Don’t write off Baja just yet
Posted by Cabo Real Estate in Articles on March 10, 2010
Don't write off Baja just yet
Remember when we treated Baja like a suburb of Southern California, when you only had to point your compass south to quickly bask in sunny climes, otherworldly scenery and a tinge of the exotic? Then came the great drug wars, with the first gruesome headlines coming out of Tijuana. Suddenly, anyone contemplating a trip across the border was placed on suicide watch.
Leave aside for the moment that the drug cartels aren’t targeting tourists, that their internecine battles rarely break out anywhere near tourist districts, or that crime has actually declined around Tijuana recently as the field of combat shifts to northeastern Mexico. For some travelers, those early headlines will remain indelible.
That doesn’t mean Baja is off the itinerary. Baja California is just one of the peninsula’s two states; to get your Baja fix, keep going south. Baja California Sur is as distant from the drug wars as San Francisco is from Denver, and it’s just as safe as Anaheim. Southern Baja’s tourism numbers have suffered by association, but the region hasn’t been idle. And if you’re not into time-share pitches, raucous clubs and gridlocked traffic, there’s plenty beyond Los Cabos. Here’s what’s been going on in some of our favorite places.
Read the rest of this entry »
The Baja Blondes – A Lifestyle Reality Show
Posted by Cabo Real Estate in Articles on February 3, 2010
Written By Melinda Bates
To the eternal questions, “Why are we here? What is the meaning of life?” and, “Do these pants make my butt look fat?” we can add the perennial, “Do blondes really have more fun?”
The Baja Blondes - A Lifestyle Reality Show
The answer is clear to all those privileged to be invited to last week’s screening of the pilot of The Baja Blondes, a Lifestyle Reality Show, and it is an unqualified “YES!”
Blondes was created by Susanne Stehr and Debbie Shine, permanent residents of Baja, Mexico, and directed and produced by Robin Mackenzie, a part time resident of Baja, through her company, Tatblue Productions, LLC . These are women of a certain age who have designed a life here they could never have back in the USA. Lives of freedom, beauty, creativity and friendship. Lives open to the positive and unexpected adventures of Mexico, a country they adopted and deeply love. Their goal is to promote Baja to an American audience in a positive light, by showing American women living and working in their communities up and down the gorgeous coast.
The pilot introduces our three protagonists in their lives and careers in the Rosarito to Ensenada area, while making clear that in Mexico, life is NEVER all about work. In fact, they show us the Mexican dream: affordable luxury, easy living, accessible health care, an ancient culture, fabulous food, award-winning wine and the excitement of living in a foreign country. Read the rest of this entry »
The world’s best places to retire
Posted by Cabo Real Estate in Articles on November 23, 2009
US retirees looking for lives of comfort at bargain-basement prices might do well to look at a sunny, sophisticated city near the equator.
By MSN Money staff
US retirees looking for lives of comfort at bargain-basement prices might do well to look at a sunny, sophisticated city near the equator.
The best place in the world to retire, according to expatriate lifestyle magazine International Living, is sunny, cheap, cosmopolitan and 8,000 feet high in the Andes.
Cuenca, Ecuador’s third-largest city, is a well-preserved colonial city of cobblestone streets and dramatic period architecture, with modern suburbs, shopping and all the comforts American retirees might expect. Yet they can live there — and well — for about $17,000 a year, the magazine says.
Cuenca and Ecuador in particular have so much to offer, says International Living Managing Editor Laura Sheridan, that the country bumped Mexico from the top spot in the publication’s Annual Retirement Index, released last month.
The index analyzes and ranks 29 countries in categories including real-estate costs, special benefits offered to retirees, culture, safety and stability, health care, climate, infrastructure and cost of living. The rankings are below.
“We look closely at the best opportunities worldwide for retirement living,” Sheridan says. “Where will the retiree’s dollars go farthest? Which country is the safest? Where is the health care best? We give top priority to those things that matter most to anyone planning for retirement, including programs with special benefits for retirees . . . things like tax breaks and discounts, for example, that various governments offer in an effort to attract investment and retirement dollars.” Read the rest of this entry »
Why retirees are fleeing the US
Posted by Cabo Real Estate in Articles on November 23, 2009
A move to another country may make economic sense, especially for seniors who don’t have enough savings to live in retirement without a dramatic cut in lifestyle.
By Scott Burns
A move to another country may make economic sense
Several years ago a Dallas couple approaching retirement disappeared. Well-known on the charitable-event circuit, the couple were in Dallas one day and gone the next. Phone disconnected. No forwarding address. No working cell-phone number.
Eventually, word spread that they were somewhere in Mexico. They had sold whatever they owned, packed their car and headed for the border. They were, conflicting reports said, living in small towns, the kind of places seldom featured in travel magazines.
We can only speculate on what happened. I think they were broke, had little or nothing in savings and knew they had to make a major change to survive on their Social Security income and minimal savings. Like millions of other Americans, their ship never came in. They got older. Work became harder to find. Suddenly, they realized their life was entirely unsustainable. They were heading toward a cliff. Read the rest of this entry »
The rush to a Mexican retirement is on
Posted by Cabo Real Estate in Articles on November 17, 2009
More and more Americans are moving to Mexico for the sun, the fun, and for less money.
By Les Christie, CNN/Money staff writer
San Jose Del Cabo, Baja California Sur
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) – Most Americans know about the flood of Mexican immigrants into the United States, but many may not realize that there’s a growing movement in the opposite direction.
The Dallas Morning News recently reported that as many as a million U.S. citizens now live in Mexico, up fivefold from just 10 years ago.
As recently as 1999, the American population of San Carlos in Sonora was perhaps 35, according to Phyllis Lilischkies, a real estate broker there. Now, the expatriate population is between 3,000 and 5,000 — and soaring.
The bulk of this migration consists of retirees, drawn to Mexico by its culture, its climate, and, perhaps above all, its costs.
Many of the popular American expatriate enclaves are in regions boasting great weather. Lisa Larkin, a retired attorney and real estate expert who spends part of the year in Mexico, says the climate helps make life there “just a little bit sweeter.” Read the rest of this entry »
In Mexico, Club Campestre San Jose still delivers good golf, views away from the beach
Posted by Cabo Real Estate in Articles on November 9, 2009
By Jason Scott Deegan,
Senior Contributor for www.worldgolf.com
In Mexico, Club Campestre San Jose still delivers good golf, views away from the beach
Golfers teeing it up in Los Cabos have always held onto one high standard when it comes to where they’re playing: They want ocean-front golf.
The sight of golf’s shades of green shaking hands with the sandy white beaches and blue waves of the Pacific Ocean or the Sea of Cortez distinguishes the southern tip of Mexico’s Baja California Peninsula over many of the world’s other luxurious golf destinations. More holes rest peacefully near the shoreline in Los Cabos than any other golf hotspot except Hawaii.
But as development has crowded out the beach, golf courses like the Club Campestre San Jose must prove their worth away from the surf. Campestre is the fifth Jack Nicklaus design in Los Cabos, opening in 2007. Playing on the ocean at celebrated places like Palmilla and Cabo del Sol will cost you. Playing just off the ocean at Club Campestre, while still enjoying similar views on the horizon, won’t. Campestre’s greens fees are generally 10 to 20 percent cheaper than its competitors. Read the rest of this entry »
Where Americans Visit Most – Forbes – The top 20 foreign destinations of U.S. travelers
Posted by Cabo Real Estate in Articles on October 21, 2009
By Rob Baedeker – originally posted on forbestraveler.com
Where Americans Visit Most - Forbes - The top 20 foreign destinations of U.S. travelers
In a year when economic indicators took Grand Canyon-sized plunges, it should come as no surprise that fewer Americans jetted off to foreign lands than they did the previous year.
What may be surprising is that the decline in U.S. outbound travel wasn’t worse: Overall, according to the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Travel and Tourism Industries (OTTI), American travelers to foreign countries totaled 63.6 million in 2008, the last full year statistics are available, just a one percent decrease compared to 2007.
Whether the downward trend will continue throughout 2009 remains to be seen, but indicators are pointing towards further decreases. OTTI’s data through May of this year show an overall 7.7% decrease compared with the same time frame in 2008. Akashi says Japan is “expecting just a flat line of the number of U.S. travelers this year,” and Fitch says Mexico had “a slight reduction of international visitors (1.9 percent) from January to May 2009.”
However, the ranking of overseas destinations is likely to be unchanged. Read the rest of this entry »
Choosing a Trusted Real Estate Brokerage in Mexico
Posted by Cabo Real Estate in Articles on October 7, 2009
When you realize that Mexico Real Estate is your best investment for your retirement with a saving of up to 30-40% on your cost of living, you need to then explore not only what area of Mexico you will live or eventually live.
Living In Mexico
You will also need to explore which community fits your lifestyle. Who are your neighbors and what amenities fit you or even your family. After all, when you live in Mexico, friends and family don’t just come for dinner they come for the weekend. You become their Mexico vacation.
Other common questions are: how close are the markets? How accessible is health care? What is the status of the Home Owners Association? Is it well funded? Well run? Reasonable CC&R’S, and of course is it a safe investment.
This is when you realize that you need not only a long time established Broker with years of experience in Mexican Real Estate, but you need a Broker with years of living in the area and that is also part of the community. A good Brokerage will keep their agents trained and updated on the market, different communities and new developments, starting pre-sale or already delivering. A good Brokerage will make sure that every buyer or seller their agents takes on, they will be well represented and informed with the good or bad.
Most of all you need an experienced and knowledgeable Broker when choosing your Brokerage. Kathy & Max Katz have more than 19 years living and doing business in Mexico, they have become the most trusted names in Baja real estate as well as their Agents.
Contact a Baja Real Estate Group Agent today and see the difference yourself. A group of agents that exclusively represent Baja’s best real estate developments, who have inventory to sell in some of the best ocean front communities in the area. If you are currently working with an Agent, this is not intended for solicitation, just information. We gladly work with all Brokers and Agents.
Thinking about a long term Baja rental before you buy? Or just to explore what the Baja lifestyle is like on a long term basis? Contact us about our rent to own listings.
—
See more Baja real estate and Mexico real estate.
(619)-200-7408 & (619)-309-9537Follow us on Twitter
