Let’s say you’re going to sink some cash into a new piece of land. You don’t know where, but you want a long-term investment. It’s only natural to assess all your options, to weigh the pros and cons of the different possibilities.

If you’re thinking about a condo in a city near either of America’s coasts, you probably are looking at paying about $200 or $400 a square foot (or maybe much more, depending on the area.) If you shift your gaze southward to Mexico, that price drops to about $50 per square foot, with the added benefit of some of the most beautiful beachfront locales that the planet has to offer. The plot could one day lie underneath your dream house.  

To get you to that point, real estate companies like Baja 123 can help. Baja 123, while located in Northern Baja, networks throughout Mexico.  In Baja, the group can set you up with a property from Rosarito in the North to Cabo San Lucas in the sunny South. Away from the peninsula, the company also conducts business in booming markets like Puerto Vallarta and Cancun.

Baja 123 is based in Rosarito, one of the emerging hot spots in northern Baja California. Just 20 miles south of the U.S. border, Rosarito has long been a popular place for California off-roaders and day-trippers. While the United States real estate market has stumbled in recent months, Baja’s has soared, and Rosarito has become a perfect spot for a beach house. Not particularly pricey, it’s cheaper than Cabo, and much less expensive than California. Thanks to cool ocean breezes, the summers are relatively moderate; on the other hand, the winters, well, let’s just say that for anyone from the Upper Midwest, winter is a figment of the locals’ imagination.

Nearby Ensenada, a longtime favorite for sport fishermen, is another Baja real estate gem. At about half a million residents, it’s ten times larger than Rosarito, but has none of the busy pace you might associate with Tijuana or Mexico City. This year, Mexico will break ground on the construction of a new international airport near Ensenada, which will make the northern peninsula more accessible than ever for out-of-towners.

While lots of real estate companies sell finished houses in established developments, you might also want to start from scratch, overseeing the process from foundation to capstone. Baja 123 will assist you in either process. If you want to build the perfect beach house, the company will oversee the construction, employing the most advanced building techniques and using the most reliable materials around. All told, your plot of land could go from sandy shoreline to 3,000-foot, four-bedroom beach pad for just a little more than $250,000.

So why choose Baja? The advantages are endless. History buffs can check out some of the hemisphere’s earliest European settlements. If green-living is your thing, Baja California is one of Mexico’s centers of eco-tourism, and Baja 123 works with green contractors. For the seagoing, the Pacific Ocean off of Baja is home to a remarkable diverse fish population, although, technically, the sight-seers’ favorite creatures—whales and sea turtles—aren’t even fish. If you’re sea legs have yet to develop, Baja’s got mountains that need scaling and trails that need biking.

The peninsula also offers some of Latin America’s finest golf courses. In the North, golf is available at Real del Mar, with an ocean view course and a Marriott hotel.  Between Rosarito and Ensenada lies Bajamar with its existing 27 hole course and soon to be built a Greg Norman designed 18 holes course on the same property.  The Baja Country Club, located just outside of Ensenada, is lodged between the ocean on one side and mountains on the other. The spectacular backdrop plays host to, among other challenges, an island green and gusts of Pacific wind. Further south, Los Cabos has long been famous for its world-class links, with El Dorado and the Nicklaus-designed Cabo Real among the most popular.

Depending on what part of Baja you’re thinking about, the future dream house could be anywhere from a short drive to a somewhat longer-but-still-easy plane ride. For many North Americans, Baja is the easiest destination in Mexico to reach. With its trans-peninsula highway but scores of unexplored areas, Baja strikes the perfect balance between seclusion and accessibility. It’s no surprise, then, that 60 percent of North American retirees in Mexico settle on Baja.

Wherever it is in Mexico that you are thinking about settling into a rocking chair, Baja 123 can be your guide.