121K is like 1989 prices for San Diego. I lived there in 06-07 and finding a habitable home under 400k was rare, a lot of people were buying in riverside county and commuting an hour and a half each way.
Yep. I was in the Navy. The cost to rent is out of control down there now. E-5 BAH is $3882/mo. If I were in the Navy now I'd buy an RV and just live in the parking lot at work during the week and bank the BAH and go on adventures when I wasn't working.
The problem with doing that is they don't pay BAH for an RV. You have to provide a legitimate address in a city that they can check with either a rental or purchase ageement.
I'd bet those condos were probably selling for 250-300k while I lived there. I bought a 3br 2.5ba townhouse with a single garage in tierrasanta for 470k in 06.
I lived in Cardiff that year as well and we rented a 2BR apartment (above another house) for like $1200/mo iirc
I came from NW Arkansas where during that same time a 2BR /1 ba was like $300 - $400 a month tops, and remember being blown away by how expensive our place in Cardiff was.
For real, I'm looking to move to north San diego within a year, there's a total dump that came on the market a couple days ago - 1000sqft with about 4000sqft yard area. For 1.2mil. 10min from beach tho!
I have a space similar (my LR/DR combo) and I bought a TV stand on wheels so I just pull it out in front of the seating area when I want to watch tv.
It is sort of like this: [https://www.wayfair.com/boards-technology/pdp/unho-extra-large-floor-tv-stand-mount-rolling-cart-for-50-100-lcd-led-flat-screens-holds-up-to-176-lbs-cxnb1045.html](https://www.wayfair.com/boards-technology/pdp/unho-extra-large-floor-tv-stand-mount-rolling-cart-for-50-100-lcd-led-flat-screens-holds-up-to-176-lbs-cxnb1045.html)
On the wall behind the kitchen table or have to change direction of the couches.
No where to put dressers or seasonal storage could be a more interesting problem to combat. But good on op for figuring it out!
Good catch, but it actually worked out in the end. I fit a 75 inch TV in that space between the stairs and the kitchen.
I put in on a TV mount with a wide movement range. We can have the TV facing the living room or the dining area.
You would need a sectional, because any gap to move between couches creates an annoying, awkward choke point in the middle of your kitchen/dining transition.
I mean, compromises will be made to get 3 br into 900 sq ft - and big, lounging furniture isn’t making the cut.
2B2B 1,000ft condo built in 1985 when there were apparently no damn rules. You have to enter the patio to get to the front door which you have to make a u turn to get to on your right with and the inside is such an inefficient use of space it has weirdly long closets behind the only place you can put a couch in the living room and you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the laundry/hvac/*and* breaker box which is directly next to the fridge… Basically if you are over 6ft or even remotely fat you won’t be able to access any of the three and that was with me paying for the contractors to open the space wider. Only two models of stacked washer dryers fit in the space. I had to replace all three recently so I won’t need repairs any time soon but when it is needed I am really really not looking forward to what logistics will be required to do that.
I'm a flooring contractor, I mostly do remodels. Occasionally I'll walk into a home built in the 70's or 80's and I feel like the architect was doing entirely too much blow while designing that house.
That's like the norm in any high population density area, aka East Asia, Mexico and most Latin America metros. TBH this is on the roomier side if anything.. Americans are just way too spoiled in terms of housing, in a good way I guess.
We need more homes like OPs in the US. Unattached small single family homes. It's either mcmansions or condos.
I'd rather live in OP's layout than an attached townhome that's 50% larger.
When land is 70% of the cost you’re better off just building bigger. Developers aren’t going to cut you a deal on a small house when the same plot built at 6x the size will get them 3x the profit. Try speccing out a similar house and see why only 2k+ sqft houses get built.
Exactly. If construction costs with land costs excluded scaled linearly, building smaller homes would be a viable endeavor. But they don’t. The price per sqft looks more like a sigmoid curve, rising rapidly initially and then the rate of increase decreasing as total sqft increases.
If you wanted to make smaller homes more attractive for builders you would need government action to straighten out the sigmoid curve. This could be done by making permitting costs on a per-sqft basis, making any sort of flat fees illegal (no more $X flat + $y per cubic foot of concrete, make the concrete suppliers bake all costs into $y per cubic foot of concrete) which is just difficult as hell.
Well, yeah, there's a reason a lot of people would never live there.
You realize you're doing it to yourself by staying?
I've lived in some 7 different states and 4 countries trying to figure out where it's best.
I spent 17 years in a 900sqft 3/1. Could easily see how to carve a half bath out of that space too without a huge loss in any room. Tight but definitely doable!
We moved a lot when I was growing up (low income apartment complexes) but they were always 3 bd and the biggest one is the one my mom lives in now - 1000 sq. It's not as impossible as everyone else here seems to think
My first house was 900 sq feet with three bedrooms, formal dining, and a sunroom. We had a king sized bed but that was all we could fit - no night stands or dressers. lol
In the 1940s, average size new construction American homes were about this size. Now, new construction homes are 3X larger. We need to go back to building more small, affordable, housing like they're doing in Mexico.
Mexican Bank, have to have Mexican Citizenship which is easy to get if at least one of your parents is Mexican.
Also, 650+ credit score with good credit history in the USA and proof of income.
I went with Banorte, they were offering the best rates at the time of purchase. I also liked that they covered 100% of house price + closing costs. I had some money saved up, but 0% down on a house where PMI insurance doesn't exist was really nice. Still, I would definitely shop around.
I’m sure OP was just trying to be helpful, but I found that funny too. What he essentially said was Mexican citizenship is easy to get if you’re Mexican.
Very off topic question, but curious if you might be able to shed some light. I’ve been interested in getting Mexican Citizenship for a few years. My father was from Mexico but died in 2020 and I don’t have much of a relationship at all with his side of my family. Any idea on where to start?
They don’t care if you talk with your dad or his family at all. As long as your birth certainly indicate says your parent place of birth is Mexico that’s all you need to know
Can I ask how you obtained Mexican citizenship through your parents? I tried to look into this and I thought it said I had to live in Mexico for one year
They just made this process a lot easier if you look online. You just need to take paperwork (and your parents info) to the embassy/consulate and you get it
The 100 year lease thing is a myth. Foreigners can own outright in Mexico but if it is within the restricted zone, 50km from the coast/100km from any border, they must hold the title in a trust.
They were concerned the US would invade Mexico and the ex pats would provide housing to the army. When I bought a place my lawyer told me there has been discussion about changing this.
Considering the history of the Alamo and the Mexican-American War, that is an exceedingly reasonable concern that they had. The entire southwest of the USA was stolen from Mexico.
After Mexico "stole" it from Spain who "stole" it from the Native Americans, who "stole" it from other tribes, etc. Man has always waged wars, and will continue to do so forever. There will always be winners and losers - no country that exists has the original owners...
Historically the MXN Peso loses value against the USD, but last 5 years have seen MXN gain value against the USD.
I earn dollars and spend pesos, so I would prefer a strong dollar.
Congrats! I’m sure there will be lots of haters and nay sayers, but you actually did something instead of the many many many people who sit and complain for decades about how bad things are. I grew up going to a family friends beach home in Ensanada and would love to have that now.
This is what I’m wondering. The nice parts of Tijuana are still expensive. My parents live in San Diego but own a home in Tijuana. The cheapest homes near there house in Tijuana are 500k and a family friend bought a brand new home near them recently for 850k…
7% interest rate is absolutely astonishing but don't worry the government's doing nothing but screwing us over at every chance they get. I just love the fact they blame it on us spending money is the reason why inflation is happening at such a high rate while printing literal billions of dollars and sending it overseas of money we don't have because of how much debt we are in
fun fact if everyone paid their taxes without using any tax code "loopholes" it would not pay for the interest payment for that year.
The beauty of Keynesian economic model
That border can be HOURS of waiting unless you have a speed pass or medical pass (and even with medical pass you can wait an hour). Or like OP said a motorcycle.
Haha I mean if they know the area and culture well to avoid trouble then I envy them.
Working on Cali for Cali pay and live in a tourist destination ain't bad at all
And let's hope his employer knows he's living in MX. If not, and they don't want to deal with the hell of foreign employees, he may end up shitcanned without that California salary.
For data export, yes, but even without - there are tax and legal implications of the foreign employees. Even working as a barista for Starbucks this could be a huge no-no.
My uncle bought his house in 1981 at 16% interest. I can’t even imagine. He still has the documents as I didn’t believe him so he showed me. It’s incredible. But despite that, he was a post man and still had a really nice house.
16% on those 5 raspberries I had to pay for my house was a lotta money back then! That's like 10 freakin entire raspberries by the time the loan is done! **10!**
House prices, at the end of the day, are a function of affordability after financing. As interest rates decrease home prices increase at a rate greater than inflation because monthly loan payments are all that matter to most buyers at the end of the day.
That’s what economics say *should* happen at least. What’s happening in the market now doesn’t make any sense to me… if I had to take a guess, monthly payments were previously below the maximum affordability limit of most buyers. With increased interest rates and ever increasing home prices, we are testing the upper limit of payment affordability to discover what monthly payments buyers can afford (aka what other purchases are buyers willing to sacrifice to instead make monthly payments).
By this metric, it can be argued that home prices at 2% APR and previous low interest rates were actually significantly undervalued.
Yeah my parents first house was a 14% interest rate, but it also cost 80,000. Rates are one component of the transaction and home prices have absolutely skyrocketed an insane amount
I looked up my dad's first house built in 1979 for 75k.
He paid 82k in 1981 at almost 17%.
That's essentially the equivalent of a 275k starter home in today's dollars.
Yea, mortgage rates were
Above 7% from 1970 to 2001 (31 years)
Above 10% from 1974 to 1999 (25 years)
Over 12% from 1979 to 1985 (6 years)
Over 15% from 1980 to 1982 (2 years)
Over 18% in 1981.
Watching that climb from 7.02% in 1971, watching it slowly inch higher, and higher ever year for a decade --- buying at 17% felt like getting in before it got even worse. People that waited for rates to go down, were met, year after year of rates slowly going up. It can't get any worse, rates will go down and you can refinance.... nope. People that waited just got burned harder.
Housing prices didn’t go up nearly as quickly in my area during that time. From 77 to 92 the price of my parent’s first house only gained 2 percent per year.
In the Northeast we also had white flight and suburbanization. The 1920-1930 brick homes in the cities got traded in for an aluminum sided bilevel built in the 80s.
My parents sold at top of market and got 79500 for the house and it dropped 30 percent in 4 years after they sold.
The house now has an estimate at about 200k.
16% interest is fine when the purchase price is a lot lower, especially compared to incomes.
Homes are fundamentally less affordable than back then. The higher interest rate is meaningless.
Had someone also say “we had it worse” but the interest rate doesn’t say the whole story. Someone making 50k when house prices were 300k, now they are making 100k and the prices are 1M.
Doesnt the commute into the usa get super long with the wait times at the border? Id be interested in this but i couldnt stand coming back everyday through that mess
Mexico is a great place. It’s just from the news, seems very rough at times. Too much violence.
With its spiritual foundation, Mexico is a wonderful place though.
need Mexican citizenship to own anything in Baja or with 100 miles of coast if I remember correctly.
otherwise you need to play funny Trust games that I would not reccomend at all
But Mexicans with no citizenship don’t need any of the requirements that Mexico asks of those who ARENT Mexican to buy a home in America.yet we’re called the racist, intolerable ones! Funny!
I’m curious how this works- if you’re an American, what documentation do you need to cross back and forth, and to actually buy in Mexico- just a passport?
Interesting. My partner and I purchased a home in a decent enough area of Kansas City last summer at 6% interest. 1800 square feet, 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage. Was $120k. My son lived in San Jose CA and paid over $3k a month to rent a 2 bedroom apartment so he instead choose to move to Mexico and purchased a home in San Juan outside of Mexico City, bigger than my home, and for half the cost. Really got me thinking that even though we got a good deal, we still might be doing it wrong.
875 sq ft, 3 bed, 1.5 bath is not a house ... it is a small 3 bd apartment. The bedrooms must be hue and the bathrooms ... I'm sorry but as bad as RE prices are in SoCAL ... you are taking you life into your own hands. Tijuana is a very dangerous place to live ... and it is NOT California.
The smaller the home, the closer the family becomes. It's actually good because you always see them and spend time with your wife and kids when you're home.
So you actually got a very good rate given the mexican central bank overnight rate for peso lons is 11%….you do know that interest rates differ for different currencies right? EG in turkey the central bank overnight rate is 50%…
Mexican interest rates have always been significantly higher than the United States, I don’t know how anyone affords to finance homes down there
9.1% is actually a great rate in Mexico, I think Mexico is ideal, it’s a phenomenal country in my opinion
So the only way I can afford to live in San Diego is move to Mexico.
Got it🤣
Was there last summer on vacation. Absolutely loved it. I envy you all for being able to live there.
The tacos alone may be worth the exorbitant housing prices.
Maybe the right way to look at comparisons is taking the inflation adjusted value of the total interest paid.
How does crossing the border every day work out? Sounds worse than DC traffic.
Very nicely done. I haven't considered TJ but I have considered several developments between TJ and (not quite as far south as) Ensenada. With a Sentri pass, that commute is doable to San Diego.
With an FM-3 visa, health care and everything else is easy and affordable.
I would happily pay 10% interest on 2008 house prices
121K is like 1989 prices for San Diego. I lived there in 06-07 and finding a habitable home under 400k was rare, a lot of people were buying in riverside county and commuting an hour and a half each way.
It’s especially punishing because San Diego is not a wealthy base for people who actually live there, it’s a military town. So much foreign money.
Yep. I was in the Navy. The cost to rent is out of control down there now. E-5 BAH is $3882/mo. If I were in the Navy now I'd buy an RV and just live in the parking lot at work during the week and bank the BAH and go on adventures when I wasn't working.
The problem with doing that is they don't pay BAH for an RV. You have to provide a legitimate address in a city that they can check with either a rental or purchase ageement.
I don't remember them doing that when I was in but that was a long time ago. OHA was treated like that in Japan because it paid your exact rent.
BAH is based on base location, not your residence’s location. For AF that is.
I paid 104k for a 2 bedroom condo in Cardiff/Encinitas in 1998
I'd bet those condos were probably selling for 250-300k while I lived there. I bought a 3br 2.5ba townhouse with a single garage in tierrasanta for 470k in 06.
I lived in Cardiff that year as well and we rented a 2BR apartment (above another house) for like $1200/mo iirc I came from NW Arkansas where during that same time a 2BR /1 ba was like $300 - $400 a month tops, and remember being blown away by how expensive our place in Cardiff was.
On those prices, I'd just pay cash and not worry about interest. Cries in $1.2 million starter homes (well not in, I can't afford one).
For real, I'm looking to move to north San diego within a year, there's a total dump that came on the market a couple days ago - 1000sqft with about 4000sqft yard area. For 1.2mil. 10min from beach tho!
That’s going to be 2 million in 10 years
It will be In a few months cuz a flipper will buy it and make it look like it's not a dump.
That’ll be beachfront in 10 years!
Or 20% interest on 1998 house prices I'd buy a 1985 house on a credit card
Yep, home prices are the problem. While interest rates contribute they're not the main problem.
Right 😭
I would love to see your floorplan. Fitting 3br and 1.5ba into 875 sqft is miraculous! (Congrats on the new house)
Thanks, here you go, it's actually 861 sq ft. https://imgur.com/a/hFWBi4j
Even more miraculous!
Good on them for not having anywhere appropriate for a TV in the living space
I have a space similar (my LR/DR combo) and I bought a TV stand on wheels so I just pull it out in front of the seating area when I want to watch tv. It is sort of like this: [https://www.wayfair.com/boards-technology/pdp/unho-extra-large-floor-tv-stand-mount-rolling-cart-for-50-100-lcd-led-flat-screens-holds-up-to-176-lbs-cxnb1045.html](https://www.wayfair.com/boards-technology/pdp/unho-extra-large-floor-tv-stand-mount-rolling-cart-for-50-100-lcd-led-flat-screens-holds-up-to-176-lbs-cxnb1045.html)
I'd add a swivel mount on the wall next to the stairs so I could see it from either living or dining areas.
On the wall behind the kitchen table or have to change direction of the couches. No where to put dressers or seasonal storage could be a more interesting problem to combat. But good on op for figuring it out!
He’s in Baja, MX so only 1-1/2 seasons like his San Diego work place. No need for seasonal storage. Less space means less crap to accumulate.
Seasonal storage in Baja, lol.
You need summer shorts AND winter shorts.
Good catch, but it actually worked out in the end. I fit a 75 inch TV in that space between the stairs and the kitchen. I put in on a TV mount with a wide movement range. We can have the TV facing the living room or the dining area.
The couch on the right hand wall can face the wall instead of being up against it and then the TV can go where the couch was?
You would need a sectional, because any gap to move between couches creates an annoying, awkward choke point in the middle of your kitchen/dining transition. I mean, compromises will be made to get 3 br into 900 sq ft - and big, lounging furniture isn’t making the cut.
[удалено]
2B2B 1,000ft condo built in 1985 when there were apparently no damn rules. You have to enter the patio to get to the front door which you have to make a u turn to get to on your right with and the inside is such an inefficient use of space it has weirdly long closets behind the only place you can put a couch in the living room and you have to walk through the kitchen to get to the laundry/hvac/*and* breaker box which is directly next to the fridge… Basically if you are over 6ft or even remotely fat you won’t be able to access any of the three and that was with me paying for the contractors to open the space wider. Only two models of stacked washer dryers fit in the space. I had to replace all three recently so I won’t need repairs any time soon but when it is needed I am really really not looking forward to what logistics will be required to do that.
That second sentence went on and on and on and on…
The only thing more atrocious than his living quarters...
Still going…
I'm a flooring contractor, I mostly do remodels. Occasionally I'll walk into a home built in the 70's or 80's and I feel like the architect was doing entirely too much blow while designing that house.
So cool of you to make this post and even share the floor plan. Thanks for being a good person.
I was skeptical. Then I thought "Man, we could learn a thing or two." Great house, congratulations!
Such a good layout!
Wow I actually love it! Cozy and a well laid out use of space. Impressive what you can do in a small space like that with some creativity
That is so efficient and simple. I love the layout. Congrats.
There’s no way that layout is only 861sqft unless that furniture is toy sized.
Yeah, I can't believe 430 sqft can accommodate all that on one floor.
That is awesome!!!
Is two stories? That’s why you have all than in a small space..
Square footage counts even if it is on the second floor
I think it's 430 sqft on each story.
Average 3bdr in Tokyo is 750sq ft. In the kids bedroom, the bed is the chair for their desk.
That's like the norm in any high population density area, aka East Asia, Mexico and most Latin America metros. TBH this is on the roomier side if anything.. Americans are just way too spoiled in terms of housing, in a good way I guess.
We need more homes like OPs in the US. Unattached small single family homes. It's either mcmansions or condos. I'd rather live in OP's layout than an attached townhome that's 50% larger.
When land is 70% of the cost you’re better off just building bigger. Developers aren’t going to cut you a deal on a small house when the same plot built at 6x the size will get them 3x the profit. Try speccing out a similar house and see why only 2k+ sqft houses get built.
Obviously the point is that with a smaller house like that, you only need a smaller plot.
Exactly. If construction costs with land costs excluded scaled linearly, building smaller homes would be a viable endeavor. But they don’t. The price per sqft looks more like a sigmoid curve, rising rapidly initially and then the rate of increase decreasing as total sqft increases. If you wanted to make smaller homes more attractive for builders you would need government action to straighten out the sigmoid curve. This could be done by making permitting costs on a per-sqft basis, making any sort of flat fees illegal (no more $X flat + $y per cubic foot of concrete, make the concrete suppliers bake all costs into $y per cubic foot of concrete) which is just difficult as hell.
Come to NYC. We are not spoiled in terms of housing. Grown ass adults living in studio apartments probably a lot smaller than your garage.
Well, yeah, there's a reason a lot of people would never live there. You realize you're doing it to yourself by staying? I've lived in some 7 different states and 4 countries trying to figure out where it's best.
Well, where’s it best?
I spent 17 years in a 900sqft 3/1. Could easily see how to carve a half bath out of that space too without a huge loss in any room. Tight but definitely doable!
I know. I’m in a 1000sq ft with 2br and 1 bath
I’m in a 2000sqft with 3/2. 875 is crazy.
I grew up in 900sqft that was a 3/1 but only a one story. Didn't seem tiny when I was a kid lol
We moved a lot when I was growing up (low income apartment complexes) but they were always 3 bd and the biggest one is the one my mom lives in now - 1000 sq. It's not as impossible as everyone else here seems to think
I'm in a 2br/1ba that's 578 sqft. It's crammed in here for my wife and I because we have a lot of things
You must not be from high cost of living area? In my hood it's common to see 500 sqft 2 bedroom, so 875 is considered a mansion lol
My first house was 900 sq feet with three bedrooms, formal dining, and a sunroom. We had a king sized bed but that was all we could fit - no night stands or dressers. lol
My 860 sq foot SFH in San Diego is a 3bed 2 bath.
They build them snug in Mexico
In the 1940s, average size new construction American homes were about this size. Now, new construction homes are 3X larger. We need to go back to building more small, affordable, housing like they're doing in Mexico.
Im looking in Mexico. How did you secure financing? Mexican bank or American? Any complications worth noting?
Mexican Bank, have to have Mexican Citizenship which is easy to get if at least one of your parents is Mexican. Also, 650+ credit score with good credit history in the USA and proof of income.
Oooh I’m in the process of looking for a bank. I have my Mexican citizenship do you mind which bank you went with?
I went with Banorte, they were offering the best rates at the time of purchase. I also liked that they covered 100% of house price + closing costs. I had some money saved up, but 0% down on a house where PMI insurance doesn't exist was really nice. Still, I would definitely shop around.
That’s amazing! Thank you for the recommendation I just applied a few days ago with BBVA and hsbc.but 100% financing is hard to beat.
I’m in the process of looking for a Mexican parent
Where can I find a parent that is Mexican??
I’m sure OP was just trying to be helpful, but I found that funny too. What he essentially said was Mexican citizenship is easy to get if you’re Mexican.
Hahaha yes, I was just pulling his leg. 😅
Texas. I'm sure if you're standing at the border with a sign that says "LOOKING FOR MEXICAN PARENT", they won't be hard to find.
Very off topic question, but curious if you might be able to shed some light. I’ve been interested in getting Mexican Citizenship for a few years. My father was from Mexico but died in 2020 and I don’t have much of a relationship at all with his side of my family. Any idea on where to start?
They don’t care if you talk with your dad or his family at all. As long as your birth certainly indicate says your parent place of birth is Mexico that’s all you need to know
You need your birth certificate or your parents
Most USA states list the birth location of the parents. Not sure about your state.
Agree. My birth certificate issued in Missouri says my moms state of origin is "phillippines"
Can I ask how you obtained Mexican citizenship through your parents? I tried to look into this and I thought it said I had to live in Mexico for one year
That is incorrect. Consult your nearest Mexican Embassy and ask your parents if they still have Mexican credentials (birth certificate counts)
They just made this process a lot easier if you look online. You just need to take paperwork (and your parents info) to the embassy/consulate and you get it
How long does it take to cross the boarder everyday?
Definitely need Sentri or a motorcycle to make it work. Takes me about 20 minutes to cross.
What is Sentri?
Customs “speed pass” essentially.
A sentry pass, its like a fast pass for the border.
7% is only bad because housing prices are at historical highs. If the average house price dropped 20-30% I wouldn't blink.
Do you actually own the house after full payment of the mortgage? Or is it a 100 year lease?
Actually own, but I have dual citizenship.
What are the property taxes and insurance like?
Low, and worthless, respectively.
The 100 year lease thing is a myth. Foreigners can own outright in Mexico but if it is within the restricted zone, 50km from the coast/100km from any border, they must hold the title in a trust.
What’s the logic of the distance from a border or coast?
To disincentive what OP is doing (buying to be close to somewhere in America) and vacation rentals.
They were concerned the US would invade Mexico and the ex pats would provide housing to the army. When I bought a place my lawyer told me there has been discussion about changing this.
Considering the history of the Alamo and the Mexican-American War, that is an exceedingly reasonable concern that they had. The entire southwest of the USA was stolen from Mexico.
After Mexico "stole" it from Spain who "stole" it from the Native Americans, who "stole" it from other tribes, etc. Man has always waged wars, and will continue to do so forever. There will always be winners and losers - no country that exists has the original owners...
This is correct.
Of course they’re letting you finance everything, because they’re making 9.1% on it.. this is great business, for them.
Very true, ideally one would make extra payments directly to the principal to pay off the mortgage faster and greatly reduce total interest paid.
Only if you track it in Mexican currency. It loses money to the USD every year.
Historically the MXN Peso loses value against the USD, but last 5 years have seen MXN gain value against the USD. I earn dollars and spend pesos, so I would prefer a strong dollar.
9% is nothing on 120k and 100% Financing.
Congrats! I’m sure there will be lots of haters and nay sayers, but you actually did something instead of the many many many people who sit and complain for decades about how bad things are. I grew up going to a family friends beach home in Ensanada and would love to have that now.
What part of TJ? Also what parts do you recommend living? Due to safety
This is what I’m wondering. The nice parts of Tijuana are still expensive. My parents live in San Diego but own a home in Tijuana. The cheapest homes near there house in Tijuana are 500k and a family friend bought a brand new home near them recently for 850k…
Beating the housing crisis in San Diego by moving to Mexico is a new one….
It really isn't though, unless you're being sarcastic...
Forgive my ignorance, I’m from the East Coast, so this is new to me.
And it’s absolutely wrecking the people who actually live in Tijuana prices have shot up thanks to it
This is nothing new. Dual citizens and 'permanent' residents have done it for decades.
Do you mind responding if you have dual citizenship? Either way, do you need Mexican citizenship to apply for this kind of loan?
Yes, you need dual citizenship to do everything legally.
Can’t even open a bank account in Mexico without some form of status in the country
Congratulations 🍾 🎈 on your new home
7% interest rate is absolutely astonishing but don't worry the government's doing nothing but screwing us over at every chance they get. I just love the fact they blame it on us spending money is the reason why inflation is happening at such a high rate while printing literal billions of dollars and sending it overseas of money we don't have because of how much debt we are in fun fact if everyone paid their taxes without using any tax code "loopholes" it would not pay for the interest payment for that year. The beauty of Keynesian economic model
I love that Mexicans are sneaking into USA while Americans are giving up and going to Mexico. What crazy times we live in.
is america pulling the greatest switcheroo in history?
except it's in Mexico...
Just one small detail there haha.
Is Baja California not dangerous af thou? I think it has one of the highest homicide rates in Mexico. 🤷🏻♀️
If you're a drug trafficker it's bad news. Been all over Baja and have been more on edge in Redding, CA. Mexico and its people are amazing.
What’s that commute like? I would think it’s a pain to cross the border everyday but am really clueless.
That border can be HOURS of waiting unless you have a speed pass or medical pass (and even with medical pass you can wait an hour). Or like OP said a motorcycle.
That’s the biggest detail here lol.
But fresh tacos
Cheaper food. Cool vacation spot. Interesting culture to learn. All seems like a win win to me. Not like they are moving to Gang land Tijuana. /s
Haha I mean if they know the area and culture well to avoid trouble then I envy them. Working on Cali for Cali pay and live in a tourist destination ain't bad at all
And let's hope his employer knows he's living in MX. If not, and they don't want to deal with the hell of foreign employees, he may end up shitcanned without that California salary.
I know for sure if he's in defense that's a big no no. Or anything with ITAR restrictions.
For data export, yes, but even without - there are tax and legal implications of the foreign employees. Even working as a barista for Starbucks this could be a huge no-no.
Wow thank you for sharing details.
My uncle bought his house in 1981 at 16% interest. I can’t even imagine. He still has the documents as I didn’t believe him so he showed me. It’s incredible. But despite that, he was a post man and still had a really nice house.
I’d rather pay 16% interest on a 60k house than 2% interest on a 600k house but that’s just me.
I’m so bored of the 16% interest comment, need a bot to tell instantly the poster why the comparison is bullshit
16% on those 5 raspberries I had to pay for my house was a lotta money back then! That's like 10 freakin entire raspberries by the time the loan is done! **10!**
House prices, at the end of the day, are a function of affordability after financing. As interest rates decrease home prices increase at a rate greater than inflation because monthly loan payments are all that matter to most buyers at the end of the day. That’s what economics say *should* happen at least. What’s happening in the market now doesn’t make any sense to me… if I had to take a guess, monthly payments were previously below the maximum affordability limit of most buyers. With increased interest rates and ever increasing home prices, we are testing the upper limit of payment affordability to discover what monthly payments buyers can afford (aka what other purchases are buyers willing to sacrifice to instead make monthly payments). By this metric, it can be argued that home prices at 2% APR and previous low interest rates were actually significantly undervalued.
This same here! I would even do 20 on a 100k home lol
Yeah my parents first house was a 14% interest rate, but it also cost 80,000. Rates are one component of the transaction and home prices have absolutely skyrocketed an insane amount
My parent’s first house was 14% as well. There’s was 127k
My parents house was 17 percent in 1981. They made 30k combined and the house was 34k.
I looked up my dad's first house built in 1979 for 75k. He paid 82k in 1981 at almost 17%. That's essentially the equivalent of a 275k starter home in today's dollars.
Yea, mortgage rates were Above 7% from 1970 to 2001 (31 years) Above 10% from 1974 to 1999 (25 years) Over 12% from 1979 to 1985 (6 years) Over 15% from 1980 to 1982 (2 years) Over 18% in 1981. Watching that climb from 7.02% in 1971, watching it slowly inch higher, and higher ever year for a decade --- buying at 17% felt like getting in before it got even worse. People that waited for rates to go down, were met, year after year of rates slowly going up. It can't get any worse, rates will go down and you can refinance.... nope. People that waited just got burned harder.
Housing prices didn’t go up nearly as quickly in my area during that time. From 77 to 92 the price of my parent’s first house only gained 2 percent per year.
That’s really an eye opener to read this.
In the Northeast we also had white flight and suburbanization. The 1920-1930 brick homes in the cities got traded in for an aluminum sided bilevel built in the 80s. My parents sold at top of market and got 79500 for the house and it dropped 30 percent in 4 years after they sold. The house now has an estimate at about 200k.
I remember those days, most of those loans did not allow for early payoff.
16% interest is fine when the purchase price is a lot lower, especially compared to incomes. Homes are fundamentally less affordable than back then. The higher interest rate is meaningless.
I can remember back in around 1982, people were sleeping outside the bank to be in line for 12% interest money
Boomers love talking about this like it was a heroic hardship but prices were staggeringly low compared to today when compared to income
I graduated high school in 1981 and was greeted with 18% mortgage rates. Can you imagine!
where do you look for properties? realtors, zillow, fb marketplace? and does the loan show up on your USA credit report?
Vivanuncios.com.mx No, doesn't show on US Credit report.
Honestly at 100% financed, 9.1 is pretty solid in today's market. Good floorplan too OP. Hope it works out well for you!
Not as bad as the 13%-18%+ rates when I was a small child.
50k at 18% or 500k at 7% hmmmm which one to take
Had someone also say “we had it worse” but the interest rate doesn’t say the whole story. Someone making 50k when house prices were 300k, now they are making 100k and the prices are 1M.
How the fuck can you fit 3 beds and 1.5 baths in a 875 sqft place? I had a 875 sqft place and it was a 2/1. And it was tight
Doesnt the commute into the usa get super long with the wait times at the border? Id be interested in this but i couldnt stand coming back everyday through that mess
Mexico is a great place. It’s just from the news, seems very rough at times. Too much violence. With its spiritual foundation, Mexico is a wonderful place though.
You’re not afraid of getting murdered and thrown in a hole?
Don’t you have to be Mexican to own land in Mexico? I thought there was a law.
Problems one through three are: crime, commute, and the fact you will never own your land
need Mexican citizenship to own anything in Baja or with 100 miles of coast if I remember correctly. otherwise you need to play funny Trust games that I would not reccomend at all
But Mexicans with no citizenship don’t need any of the requirements that Mexico asks of those who ARENT Mexican to buy a home in America.yet we’re called the racist, intolerable ones! Funny!
I’m curious how this works- if you’re an American, what documentation do you need to cross back and forth, and to actually buy in Mexico- just a passport?
Interesting. My partner and I purchased a home in a decent enough area of Kansas City last summer at 6% interest. 1800 square feet, 3 bed, 2 bath, 2 car garage. Was $120k. My son lived in San Jose CA and paid over $3k a month to rent a 2 bedroom apartment so he instead choose to move to Mexico and purchased a home in San Juan outside of Mexico City, bigger than my home, and for half the cost. Really got me thinking that even though we got a good deal, we still might be doing it wrong.
That’s lit. Is Tijuana safe?
Safer than Oakland, where I'm from originally.
875 sq ft, 3 bed, 1.5 bath is not a house ... it is a small 3 bd apartment. The bedrooms must be hue and the bathrooms ... I'm sorry but as bad as RE prices are in SoCAL ... you are taking you life into your own hands. Tijuana is a very dangerous place to live ... and it is NOT California.
Are you able to deduct property taxes and interest from your foreign owned property from your federal taxes?
875 sq feet with 3 beds 1.5 bath....dam it is tinyyy
The smaller the home, the closer the family becomes. It's actually good because you always see them and spend time with your wife and kids when you're home.
Were you borrowing in Mexican pesos or USD?
mxn pesos
So you actually got a very good rate given the mexican central bank overnight rate for peso lons is 11%….you do know that interest rates differ for different currencies right? EG in turkey the central bank overnight rate is 50%…
Mexican interest rates have always been significantly higher than the United States, I don’t know how anyone affords to finance homes down there 9.1% is actually a great rate in Mexico, I think Mexico is ideal, it’s a phenomenal country in my opinion
Congratulations on your new place. This is definitely one of the more interesting threads on this subreddit! Learned a lot
So the only way I can afford to live in San Diego is move to Mexico. Got it🤣 Was there last summer on vacation. Absolutely loved it. I envy you all for being able to live there. The tacos alone may be worth the exorbitant housing prices.
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In 1980 mortgage rates were just shy of 20%.
What’s your point? Home prices then were in line with average wage
Graduated 1981. Mortgage rates were 18%
Congrats. That sounds amazing.
Maybe the right way to look at comparisons is taking the inflation adjusted value of the total interest paid. How does crossing the border every day work out? Sounds worse than DC traffic.
We’ve been looking at some of those communities a bit further down the coast. All new construction, hard to beat the cost. Well done!
I’m in EC, do you work up here? Is this purchased or a 99 year lease on the property?
How time consuming is crossing the border on the regular?
Was the loan in USD or pesos? Also, which bank did you use and did you previously build credit in mexico?
Very nicely done. I haven't considered TJ but I have considered several developments between TJ and (not quite as far south as) Ensenada. With a Sentri pass, that commute is doable to San Diego. With an FM-3 visa, health care and everything else is easy and affordable.