Morelia Mexico Low Cost of Living

Morelia Mexico Low Cost of Living
Morelia Mexico Retire Cheap in Paradise
-Best Morelia Free Old Town Walking Tour and Map
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Morelia Mexico Low Cost of Living

[kkstarratings]  This is Dan from Vagabond Buddha. As I travel the world, I document the best low cost of living in paradise destinations. With this knowledge, people can retire early and enjoy the world. This is my Morelia Mexico low cost of the living guide. Personally, I may never retire because my research and writing about travel keep my mind fresh. I am a digital nomad. I left the USA in 2007 and have visited or lived in 65 countries so far.

The data for Morelia is in the spreadsheet at the bottom.

If you would like to learn how to be a digital nomad, 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.

This post has the data for Morelia Mexico low cost of living. There are not quite as many expats living in Morelia Mexico as other places like Chapala, Ajijic, Puerto Vallarta, Guanajuato, Mérida, etc. But not everyone wants to be surrounded by the same cultural norms and social customs they had in their home country.

There is a higher number of expats per capita in nearby Patzcuaro. So if you love this part of Mexico but want more expats around you that might be the place for you. It is only about 70 minutes away, so you can check it out before you make a decision. Just Google “Vagabond Buddha Patzcuaro” if you want to read or watch videos about Patzcuaro.

Above is a photograph of the place where Qiang Hui and I stayed for a week in Morelia Mexico for $19 USD per night. Click the “Best (and) Cheap Hotels” link above to see where we stayed. There is a discount at that link also. on this place.

Livability Factors: My livability factors include walkability, Internet reliability, food quality and choices, weather, things to do, social considerations, expat opportunities, real estate prices, and cost of living. I consider all of that and then I make a “desire to live here” determination.

Here are my thoughts and desire to live in Morelia Mexico.

Walkability: High. The historical old town center of Morelia is imminently walkable. In our week stay here, we have only gotten in a car three times. Once to get home from our bar hopping tour at 1:30 AM, once to go to a Walmart in another part of town, and once to go on our day tour of nearby villages. If we retired early here for a few month or years, we would live in the old town center and walk everywhere.

Internet Reliability: High. The Internet works so well in our Airbnb place we never thought about it at all. That is as good as it gets.

Food: Medium. There are many different sorts of food in Morelia Mexico: Italian, Mexican, Vegetarian, Greek-Mexican Fusion, American, Turkish, Chinese, Thai, etc. I was surprised that there is no Indian food here.

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Weather: Morelia Mexico sits at an elevation of 1920 meters (6300 feet) above sea level. This holds the temperatures down in the summer months. The warmest month of the year is in May. The average high for the day in May is 87F or 31C. The average low at night in May is 55F or 13C. Because it cools down so much at night very few people here have air conditioning. The coolest month of the year is in January. The average low in January is 41F or 5C. The average high in January is 75F or 24C. The rainy season is June through September when it rains 6 to 7 inches per month (141 mm to 183 mm).

Things to Do: Medium. This is a charming colonial-era town of about 600,000 people. It has a beautiful UNESCO old town center. If you go 15 minutes in almost any direction you are quickly outside of town in rural areas. They close off the main street on Sundays and people ride bikes, roller skate and walk their dogs. There is some live music (pop, rock, folk, traditional), some theatre, and some classical music. There are international music festivals, university lectures, yoga studios, chess clubs, and some small expat groups.

Social Considerations: You will be able to make some expats connections here but you will need to learn Spanish if you want to have a meaningful and interesting life. Once you can speak Spanish, your things to do and social opportunities will both be high. Rate this as Medium if you are not sure you will learn Spanish, otherwise, High.

Expats Groups: I quickly found several posts and forums discussing expats living in Morelia and nearby Mexico. Here are a few: Expats Living in Morelia, Expats in Morelia, The Michoacan Net. It seems that there is not a large organic set of Expats arriving here yearly. The largest set of expats seem to be arriving for work, such as at the University. Rate this as low if you are looking for a built-in English speaking population. Irrelevant, if you are willing to learn Spanish and want to integrate into society.

Real Estate: You should only rent for the first year or two even if you fall in love with this place. Presently, a moderate house in the historical center would be about $200,000 USD. This house is near the Romance Alley in my old town walking tour.

Desire to Move Here: Medium-High. This place is almost perfect for me. It has almost everything I would need to have a great life for 6 months of the year, April through October. The other 6 months, I would continue traveling the world. If the food choices were a little more diverse and the local population was a little more international, I would rate this high. At the moment of this writing, with respect to only Mexico, I would put Guanajuato first, Puerto Vallarta second, and Morelia or Ajijic third. But we have 7 more stops planned for Mexico so check back with me in 3 months.

Cost of Living: Here are my estimated costs of living one month in Morelia Mexico, as a temporary visitor. These numbers would potentially be cheaper if you rented an apartment month to month, furnished or otherwise. You can rent a furnished 1 bedroom apartment here ranging from about 375 to 750 USD per month depending on how modern and how close you want to be to the historical center. You will not get a great deal online. You will have to put boots on the ground. Just get a good deal on Airbnb and then use that as a base to find a great deal.

If you book my recommended flights, tours (Viator Tours, Get Your Guide Tours) or accommodations, you will pay nothing extra, but we will earn a small commission.  That will help us to keep producing this data.

Monthly Cost of Living, Morelia Mexico ($USD)

Expense

Cost

Low

Medium

High

Apartment

$20.00

0

14

30

Moderate Hotel

$28.00

0

12

0

Backpacker Hostel

$25.00

30

3

0

High End Restaurant

$11.00

1

4

8

Neighborhood Restaurant

$4.00

30

44

48

Food Cart

$2.00

30

12

4

Subway/Train/Metro

$0.40

20

26

8

Bus

$0.40

20

10

0

Taxi/Uber

$3.50

6

10

20

Total

Per Month

$978.00

$984.40

$961.20

Total

Per Day

$32.60

$32.81

$32.04

The above numbers are for one person and do not include alcohol, tours, or extras. I do not guarantee these prices for anyone. These are just my notes from my time here.

For more information about how the above “Cost of Living Monthly Multiplier” works, please visit the bottom of this page at Vagabond Buddha.

Please subscribe if you would like to receive the costs of living estimates for our next Country stop. We are heading out of Morelia Mexico tonight.

This is Dan of Vagabond Buddha. Thank you for stopping by. The world is your home. What time will you be home for dinner?

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.   

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