We recently interviewed real estate broker Candy King, owner of Coldwell Banker in Manzanillo. Candy came to Manzanillo in 1999 and gave up retirement to try her hand at real estate. She started Manzanillo Pacific Real Estate five years later and then opened Coldwell Banker Bienes Raíces in Manzanillo. What sets Manzanillo apart from other real estate locations in Mexico such as Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, or Los Cabos? Manzanillo has the largest port facility in Mexico. For that reason, we will never get the tourist money from the government that the other beach communities receive. We do not need it. In our minds, that is a good thing. For those of us who live here, it keeps the time share sales people and the vendors to a minimum. Actually time shares are almost non existent. Our beaches are still available to the local population, they are not polluted, and it is a tranquil environment. Yet, we DO have three large shopping centers including Commercial, Soriana's and Walmart. We have most of the fast food companies as of the last year including Starbuck's, Subway, Burger King, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Dairy Queen, Dolphy's ice cream and many more good and great restaurants. How large is the expatriate community in Manzanillo? In the summer I believe we have about 200 families and that is growing every year. In the winter we have about 3000 ex pats who live here for 3-6 months. What evidence would suggest that Manzanillo real estate will appreciate in value in the coming years? We have many people who are looking for our laid back life style and we do not have a lot of new projects compared to Puerto Vallarta and Cabo. This maintains the value of the older developments. We have in the past 6 years had more buyers than sellers.,I see no reason for that to change when the economy has recovered. We are quite far below Puerto Vallarta and Cabo in prices, so there is plenty of room for growth in our prices. We are about to become a cruise terminal (origin and destination) for an arm of Royal Caribbean. This will increase the awareness about Manzanillo. What can an interested buyer expect to pay for a new condo on the beachfront in Manzanillo? Currently we are representing a new project which will break ground in March. The price is in pesos, there fore the average 2.5 bedroom on the 8th floor for example is about 213,000.00 USD. That is an excellent buy! ON the beach with an elevator. Can you estimate the typical phone, internet, cable, It probably averages for a condo about 100 US per month.water, and electricity bills for a resident of Manzanillo? Phone and internet (DSL) are about 580 pesos per month, at today's exchange rate that is 38.00 USD. Electricity depends on whether you use air conditioning. It probably averages about 100.00 US per month. The maintenance fees include water, gas and maid service generally, at about 300 US per month as an average. Many people bring their satellite service from home as an extra receiver it is very inexpensive... What are the best things to do or see in Manzanillo? We have three golf courses. One is the "social golf course" with about 50 each in the men's and ladies' groups. We have a tennis group, a biking group, a duplicate bridge group. Our beaches are beautiful and you can walk about 10 miles without needing to stop. Many of our beaches are also safe to swim in and the water is warm. We have available horses or ATV's. All of the water activities are available including diving, snorkeling, jet skis, fishing, turtle and dolphin watching, plus our three winter whales..we are a very social town and have two groups for ex-pats who wish to meet other English speakers, or learn about the community. We have an English library, many good restaurants with live music. Candy King is co-owner of real estate brokerage Coldwell Banker Bienes Raíces in Manzanillo. You can contact her at candyk(at)coldwellbankermanzanillo.com or 1-877-701-5892 from US or Canada.