American buyers -- usually from California -- are using equity in their US homes to buy vacation homes in southern half of the Baja Peninsula, causing the Baja housing market to sizzle.
"Buyers have been snapping up homes here in the southern half of the Baja Peninsula, usually in all-cash deals. Like Leach, most of the newcomers are Americans, many from California, leveraging the equity in their increasingly valuable U.S. homes.
Their purchases reflect a change in global real estate ownership: People no longer have to be super-rich to invest in homes in foreign locales. In fact, some economists are starting to worry whether places like Baja California, London and Canada's British Columbia are part of a global housing bubble driven by the same combustible mix that has fueled American home prices: low interest rates, flexible financing and sluggish stock markets that have sent investors looking for better money-making opportunities."
FULL STORY: Hot Housing Market Crosses the Border
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