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Cost of Living in Loreto and La Paz, Baja California Sur, Mexico
Cost of living in Baja, Loreto, and La Paz
So, what is the overall Mexican cost of living in Baja compared to living in the US? My answer is CHEAPER in the Baja. Please take into consideration that the cost of living in the US will differ significantly from Us region to US region. For instance, it costs 4 times more money to live in Manhattan New York or San Marino California than it does to live in a suburb of Atlanta Georgia or Kentucky or Nebraska. I am going to take a moderate point of view and compare the US cost of living in a very average 3 bedroom $450,000 home in an average Orange County California town and compare that to Loreto cost of living in Baja California Sur, Mexico in a new two bedroom 900 sq. ft. Mexican home on a 4,000 sq. ft. lot with underground water and sewer and above ground electricity and phone service and propane gas. Family of three.
Cost of Living in Mexico for the common consumer necessities such as telephone, gasoline, electricity, water, propane gas (instead of natural gas) will be 25% - 50% cheaper. Food will be 30% cheaper. Property taxes will be 98% less. Maintenance repair labor for auto and home repairs will be 80% cheaper. Parts cost will be the same, but they will try to get you used parts from the many auto junk yards around town to save a few bucks. The cost of the house (not beachfront property, that is) will be 60% cheaper.
Entertainment, well, very reasonable. The cost of living in La Paz as it is affected by entertainment and eating out will be modest. That is even more true for Loreto. You won't be spending $200 per person for concert tickets. No fancy concert venues. Nor will you be spending $65 per person eating dinners at Mortons or Ruth's Criss steak house. You won't be spending $700 to get away for a weekend because you are already "away". You can go to a cantina for cocktail hour, but you will spend only 50% of what Dave and Busters or B & J's would cost you in the US. Just the cost of margaritas, cervezas and dinner out.
Cocktail Hour. Acutally, it's fun to stock your own bar at home and invite people over. You can impress the locals with your knowledge of TGIF and Claim Jumper cocktail recipes. Let's face it, no one lives very far away from each other. Loreto is about the size of Dana Point and La Paz is about the size of New Orleans. Also, since Loreto is 2 miles long and 1 mile wide, you can have your gas guzzling Suburban four-wheel drive since you are not going to drive more than five miles a day. Also, in the Baja, who needs Gucci shoes, Armani suits, Florsheim shoes, or styled hair? They don't even have a Nordstroms there.
Medical and dental insurance together is $150 to $400 per year per person. Prescriptions are about 50% of what they cost in the US and for most of it, you don't need to pay for a doctor's visit because you don't need a prescription in Mexico. Health insurance and auto insurance would be an average of $100 US per month for three people.
The internet and Satellite TV will cost about the same as in the US. I think having a home and considering living partly in Mexico and partly in the US an option because of the affordability of living in the Baja.
Baja Cost of Living in Loreto has some special good considerations. First of all, Loreto is only 700 miles south of the San Diego border which makes it a drivable distance, especially attractive for hauling furniture, a boat, and a vehicle to leave in Loreto. To summarize the above information for a family of three living in Loreto or La Paz, let’s look at it this way. If you paid cash for a new 900 sq. ft. two bedroom house for $150,000 US, your monthly expenses would be about $150 for TV, phone, and all utilities and property tax altogether. If you cooked all your meals at home, food would cost about $300 per month, including drinking water. Gasoline would be about $30 per month for the Chevy Suburban. Eating out and anything else would be extra. Food is a little cheaper, maintenance and repair costs are much cheaper, transportation costs are lower because you don't have to travel very far for anything and you don't use your vehicle that much and auto insurance is much cheaper, medical costs and medical insurance and prescriptions are much cheaper, and a casual life style just naturally results in less consumption. The Mexican Cost of Living is alot cheaper, period.
Real Estate Cost of living in Baja. If you use a house as a vacation home only, then the monthly cost to maintain the home would be $45 for the bank trust, $7 for minimum electric service and $6 for minimum water service, $5 for property tax. Let’s see, that’s $63 per month or an annual cost of under $800 US. Worth it! Also, if anything goes wrong in the US and you need a place to live that no one in the USA can take away from you, you’ve got a great safety net in the Baja. The average monthly cost of the real estate bank trust is about $45 US. Adding it all up would be $325 (150+30+100+45) per month. $325 per month base cost for a family of three who own their own 900 sq. ft. home on a 4,000 sq. ft. lot is not bad. That’s about $4,000 US per year. Utilities are low, housing cost is extremely low, property taxes are extremely low
Airfare can be cheaper if you live within driving distance to the Mexican and US border crossing. I drive to San Diego and leave me car in a very safe and secure San Diego overnight border parking lot, $8 per day. I walk across the border and take a taxi to the Tijuana Airport, $15. I take Alma airlines from Tijuana to either La Paz or Loreto, which is usually 30% - 50% cheaper than flying from LAX (LAX parking = $18 day). Today, its $300 round trip per person on Alma and $550 on Delta. I buy the tickets online at www.Alma.com.mx. TOP