5 de Diciembre Real Estate: Condos, Homes & Land for Sale

Everybody in Puerto Vallarta knows 'Cinco,' but almost no one knows why it carries that name. It isn't random: it honors a date that changed the bay, the day the lands were formally granted to the Ejido Puerto Vallarta. Some accounts point to December 5, 1929, as the ejido's 'material birth'; others recall a major land grant confirmed in 1935. Either way, that day the land stopped belonging to mining companies and big landowners, and passed into the hands of the local people.

From then on, 5 de Diciembre filled up with simple houses, steep streets, and everyday barrio life. The ejidatarios built between the ocean and the Sierra Madre—fishermen, dock workers, downtown laborers—long before the big hotels arrived. This was already a neighborhood that smelled of fresh tortillas, fried fish, and laundry drying in the sun.

Geographically it's a world of its own: to the south it's embraced by the Malecón and downtown, to the north the hotel zone begins; below sits Playa Camarones, the neighborhood's 'local' beach, and above the streets climb the hillside with sweeping views over the bay. One of its most symbolic corners, the Panteón 5 de Diciembre, was inaugurated in 1951. For many foreigners, this barrio is the 'perfect in-between': close enough to the tourist buzz, yet full of small-town soul. That authenticity, paired with its proximity to downtown, is exactly what drives its appreciation and attracts the developments now betting on 'Cinco.'