Can't say I agree with you on this one based on personal experience.

1. Utilities are cheap but heavily subsidized by the government. Problem is they can't afford it, look for prices to rise sharply in the near future.

2. Food is cheap there but lacks variety and is often of not the best quality.

3. A 2 bedroom apartment in Recoleta for $150k, maybe. My experience there is that a lot of the apartments there don't come up to U.S. standards. A lot of them are in a poor state of repair and badly in need of updating. I think if you are renting or buying you could get the same thing in the U.S. today for less, in some cases for far less.

4 I owned a house there and found the overall tax burden to be about the same as the U.S. The big difference was that there you didn't get much for your money, i.e. minimal fire and police protection. We paid extra each month for private security guards.

5. Health insurance there for a couple over 65 assuming they can get it will be $600 to $800 a month. Hundreds more a month than what a retiree in the states with Medicare would pay.

6. Cars, appliances, electronics all cost a lot more there.

7. Return trips home once or twice a year to visit the gran-kids. Figure about $1500 to $2400 per couple for airfare per trip.

Overall a retired couple there will spend more to live there than in the states when everything is factored in. The hardest one to get around is the health insurance costs and airfares to and from the states.

Another, point about retiring there to consider is personal security. The elderly are often seen as easy marks by the criminal element there. I know an older lady that lives in a nice area of Palermo and won't leave her apartment after dark.

We have clearly had different experiences here so I will elaborate about mine.

This is probably true, but they are SO incredibly cheap now. Even if they triple they will be lower than the US. On the other hand, if they do triple (or even double), there will be some serious protests.

I prepare about 95% of my meals. I find great produce and wonderful meats. Even a ready to bake large cheese pizza (fresh-not frozen) is less than $4U$S. I add seasoning and jalapenos. A big vacio cut of beef (my favorite) is less than $3U$D. A liter of Bud is less than $1U$D. A baked chicken is $7.00 and I use it for at least four meals.

There are plenty of great cooking ingredients available, too.

[quote=Stanexpat;16948]I was quoting a price for a 100% recycled (remodeled) apartment...as nice as you could POSSIBLY want with new floors, kitchen, and bath. New ones can cost considerably more. A new 2bdrm around the corner on an UGLY street with no trees (and also a bus route) is for sale for $250K and it's the last one in the building. The only reason it hasn't sold it that it's on the first floor.

There's NOTHING like EITHER of these in ANY decent US city, especially in nice sections of San Francisco or NYC where 2 bedroom apartments are almost all over a million bucks.

I should add that the apartment (about 70M) in my building that was on the market for less than a week in October was NOT remodeled, but was only priced at $125KU$D!!!!!!!

Taxes on my apartment are $200U$D per year! (That's the new rate!) Where in the US are property taxes that low? Who needs fire protection in a cement and brick building. My home owners insurance is only $20 bucks a month.

I'm still young (58) and pay just UNDER $100 for a top level health plan. I can stay in the plan until I'm 70.

The Honda Fit is a good deal here. I don't need or want a car, anyway. 42" flat screen TVs continue to decline in price, so do computers (though they still cost more here). Bring your own laptop.


Fly AA and get one trip free out of four with their incredible frequent flier plan. Use membership rewards on American Express and fly Mexicana free as well. I've done both. I don't have gran-kids. I exchange my BA apartment with folks in San Francisco and Paris at least two months a year. (Never paying for hotels.) I have offers for exchanges all over the world.

Health care "on demand" for seniors in the US is likely to decline when universal health care is implemented. Too many will join for free and the young will demand their "rights" over the aging seniors who are no longer paying into the system. That's when rationing could begin and I wouldn't want to be a senior on that list.

Find (buy or rent) a good apartment in Recoleta and don't worry. There are lots of older folks on the streets here...even after dark (though I'm rarely one of them). The kiosko at the corner is open all night and has never had a robbery. Yes, there was once an attempt by two men to get into my apartment late at night, but they were not successful and no one was hurt.

BTY: When I was growing up In Rock Island Illinois, there was NO crime in my neighborhood, but the elderly lady next door never left her house at night, either.

I wonder how many have read Stan's early posts where he excitedly shared that he found his house with a week or two of his arrival and bought it almost immediately.

If you take your time, it is possible to make an great decision...one you won't regret.

I can agree with some of your points, i.e. eating at home. However, the fresh produce available there is often not to good, stuff that would have been trashed elsewhere. I could tell you some horror stories about the back rooms of the supermarkets there but I don't want to spoil any appetites.

Yes apartments in B.A. do appear cheap with the U.S. when compared with S.F. or NYC. But I know there are a lot of nice places besides these where you can get nice 2 bedroom apts. for under $100k. I will stick by my statement saying a lot of the apartments there aren't that nice. They could be made nice but you will have to put more money into them to make them so.

You might be able to keep your plan until your 70 but you won't keep it for $100. If you were 66 today you would be paying probably $400 next year, and couple $800 more. That's a big hit compared to current medicare costs in the U.S.

Even if you could get a free ticket from a FF program once in a while your still spending a lot of money you wouldn't have to if you didn't live there.

Don't know where you got the comments about me buying a house after being there 2 weeks, I never said that.

I think my points are still valid. If you want to retire there don't do because you think you will save money, you won't.

I think the guy should come for a visit to decide on retiring here. We all have our "bit*hes" about prices and what will happen to Argetina. But until you actually stay here for a couple of months you don't know how it will be. I mean my husband loves this place, our house property taxes are less than Chicago ($6000K/year (1,000 sq in Gold Coast) here ($4000K/year, 5,000 sq ft in Olivos), but I on the other hand see a different side of Argentina. Parts of it I love (outside of BA providence) other parts I dislike (bureaucratic stuff and the disrespectful school kids). He should come here for 3-6 months than decide if it is for him. Meanwhile, can't you guys agree to disagree.

Forgot to mention property taxes. You may only be paying $200 a year but that probably only to the city, don't you pay AFIP as well?

I lived just outside of B.A. and paid the following entities:

1. AFIP
2. Provencial
3. Local city

I paid a total of around $3000 a year.

Also I would be concerned about fire protection, the building you live in can burn.

Sorry, Stan, I was wrong. You were only here for three days before you decided "this was the place" and found your house in a week!

1. My apartment (when I bought it) cost less than $300,000 pesos so it was not subject to bienes pesrsonales (AFIP) taxes).

2. Nor is it subject to "Provencial" taxes.

3. The "local city" taxes" are also known as ABL which I previously indicated are now $200U$D per anum.

4. The only way my building can burn is if you come and set a fire.

Face it, Stan, your credibility on this site is now SHOT!

As my parents taught me: Once caught in a lie, there is NO way out of the trap.

Please stop posting your personal and negative BS.

I'm sorry you were not happy here, but NOW your posts are NOT valid!

I have been here two and a half years and BA is STILL the place for me!

I would say you have a major problem, and if there are any liars here it is folks like you who intentionally try misrepresent what others say. This is the post in question.


Lots of negativity on this site. My wife and I bought a place here
about a year ago. After being here for 3 days we decided this was the
place for us. It took a week to find what we wanted. We've been down 3
times since our purchase (from 2 weeks to 2 months) and have a hard
time staying away but we are still working."

Not to add more negativity but you really can't accurately judge B.A. or any other place after a couple of weeks or months for that matter. Until you actually lived someplace you are still just a tourist on an extended vacation.First impressions of B.A. are positive for most people. It's when you've been living here for a while dealing with the problems of daily life here that the problems become more apparent....

Notice the quote mark in the first paragraph it was written by somebody else in the thread I'm quoting, my response is the second paragraph where I'm not agreeing with the posters thoughts. My guess is that you already know this.

I find people like you who can't factually support their views often resort to this types of below the belt attack. If anybody credibility is shot I would say it is yours.

I did NOT realize this was the case. If so, I apologize PERSONALLY to Stan 100%. And I still think BA is a GREAT place to live...for all of the reasons I enumerated.

But I do apologize for the misquote..I found it under one of Stan's post and I really thought it was his. This is a very good reason to use the "quote" feature of this site when quoting someone...as opposed to using the simple quotation marks.

Sorry, too, this is getting out of hand. I'll shut-up for now.

I met with an escribano yesterday who informed me that a DNI is now required to buy property here. If this is indeed the case, it would no doubt have (perhaps already has had) a negative effect on sales. If any of the real estate pros who regularly post here have more info I hope they'll share it.