# Mexico



## BajaExPat (May 12, 2009)

With regard to Mexico, it is an option popular with many. Some say there are around 1 million expats here now.

Some areas with a large english speaking population that you can easily research and some reasonably bilingual Mexicans: 

Lake Chapala/Ajiic area near Guadalajara
Puerta Vallarta
San Miguel de Allende
Baja

There are others, and now that I have left them out, someone else will respond. 

I live in *Northern Baja* and the advantages are that we are close to the border, so we can still have a strong connection with the US via the San Diego area. Our mail is delivered here for the same cost as a PO Box... we have a US address and regular deliveries this way. With available calling plans, our cell phones with US area code work the same on either side of the border, and any calls to either a MX or US number simply count against our minutes. Shopping, medical, and entertainment opportunities are plentiful here. There are about 100,000 foreign residents living in Baja (Northern Baja vs. Baja Sur, or Southern Baja) and 14,000 in Rosarito Beach alone. Rosarito is about 30 min south of Tijuana, on the coast... clean and away from the big city. You will pick up basic spanish easily enough, and many speak english here.

The bad thing is that we are close to the border! We have been Americanized so it is "Mexico Light" as far as the experience. But it's is a reasonable mix of cultures.

You can own property here by using a trust mechanism, and Mexico is considering doing away with that requirement. COL is cheaper than in the US for what you get, and the farther away from the border you go, the better the value.

Mexico is not for everyone, but considering the countries you mention, it is a good option, and Baja offers the possibility of just driving here with your belongings and give it a try... introduce yourself and use the time to find out how 'native' you are willing to go. Rent in town and check things out... if it doesn't work, pack up again and try something else. Rosarito there are numerous organizations catering the the expat and you will be very busy if you join in half of them. Very busy...

Good luck. Came here full-time 10 years ago and have not regretted it... life is good.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

BajaExPat said:


> With regard to Mexico, it is an option popular with many. Some say there are around 1 million expats here now.
> […]


If you look closely at the census data that the estimate of 1 million expats is based on, you will find that the vast majority of them are Latino-American children born in the US and now living in Mexico. They are correctly counted as foreign born in the Mexico census. They are "expats" but maybe not what most people think of when they hear that word. 

The number of "expats" in the usual sense might be 10% of that number, maybe 100,000. I can't remember the details now. I looked at the census data a few months ago.


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## vantexan (Sep 4, 2011)

BajaExPat said:


> With regard to Mexico, it is an option popular with many. Some say there are around 1 million expats here now.
> 
> Some areas with a large english speaking population that you can easily research and some reasonably bilingual Mexicans:
> 
> ...


There are some RV parks in the Oaxaca/San Cristobal de las Casas areas that are affordable that I was considering spending winters in but recently became aware of beach camping in Baja. I like that we don't need vehicle permits, can fly out of Cabo affordably if need to, and can enjoy beautiful scenery very affordably. And if we choose to stay fulltime can come up to Ensenada area for affordable monthly RV park rates in nice weather when the Gulf heats up. Baja California isn't the most affordable area of Mexico, but it's an RVer's paradise.


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## vantexan (Sep 4, 2011)

vantexan said:


> There are some RV parks in the Oaxaca/San Cristobal de las Casas areas that are affordable that I was considering spending winters in but recently became aware of beach camping in Baja. I like that we don't need vehicle permits, can fly out of Cabo affordably if need to, and can enjoy beautiful scenery very affordably. And if we choose to stay fulltime can come up to Ensenada area for affordable monthly RV park rates in nice weather when the Gulf heats up. Baja California isn't the most affordable area of Mexico, but it's an RVer's paradise.


Forgot to mention that a huge selling point for choosing Baja over southern Mexico is that fiber optic cable was installed the length of the peninsula. Can get very good Internet in some out of the way places.


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

http://www.inegi.org.mx/inegi/conte...culos/sociodemograficas/nacidosenotropais.pdf

I found the link to the report from INEGI drawn from the 2010 census about the numbers of foreign born people living in Mexico. According to INEGI, the count from the 2010 census was 961,121. Of those 738,103 were born in the US. 

In the same report, the Canadian count was only 7,943. Canada is low compared to the US because most of the US born are kids as noted below.

Baja California, Chihuahua, and Jalisco are the three states with the highest count of foreign born.

The plot of age distribution on p. 3 of the report is edifying. If you include the US, 56.8% of the foreign born in Mexico are between the ages of 0 and 14 years. If you exclude the US, only 10.3% fall in that age group. If my calculations are correct, there are 522,945 kids born in the US and living in Mexico. The same calculation applied to those 65 and over, indicates that there are 17,688 seniors born in the US and living in Mexico, 4.3% of the foreign born in Mexico.

I had heard numbers like a million expats living in Mexico as noted by the Original Poster in this thread. It hadn't occurred to me about half of them are kids born in the US.


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## Longford (May 25, 2012)

I've looked at this issue of how many "Americans" (USA) in Mexico for a long time. I worked with Carl Franz and Lorena Havens on this question and wrote a couple of articles for _The Peoples Guide to Mexico_ on the topic. Relatively few adult expats are relocating full-time to Mexico, from what I can determine. Pleanty of snowbirds and extended-stay folks on tourist cards, however. I think the lower estimates are substantiated by INM. The exception to that comment involves the relocation of American wives who follow their deported (illegally in the USA) husbands, bringing along the children and also persons living in one of the USA/Mexico border zones and who move back and forth across the border (as suggested in an earlier comment). Beware of the real estate developers and salespersons, expat relocation companies and boosters of tourism in certain expat enclaves ... because they and the truth don't know one another.


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## Hound Dog (Jan 18, 2009)

BajaExPat said:


> With regard to Mexico, it is an option popular with many. Some say there are around 1 million expats here now.
> 
> Some areas with a large english speaking population that you can easily research and some reasonably bilingual Mexicans:
> 
> ...


An interesting observation,Baja. We maintain residences in both "Mexico Light" in Ajijic, Jalisco on Lake Chapala and what I would deem "Guatemala Light" in San Cristóbal de Las Casas in the Chiapas Highlands. We spend about half of each year in each place and find the difference in the two communities and their regions to be personally invigorating. We bought the Ajijic home just over 13 years ago and the San Cristóbal home about eight years ago. We originally bought the home in Chiapas in order to escape the "Mexico Light" atmosphere of Lake Chapala but later decided to retain both residences mainly because the climate in San Cristóbal during the summer rainy season is a bit daunting and the climate at Lake Chapala during the summer rainy season (and damn near all the time) is extraordinarily nice. Both places are highland environments, Ajijic at 5,000 feet and San Cristóbal at 7,000 feet so we are clearly hillbillies in our dotage and no longer full-time beach freaks even though when we were kids, the beaches of the Gulf of Mexico off of Alabama and N.W. Florida and the Atlantic off of France were our mutual stomping grounds when we were unaware of each other´s existence.

While the beaches at Arcachon (France), Gulf Shores (Alabama) and Destin (Florida) are fun places to hang out when one is young and in search of beer and poontang, Latin American Highlands with their splendid climates (at certain altitudes) are the places to be as far as we are concerned when one becomes older and less attracted to heat/humidity/mosquitoes/sand-in.the-crotch/no-see-ums and cockroaches and more attracted to endless days of sparkling sunshine and mild temperatures hovering around the 70s to low 80s Fahrenheit so we chose the Mexican plateaus over the beaches. 

To each his/her own.

As far as the notion that, just because a place, such as Lake Chapala, is attractive to expats because of a its pleasant climate, is a detriment to its value as a place to live, that is nonsense. We enjoy both Lake Chapala, even with its large foreign contingent, and the Chiapas Highlands where you could count the foreigners on your toenails excluding an unseemly number of Italians selling marginal pizzas, so, I would say to those thinking of moving to Mexico, don´t worry about the demographics of the place to which you are attracted, just pick your place and move on. Other people´s notion of the correctness of your decisión is inconsequential.


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## lagoloo (Apr 12, 2011)

The Hound got it about right. The notion of a Goldilocks zone changes from one's bikini days to one's ....uh....less lively days.

My take: Picking a spot to live in order to avoid other expats is patently ridiculous, since no matter where you live, there will be plenty of loud mouthed fools to avoid, and enough like minded people to socialize with unless you move to an area where there are no expats. In that case, no matter how fluent in the language you become, you will still always be the foreigner in their midst.

We have plenty of choices in Mexico: the Baja area for those who want one foot in the States and one in Mexico is just right. For those who really left, when they left the States, and don't mind a plane ride to see the folks, the area near Guadalajara is very nice indeed.


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## Isla Verde (Oct 19, 2011)

lagoloo said:


> My take: Picking a spot to live in order to avoid other expats is patently ridiculous, since no matter where you live, there will be plenty of loud mouthed fools to avoid, and enough like minded people to socialize with unless you move to an area where there are no expats.


I do have some great expat friends in Mexico City but haven't run into any "loud-mouthed fools in over six years. I must not be hanging out in the right places!


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## TundraGreen (Jul 15, 2010)

lagoloo said:


> […]
> My take: Picking a spot to live in order to avoid other expats is patently ridiculous, since no matter where you live, there will be plenty of loud mouthed fools to avoid, and enough like minded people to socialize with unless you move to an area where there are no expats. In that case, no matter how fluent in the language you become, you will still always be the foreigner in their midst.
> […]


It may be "patently ridiculous", but I do it anyway. I avoid places with lots of expats, not to avoid loud mouthed fools, but because I want to maximize my exposure to Spanish. Being bi- or tri-lingual has been a life-long goal of mine. But learning languages is not something that comes easily to me. High on the list of reasons for staying in Mexico has been to learn the language. Living around a lot of English speakers and consequently a lot of Mexicans who are used to speaking English would be counter-productive for me.


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## chicois8 (Aug 8, 2009)

Hola Baja Ex Pat, I too love Baja and have been visiting since the early 70's, I am thinking about selling my organic veggie ranch near San Miguel de Allende and my beach house near Puerto Vallarta and relocating to the Valle de Guadeloupe, BC, Are the items you mention in your post available there or only the TJ/ Ensenada corridor? Thanks in advance.......


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