Hi all, considering moving from Australia.

[perry]

Buenos Aires is not a family city in my humble opinion but for singles or divorced it is an excellent city to live in . There is a vibrant cultural life that is by far the best of South America . Food is getting better with new ideas about food and flavours catching on. Physically the city of Buenos Aires can be a mixture of incredible charm and grit . It is made for walking and the peaceful barrios of Palermo , Belgrano, Barrio Norte are the most attractive.

It is certainly expensive and imho is dearer than australia for similar middle class lifestyle . If you want quality here it is very expensive .

For families I would recommend very highly Mendoza, Rosario, Salta, provinces. I also love the province of Rio Negro and believe that families could have a beautiful lifestyle in many idyllic towns there.

 

[ElQueso]

ElQueso regarding your personal reasons I have very good contacts back in the states with people in the criminal justice system. Perhaps all those false charges and accusations against you could be cleared up, for a small fee of course.

Kidding aside very good post, mirrors my experiences here almost exactly. I have DirectTV as well and find the service the best of any other company there, maybe because it's a U.S. company. As for your standard of living cost on $5k a month you could probably have the same or better in most places in U.S. right now. I would agree you could probably live in B.A. for less. There are lots of hassles in living here, my favorites are getting service on anything and paying bills. For people who want hassle free lifestyles Argentina should be avoided.

Unfortunately gouchobob, I'm guilty! Guilty I say! Nothing can be done to save my neck!

I also find DirectTV to be one of the best services here, but it is still an Argentine-run company though it's parent is from the US. At least when they come out they do get things fixed. That's not the case with many people I call for services.

And as for living - yeah, I can actually live cheaper in Houston than I do here, in the suburbs, as I do now. There are places in the States where it is still cheaper to live here and I think that if inflation doesn't run away and the peso falls more in relation to the dollar like everyone says its going to do, it may become cheaper here than Houston again.

 

[missveronica]

Living in the suburbs does have advantags, I think I've mentioned it before but there are several big companies with offices in Parque industrial Pilar/Garin/Tortuguitas...Examples: Unilever, Kimberly Clark corp. Ford, medicine labs etc.
Those companies usually provide some extra services such as transportation and paid lunches for it's difficult for them to get employees.
You might also find companies in the Northern area such as IBM, Citybank etc which arent that far and have easy access
ElQueso, dunno where you live or what you do, but commuting IS a pain in the ass. That's why when I moved to Del Viso I tried to find work around the area. I'm an English teacher and could find a job easily and I've also been called to be receptionist or secretary in different companies (Mind you, I have Zero experience)
Also schools here are a bit expensive, but no more than in BA and they usually have a nicer atmosphere
I wouldnt live in the city for the world, even less if I had kids.

 

[marksoc]

And again, it depends on what do you want from BA or from Argentina. If you get a job that doesn't need you to live in BA, you can choose from a large number of cities/towns. One hour by car from the BA downtown there are some little towns where children play on the streets and bicycles are left without chains, I prefer those places to gated communities. Outside BA, especially in Cordoba and up north, you need 30% less to live or even less. Of course, school choices could be less sophisticated. Argentina it is not only the northern neighborhoods of BA, nor the northern suburbs (which are really nice, but the people are somewhat uptight, as you could expect from high-class suburbia.
Contrary to expectations, I find the middle class suburbs to be safer than the middle-high class neighborhoods inside the city. Why would you go to steal where there is not so much money?
So, it depends in the lifestyle you are looking for, job availability, and what you want your children to be able to do on the streets.

 

[perry]

The op has disappeared it seems like . Looks like he was scared off by all the posts with strong opinions.

 

[ElQueso]

I don't know about the strong opinions - I think more like the fighting that preempted the thread awhile back

 

[va2ba]

TMWNN: You've been awfully quiet. I know it's a lot to read and think about. But what are you thinking? Do you have any more questions that we can help with?

 

[ElQueso]

ElQueso, dunno where you live or what you do, but commuting IS a pain in the ass. That's why when I moved to Del Viso I tried to find work around the area

I actually live at the edge of Garin, not far off the Panamericana Pilar branch. I'm actually between the Tortugitas exit and the Del Viso exit. A neighborhood called La Legua.

I didn't realize that anyone from the forum lived out here!

BTW - we looked at schools in the Del Viso area and saw some nice ones, just a little too far from us (Tortuguitas is a little closer with easier access) and we couldn't find a school bus company that would come to our neighborhood to pick up.

I've thought about looking for a house outside of a closed neighborhood, close to where I am now, and in Tortuguitas and Del Viso as well.

The biggest issue for me is safety. The truth is, I feel safe where I am, even in the neighborhood outside of my closed meighborhood. The people seem nice, the properties are well-cared for (for Argentina) and it feels comfortable. But we have a woman that comes to our house on occasion to help with clean ups after parties and such who lives nearby and has told me emphatically that I should never think about living outside of a closed neighborhood if I can at all avoid it. She lives closer to Garin, about 1/2 kilometer from me, and it could be where SHE herself lives, that is the big problem. But I've talked to her about nearby and she says if she had any way to live in a closed neighborhood she would do it all the time because of the problems they have all the time with gangs of kids roaming around and stealing crap, etc.

In fact, we have about 3-4 break-ins into the neighborhood every month. So far they have not gotten away with anything - our guards are very attentive and they have foiled every attempt since I've been here. But the amount of attempts make me wonder what it would be like if I lived outside, in a regular house, even with walls around the lot. I have a lot of electronic equipment (part of my job) that would kill me to replace, not to mention my data and such.

 

[Futboljunkie]

Buenos Aires is not a family city in my humble opinion but for singles or divorced it is an excellent city to live in . There is a vibrant cultural life that is by far the best of South America . Food is getting better with new ideas about food and flavours catching on. Physically the city of Buenos Aires can be a mixture of incredible charm and grit . It is made for walking and the peaceful barrios of Palermo , Belgrano, Barrio Norte are the most attractive.

It is certainly expensive and imho is dearer than australia for similar middle class lifestyle . If you want quality here it is very expensive .

For families I would recommend very highly Mendoza, Rosario, Salta, provinces. I also love the province of Rio Negro and believe that families could have a beautiful lifestyle in many idyllic towns there.

Too bad that most people need to work for a living

 

[missveronica]

I actually live at the edge of Garin, not far off the Panamericana Pilar branch. I'm actually between the Tortugitas exit and the Del Viso exit. A neighborhood called La Legua.

I didn't realize that anyone from the forum lived out here!

BTW - we looked at schools in the Del Viso area and saw some nice ones, just a little too far from us (Tortuguitas is a little closer with easier access) and we couldn't find a school bus company that would come to our neighborhood to pick up.

I've thought about looking for a house outside of a closed neighborhood, close to where I am now, and in Tortuguitas and Del Viso as well.

The biggest issue for me is safety. The truth is, I feel safe where I am, even in the neighborhood outside of my closed meighborhood. The people seem nice, the properties are well-cared for (for Argentina) and it feels comfortable. But we have a woman that comes to our house on occasion to help with clean ups after parties and such who lives nearby and has told me emphatically that I should never think about living outside of a closed neighborhood if I can at all avoid it. She lives closer to Garin, about 1/2 kilometer from me, and it could be where SHE herself lives, that is the big problem. But I've talked to her about nearby and she says if she had any way to live in a closed neighborhood she would do it all the time because of the problems they have all the time with gangs of kids roaming around and stealing crap, etc.

In fact, we have about 3-4 break-ins into the neighborhood every month. So far they have not gotten away with anything - our guards are very attentive and they have foiled every attempt since I've been here. But the amount of attempts make me wonder what it would be like if I lived outside, in a regular house, even with walls around the lot. I have a lot of electronic equipment (part of my job) that would kill me to replace, not to mention my data and such.

I live in the poorest part of town, surrounded mostly by paraguayans. My biggest problem is loud Reggaeton, Chamame and Cumbia..
Most neighbors know each other, so we try to help each other and warn if we see something "strange" going on.
This is a humble hood, but we mostly look after each other and when we had a neighbor who was a criminal...we all knew him and kept him "under watch" nover stole anything around here
I'm not closed community material
My car has been broken since december, I go out and come back at night or later and walk three blocks home...Im not stupid though, I dont show off and I have three lovely, but big dogs, one of them a rottie (ppl fear them as if they were the devil)