I have to say - in the States (like pretty much anywhere) it all depends on where you live. There are a number of places where you can live a whole lot cheaper! I had a house in Houston, 3000 sf, and paid $800 a month mortgage. 3 car garage, corner lot, in a very nice neighborhood. There are other places, not suggesting only Texas.
Things are not easy here now, certainly not as easy as when I came 9 years ago. For example, I earn in the States, but it's a bitch getting my money down here. I spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about that. I'm fortunate in what i have set up now, but it's not easy, and not cheap, for the most part. Don't plan on using your ATM card (at least not right now - official rate around 9-1, blue rate around 12.5-1 and expected to rise in the future - you can use it, but you'll be losing around 30% of your value by using ATMs), and don't think you'll be able to open a bank account right away and wire money to your account here (you have to have a DNI to open an account and to transfer money you have to get permission, approved source, and get the official rate as well, and the central bank often holds up money, etc).
Also, not sure if you've seen how rents work here? You can rent temporarily fairly easily, with a maximum (by law) lease terms of 6 months, although you may find people who will rent longer with consecutive leases (won't go much more into that, a bit complicated). Temporaries are more expensive than long-term, and are furnished, but if you decide to stay, you need to find a long-term lease. Temporary leasing can have its own drawbacks in dealing with the owners, particularly those who inventory every little thing in their apartments, down to the number of knives and forks in the drawer.
The great majority of long term leases require a cosigner who puts up their owned property as a guarantee for your lease. The laws here allow people to occupy a dwelling without paying (particularly if children are in the dwelling), for quite awhile (using the legal system, someone may be able to get a squatter out after a couple of years of litigation, possibly more if children are involved as well), and the guarantee is a legal method that the owner can use against the guarantor to try to recuperate something out of the deal (ostensibly the owner could end up owning the guarantor's property). So it's not easy to find someone to guarantee your lease until you've been here awhile and have made enough contacts of the right kind.
And once you have a long-term lease, you then are responsible for pretty much all maintenance of everything, except the pipes in the concrete. Service here is horrible, appliances and furniture are expensive (often, very) and when you have to call someone out to fix something, you will find it may take many trips and even different contractors to get the problem fixed. I once had a refrigerator/freezer that stopped cooling the bottom refrigerator and it took me nearly 4 months, three different companies and 4 different techs to get it resolved - and it broke again a couple of months later. Fortunately, i was accustomed to such issues when this one happened and I had two refrigerator/freezers (we have 5 in our family, very necessary)
Then there are the import restrictions which often hinder things like getting spare parts for appliances. Or even medication.
I mention all of this for the reality of life here, not to scare you away. Things are more simple when you first come to visit, but ongoing life can be much more complicated. If you are looking to make things less complicated and cheaper, you may be in for a bit of a surprise, unless things change a lot after the elections (which most of us are hoping for).
But come experience an adventure, for sure!
