Cost Of Living Comparison By Expatistan

[Montauk_Project]

Got this fowarded to me on Facebook today:
http://www.expatistan.com/cost-of-living/comparison/
According to it, BsAs is 71% cheaper than New York.
Not sure how accurate it is, nor at what rate they are converting pesos (I´m assuming official rate), but good when someone asks how expensive BsAs is.

 

[Matiasba]

I think in many items Buenos Aires can still be considered as cheap, in comparison with other countries of the region, and even more with US and Europe.

 

[GS_Dirtboy]

I did an in-depth cost of living comparison between San Diego and Buenos Aires. Since it is Dollars to Pesos I compared the percentage of my take-home pay for items like housing, food, transportation, health care, etc. For the same level of life-style it costs us here about 65% of what it costs us to live in San Diego.

There are other factors to consider which are hard to put a price on - like availability of goods, ability to freely travel, security, and an abundance of Dr. Pepper.

 

[teinha]

If one backs out clothes and electrodomesticos, BA lower cost of living gets lower yet.

 

[Joe]

I wonder how accurate this is for BA because the prices are changing so quickly and they have the up-to-date Blue rate.

 

[French jurist]

I wonder how accurate this is for BA because the prices are changing so quickly and they have the up-to-date Blue rate.

Prices seem quite accurate to me. Entries are made by members and prices look sound, at least to me. The "Blue" rate doesn't seem to be taken into account.

 

[AmigoArtistico]

According to it, BsAs is 71% cheaper than New York.
Not sure how accurate it is, nor at what rate they are converting pesos (I´m assuming official rate), but good when someone asks how expensive BsAs is.

I'm not trying to pick on you, but if you're not sure how accurate it is, nor which rate they're using to convert pesos, how can it be good (useful)c I don't know how accurate it is, either, but it definitely looks useful as a source of data. I don't think you can draw any useful conclusions on the numbers without factoring in your personal situation, but the numbers are interesting.

In any case, if you've lived here awhile, you can draw your own conclusions.

I've done several of my own analyses over the years, comparing the cost of living here to living in the northeast United States, and each time I've come to the conclusion that for someone on a low budget, it's significantly cheaper to live here, but as your budget increases, the costs of living increase here, and when you reach a certain point, it could actually be more expensive to live here than up there. The numbers change all the time because of the high inflation here, and recently, because of the dollar. Before the dollar blue started to make its run, I was personally starting to feel really squeezed (I'm one of those low budget people), but things are a bit better now (unfortunately at the expense of many Argentinians).

Relative costs of some things I've observed:

Some things that are cheaper here:

• Houses/apartments
• Rents
• Electricity
• Gas
• Water
• Property tax

Some things cheaper again now because of the "blue":

• Restaurants
• Many food items

Some things that are more expensive:

• Ice cream
• Nuts
• Cat food
• Scoopable cat litter (when/if you can find it -- we use pan rallado now, which is about the same price and readily available, but more expensive than scoopable cat litter in the states)
• Computers and computer components
• TVs
• Clothing

I also have to agree with GS_Dirtboy Bronson: there are some things you just can't put a price on.

I'd be interested in seeing other people's lists of things that they find cheaper here than in other places, and things that are more expensive.

 

[AmigoArtistico]

Never mind. I think I'll stop being overly picky and go have a glass of wine.

Wine: cheaper here.

 

[Montauk_Project]

After giving it a look over (it claims that it is 70% cheaper to live in Buenos Aires than New York City) I added some data. I didn´t add the cheapest prices, for example today I went to the mercado central and got apples for $5pesos per kilo, but I put in the price I normally pay $12.

It doesn´t take into account how much can you earn locally, which is a big part of the picture. Movie tickets are less expensive in BsAs than in New York, but they FEEL more expensive to me. I live in official conversion land/in pesos.
More than anything it seems useful for one someone asks "how much does it cost to live in BsAs?". Like anything it has to be taken with a grain of salt.

 

[French jurist]

I've done several of my own analyses over the years, comparing the cost of living here to living in the northeast United States, and each time I've come to the conclusion that for someone on a low budget, it's significantly cheaper to live here, but as your budget increases, the costs of living increase here, and when you reach a certain point, it could actually be more expensive to live here than up there.

Point of view could be different among expats about that one. I think quite the opposite (easier to live on a lower budget in NY or Paris), you can live a better life here when your budget grows (nice houses are cheaper, fancy restaurants are cheaper -even more with the 'blue'-, etc.), not even mentioning the possibility having maids, people taking care of kids, etc.

[background=rgb(252, 252, 252)]If the blue rate isn't taken into account, then it's not accurate at all. The official rate doesn't exist for most purposes.[/background]

The page mentions ARS so I don't think they take the blue into account.