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So, I'm Moving to Mexico

For the Non Wealthy, Living and Working in San Diego, California Is Simply Unaffordable Any Other Way

By Everyday JunglistPublished 2 years ago 11 min read
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The border. Image courtesy of Pixabay.

Time to move

My wife has struggled with serious allergies since she returned to the United States from working abroad over five years ago. The region of the country in which we currently reside is well known for being one of the most allergenic in the world, and in the past two years her allergies have taken a terrible toll on her physical and mental health. About six months ago her doctors informed us in no uncertain terms that if she remained in her current location she could expect a continued deterioration in her condition every year, and that her only chance at recovery was to move. My wife was born here, her family mostly still calls this region home and my own mother and father also live not that far from us. I moved back to this part of the country to be closer to my parents who are growing older. I had hoped to be here to help take care of them as they aged, as they had done for me so many times in my own life. Suffice to say, we both felt a move was not in the cards. However, after that declaration from the doctors we knew we had no choice. She began a new job hunt in earnest, and we together began to contemplate where we might want to relocate.

San Diego here we come

Fortunately, being a research scientist with a specialization in vaccine development, more specifically in recent years, Covid-19 vaccine development her skills are in very high demand and we had several options on the table in relatively short order. The position she ultimately settled on happens to be located in San Diego, California. Initially we were both thrilled with the prospect of a move to southern California. Goodbye miserably cold winters and ice storms, sayonara crippling summer heat and humidity, hello pleasant and dry conditions all year long. From an allergy perspective for her it is absolutely ideal, and from a general quality of life perspective one could not ask for anything much better. Of course we had both heard stories of the difficult, crowded, and expensive housing market and generally high cost of living in the area. However, with the net migration out of California one is constantly hearing about on the news these days (mostly conservative media I might add), we both hoped that was old thinking and things had changed. It should be no problem finding an affordable apartment rental or home to buy when people are fleeing the state in record numbers. It turns out the emptying of California is much ado about nothing, as, at least in the San Diego area, the housing market is as tight or tighter than it has ever been. Supply is very tight and demand remains very, very high, and prices for homes to buy or anything to rent continue to rise into the stratosphere. It was not uncommon for us to identify a potential property to view in the morning, only to find it with five offers or sold outright by the afternoon or even five or ten minutes later.

After several interactions with generally unhelpful and rude San Diego real estate agents, and countless hours of online searching the only places that we could afford and had homes actually available were in small towns like Campo and Julian. These are both over an hour to the east of San Diego and would put her daily commute in the 1.5h range each way. That is 3 hours on the road every day for the foreseeable future. We are not wealthy but my wife and I both make decent livings as research scientists and her new job came with a big raise along with a decent relocation package. Even with all that going for us, buying a home in San Diego seemed an impossibility. The properties we did see and like in these far flung small towns were just at the edge of our affordability range. If we were to buy something it would be stretching our budget for an OK house that we probably would not love, and a long drudging commute to work each day for my wife. In addition to the high cost and long commute they each had other drawbacks, not the least of which is a serious and continuing threat of wildfires. Wildfires in these areas have resulted in almost yearly forced evacuations for some. Moreover they each sit in areas where we could expect major damage or total destruction in the event of a big earthquake at the San Andreas fault. Not exactly a formula for excitement about a move. The rental market was no better and we quickly became discouraged about the entire idea of this move.

The Mexico Option - Baja, California

One thing San Diego has going for it is a very close proximity to our friendly neighbor to the south, Mexico. Specifically, the Mexunited state of Baja, California. My wife and I both initially considered and quickly dismissed this as a viable plan for our initial move out to California for a number of reasons. First, logistically, it seemed a stretch. Given the compressed time frame we had to work with, it just seemed impossible to think we could pull together the necessary immigration/residency paperwork to make it happen. Second, we had both heard nightmarish stories of drug cartels run amok and rampant crime including violence and kidnapping of wealthy foreigners. Tijuana has a particularly bad reputation in this regard, and it and its neighboring small communities would be ground zero for our house hunt if we were to consider a move to Mexico as anything much further south would make the commute for my wife simply untenable. Which brings me to our third potential issue, and biggest cause for concern vis a vis a move to Mexico, the border crossing.

The area of interest. Circled in red is where we eventually settled.

The Border Crossing

If you have watched any news during the recent and ongoing Covid-19 pandemic you probably heard at one point or another that the US/Mexico border had been "closed". Only very recently has it fully "reopened". As it turns out, much like with the rumors of rampant crime, the truth is a bit more complicated and not quite as dire as you may have been led to believe. In the case of the border, the word "closed" must have an alternate meaning in Spanish because according to everyone we have talked to on the ground in the region (a ton at this point) the border was never really shut down. At least not for persons living in Mexico with full time or other employment in the United States. For those, the border remained open and in fact border crossing became much less congested and easier to navigate. For the general public with no pre clearance, border crossing times at the busiest transit points, can be very long indeed, by car, wait times can be up to five hours or more at peak hours. The key here however, is that this only applies to the general public who do not participate in any pre-clearance program. For those like my wife, who currently, or will soon participate in Sentri, the US/Mexico border crossing pre clearance program, managed by the US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), border crossing times even at the busiest crossings at peak hours rarely exceed 15-20 minutes and most days at most times are much less than that. I already happen to have Global Entry since I had been doing a lot of international travel for my job and Sentri access is granted as part of that pre clearance program also run by CBP.

Crime in Tijuana

I am not the type of person that obsesses over crime statistics or worries about crime much at all. In fact, my laissez-fair attitude towards crime and its dangers drives my wife nuts at times. I tend to leave doors unlocked, walk in dangerous neighborhoods at night, and in general display all other manner of risky behaviors that should make me a prime target for criminal victimhood. But, knock on wood, I have never been a victim of crime, violent or otherwise, and I do not intend to become one. While crime and the danger/risk of being a victim of it are so ridiculously blown out of proportion to the dangers/risks of just about every other activity man participates in, it is still a risk, and not one I can totally ignore, as much as I would like to. If one does a quick Google search you will learn that Tijuana is dangerous, often ranked as the most violent city in the world. There are 134 murders per 100,000 people. At the end of 2021, the state's attorney general (btw, what a tough job that has to be, gheesh) reported that Tijuana has averaged about 164 murders a month for a total of 1,761 murders over the entire year. (source – Border Report). There has been an ongoing turf war between the Sinaloa Cartel and another newer gang, the Nueva Generación Jalisco over drug trafficking routes into the US. Reportedly the high-level traffickers have lost control over low-level street dealers resulting in a big increase in violence overall. If you watch any news accounts in the United States of the situation you would come away thinking Tijuana is an active war zone with gun battles erupting randomly, all across the city, at all times of night and day. Listening or reading US travel advisories tells a similar story .

Those accounts are frankly overblown and just plain wrong in many instances. An excellent quote from a story linked here sums it up nicely. "The reality is that, while these violent crimes do happen, they almost exclusively take place among organized criminals or cartel members who are dealing in drugs and trafficking. Tourists are not targeted. These homicides mostly occur in poor and working-class neighborhoods outside of the city center. Not in the tourist zones. Innocents who have been killed are usually unlucky bystanders who have been caught in the crossfire when a turf war erupts. In the time I have lived in Tijuana, I have not witnessed any cartel-related activity of any kind though I know it exists. By sticking to the more touristy parts of Tijuana like Zona Centro (downtown), Zona Rio (the business district), and Playas de Tijuana, you can nearly eliminate your chance of encountering any violent cartel-related crime." Moreover, we will not be living in Tijuana proper., but rather in a gated community much outside the city proper with its own security and a neighborhood full of people fully invested in keeping the community safe. Suffice to say, for myself at least, fear of crime did not cause much more than a moment's hesitation with respect to our decision to move to Mexico.

Logistical Issues

Ok, but what about the other logistical problems like getting a temporary residence visa and/or other official papers? Surely, it must be a painful process to arrange all the necessary paperwork for living in a foreign land while working in the United States? Yes, there are some official forms that must be filled out and filed. And, of course, if you will be crossing the border regularly having Sentri and RealID is a must. However, the hurdle one needs to cross is quite low, particularly for those living in Baja, California. Unlike other parts of Mexico, certain temporary residency requirements are waived due to close and critical economic ties with the United States. Also, almost nobody seems to really care all that much to check. Unlike their nanny-state extraordinaire to the North, California, the Mexicans pretty much assume people will do the right thing without a whole lot of oversight from the state. There is also a ton of help available online with many outstanding websites that describe the process in detail, and the US consulate (a consulate general) in Tijuana is supposedly one of the best run in the world which has loads of resources for expats living in Mexico.

Why We Did It

The move to California was driven by medical necessity. My wife had to leave the area and relocate to a dry arid climate on her doctors orders. The decision to move to Mexico was entirely driven by economic considerations. We both love San Diego and living in or near the city would have been a dream come true for us both. However, given our economic status it was simply not affordable if we hoped to maintain our current lifestyle (which is not at all extravagant I might add). We really had hoped to upgrade some. After all, my wife had just landed a fantastic new job with a big raise. Who wouldn't expect an improvement, rather than a degradation, in one's living situation in those circumstances? In Mexico we were able to find a beautiful ocean front home for a monthly rent (all in, HOA, utilities, etc.) that is only slightly more than we are paying for our dumpy, beaten down, land locked house in our current state of residence. If it were in San Diego, the place we found in Mexico would sell for multiple, multiple millions and rent for $7-10k/month or more, if one could even get a shot at buying or renting it which they likely cold not. The area we will be living has never had a major earthquake or suffered damage from one, does not experience wildfires, hurricanes, or tornadoes and rarely even sees thunderstorms. It never snows and temperatures hover in the 45-85F range with very low humidity all year round. One other nice feature of renting in Mexico I should mention is that renter's rights are much stronger there than in the United States. In Mexico, you can break your lease for any reason with only 30 days notice given, and only be out first and last months rent. In the US you would be obligated for the entirety of the remaining time of the lease. This little escape hatch could come in handy if living in Mexico does not pan out as well as we hope. We are both certainly hoping for the best and very much looking forward to this next great adventure in our lives.

couples travel
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About the Creator

Everyday Junglist

Practicing mage of the natural sciences (Ph.D. micro/mol bio), Thought middle manager, Everyday Junglist, Boulderer, Cat lover, No tie shoelace user, Humorist, Argan oil aficionado. Occasional LinkedIn & Facebook user

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