soccer crown Wednesday night and proved it is on the road to joining the ranks of the world powers. Attacking aggressively from the start, Mexico reversed a half-century of losses to Brazil with its decisive win in the Confederations Cup final before a thunderous home crowd of about 110,000 in the famed Azteca Stadium. Miguel Zepeda, a 23-year-old midfielder, scored twice for Mexico.

With mortgages out of reach for blue-collar workers in Mexico, Adrian Trejo ordinarily would have to salt pesos away for 15 years before he could buy a house with cash. Then he'd have to find something suitable, a tall order in this booming desert city across the border from El Paso, where prosperity and population growth have has caused a 60,000-unit housing shortfall.

On a dusty hillside nine miles from the U.S.-Mexico border, Maria Luisa Roldan watched in fascination as a storm of about 300 norteamericanos came down on her Colonia Cumbres. They parked their fancy cars and trucks on the dirt street and then offered Roldan, her children and the community a small milagro. "These are good people," Roldan said as emotion swept through her, causing tears to flow from her strong, brown eyes.

Rosa Maria Mendez understands far more about the bad-loan portfolio of Mexican banks than she ever wanted to. The 39-year-old housewife and former secretary is, reluctantly, part of the problem. She has not made a mortgage payment on her two-bedroom condominium in the three years she has lived in a housing project on the outskirts of this beach resort. Mendez and the other 360 families in the complex are refusing to pay until their homes are completed correctly by a problematic contractor.

Ross Perot on Sunday night stepped up his attack on the Clinton Administration for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement, declaring in a half-hour TV commercial that the United States will lose jobs and investment to Mexico if the agreement is passed. "In order to be a world leader, we must be a manufacturing superpower," Perot said on the NBC network in a program paid for by his political organization, United We Stand, America, Inc. "The Mexican trade agreement must be stopped."

The government will spend $2.4 billion this year to build 350,000 public housing units in northern Mexico, the official El Nacional newspaper said this week.

Ross Perot on Sunday night stepped up his attack on the Clinton Administration for supporting the North American Free Trade Agreement, declaring in a half-hour TV commercial that the United States will lose jobs and investment to Mexico if the agreement is passed. "In order to be a world leader, we must be a manufacturing superpower," Perot said on the NBC network in a program paid for by his political organization, United We Stand, America, Inc. "The Mexican trade agreement must be stopped."

One of the biggest factories on the California-Mexico border, a $250-million glass plant employing 2,500 to 5,000, is to be announced by a U.S.-South Korean-Japanese venture, according to Mexican government officials here. Word of the plant emerged at an international conference addressing the myriad problems arising from just such ventures along the booming U.S.-Mexican border. The factory will be built by a partnership of South Korean electronics giant Samsung, U.S.

This capital has a housing shortage of 600,000 units, and migration to the city of 17 million will continue to boost demand by 115,000 units annually, the government-sponsored Forum on Housing in Large Cities reported Monday.