Category Archives: Living In Mexico

Articles related to the Mexican lifestyle.

The Five Best Baja Peninsula Beach Towns

May 11, 2010

The Five Best Baja Peninsula Beach Towns

The Five Best Baja Peninsula Beach Towns

Dear International Living Reader,

Live in Mexico and work in the U.S.? That’s one solution many expats are trying…and with a place less than an hour’s drive from  much more expensive San Diego, why not?

Mexico’s Baja Peninsula is a geographical wonder. Bordered on one side by the Pacific Ocean and on the other by the Sea of Cortez, this long, thin strip of land features some of the most spectacular oceanscapes—and some of the most incredible beaches—on the planet.

The Baja is really two states: Baja Norte and Baja Sur. Both have their distinctive charms. Much of Baja Norte, particularly the famous (and infamous) Tijuana, is drive time from the U.S., and has been popular with U.S. expats and tourists for many years. Baja Sur, and especially its famous playground, Cabo San Lucas, has a character and lifestyle all its own.

But there is much more to Mexico’s Baja Peninsula than Tijuana and Cabo. All along both sides of this incredible stretch of land are beautiful and affordable options for retirement, vacation, second homes, and rental opportunities.

That’s what this report, Baja Peninsula Beach Towns—Mexico: Dream It, Find It, Live It, is all about. We’ve chosen five locations that we feel hold themost potential for the would-be expat. Each of our picks offers you a lifestyle most people only dream about with great weather, plenty to do and see…and established expat communities to make your transition easier. read more »

Also posted in Baja Attractions, Baja Real Estate, Mexico Real Estate, Mexico Tourism, Rosarito, Rosarito News, americans living in mexico, retiring to mexico, rosarito tourism – 0 Comments

Unity of the Californias Is Main Message For the 5th Binational Mayor’s Summit

May 10, 2010

Unity of the Californias Is Main Message For the 5th Binational Mayor’s Summit

Unity of the Californias Is Main Message For the 5th Binational Mayor’s Summit

ROSARITO BEACH, BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO—Taking advantage of the many opportunities shared between Southern California and Baja California was the main message delivered by speakers Friday at the Fifth Binational Mayors’ Summit here.

More than 220 civic and business leaders plus mayors from 14 cities on both sides of the border attended the summit, which had as its theme “Unifying the Californias.”

The summit, at which U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Alan Bersin was a keynote speaker, was the largest of the five inspired two years ago by an agreement between California Gov. Schwarzenegger and Baja Gov. Osuna.

Representatives of both governors attended Friday’s summit as did the consuls of several countries.

As well as welcoming and keynote speeches, the summit included workshops on border crossings, desalination/environment, economic development, public safety, education and a mayors’ roundtable. read more »

Also posted in Baja Personalities, Mexico News, Mexico Tourism, Rosarito, Rosarito News, Stories, Tijuana, rosarito real estate – 0 Comments

Using a real estate IRA to acquire property in Mexico

May 7, 2010

By TOM KELLY, INVESTMENT columnist

Using a real estate IRA to acquire property in Mexico

Using a real estate IRA to acquire property in Mexico

Like second-home sales in the U.S., the sales of Mexican homes have been limping along. They are a luxury that buyers have been unwilling to revisit until the economy improves. While anecdotal evidence is beginning to reveal increased activity in some of the more popular resort areas, very few developer projects are thriving because of a lack of bank funding or sales.

“We have some buyers who have returned to look and buy,” says Max Katz, who operates Baja Real Estate Group in Rosarito Beach, about 70 minutes south of the California border. “But it doesn’t help when U.S. television repeats the same shows on crime in Mexico that they were showing 18 months ago.”

Much has been written about the kidnappings, roadside hijackings, crooked cops, and the infamous bandidos in some of the regions of Mexico. Most of the violence south of the border, however, is directly related to the drug cartels and the authorities who are trying to eradicate them. There is absolutely no pattern of any innocent U.S. citizens being randomly murdered in drug violence.

Unfortunately, the negativity surrounding the country comes at a time when more and more Americans could use a less expensive place to live. According to a new report by the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), baby boomers have not saved for retirement and they will be forced to work longer and/or move to less expensive places than they anticipated. Property taxes, health care, and cost of living will force boomers to consider moving to other countries, especially if they plan on living at the same level of comfort as they do now.

John Youden, the Vancouver, British Columbia native who founded a multiple listing association in Puerto Vallarta in 1988 (www.mlsvallarta.com) and also publishes a highly respected real estate magazine, believes developers will have to offer potential buyers a creative proposition to sustain sales.

A Puerto Vallarta-based group headed by a Harvard MBA graduate took Youden’s message to heart. It is seeking buyers/investors looking for a guaranteed rate of return and has found the offering to be an ideal alternative to conventional Individual Retirement Account investments. One hour south of Cancun on the Caribbean Sea’s Riviera Maya, the company is building a condotel adjacent to Madrid-based Bahia Principe Group’s mega resort. Called Sian Ka’an (www.bahiaprincipecondohotel.com), the development is on its own golf course.

The condo hotel is a gated community with 24-hour security, and it has access via a private bridge to the adjacent resort and its pools, spa, restaurants, tennis courts, and boutiques.

Because Bahia Principe needs additional rooms during much of the year, the corporation is guaranteeing an 8% annual return to investors on their rental unit for seven years, even if the unit is not occupied. Personal use by the owner is allowed, yet owners-investors can also enter their unit in the guaranteed rental pool. After that period, owners-investors can renew the contract or take sole possession of their unit.

To prepare for your real estate IRA, designate the amount of your retirement funds that you wish to use in the property deal and open a new IRA account with an independent administrator.

The guidelines covering real estate IRAs are stringent. If you break one of these rules, you could jeopardize your tax-free status on your account.

  • The land or house must be treated like any other investment.
  • All rental profits must be returned to the trustee.
  • You cannot manage the property. But your trustee can hire a third party – a real estate broker, or local manager – to collect rents and maintain or improve the property.
  • The house or property (or proceeds from its sale) must remain in the trust until distribution at retirement. If a trustee is instructed to sell the property, funds can be transferred to another account for reinvestment.

You cannot use IRA money to buy your own residence or any other property in which you live. It has to be investment property. But when you retire, you can direct your IRA to turn it over to you as a distribution at the current market value.

It’s a creative way to get in the door if you are considering an investment purchase.

—-

Browse for Rosarito Homes for Sale.

Also posted in Baja Real Estate, Health Care in Mexico, Luxury Mexico Real Estate, Mexico News, Mexico Real Estate, Mexico Tourism, Rosarito, americans living in mexico, baja communities, baja condos, retiring to mexico, rosarito real estate – 0 Comments

Mexican Real Estate: Escape From U.S. Housing Woes

May 1, 2010

By Harmon Leon

Mexican Real Estate: Escape From U.S. Housing Woes

Mexican Real Estate: Escape From U.S. Housing Woes

You can thank the swine flu for one thing: It dramatically brought down the housing prices in Mexico. Throw in the recession and a dose of drug-war crime waves, and the sales volume of Americans buying homes in Mexico has dropped a dramatic 70 percent for Coldwell Banker and 40 percent for some residential resort developments in Baja in the past 12 months.

These are crazy figures.

So why not take advantage of the crunch in the Mexican housing market and consider buying that retirement dream home in Mexico?

Some U.S. buyers imagine that buying property in Mexico means constantly facing off with drug lords, in the same way that opening letters a few years back would result in contracting anthrax. Fat chance: In reality, the likelihood of a narco-war happening in your front yard is about the same as experiencing a shootout between the Bloods and the Crips in California. High-crime areas generally are closer to the U.S.-Mexico border.

Indeed, today’s reality is quite different from long-held American perceptions. Since 2002, the number of border patrol agents has been doubled to 20,000. These days, even turf wars in border cities have little impact on American residents. Meanwhile, drug-related arrests have gone up dramatically in Phoenix, where smugglers hole up in safe houses.
read more »

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Retire to Mexico — the price is right

April 28, 2010

By Les Christie, staff writerApril 28, 2010: 10:48 AM ET

Retire to Mexico -- the price is right

Retire to Mexico -- the price is right

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) — The years-long trend of Americans buying homes and expatriating to Mexico has collapsed, done in by a trifecta of the recession, swine flu and an epic crime wave.

Sales volume plunged nearly 70% last year for Coldwell Banker, according Phillip Hendrix, director of the firm’s Mexican operations. And at Costa Baja, a residential resort development a few miles north of La Paz, sales have slowed by about 40% in the past 12 months.

“Sales are off like crazy. The recession is really hurting and the headlines have been driving people away. The narco-wars especially have bit into the housing market in Mexico,” said Tom Kelly, a follower of Mexican real estate trends and author of Cashing In on a Second Home in Mexico.

But that’s good news for Americans who have always dreamed of retiring to Mexico but could never afford it: The bust has made homebuying a bargain. Prices can be less than half of what an equivalent home would run in the U.S.

Although the crime wave is confined to a fairly limited area, the perception of it has hurt markets all over the nation, said Alejandro Yberri, CEO of Costa Baja.

Information on prices of homes being sold to expatriate Americans is sketchy, but Kelly estimates overall declines of between 20% and 30% since the peak. In the high-crime communities close to the U.S. border, the drop has been even steeper, perhaps 40% or more. read more »

Also posted in Baja Real Estate, Mexico News, Mexico Real Estate, Mexico Tourism, Rosarito, americans living in mexico, retiring to mexico, rosarito real estate – 0 Comments

Culinary Tour of Baja, Mexico

April 25, 2010

Lured by spicy quail, tuna ceviche, and Mexico’s best fish tacos, T+L lights out for Ensenada—and from there, things just go south.
From May 2010 By Peter Jon Lindberg

Culinary Tour of Baja, Mexico

Culinary Tour of Baja, Mexico

Ensenada and the nearby Valle de Guadalupe, in northern Baja, are known outside Mexico for three things: the burgeoning local wine scene, which has been hyped ad infinitum; the food, which hasn’t been hyped enough; and the spectacularly bad roads, which everyone warns you about, though you never fully believe them. Really, you think, how bad could they be? And then one night in the gathering dark you take an innocent shortcut across the valley and drive your rented Hyundai into a riverbed. A dry riverbed, but a riverbed all the same. You and your equally baffled companion spend 40 minutes spinning the car’s wheels in what might as well be quicksand, then digging frantically, then panicking, then digging and spinning some more, until finally you resolve to abandon the car and hike the two miles back to the highway—suitcases sinking in gravel, sand filling your socks. And as the coyotes wail in the ink-black hills you decide that you probably should have paid more attention to that part about the roads.

“Ah, the Baja shortcut!” said our innkeeper, Phil Gregory, when, at the conclusion of said ordeal, he collected us and our dusty belongings from the side of Highway 3. “Never a good idea!” Severe rains the previous week, our host explained, had caused the river to flood, washing away a whole chunk of the road we were on. Those tire tracks I’d followed across the sandy riverbed—believing we were still on course—had been left by a backhoe, dispatched to repair the road. No one had bothered to post a sign, let alone erect a fence. “Honestly, this happens all the time,” Gregory said as we rattled down the inn’s rutted dirt driveway. He meant this to be reassuring. “But let’s get you settled, pour you some wine, and we’ll retrieve your car in the morning!”

Gregory’s tone was oddly chipper—maybe this did happen all the time? After showering off the dust, we sampled the inn’s own Tempranillo beside a crackling mesquite fire in the lounge. Not the smoothest specimen, but it worked: two glasses later I gave up worrying about the Hyundai. read more »

Also posted in Baja Attractions, Mexico Tourism, Rosarito, Rosarito News, Wine Events, baja communities, retiring to mexico, rosarito real estate, rosarito tourism – 0 Comments

For some East Bay retirees, Mexico an affordable alternative

April 7, 2010

By Kathleen Kirkwood

Brad Billingsley and his Wife

Brad Billingsley and his wife Linda

Brad Billingsley could have been waiting for his tee time at an Arizona golf course.

Instead, the former Lafayette resident and his wife Linda were in a lagoon off Cabo San Lucas, snapping photos of gray whales bobbing next to their small charter boat.

“Every day, it’s an adventure here,” Brad Billingsley said. “It’s added 20 years to my life.”

Brad, 62, and Linda Billingsley, 61, are among the “silver surge” of baby boomers seeking alternative retirement nests in Mexico, according to a recent report by the International Community Foundation.

It’s not certain how many U.S. retirees are living in Mexico — a 2004 study puts it between 500,000 and 600,000 — but the foundation and other researchers say the number is bound to increase as more boomers settle into their golden years and find Mexico an affordable alternative. Almost half the retirees living in coastal areas are getting by comfortably on less than $1,000 per month, said the report, which cites the growth of real estate projects targeted at retirees as proof that expatriates are flocking south of the border.

The Billingsleys had seriously considered a retirement community with a golf course in central Arizona. But they lacked the enthusiasm for fairway living that seemed to consume retirees there. “Their entire lives were involved with golf,” Brad Billingsley said.

In 2007, the couple became expatriates and settled into a $300,000, two-bedroom beachfront condominium in Rosarito Beach, in Baja California.

They’ve made the most out of their retirement dollars, Brad Billingsley said. The cost of living — from groceries to health care — is low in their beachfront town and there’s plenty to do, such as driving down the coast to Cabo, walking on the beach and shopping at the local mercado. read more »

Also posted in Baja Personalities, Baja Real Estate, Mexico Real Estate, Rosarito, Stories, americans living in mexico, baja communities, baja condos, baja real estate agents, calafia condos, palacio del mar, rosarito real estate – 0 Comments

Lindsay Lohan needs a Mexican Vacation away from the media and the paparazzi!

April 1, 2010

Sandy Beach at Palacio Del Mar

Sandy Beach at Palacio Del Mar

Lindsay Lohan and other famous starts such as Britney Spears have often looked south of the border to take advantage of a US resort style beachfront community with luxurious ocean front villas for relaxation and to take breather from the US Media and the paparazzi frenzy.

At Palacio Del Mar, Baja’s newest luxury condos and spa, Lindsay could take advantage of one many Palacio Del Mar  amenities: Palacio’s private shuttle service, picking her up at the airport or a private location of her choice and riding just 45 minutes away south to Ensenada. She could have her own pool or Jacuzzi in one of Palacios 2800ft² 3 bedroom Condos or a private tour of the Guadalupe Valley, the largest wine region in northern Mexico, where she can sample award wining wines and food. Lindsay could also have a gourmet meal at Ensenada’s famous Restaurant Ofelia’s. read more »

Also posted in Baja Real Estate, Ensenada, Ensenada Real Estate, Mexico Real Estate, Palacio Del Mar Condos, baja condos, palacio del mar – 2 Comments

How safe is travel in Mexico

March 17, 2010

It all depends on your destination. The State Department warns against travel in the border towns of Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juárez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros, but most beach resorts and other historical spots popular with American tourists are unaffected.

Carol Pucci
Seattle Times staff columnist

How safe is travel in Mexico?

How safe is travel in Mexico?

How safe is travel in Mexico?

It all depends on where you’re going.

As a new travel warning by the U.S. State Department (http://travel.state.gov) points out, the areas of concern are not the beach resorts or historical cities most Americans visit, but rather the border towns, specifically Tijuana, Nogales, Ciudad Juárez, Nuevo Laredo, Monterrey and Matamoros.

Too often in the past, these types of government alerts have taken a broad-brush approach, simply advising against travel to a country as a whole. What’s different about this warning, issued Sunday following the shooting in Ciudad Juárez of three people with ties to the American consulate, is its level of detail, and the way it rightly targets only towns where drug-related violence has been rampant.

This could have something to do with the fact that Mexico’s tourism economy is fragile, and the U.S. government doesn’t want to do anything that might damage it, but let’s hope it also has something to do with a new, more responsible approach to travel warnings in general.

As the State Department points out, millions of U.S. citizens safely visit Mexico each year, and this isn’t likely to change. Nearly a million Americans live in various parts of the country, enjoying the benefits of an inexpensive retirement and low-cost medical care. read more »

Also posted in Health Care in Baja, Health Care in Mexico, Mexico News, Mexico Real Estate, Mexico Tourism, americans living in mexico, baja communities, retiring to mexico – 0 Comments

U.S. retirees find home in coastal Mexico

March 16, 2010

First of five studies reveals price and proximity to U.S. are big draws

By Sandra Dibble, UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
Monday, March 15, 2010 at 12:04 a.m.

Jamie Reynolds, a 63-year-old retiree who lives in the El Pescador area, watched the sun set. Reynolds, like four out of five of the retiree-study respondents, owns his home in Mexico.

Jamie Reynolds, a 63-year-old retiree who lives in the El Pescador area, watched the sun set. Reynolds, like four out of five of the retiree-study respondents, owns his home in Mexico.

ROSARITO BEACH — Favorite activity: strolls on the beach. Biggest gripe: litter. Primary reasons for retiring in Mexico: the lower cost of living and proximity to the United States.

A newly released study on U.S. retirement trends in Mexico’s coastal communities takes an updated snapshot of Rosarito Beach, Rocky Point, Puerto Vallarta, Cancun and other areas where many Americans go to retire. The study’s authors say their survey marks an important first step in meeting the needs of a group that is likely to grow in size as U.S. baby boomers reach retirement age.

“We felt it was important to understand the dynamics of what is going on,” said Richard Kiy, president and CEO of the International Community Foundation, which conducted the 88-question survey. While research has been done in San Miguel Allende and Ajijic, both well-established expatriate communities in central Mexico, coastal communities “are some of the areas that have been least studied among U.S. retirees,” Kiy said.

The International Community Foundation, based in National City, supports nonprofits and projects in Baja California and other parts of Mexico. Close to half of its donors live in Mexico full time or part time, and that was the initial impetus for conducting the study, Kiy said. read more »

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