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Ultimate Guide: Choosing the Top Expat City in Mexico

​​Most Popular Expat Cities in Mexico - Strength in Numbers

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Greg: Today we’re going to take a look at the three most popular expat destinations in Mexico and learn why they're the most popular expat destinations and then you can compare when you get ready to come down and take a look at your favorite place to buy a second home or retire.

 

Maya: Hi viewers! welcome back to another video. I am Maya your interview host for Berkshire HathawayHome Services here in San Miguel de Allende, in central Mexico. Today we're with Greg Gunter, broker and co-owner of the sole Berkshire Hathaway Home Services office here in San Miguel de Allende. Hello Greg!

 

Greg: Good morning Maya! Good to see you again!

 

Maya: Good morning! It's always great to see you! Viewers, today's video blog is really for those of you new to the research of choosing Mexico as a retirement or second home destination. Perhaps you've decided Mexico is the country of your choice. After all, we border the US and you can be back home with a two-hour flight. But perhaps you're not sure where you want to live in Mexico. We've all heard that there's strength in numbers and indeed many people like to explore destinations where thousands of expats who have already done the research have chosen as their retirement home and now live either full-time or as a part-time vacation homeowners. Using some statistics from the US state department, today we'll explore the three top expat cities in Mexico that host the most American expats. The government is able to track those numbers by The Residency visas that are granted to American citizens choosing Mexico as their country of residence. An expat's residency Visa is issued to their city of residence and that's how we track the expat population numbers. Okay, Greg drum roll… Please, share with our viewers today which city in Mexico has the greatest number of American expats living there.

 

Greg: Okay, maybe this will be a little bit of a surprise, well I don't know it depends if you live in Southern California it won't be a surprise. But team, let me back up a little bit and tell you I went through this exact same process. I've lived in Mexico for 15 years but I went through the exact same process of deciding where was it that I wanted to land. When I was looking in Mexico, I chose Mexico as a destination to well semi-retire —I'm still working as you see— but I I chose to move here at a very early age, I moved down at the youthful age of 50 and Mexico was my destination, of course, because it's close to the United States. I thought I'd still be going back up. Actually, I thought I'd still be running my old business and I knew I could be back in two hours and I still had family and friends living there, you know, so Mexico is the quick destination as far as a country. But then I went through all the various expat destinations to choose which I would choose from. So today we'll at least go through those top three expat destinations from a population standpoint. You figure if there's more, if there's the most people you know coming from the United States that live there, there must be a reason why, right? So we're going to talk about the top three and let's start drum roll, as she said:

For number one believe it or not it's Tijuana! So Tijuana, which is just south, for those of you that don't know, just south of San Diego. It is a city of about 2 million people it's a very large city, very large metropolitan area, very very popular very well known. You know what really put Tijuana on the map is back in the 20s, during prohibition, it was easy to cross the border and come down to Tijuana and have a great time and have your Gin and tonics and gamble a little bit, play a little Jai Ali, go to the races, you know? Rita Hayworth was was discovered in Aguascalientes, the resort in Tijuana. And, actually, this is another funny story: in the 20s um a lot of Americans came across the border to celebrate 4th of July in 1923 and in 24 same thing happened. They came back again in 1924 and there was the hotel Cesar that was there. Cesar Cardini owned the hotel. Cesar he's the guy that invented the Cesar salad! Isn't that funny? He was sort of running out of ingredients and sort of made up a little salad that was, you know, for the Fourth of July Rush that was coming down to drink, you know, Gin and tonics or Margaritas especially in in Tijuana so there's a lot of funny little anecdotes about what has made Tijuana famous! You know that the Margarita was supposedly invented there just on the outskirts of town as well. That's a little less documented but the Caesar salad has been documented very broadly. Julia Child came down and actually met him and she now owns the original recipe for the for the Caesar salad! Anyway, the reason that Tijuana is the number one expat destination or at least from a residential population perspective, is because those people all sleep in Tijuana because they can get a cheaper home and then they drive across the border to go to work every day in San Diego. There are more than 50 million border crossings every year. 50 million border crossings every year between Tijuana and San Diego. so a lot of that traffic of people that literally live in the bedroom community of Tijuana and just drive up North for, you know, for work. So, it's really more of a bedroom community it's really not what a lot of us expats that are looking to retire or have a second home would necessarily consider as a good option. Unfortunately Tijuana is if you go on the Wikipedia page and look at it the online crime ranking website called Statista, ranks it as the second worst homicide in the entire world, so it's a little bit of a dangerous city and the entertainment that you find there tend to be more gambling casinos, horse races, Jai Ali, you know, those types of entertainment that maybe don't quite appeal to some of the demographic to come to some of the other two top destinations that you're going to hear about in just a bit. So it's a different kind of crowd that go there. It's near the Valla Guadalupe which is a great wine District but that's really a whole different place to stay, you know, Tijuana is like, it's like saying San Francisco and Napa Valley, you know, they're two different cities so it's kind of the same thing with Tijuana. So that's the reason why Tijana has the greatest number of American residents that own a home there and have a residency Visa, but not necessarily for the reason that many of the rest of us would necessarily look there so let's go on from there.

 

Maya: Thank you Greg, that's great insight and I bet a lot of people didn't know the story that Cesar Cardini invented the Caesar salad there in 1924! Wow! So let's move on to the second destination for American expats in Mexico!

 

Greg: Okay another drum roll here and this is a place that half of you can't pronounce probably and many of you may not have heard of. It's not anywhere near as well known as the third most popular expat destination. So the second most populace from the number of residency visas issued to Americans is an area called Lake Chapala and the little town there is called Ajijic a lot of people have a hard time pronouncing that. It's obviously a Very Mexican name it's a very Aztec name actually. So Lake Chapala is the largest lake in Mexico. This is a funny story to share. A lot of people don't actually know this. I have a a good friend, Mexican doctor, that I was friends with when I lived in San Diego and he's now, gosh, he's probably almost 90 years old now at this point. He was actually born in Chapala because back in the 20s when he was born Chapala was sort of like the Inland Riviera for the the wealthy Mexico City crowd, so even though he's from Mexico City, his mama they drove out to Chapala and he was born in Chapala so when he tells the people from Tijuana where he's from he goes “no no I'm not a Chilango from Mexico City I'm from Chapala”. Chapala interestingly enough was like I said an inland Riviera. It was a very nice upscale Resort destination back in the 20s and perhaps even into the 30s. Unfortunately Mexico does not have an EPA so all of the fertilizer and the runoff and everything over the many decades since then have all run into the lake and it's actually kind of a dying Lake. Unfortunately the lake is receded probably 20 or 30 feet the what used to be the Malacón is way up above the water level now. It's a it's a very different kind of place. It is still a big body of water, but it's not a recreational body of water. People don't ski and and you know they might kayak once in a while but they, as they joke, you know, “don't fall out of your kayak and lick your lips you’ll get sick!”. so Ajijic is very popular with the retired military and with Canadians. The reason is because it's more of a budget oriented destination. So home prices there are much cheaper and the reason is because frankly there's less demand for that that particular type of location because there's not that much to do. There's not that much history, the architecture is not quite as rich the town of Ajijic is stretched out over the length of the lake and it's a two-lane road so there are times when, you know, I've had clients that have said it takes them 30 minutes to drive to dinner because they're stuck on the traffic, you know, driving along Ajijic to get to, you know, the closest restaurant. So it's a different kind of crowd there. I say a lot of Canadians are there as well because of course they have to own two homes. They have to keep their residency in Canada to keep their socialized medicine. So the home that they have in Mexico they can, you know, only live there for 5 months and 29 days, so since it's the second home, it tends to be a little more budget oriented. So the town of Ajijic is you know not as popular. There's not as many things to do. There's a nine-hole golf course, there's now a small theater group there, but there's really not that much to do. I actually have three friends that lived in Ajijic and were up in the third most popular destination we'll hear in just a moment, almost every weekend to find something to do. So that's the sort of the drawback. I mean, there are people that love the lake as a visual destination, as a visual feature, you know, for owning a home there and homes are much more affordable, so that is a good place to to look if you're less lifestyle oriented and more budget oriented, then the Lake Chapala and Ajijic area might be a good destination. You know, it's another funny little anecdote we talked about Rita Hayworth in Tijuana, DH Lawrence actually did live in Ajijic for a while. Remember DH Lawrence Lady Chatterley’s Lover, that was not the book he was writing when he was living in Ajijic. It wasn't quite that steamy, but he did live in Ajijic for a while and wrote a novel there, so I've got a fun story about famous residences for each of these top three destinations. DH Lawrence is the one for Ajijic.

 

Maya: Thank you for sharing this amazing stories, Greg! We had Rita Hayworth being discovered in Tijuana and DH Lawrencde writing books in Lake Chapala. So, I can't wait to hear the stories about the third biggest expat destination in Mexico. Please, tell us Greg, what is the third most popular destination for Americans to choose as a retirement home in Mexico.

 

Greg: So another drum roll here! This is an easy one for me to talk about because I live here, in the number three most populous destination. However we would argue that it is the most popular from a publicity perspective because my little city has been ranked the number one small city in the world five different years by Condé Nast Traveler and the same thing from Travel and Leisure magazine. We just won the number five or the fifth year designation from Travel and Leisure! And that town is called San Miguel de Allende. If you've ever watched any of my other videos you know that's where I live. That's where I'm a broker and a realtor. I've been here for 15 years full-time and, again, I did the same kind of research. I actually went to Ajijic also and I had already been to San Miguel once for a week's long vacation and was in love with it but I said “I have to compare I have to go to the other destinations and compare” and I landed in Ajijic and I said “No, it doesn't hold the candle”. I have friends that live in Ajijic, nothing against it, you know, that's great, they love it there! But, you know, from my perspective, I'm an architect, I love the architecture, I love the culture, so any place that's been named the number one city in the world five different times —I mean even Paris has not been named the number one city in the world for five different years— you can guess that that's because there's a lot of support here. There's a lot of, I always tell my clients, that we have, we offer the largest English language social and cultural infrastructure anywhere in Mexico. So if you're looking for the Opera, you're looking for a classical quartet, you're looking for a piano bar where they're singing Frank Sinatra, you're looking for a play, a theatrical play, any of those that you might be interested in in the English language (and also sometimes in Spanish, of course) you can find that here in San Miguel de Allende. We have multiple websites, sanmiguellive.com, for instance, is a great option, sanmiguelevents.com, that will profile everything what's going on on any given night. You'll find like, you know, three, four, five, six different events going on, whether it's an art gallery opening, a musical performance, a theater play, you know, you name it. I mean we have the Guanajuato International Film Festival, we have the Jazz and Blues Festival, we have the largest bilingual writers conference in the world here every February. Lots of those an annual events that happen every year! The writers conference is probably 16 years old at this point, I think. The Guanajuato International Film Festival, the same thing. It's been around for many years. So lots of people do land in San Miguel de Allende and they love it here. I've been here full time, like I said, 15 years. A lot of my clients and friends live here part-time, so they'll be here maybe, you know, somewhere between six and 9 or 10 months of the year and they're traveling or going back up to see their grandkids in the United States. Now I've had fun kind of profiling the kinds of celebrities that have been attracted to the various locations. San Miguel de Allende has always been sort of the Hollywood hot spot for the Mexican Hollywood set, so if any of you have heard of the Mexican actor Cantinflas, he was, for those of us gringos, we remember the little sidekick in Around the World in 80 days with David Niven, that sidekick of David's was Cantinflas. He was a very famous Mexican actor. He had a home here in San Miguel de Allende, even though he's from Mexico City. His home here in San Miguel is now a 56 room hotel, can you imagine? That was his home. Many opera singers. Mexican opera singers have had homes here. Jose Mijica, one very good example. Pedro Vargas. I mean there's a lot of great examples of the Mexican Hollywood Jet Set that have had homes here. But, from an American perspective, we draw a lot of that similar kind of crowd. If any of you remember the Beat Generation from the 60s and 70s, Jack Kerouac and Neil Cassidy used to hang out down here all the time! Unfortunately, Neil Cassidy was down here having a little too much fun, as we might say, walking along the railroad trucks at 2 in the morning and they found him the next morning dead beside the railroad track. So Neil Cassidy actually passed away down here. But a lot of other fun stories about people that have lived down here. The singer David Johnson I think it was his name owned a home down here um Johnny Carson's sidekick owned a home down here. I'm blanking on his name now, Johnny Carson sidekick that led the band. The guy that founded MTV, Bob Pitman, had a home down here for many many years! So we get a lot of the celebrity crowd that ends up in San Miguel too. But, you know, I'm not a celebrity, you probably aren’t one either, you're here for the lifestyle. So that's the one good thing to remember! We are the third most populous but probably the most popular from a visitation standpoint. And also, a ton of people that live down here and they just rent, so they don't have a residency Visa, necessarily, they just rent for, you know, a period of time. So that would probably make us the number one expat destination if you count those renters that don't have residency visas down here. But at any rate, that's the number third most populous and I'd like to think the most popular destination in Mexico. You got to come down and visit!

 

Maya: Sure! You have to come visit! And thank you, Greg, for sharing all the stories! They're so much fun and I bet a lot of our viewers didn't know them, so it's great to just talk about the history of each of these places. And there we have it! The three most popular destinations in Mexico for American expats and that's not even counting Canadian expats since we don't have the statistics for them, but you and I have lots of Canadian neighbors living here don't we?

 

Greg: yeah you know it's interesting because about 11% of our buying market here are Canadiansm so I've worked with tons of Canadians over the years that I've been doing real estate here and we seem especially popular with the crowd from British Columbia. I mean I have clients from all over Canada but a lot of them come from British Columbia, especially around Vancouver. I actually sold a home to, has anybody seen the movie Nacho Libre, with Jack Black? That's a really cool movie! One of the assistant directors for that movie was a client of mine and he's from Vancouver and he bought a home down here, too. So a lot of Canadian clients, yeah, you're right, Maya.

 

Maya: So, viewers, we hope you enjoyed learning about the three most popular destinations in Mexico for American expats who retire in Mexico. I bet you weren't surprised to hear that the city named as the number one small city in the world five different times by Condé Nast Traveler was the third most popular city in Mexico for American retirees. You learnt today from an expert! Greg's been an expat for 15 years here already! Right, Greg?

 

Greg: Yeah, that's the key. You can take it from me. I've lived here 15 years full-time. I don't have a real estate back up in the United States. I no longer have any business up in the United States, so I live here full-time and absolutely love it! I tell my clients they are going to carry me out in a box! I don't plan on leaving! So I think you'll find the same way many of my clients fall in love on that first visit. I knew within the first 24 hours of getting here that I was going to live here full-time. I mean, the architecture here is phenomenal, we have 480 years of preserved Spanish Colonial architecture, that you're just going to fall in love with when you get here. That alone is a visual treat, even before you learn all of the extra lifestyle amenities that we offer here that, you know, you don't realize or you don't learn until you've been here for a week or a month. But the richness of the visual environment here is just phenomenal. It'll blow you away the first visit! So, come on down! Say hi, give me a shout before you come down! I'll help you plan your trip, give you some good recommendations of places to stay, how to get back and forth from the airport. I've got another video that you'll find online on my YouTube channel that tells you how to get to the airport which airport to fly into, in fact take a look at my YouTube channel. You're on it right now, I hope! Subscribe to it so you see more of these videos and we'll send you more! Hope to see you again soon!

Maya: Great to see you again, Greg! See you next time!

 

Greg: Bye bye! Thanks, Maya.

 

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