A recent study states the three most expensive Latin American cities to rent in are in Mexico.
Those three cities are Puerto Vallarta, Monterrey and Mexico City. In the National Cost of Living Survey in 2014-2015, the most expensive cities were Los Cabos, Monterrey and Cancun.
The three current locales headed the list with an increase in the costs of homes, food and transportation compared to Mexico City. These were followed by Mexico City, Cuernavaca and Guadalajara.
“In general, we observed that in Los Cabos, 9 out of 10 expense items dropped, and only housing and related costs increased,” said the leader of the Center of Excellence in Mobility of Workers from Mercer Consulting for Latin America, Sandra Huertas.
“Regarding Monterrey, we saw housing and related costs, as well as food and transportation, are the only items with an increase in costs when compared to Mexico City,” she added.
In contrast, the cheapest cities are Tlaxcala, Zacatecas, Tepic, Guanajuato and Tuxtla Gutiérrez.
The study indicates Puerto Vallarta, Monterrey and Mexico City top the list. The report reveals Puerto Vallarta and Monterrey share first place with an average rental cost of USD 1,095.79 per month, closely followed by Mexico City, where the average rent amounts to USD 1,029.59. These figures place Mexico at the top of the ranking, with three of the five most expensive cities to rent in Latin America.
In addition to Mexico, the list includes other notable cities like Panama City ($938.33), San José, Costa Rica ($691.45), Montevideo and Uruguay ($613.87). The study considered factors such as the cost of living in the central area, health, traffic, pollution and safety, to determine the economic impact.
In 2023, The Mercer Human Resources firm released a study on the cost of living in 42 Mexican cities. Los Cabos was in first place followed by Cancun, Monterrey, Mexico City and Cuernavaca. Los Cabos is also Mexico’s tourist destination with the highest hotel room rate average, at USD 532 per night. Housing in Cabo was the highest expense at 44.3% of income, followed by education at 20.33% and food at 12.6%. Entertainment represents only 9.3% of income.