Visit Mexico-My Space

This question can be answered quickly in 7 words: inexpensive living and exceptional quality of life. You will experience such a richly rewarding and gratifying lifestlye here, it is almost impossible to explain. The Global Retirement Index, Global Retirement Index, (the chart you will see is, in my opinion, quite on the high end, my costs are less than half of whats stated there), has announced that Mexico is now the most affordable place to retire. Staying within northern Baja, near or in the Ensenda, or Rosarito areas; is almost like living in southern California – in that you will lack for nothing. You will have every service available to you very inexpensively, and then some. You will have everything you need. You are not going to be subjected to all the governmental BS and rules that tie one down and create huge headaches in the US.
Many things are SO very cheap in Baja. You can buy a bagful of organic vegetables for $2. My car mechanic charges me $10 a day to work on my car. Last week i had a little accident and rear-ended the pickup truck in front of me, not going more that 1 MPH but hard enough to completely bend my hood up and knock out some headlights, the horn, etc. Iwas pretty much a mess. The entire repair job was 1100 pesos or roughly $80. Now in the States, that job would have cost thousands. The job took only a day to finish as well. I get a full body message for $20/hour. A foot reflexology therapy for $20/hour. I get a full set of acrylic nails done for $12. My top notch hair cuts run $10 and highlighting is $25. A mans hair cut costs $4-5. I get my tires repaired for $3. Services are very cheap. Produce is very cheap. Housing is very cheap. Telephone service (Vonage, Magic Jack, Skype) is a snap and Telcel offers cheap cellular service to other countries and the US for very little. Telcel offers 3G internet technology to alot of northern Baja. Water is very cheap. Electricity, right now anyways, depending on who you talk to, can run about 1/2 of what you pay in the US. When I ran my store, an average electric bill for me was about $20 per month. At this writing, gasoline for your car runs about .20-.25 cents cheaper per gallon. A complete car wash, inside and out runs about $5. Everywhere you look you see “segundas” where you can buy anything you want for 2nd hand prices. “Segunda” literally means seconds. Basically they are large outdoor flea markets where you can buy anything from tomatoes to bedsheets. More about “segundas” later. See the shopping page for more information as well.
Living in this region has its advantages in that one is very close to the US border and the wonderful city of San Diego and everything it has to offer. Many people travel to San Diego every week for shopping, doctor visits or mail pickup.
There are beautiful modern shopping plazas, state of the art movie theaters, wonderful health care facilities (or you can drive up to your US hospital in a matter of an hour or so), unimaginable and countless outdoor adventures, (lovely clean beaches, scuba diving, snorkeling, fishing, boating, tidal pool exploration, sea kayaking, world famous whale watching excursions, hiking, backpacking, camping etc) lovely landscaped neighborhoods, beautiful homesites, inexpensive rents, world class ocean side golf courses, thriving arts – and – culture scenes, gorgeous year-round warm weather and breathtaking scenery.
Speaking of weather, you wont find a better climate than northern Baja. Much like San Diego; which is renowned for having the United States consistently best weather, Baja weather is very similar. Very rarely will you see temperatures higher than 78-80 farenheit.
Maybe you are interested in coming to live and or retire in Baja to do mission work. And MANY do. Find more informationabout that on the “missions” page.
Regardless of the reason, we are here to tell you that you can own your own home (with the land) for only a small fraction of the cost of its US counterpart. (see fideicomiso to the right) Our cliffisde, unobstructed oceanview home would probably cost 1-2 million dollars in California. We bought it for $30,000. At this time , if were to sell, we could easily sell for $100,00 – $200,00. We never will.
We have all binding contracts and legal documents necessary to prove ownership. In our case, we do not own the land (its owned by the government, not ejido) but we do pay them a small monthly rent to lease the land, $250 a month, which comes to $3,000 a year. We pay this in a one time, lump sum every year, so we dont have to worry about it month to month. This lease includes free trash pickup, road maintenence and round the clock security. It is like living in a trailer park where you own your home, but not the land it sits on. We cannot move our house, but we have 100% assurance in writing that the home will never be “taken” from us to utilize the land in other ways. We rest comfortably knowing that in 10,20 or 30 years our home will be secure and we will continue to enjoy the same lifestlye we now enjoy. We certainly hope to pass this legacy along to our children and grandchildren.

Here is an example of the wonderful first class – five star hotels that can be found all along the northern Pacific coastline in Baja. This one is just a little south of Rosarito. They are clean and no more expensive than any comparable hotel in the US. I have stayed in quite a few hotels all over the Baja, and every one has been clean, neat, tidy, and I believe you can judge the atmosphere of a particular place by its hotels. This is a large hotel because it is near a large town. As you travel further south and the towns get smaller, so will the accomodations.We have stayed in small hacienda style hotels and large high-rises in bigger cities. We have been impressed by all of them.
If you own your home but rent your property on a lease situation as we do, you pay no property or any other foolish house taxes. Nada. (if you own your land and home together, there are enforced procedures and laws in place for payment of taxes and capital gains, see the “Real Estate” page for more information.)
We consider our small yearly lease to be our “tax” if you will, to the state of Baja. Thats it. You are free to a certain extent, do what you want to the house. All we have to do is get a verbal A-OK on our plans from the landlord. This property has been in his family for generations and it is a virtual gold mine, an enormous cash cow for his family and always will be. We can tear our house down, rip it apart, add on 20 rooms, put in a pool, expand our garden, whatever we so choose (as long as we dont infringe on our next door neighbor; if you happen to have one; which we dont on either side) and noone will be the wiser. There are no enforced rules persay, here. 99% of the time, you can do whatever you want to do in Baja without interference from the local long arm of the law, health department or some silly governent agency telling you your fence is 3 inches too high. Heres an example: We recently built a garage with no permits whatsoever. We bought the materials and started building. That was it. We have complete and total privacy. We live at the very end of our street, with no neighbors too close by. Our closest neighbor, age 54, retired from the military, is about 100 yards away. I could walk around outside naked and shout the Star Bangled Banner and noone would know. He travels Baja extensively and is barely ever here.
Breakdown of my basic monthly living expenditures:
Unfortunately i have no health insurance. Fortunately right now, i am in excellent health. And like i mentioned, I dont even factor in the house lease, as that comes from another account, once per year. This does also not include the $250 / month land lease which i pay for in advance so i dont include it.
water: $40
electric: $15
propane: $16
gasoline: $65
groceries: $200
phone/internet: $100
dog food: $10
The rest is incidentals - a car repair, house repair, a termite treatment once/yr, dentist once/yr, computer tech visits, etc. The point is, if you are not yet retired, and you don’t have a lot of money, (but you do have a little saved that you can buy a decent home very cheaply), you can still make life happen in Baja. If your house is paid for, the rest is well, gravy.

Here is a great new community being built just up north of here, right on the ocean. As you can see, many new developments have immaculate golf courses right on the property. Homes in this development start around $150,000 U.S. for a smaller model. You do not have to live in a fancy community if you don’t want. There are MANY many lovely areas and nice homes scattered all about. All i am getting at is, if you want to live within a gated secure community, just like any you find in the states, they are many options available.
if you want to rough it a bit and live a more rustic lifestyle, you can certainly do so. Our home is NOT in a development like this in fact, my neighborhood, called a “rancho” in Baja; has been here since the 1960’s. It is comprised of small 25 foot trailers to magnificent, opulent Mexican style homes. Again, no laws dictate to us what kind of home we live in or what it should look like or how big our garden is.
RENTING. There are some small homes (casitas) in my area; Punta Banda peninsula, south of Ensenada, that are renting for as little as $250 / month, long term, depending on where exactly it is. This would not be right on the ocean, (there are some a few rows back in this range) but still, this is unheard of in the US! I went to look at a few of these places and they are wonderful. If you want a regular, mid sized house, 1000 -1500 SQF, expect to pay anywhere from $400/month and up. Right now, as the economy is in a slump here too, rentals are widely available.
you can truly find a rental at any roice range here.

Here is a rental very close to my home. Its a popular vacation rental. It is rented only for short term vacations. Needless to say the owners are bringing in substantial income, without lifting a finger, as this home is rented out most of the year. This is another option for anyone to consider. Anyone can buy a home fairly cheaply right now, and use it for income. People in Baja are doing this every day.
But more about this later.