Mexico City Low Cost of Living

Mexico City
Cost of Living (Text) or (Video)
Things to Do (Text) or (Video)
Old Town Walking Tour (Map) or (Video)
La Condesa and Roma Norte Walking Tour (Map) or (Video)
Polanco, Anthropology Museum, Mexican Castle Tour (Map) or (Video)
Best Places to Stay
Best Restaurants
Flights, Trains, Buses
Best Travel or Retire Cheap to Paradise Locations in the World

Mexico City Cost of Living

[kkstarratings]  This is Dan from Vagabond Buddha. As I travel around the world, I collect data about the cost of living. This post has the Mexico City cost of living data. After 11 years of travel to 64 countries, I don’t really believe in retirement anymore. I think I will keep traveling for at least 6 months per year. But I would like to have a place somewhere in the world that I call home for the other 6 months per year. This is my quest.

Above is the condo where we stayed for $19 USD per day near the La Condesa area of Mexico City.

Livability Factors: When I visit a new place I think about my livability factors. My livability factors include walkability, internet reliability, quality food choices, weather, social factors, and political considerations. I add all that up and it leads to my personal desirability to live somewhere. Your factors will likely be different.

Walkability: My three favorite areas of Mexico City are La Condesa, Roma Norte, and Polanco. All three of these are extremely beautiful and walkable. Everything you need is nearby. It would not be an exaggeration to say that all three are as walkable as East or West Village in New York City. They are just cheaper.

Internet: The Internet was not an issue at all in Mexico City. We had a great connection in our Airbnb apartment and in various coffee shops.

Food: The international food choices in Mexico City are immense. There are cuisines from all over the world and the quality is extremely high. This is an international city.

Weather: Mexico City is situated at 2250 meters above sea level (7,380 feet), so it is almost never really as hot as Mexican beaches. The month of May has the warmest average high for the day of 81 F (27 C). The month of January has the lowest average high for the day of 72 F (22 C). It never really gets that cold in Mexico City either. The coldest month is January and it averages 41 F (5 C) at night and the warmest month average of 55 F (13 C) at night. There is at least some rain in May (6 days), June (9 days), July (15 days), August (13 days), and September (10 days). The other months have little to no rain. It last snowed in Mexico City in 1967.

Air Quality: I don’t usually mention air quality, but I was surprised how good the air quality was in July when I was in Mexico City. In Asia, especially India and China, a city this size (25 million) would have poor air quality. That was not the case here. This was just my personal observation. I did not read the air quality comparison data which is available online for many cities.

Things to Do: The are endless things to do in and around Mexico City, and you would expect in any international city. Traffic can be bad so time your entry and exit strategy accordingly.

Social Considerations: Everything and everyone is in Mexico City. You may have to be a bit creative to locate things, but if you are, you will find your tribe here.

Desire to Move Here: I love Mexico City. I could call this home for 6 months of the year for sure.

Best Places to Live in World: Here is my list of the ==>best live-cheap in paradise locations<== in the world.

Here are my estimated costs of living one month in Mexico City, as a temporary visitor.

Some of the estimates could be reduced. For example, if you rented a furnished apartment by the month, it could be cheaper. Or, you could get a nicer place for the same amount of money. These expenses are based upon the La Condesa, Polanco, and Roma Norte areas of Mexico City. I was only here for 10 days so I can’t really speak for all of Mexico City. You can rent a small furnished 1 bedroom apartment ranging from about 600 to 1000 USD per month depending on how nice and how close you want to be to the best areas.

Monthly Cost of Living, Mexico City ($USD)

Expense	Cost	Low	Medium	High**
Airbnb (Apartment)	$22.00	0	14	30
Moderate Hotel	$40.00	0	12	0
Backpacker Hostel	$9.00	30	3	0
High End Restaurant	$12.00	1	4	8
Neighborhood Restaurant	$7.00	30	44	48
Food Cart	$2.00	30	12	4
Subway/Train/Metro	$0.50	20	26	8
Bus	$0.50	20	10	0
Taxi/Uber	$3.00	6	10	20
Total	Per Month	$590.00	$1,243.00	$1,164.00
Total	Per Day	$19.67	$41.43	$38.80

For more information about how the above “Cost of Living Monthly Multiplier” works, please visit the bottom of this page at Vagabond Buddha. The above table does not include alcohol, excursions, or extras, and it is for one person. These costs are based upon eating outside your accommodations twice a day. If you stay in the Airbnb apartment, you might be able to save money cooking more. But that depends on what you cook and whether you would otherwise eat in Food Carts, Neighborhood Restaurants, or High-end restaurants. Some of the expenses remain unchanged when you add another person. I am not guaranteeing anything. These are just my notes from my personal travel.

If you book my recommended flights, tours, or accommodations, you will pay nothing extra, but I will earn a small commission. This will help me continue to travel and share with you.

Here are the tours available in Mexico City. I recommend using either Viator Mexico City Tours or GetYourGuide Mexico City Tours. These are tour aggregators. That means they just publish tours conducted by third parties. Some tours are better than others. So you need to read the reviews. Look for a tour that has at least 5 reviews that sound good, and 2 of those reviews should be within the last few months.

Here are my recommendations for accommodations in Mexico City. Here is information about how to get to Mexico City.

If you would like to learn how to make money online, or how to live internationally possibly with less money than you spend at home, please subscribe to Vagabond Buddha or get a free copy of my Ebook.

Thank you, Dan of Vagabond Buddha

Warning: I am not offering you these prices.  These are just my notes and estimates from the time of my visit and this post.  Your costs will likely be drastically different if significant inflation or deflation occurs or the market changes after this post.  I will not update these numbers until I am on the ground again here, if ever.