465 Urban Geography, 2009, 30, 5, pp. 465–489. DOI: 10.2747/0272-3638.30.5.465 Copyright © 2009 by Bellwether Publishing, Ltd. All rights reserved. BUYING DEVELOPMENT: HOUSING AND URBAN GROWTH IN GUADALAJARA, MEXICO 1 John Harner 2 Department of Geography and Environmental Studies University of Colorado at Colorado Springs Edith Jiménez Huerta Instituto de Estudios Económicos y Regionales Universidad de Guadalajara Heriberto Cruz Solís Departamento de Geografía y Ordenación Territorial Universidad de Guadalajara Abstract: This study analyzes how Mexican federal housing policy affects the production of space and the housing landscape in Guadalajara, Mexico. Using a wide-ranging database of parcels developed in metropolitan Guadalajara, we map all housing developments from 1970 to 2000 and classify them into three categories that reflect different development processes. The greatly increased number of social-interest houses, and the large extension of land area devel- oped since 1990 are explained by federal housing program reforms. Informal settlements remain a major path to home ownership, but the percentage of housing developments that are informal and the percentage of informally developed land have declined since the 1980s. We also discov- ered a trend of increasing land area devoted to low-density, élite enclaves, and analyzed market- ing strategies and land use patterns that occurred in these newer developments. All of these outcomes reflect a neoliberal ideology that promotes consumption and the privatization of space, but largely excludes the urban poor. The result is higher rates of home ownership, but in an increasingly segregated and fragmented landscape poorly served by public infrastructure and lacking in amenities. [Key words: housing, Mexico, neoliberal reforms.] Providing adequate housing has been a continual challenge in urban Mexico over the past half century. Urban growth in Mexico continues to outpace the overall population growth rate, 3 even though both have decreased from their peak levels in the 1960s. Since 1 This research was made possible through funding from the Fulbright-García Robles program administered by COMEXUS, and a grant from the Committee for Research and Creative Works at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs. Funding for the Atlas project from which the database was first developed came from CONACYT in Mexico. Thanks to Armando Chávez and Hirineo Martínez at the Universidad de Guadalajara for providing data, student assistance, and accommodating facilities. Ana Teresa Ortega Minakata helped greatly in the project, as did Martha Eugenia Castañeda Rivera. Jason O’Brien assisted with field data collection. 2 Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to John Harner, Department of Geography and Environmental Studies, University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, Colorado Springs, Colorado 80933-7150; telephone: 719-255-4054; fax: 719-255-4066; email: jharner@uccs.edu 3 From 1990 to 2000, Mexico’s annual population growth rate was 1.85%, while for all urban areas it was 2.29%, and for large urban areas of more than 1 million people it was 2.16%. Notably, Mexico City ranked lower than the national average at 1.67%. Guadalajara, the focus of this article, had an annual growth rate of 2.12% over the decade (Consejo Nacional de Población website at www.conapo.gob.mx/distibucion_tp/01.htm).