Cost of Living Index - BA

[El Greco]

http://www.liveandinvestoverseas.com...n-buenos-aires

"Argentina is booming," writes Intrepid Correspondent Paul Terhorst from his part-time home outside Buenos Aires, "in spite of government efforts to kill off the private sector. Example: A friend is doing a high-end condo project in Uruguay. He put the units on the market two weeks ago and has been selling one a day. These are million-dollar apartments. He just raised the prices 15% , and he figures he'll have all units sold by Christmas. All to Argentine purchasers.

"For Vicki and me, Buenos Aires is very expensive. If you go to a supermarket here and compare the prices of meat and chicken, carrots and onions, bread and eggs, costs are more expensive than in the United States or Europe. The South of France would be more affordable right now.

"Having said that, we're having a very good time. For some reason the services we use--taxis, car hires, take-out restaurants, gardeners, buses, maids, meat markets, wineries, hotels--have improved.

"We used to have trouble getting cars to pick us up, standing in long lines, long waits in general. Now we just jump in and go. I don't have an explanation yet.

"The best I can come up with is that we left during an uncontrolled boom that put tremendous demand on services. After the recession, which hit here only very slightly, and after a year or two of more normal economic expansion, day-to-day life has returned to routine."

Wait till you come to Brasil then.

My regular apartment in Fortaleza went up 85% this year.

That is the new price 2.450 Reais / month iso 1.600 last year and exchange rate of 2.5 Reais / Euro iso 3 Reais / Euro last year.

At least in Argentina I'll be geting 5,7 Pesos / Euro this year iso 4 pesos last year.

[Cornoir]

http://www.liveandinvestoverseas.com...n-buenos-aires

"For Vicki and me, Buenos Aires is very expensive. If you go to a supermarket here and compare the prices of meat and chicken, carrots and onions, bread and eggs, costs are more expensive than in the United States or Europe. The South of France would be more affordable right now.

Right, as anyone who has lived in NYC and been to Paris knows, those two places are way more expensive than Buenos Aires. I suspect any author who retires at 35, of course BA will be expensive if you have no income besides writing books about living the vagabond life.

Cornoir

[Toymann]

Hola Happy. Not sure when you were stateside last but as far as the cost of meat goes you've got to be having one too many cocktails. I was just in Corrientes and the price of a whole LOMO was 36 pesos. I mean the whole tenderloin! In the US today you will pay at least 60 USD at a discount market ordered by the case (3 whole) Have never bought LOMO in BA but really can't imagine that the cost is in excess of 200 pesos for the whole deal. Just keepin it real. Happy Mongering All. Toymann

[HappyGoLucky]

http://www.liveandinvestoverseas.com...n-buenos-aires

"Argentina is booming," writes Intrepid Correspondent Paul Terhorst from his part-time home outside Buenos Aires, "in spite of government efforts to kill off the private sector. Example: A friend is doing a high-end condo project in Uruguay. He put the units on the market two weeks ago and has been selling one a day. These are million-dollar apartments. He just raised the prices 15% , and he figures he'll have all units sold by Christmas. All to Argentine purchasers.

"For Vicki and me, Buenos Aires is very expensive. If you go to a supermarket here and compare the prices of meat and chicken, carrots and onions, bread and eggs, costs are more expensive than in the United States or Europe. The South of France would be more affordable right now.

"Having said that, we're having a very good time. For some reason the services we use--taxis, car hires, take-out restaurants, gardeners, buses, maids, meat markets, wineries, hotels--have improved.

"We used to have trouble getting cars to pick us up, standing in long lines, long waits in general. Now we just jump in and go. I don't have an explanation yet.

"The best I can come up with is that we left during an uncontrolled boom that put tremendous demand on services. After the recession, which hit here only very slightly, and after a year or two of more normal economic expansion, day-to-day life has returned to routine."

[Cordoba Dan]

Unlike others who put this type of list together, there seems to be a much heavier emphasis placed on health care, consumer goods, energy, and education based on some heavy western guidance that throws some of these cities very high or low. Its like calculating 15,000 mile a year private auto use in Lagos, sending kids to private foreign language schools etc. For executives overseas. The application seems over done and totally distorts real world living costs for average expats.

[HappyGoLucky]

It's about 5 months old but I found this part interesting:

"At some point authorities are going to have to bite the bullet and go through a major recession there to get it going back in the right direction," said Will Landers, a portfolio manager at BlackRock who oversees $4 billion in Latin American equities.

"That's not going to be comfortable because that's what happened in 2001," Landers said.

[Schmoj]

For Argentina, the worst is yet to come:

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/902

This is old. The mid term elections are already over.

[HappyGoLucky]

For Argentina, the worst is yet to come:

http://www.buenosairesherald.com/BreakingNews/View/902

[TejanoLibre]

Global Cost of Living Index.

BA is WAY down the list!

Past 140!

Cheaper than Paraguay!

TL.

http://austin10.cityspur.com/2009/10...-1-april-2009/