I love the beach, Manzanillo and to repeat don't have a/c so that expense isn't there. I agree about visiting areas at their worst time. Therefore I would recommend visiting Lakeside in the winter and you can decide if you want to live amongst the foreigners (in this case english speaking types) or if you want to live in Mexico.

Mexico is a big place, there are plenty of places to satisfy everyone's desires. Not everyone has the same ideas on moving to a foreign country.