Mr. Enrique’s enthusiasm can become contagious when he talks about the condominium owner who started buying together with his wife in Rosarito.
“Well, we are just over half an hour from the San Ysidro border. My wife will be able to work in the condominium, with a view of the sea; I am looking for a good place to set up my office on this side”, she said.
He was born in San Diego, he lived the first years of his childhood in Tijuana with his parents, the family returned to California, and in 42 years it is the first time he has returned to Baja California with the intention of moving and living south of the border.
The family now lives in a house in San Diego County, which has nearly tripled its sales price in the last 20 years.
“We can rent it,” he commented to La Opinion, “and only with that rent we could live very well in Rosarito, but obviously it is not what we are going to do; maybe we are going to live on both sides, at first we are only going to go to Rosarito on weekends”.
The plans are still underway because “who would have thought, four months ago we just went to see the condo for the first time, we loved it.”
In addition, the couple was attracted by the fact that “all of us who were on the tour (tour to see the condominiums) were gringos, all of us, so we are going to have only neighbors on this side.”
But the two things that the couple liked the most were, in addition to the “literally splendid view of the sea”, “well, definitely the price, and that it is a private property with a lot of security”.
The price is $320,000 and Don Enrique questions “how much a condominium like this would cost us, even if it were smaller in southern California, do you think three million?”
The only thing San Diego legal counsel still prefers to talk about on condition of anonymity is security. “Nothing has ever happened to us, but it’s not the same to see someone go by and to see a person go by who you know can pay three million.”
Enrique’s case and enthusiasm is similar to that of thousands of Californians who in the last twelve months have crossed the border in search of properties, especially as the housing shortage in California worsened and sales and rental prices skyrocketed.
91.7 percent of those who have looked for housing in the last twelve months between Tijuana and Rosarito are visitors from California, according to statistics from the expert Luis Bustamante.
75 percent of last year’s customers are between the ages of 45 and 65, and more than half of them plan to buy with cash.
59.2 percent of those who bought and are looking to buy properties in the last twelve months plan to buy as a second home, with the first in California, with the intention of using it on weekends or renting it while they retire or want to move permanently.
29.7 percent do want to buy to live from now on, and 16.9 percent want to buy properties to rent them.
More than half of the buyers want to buy houses or condominiums already finished, 53.3 percent. Part of them with the intention of remodeling, and the least, only 4.2 percent, prefer to buy land to build.
Don Luis Bustamante, the president and executive director of the Luis Bustamante Business Center, told La Opinion that buyers are looking for properties ready to live in and not build, because the price of construction materials has skyrocketed, since many depend on imports.
According to other figures, the price of housing could increase by 28 percent in 2023, basically due to the rise in the prices of construction materials.
But in any case, an increase in rental and sales prices in Baja California is anticipated, because the recent hikes in interest rates by the Federal Reserve to reduce inflation, will lead many Californians to seek alternative housing.
That they seek to live in Baja California, according to Mr. Bustamante, “it is not only because of the price but something very important, because of the quality of life between Tijuana and Rosarito”
“If a survey is made of foreigners who already live here, it will be found that they live well and safely, obviously it is not only the price of housing but the cost of living that is 77 percent lower than in some parts from California,” he said.
In a tour of Playas de Tijuana and the traditional Colonia Cacho de Tijuana, La Opinion found approximately the same number of vehicles with California license plates as those with Baja California.
In both areas, families were also found who already live in Tijuana although they still do not speak Spanish.