Housing Boom Jumps The Mexican Border; A Global Housing Bubble?

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.

1 minute read

October 11, 2005, 7:00 AM PDT

By Chris Steins @planetizen


"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."

Thursday, October 13, 2005 in The Los Angeles Times

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