The high cost of housing in California drives many to live in Tijuana, Mexico

The high cost of housing in the county San Diego (California)the most expensive region to live in currently USA, forcing a growing number of Americans to seek alternatives in the Mexican border city of Tijuana.

In Tijuana, the majority of potential home buyers and renters 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 nearly 5% They come to see the real estate market, and even though only a fraction of them stay, buy or rent a home, it translates into a good amount of money,” Bustamante explained.

Last year, about a thousand condominiums 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 condominiums.

“But now the trend is to also buy condos, but in the central area of ​​Tijuana. Last year, about 500 condos were sold in that area and the 90% of buyers are from California,” He explained that it is close to the San Ysidro border crossing, just a few minutes away and one of the largest pedestrian and vehicular ports of entry in the United States.

Those moving to the coastal area are mostly Americans over 55, with adult children, 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 remain in California because that is where their children’s schools are.

Exorbitant prices

The median price of a single-family home in San Diego County is $998,000, according to the most recent June statistics from Realtor.com.

A real estate agent who preferred to remain anonymous estimated that, with the current interest rate of around 7%, Anyone who buys a house at that price today would pay around $9,000 a month, including taxes, and if it were rented, it would cost around $5,000.

On the other hand, in Mexico, rental ads in Playas de Tijuana for a house with similar characteristics are around US$ 2,000 per month. A person would need the 47% of its current budget in San Diego or Los Angeles County to maintain the same standard of living in Tijuana that it now has in Southern California.

But “the problem is the journey,” crossing the border every day to 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 it in a few minutes and the next more than an hour” through the fastest border crossing lane, he explained.

According to Department of Transportation data, about 43,500 vehicles cross from Tijuana to San Diego each day at San Ysidro, and another 2,700 at the Otay port of entry, which is about 6 miles (10 kilometers) to the west.

In addition, between 20,000 and 35,000 pedestrians from Mexico pass through south of San Diego every day, according to Customs and Border Protection (CBP). But for Leticia, the savings make up for the delays.

He says that in San Diego he rented a single room with a private bathroom for US$1,250 a month and that an apartment costs around US$3,000. “In Tijuana, however, I am paying $975 for a small, entire house.”

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 bring their refrigerator, washing machine, stove, furniture and other items to their new home from California.