They've left. The first batch to leave were the ones who defended everything the Kirchners did. They hated the US and thought Argentina was a paradise, as long as it was cheap and they could live well. Once the going got tough they decided the US wasn't so bad after all. The second wave of refugees were those who were more committed but were sinking under the inflation and instability. Now there is just a hardcore left, mostly people married to Argentines who don't want to leave. Well, that's my take on it.
I'm not sure I'd give the first "batch to leave" so much credit (or blame) for "defending everything the Kirchners did" as that may be too broad of a generalization. I think that many of therm may have been apolitical, but I agree that they came to Argentina, at least in part because the "cost was low and they could live well" (in an "exotic" foreign capital}. I also agree that they left because the cost of living increased beyond their means,
Increases in the consorcio fees from $450 per month in late 2006 to more than $800 per month by early 2009 was the main reason I sold my apartment in Recoleta in May of that year (after being on the market since November 2008). it was not an "easy" time to sell and I sold the apartment for less than ten percent more than the purchase price in 2006. Adding in the commissions and fees for the buy and the sale, I actually "lost" a little money, though I figured I "saved" about 17% by not paying rent while I owned the apartment.
I bought a PH in Nunez (without consorcio fees) but I lost ten grand when I sold it just over a year later. The seller had concealed a major defect that would have cost about ten grand to repair. I did not conceal the problem and was happy to bail out at the price I got. Besides, i had already discovered (and made an offer to buy) the quinta where I have (quite happily) lived since late June of 2010. I do all of the maintenance (grounds keeping) here and, although electric rates and the cost of LP gas have increased by about a factor of five, the exchange rate has almost kept up with those increases.
Someone asked me about the increasing cost of nafta (gasoline) in another thread. The current prices of super (24 pesos per liter is six times what it was in 2010, but I drive less than ever. When I have to go to Punta Alta I drive into the nearby village (1.5 km from my house) and take the bus (13 pesos each way). I can do the same to go to Bahia Blanca (24 pesos each way). Sometimes I catch a ride with a friend who goes to Bahia every Friday to buy repair parts for his auto repair shop and then take the bus back to the village. I don't shop at Wal-mart anymore, but Friday's are a good day to take advantage of the weekly specials at Carrefour (which is in the center of Bahia and less than a block from the sucursal of Banco Santander Rio).
When i arrived in May of 2006, the monthly requirement for the visa rentista was $2700 pesos (about $900 USD) per month. I just barely qualified. I already had permanent residency when the monthly requirement was raised to $8,000 per month. With an exchange rate at the time of about four to one, that meant the income requirement in dollars just about doubled. I would not have been able to meet the requirement to renew my temporary residency or get permanent residency if I had been subject to the increase. In the following five years that eight thousand peso threshold was greatly reduced in terms of dollars. and there were undoubtedly expats who (happily) came to Argentina when the rate was 12 to one, meaning the income requirement in dollars was less than $700 per month at that time!
The current monthly income requirement of $30,000 pesos for a single person comes out to about $1700 dollars and a third of that (any amount over $20,000 per month) is subject to income tax (of about 30%?) in Argentina. All politics aside, I see that as a simple economic reason for the exodus, as well as a reason for others not to come here to live for more than six months of the year (on a tourist visa with one extension). If the new tax rates in the USA exempt about $20,000 USD in personal income form federal income taxes, more expats (at least from the USA) are likely to leave. I however, will not soon be singing, "Take me home, country roads, to a place I belong: West Virginia."
