In 2021, over 360,000 people left California in what many are calling the
"California exodus", leaving for states like Texas, Arizona and Washington.
But a rising number of them are migrating out of the country altogether
and instead heading south of the border.
Today, more and more Americans are leaving the hustle and bustle of
California for a relaxed, more affordable lifestyle in Mexico.
We were able to cut our budget in half, which allowed us to really focus on our
careers and the things we wanted to do artistically without having to just
like, hustle and hustle and hustle every day, every week, every month to
just meet the bare minimum.
California's population growth has been declining for over 30 years now, but
thanks to the rise in remote work, due to the Covid-19 pandemic, those trends
have accelerated.
The ability to work anywhere has 62% of Americans considering moving to a new
country.
What's the options?
Right? What? Kansas, you know, Utah, whatever.
I mean, really, it's the options aren't that great.
I mean, especially if you're from California.
And while some Californians are able to make the move by working remotely,
others are living in Mexico, but still commuting to work daily in California.
It's a lot of people commuting who actually live in Mexico, who actually
work in the States.
So it's like, it's thousands and thousands of people just cross in daily.
It's a lot of people.
However, many critics argue that Americans are driving up the cost of
housing for locals and pricing them out of the market.
So just how long will this migration trend last and what are the
consequences?
When it comes to U.S.-Mexico migration, most Mexicans move to the U.S.
to improve their lives economically.
But a lesser known fact is that historically, Americans have flocked to
Mexico for the same reason.
After Mexico won its independence from Spain in 1821, thousands of legal and
illegal American immigrants settled into northern Mexico in search of land,
trade and agricultural opportunity.
And when Mexico abolished slavery in 1829, a few routes of the Underground
Railroad ran south into Mexican Texas.
It's estimated that about 5-10,000 slaves escaped into Mexico.
By the mid-1840s, Americans outnumbered Mexican Californios in the northern part
of Alta, California, which was Mexican territory at the time.
Shortly after, the California gold rush began and 30,000 people from all over
the world poured into California in search of treasures.
Just days after the California gold rush began, the Mexican-American War ended,
giving California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas, Colorado, Nevada and
Utah to the U.S.
It wasn't until 1924 that the US Border Patrol was created, and since then,
millions of Americans have visited, vacationed and relocated to Mexico.
As of 2020, 800,000 Americans are living in Mexico.
These migrants can be divided into three categories: retirees, working
professionals and the biggest share of the population...the Mexican Americans
returning to their roots.
There's also a parallel migration, of course, from U.S.
Citizen children that are being returned or that are returning to Mexico with
their parents, who many of them are Mexican citizens are being either
repatriate or deported to Mexico as well.
These U.S. Citizens make up about two-thirds of the U.S.
immigrant population in Mexico and so therefore their future is in the
children growing up and integrating into Mexican society is an important
factor.
The rising migration of U.S.
Citizens is giving way to increasing investments and development, which in
turn creates opportunity for more Americans to make the move.
The rising cost of living is perhaps one of the biggest drivers behind this
phenomenon. California ranks number two in the country's most expensive states
to live in, according to a study by Credit Karma.
For our one-bedroom apartment in North Hollywood we were paying $1600 a month
and that was just for the rent alone.
And there we had a car, so that included car insurance and car payment
and all of those kinds of things that you have to pay for.
And so just the rent alone, we're paying half of that.
We moved in November of 2020, so it was still kind of like in the thick of
Covid-19 and the pandemic before the vaccines.
So our rent is about $850 USD a month, which includes two bedrooms, three
bathrooms, a music studio for David.
We have a pool and a clubhouse area, 24-hour security with a guard at a
gate.
Going from a one-bedroom where we were like on top of each other to having
different spaces to work has been like life changing.
And to do that, half of the price was mind blowing.
Real estate in California is getting more expensive and more competitive.
The median price for a home in California is about $800,000.
Only 25% of California households could afford that in the fourth quarter of
2021.
Here in Baja, we offer a more affordable alternative, bigger
prices. And what a lot of people tend to say is that we have a better
quality of life.
You know, there's no traffic, there's sunny days, there's beautiful beaches.
Unlike the jobs in California, Mexico's wages are low and labor is cheap.
The minimum wage in California is $15 per hour, while the minimum wage in the
majority of Mexico is 172 pesos per day, which is equivalent to about
$8. For comparison, one hour of working in California is equivalent to almost
two whole workdays in Mexico.
We do want to say, like we understand how lucky and fortunate we are to be
able to earn in dollars and spend in pesos.
So we do recognize that that's like an incredible privilege and we feel super
grateful to be here and to be able to do that.
Health care is another important factor that many consider when moving to
Mexico. The U.S.
spends much more on health care than any other country in the world.
But one study showed that overall, its performance and quality ranks last among
the highest income countries.
You know, I got dental work and stuff.
I mean, Mexico is responsible for saving my teeth.
I went to an allergist in LA and was told I was not did not have enough money
to afford the allergy shots that I actually needed.
And that was one of the first appointments I made in Mexico was with
an allergist and a dermatologist.
And not only can I afford allergy shots here, but like my allergist coordinates
with the dermatologist who coordinates with our primary care physician.
Yeah, I had to get hard contacts and braces.
I felt very cared for and it was very easy to access these kinds of things
that I know I could not get the contacts that I needed because they were
so expensive in the States and we thankfully were able to do that here.
Since the pandemic, migration trends to Mexico have accelerated.
Covid-19 has made remote work the new normal, prompting many to move out of
big cities and into more affordable ones.
The pandemic really changed the dynamic, but because folks suddenly the cost of
taxes in the U.S., the crime rates, the politics, the all the things that people
are unhappy with in California are wanting to come down to Mexico and
suddenly realize, gee, I can—as long as I get good Internet, I can come to
Mexico and buy a, live in a condo and stare at the ocean and take care of my
work and enjoy a different lifestyle.
This is the U.S.-Mexico border in Tijuana.
Every day, about 200,000 people commute between the two countries.
Many of them work in California and live just below the border in Baja,
California due to its proximity, take Toni Smith, for example.
She works in San Diego but lives nine miles away in Tijuana.
I still work in the States.
I'm a coach over at a community college and all of my business is in the States,
so I commute daily back and forth.
The wait to get through the border ranges from a few minutes to a few hours
. To avoid the longer wait times during rush hour, Toni drops her car off in a
parking structure by the border and walks the rest of the way.
On days that are not heavy traffic.
I'll drive and then days where it's really like hectic, like the average,
like Mondays, Wednesdays, Fridays, those are the busy days...I will leave
my car and I'll just walk.
It's easy getting into Mexico.
It's just the difficult part: getting out of Mexico, which can take hours.
But I learned if I could just commute by foot, it drops my commute time at
least by 2 hours.
Real estate agents in Baja, California are also seeing an increase in people
looking to buy property who don't necessarily want permanent residency in
Mexico.
I would say at least half or probably coming down from California.
There's a lot of folks that have second homes down here, vacation homes and or
rental properties down here that come from southern California.
Critics of this migration trend say that Americans are buying or renting property
in Mexico at a premium and pricing locals out of the market.
Certain neighborhoods are now becoming too expensive for Mexican citizens to
live in because most of the times people that are actually buying this
property developments or buying even, say, an apartment are being able to do
so because they either make money in U.S.
Dollars or because they're working remotely.
For those on temporary visas, working remotely allows them to continue paying
their taxes to the U.S.
without paying any to Mexico.
And there are some parts of Mexico known as the "tourist libre zone" where
visas go unchecked under the radar.
The idea is that Americans who spend their money in Mexico are still
contributing to the country's economic growth.
It's just a dog eat dog world.
And I get why a lot of Mexicans, you know, they want better for their
families. So they're trying to get across the border to America while the
Americans are doing the total opposite.
I feel as though like the money that we're bringing in can definitely help
build better roads.
We're just definitely helping the economy by just bringing in the dollars
so that they can put it into whatever it is that they want to put it into.
It's super important to us to mitigate our economic impact wherever we go, and
we try to do that by highlighting local groups and services, small businesses,
and we're super conscious of where we spend our money.
Some argue the communities where Americans are moving to are not the same
as the ones where locals reside.
Those areas have less crime, are more expensive, and tend to be closer to
beaches and other tourist attractions.
The foreigners or the Americans are only going to live in certain places and
these places are primarily targeted towards Americans.
The local Tijuana people are not going to live in these places, like there's
high rise buildings and stuff like that.
The apartment I had last time that had a full desk set up for remote working
office chair, everything.
This was not something set up for a Mexican family, this was something set
up to target foreigners to come over and work remotely.
While American dollars have contributed to recent developments in Mexico.
There are some setbacks to the rapid expansion.
Supply chain issues are rising as demand beats out supply.
It's making development increase, certainly, but it's also making
development be less accessible to some of their most needed areas.
Like in California, for example, where we have really a shortage of housing,
which has actually led to the significant increases in prices in
California.
There's a similar bubble of lack of new construction in Mexico.
And when that construction is focused on unattainable incomes for Mexican
citizens, you're in some ways perpetuating the same bubble that we're
seeing in California for housing, but now in Mexico as well.
In order to combat the number of low-income Californians leaving the
state, affordable housing developments are beginning to make headway.
In September of 2021, California's governor signed a series of bills to
complement the California comeback plan, which invests $22 billion in
affordable housing and homelessness.
The wealthy are leaving California, too.
Some fear that mass departures by the state's billionaires and tech companies
could reduce local and state tax revenues.
Just 1% of California's top income earners are responsible for half of all
income tax revenue.
Those drops could have the potential to affect government services for years to
come. And in Baja, California, recent spikes in housing demand could cause the
country to run out of supply.
I've talked to a lot of agents down here and folks who have been in this industry
20 years or more.
And a lot of them are all saying this is the first time in the last 20 years
that people are really significantly worried about our lack of inventory down
here. There's a lot more things being built and trying to come up with things
to sell to people.
As Mexico sees an influx of immigrants and increasing housing prices, there are
mixed opinions about the future of current U.S.-Mexico migration trends.
But at the same time, it's bringing, opening up new businesses.
It's driving money into Mexico.
It's you know, it's creating tourism and money for small businesses.
People are still going to be wanting coming down here more than ever.
And I don't see prices going down anytime soon.
A good amount of the people that actually go do this, try this, do return
home within 90 days.
Maybe your boss don't like this, maybe your car registration don't like this.
There is problems that exist for doing this.
So the turnover rate for this is is pretty, pretty quick.
For now, Californians are continuing to leave the state, and Mexico is welcoming
them with open arms.