Buying in Monterrey

The house-buying map tilts south. Carretera Nacional is the spine of the Cañón del Huajuco, the stretch where the built city gives way to canyon, arroyos and the Río La Silla. West of the road, Sierra Alta climbs the Sierra Madre foothills across a whole family of numbered sectors and their smaller enclaves. East of it, on Av. Portal del Huajuco, La Herradura is laid out around an 18-hole course opened in 2004, and Castaños del Vergel sits farther south along the same road, behind a gatehouse with its own access onto it, and a clubhouse, pool and jogging track inside the perimeter wall.

What to consider before buying

In the northwest the real choice is a public street or a gate. Cumbres is public street frontage with the everyday shopping of Liverpool Cumbres and Plaza Vía Puerta de Hierro on the same axis, while Cumbres Elite, at the far western end of that corridor, is gated and backs onto the Sierra de las Mitras. In the south, Contry keeps its looping streets, mature trees and parks east of the Av. Eugenio Garza Sada corridor, with Av. Revolución and Av. Alfonso Reyes as its ways in. The same house costs less in Santiago, which is where buyers go for open land and more room.