The high cost of housing in San Diego County (California), the most expensive region to live in the United States today, forces a growing number of Americans to look for alternatives in the border city of Tijuana.
In Tijuana, the majority of potential buyers and renters of housing are foreigners from California, Luis Bustamante, a real estate expert in Baja California who has clients on both sides of the border, told EFE.
“Every month, about two million people cross the border from California to Baja California through the San Ysidro checkpoint, of which about 5 percent come to see the real estate market, and although only a fraction of them stay, buy or rent housing, it translates into a good amount of money,” Bustamante explained.
Last year, about a thousand condos were sold in the so-called ‘coastal zone’, Playas de Tijuana, Playas de Rosarito and Ensenada, and foreigners, mainly from California, acquired at least 300 condos.
US Consul with the Governor of Baja California:
“But now the trend is to also acquire condos, but in the central zone of Tijuana. Last year, about 500 condos were sold in that area and 90 percent of the buyers are from California,” he explained, due to the proximity to the San Ysidro border crossing, just a few minutes away and one of the largest vehicular and pedestrian ports of entry in the United States.
Those who move most to the coastal zone are Americans over 55 years old, with adult children, who are looking for a second property on the Mexican side of the border, and many Americans under that age who can work online from home.
Young families with children prefer to stay in California because that’s where their children’s schools are.
Exorbitant prices
The average price of a family home in San Diego County is $998,000, according to the most recent June statistics from the Realtor.com consulting firm.
A real estate agent who preferred to remain anonymous calculated that, with the current interest rate of around 7 percent, someone who now buys a house at that price would pay about $9,000 a month, including taxes, and if it were rented, it would be about $5,000.
On the other hand, in Mexico, rental ads in Playas de Tijuana for a house with similar characteristics are around $2,000 a month.
A person would need 47 percent of their current budget in San Diego County or Los Angeles to maintain the same standard of living in Tijuana as they now have in Southern California.
However, “the problem is the crossing,” crossing the border daily for work, said Leticia Cuevas, an American nurse’s assistant in San Diego who lives in a central area of Tijuana.
“There is no average time to cross, one day you can do a few minutes and the next more than an hour” through the fastest border crossing lane, she explained.
According to data from the Department of Transportation, about 43,500 vehicles cross from Tijuana to San Diego through San Ysidro every day, and another 2,700 through the Otay port of entry, which is about 10 kilometers to the west.
In addition, between 20,000 and up to 35,000 pedestrians from Mexico pass through south of San Diego every day, according to the Customs and Border Protection office (CBP, in English).
She says that in San Diego she rented a single room with a private bathroom for 1,250 dollars a month and that an apartment costs around 3,000 dollars.
“In Tijuana, on the other hand, I’m paying $975 for a small, entire house,” he admits.
Mexican authorities now have a procedure to facilitate the move of Americans to the Mexican side of the border.
Families acquire a Certificate of Importation of Household Goods, a document issued by Mexican consulates for $169 that exempts those moving to Mexico from paying import taxes when they take their refrigerator, washing machine, stove, furniture and other items to their new home from California.
Source: milenio
