Cost of Living in Queretaro
***Updated January 2025***
One of the most frequent questions I get as an expat living in Mexico is: “What’s the cost of living?” Well, there isn’t a one-size-fits-all answer.
Mexico is a large country with a variety of living conditions depending on where you choose to live. That said, the cost of living in Queretaro is generally lower than in many U.S. cities—although prices have risen over the past seven years. Here’s a breakdown of our own experiences and expenses in 2025, including housing, utilities, groceries, and more.
Disclosure: Some links may be affiliate links where we receive a super-small commission if you click through and make a purchase at no additional cost to you. We call this our Chocolate & Churro Fund.
Housing Expense Depends on Location
Renting or buying a house in Mexico will be your biggest expense. In Mexico City alone, what neighborhood you decide to rent in determines the cost. In Polanco, a 1-2-bedroom apartment could cost you 25-45,000 pesos a month, while the same apartment just north of Coyocoan may cost you 15,000 pesos a month.
Living near the beach also comes with its roller-coaster prices. A 3-bedroom condo could cost between $1000-3000 USD depending on the number of expats (who drive up the price) and the location. Say you want to live in Puerta Vallarta. The City’s central area will cost more (average $200,000- $500,000 USD), but 30 minutes away in Sayulita you may find something bigger, cheaper, and with fewer tourists.
Before we moved to Queretaro, we searched a variety of housing websites to see what we could afford. Considering Queretaro has so many foreign industries and a strong middle class, housing prices in Queretaro are considered on the high end for Mexico.
While each city will have its own cost flunctuations, this post will give you an idea of what your monthly and yearly expenses may be in Mexico.
2025
Expenses Explained
Mortgage
If you decide to buy a house in Mexico, it’s best to pay in cash. Mortgage rates are extremely high (over 10%), and there are more hoops you need to jump through as a foreigner. More than likely, the sale of your house in the United States will be more than enough to buy something equivalent in Mexico.
Plus, the goal as you get older is to have less expenses. Not having a mortgage is a huge financial savings every month.
Rent
The price of rent depends on your location. You will pay more to live in larger cities and close to historic areas. Searching a variety of websites can give you an idea of what you can afford in your price range. We recommend contacting a realtor in your chosen city who will have better access to what’s available.
Home Insurance
We don’t have home insurance in Queretaro (Central Mexico) because we are not in an earthquake, flood, or hurricane zone. The houses are made of brick or cement blocks, steel, and rebar and covered in concrete. Basically, it’s indestructible. If you are on the West or East coast, you may want to look into getting home insurance.
To see what a typical modern Mexican house features, read our post-House Hunting Fun in Queretaro.
Electric
We live in a new neighborhood, and not all the electric meters have been installed. Apparently, the CFE (electric company) does not feel tits worth setting up all the meters until there are a certain number of houses occupied. We do have electricity, but its supplied by a neighborhood generator (and we don’t know who pays for that). I asked my friend, Josan, how much she pays in electric (amount in chart above).
Solar Panels
A year ago, we installed solar panels in preparation for the electric company to start metering us. Our electricity usage is covered for most of the year by 6 panels. We use more electricity in the winter because of space heaters. Air conditioning in the summer months is only necessary between 10am-7pm during May and June usually.
Blackouts
Blackouts happen at the most inopportune time, but they are not as common as you might think. Sometimes the electric is out for 20 minutes-2 hours. In 7 years, there have only been a handful of blackouts that have lasted over 8 hours.
Your Allotted Kilowatt Usage
Neighborhoods pay the electric company for a certain amount of kilowatts per household. You get a discount on this usage. If you go over the allotted usage, the discounts are taken away and your bill could triple. We learned this the hard way.
From what we could gather from our electric bill, we are allowed 500 kilowatts, but ours was over every month. We do have a dryer, a second refrigerator, and an additional small refrigerator that maybe most people do not have. Our electric bill kept going up from 600 pesos to 840 pesos to over 1300 pesos. $35-75 USD per month doesn’t sound so bad, But when the bill arrived for 6409 pesos ($320 USD) right before Christmas and the family of 6 down the street is only paying 400 pesos ($20 USD), something doesn’t sound right. We went over our watt limit twice and stopped receiving the discounts.
Can You Contest Your Electric Bill With the Electric Company?
Fighting the electric company is a losing battle. Our Mexican friends went down to the CFE offices to argue our case for us, and the electric company didn’t care. Pay or they will cut the service. You never want them to cut the service because they will need to send a technician out (at their convenience) and it will cost somewhere between $750-1000 USD to turn back on.
Water
Water usually costs 500-600 pesos ($25-30 USD) a month. Many houses like ours come with two cisterns; one large one underneath the pavement, and another on top of the house. If the water company needs to shut off the water for maintenance, we have enough water to live normally (cooking, flushing, laundry, daily showers) for at least 5 days.
We do not have grass, and we use drip irrigation for our plants. Queretaro is semi-arid, and it doesn’t rain much between October-June. If you want to keep your water bill low wherever you are in Mexico, grow native plants and be mindful of water usage.
Internet
I did a whole post on the Best Internet in Mexico And What to Avoid. To sum it up, try to get fiber optic internet, and pay a little more for what you think you need. Check out the bundles. We get Netflix in our plan ($55 USD/month), but you can also add Disney+ and many other TV apps at a lower cost.
Cable Options
There are a number of cable options in Mexico. We had SkyTV with all its sports channels, movie channels and DVR for $50-60 USD a month.
Netflix- 299 pesos ($15) a month. Some of the cable companies have package deals with Netflix included.
Amazon Prime- 299 pesos ($15) a month- You need to have good internet speed to stream Amazon videos.
Bahia TV- $15 month. We get more channels than we know what to do with from Canada, UK, Argentina, and the US. We have sports channels, movie channels (including HBO and Cinemax), and get new movies before they are released to Amazon for free. Contact us if you eant to know more about it.
Gas for the House
In our rental, our water heater, stove, and dryer used gas. We would fill up about every 6 weeks and it usually cost 1600 pesos ($80 USD).
In our new house, we have a bigger tank and opted to get an electric heater and solar water heater and only have the dryer and stove on gas. We filled our tank in December for $125 USD and that will last us for the entire year.
Gas for the Car
Gas prices are more expensive in Mexico. You pay over $1 USD per liter. When we fill up our cars, we normally pay between $35-45 USD (depending on how close to empty we are).
Groceries
Tom and I spend more on groceries than the average couple, and probably more than a family of 4. Tom loves creating new dishes, sauces, and vinegar so we have a very full pantry of dehydrated fruits, roasted vegetable salsas, cocktail flavorings, vinegar, and leftovers in the fridge. In-season produce is ridiculously cheap.
Food prices have gone up in Mexico. It’s best to replace your imported favorites with something local.
Grocery Shopping Tip:
Spend a week going to the grocery store every day to find out when they have discounts. The Chedraui Selecto near us has their best deals on produce on Tuesdays.
Cell Phone
When you move to Mexico, get a Mexican SIM card (50 pesos or $2.50 USD) and recharge your phone every month for $10-20 USD. When we first moved to Mexico, we did pay more ($20 USD) because we were using the navigation on our phones constantly.
Mexico does have cell phone plans that can automatically deduct the amount from your bank account, but we found we were paying more for that service. We go to an OXXO (convenient store) and recharge our phones every 30 days with 200 pesos ($10 USD).
Additional Costs
Community Maintenance Fees
Our house is in a gated community, and the community maintenance fees cover security and the upkeep of the landscape and street lights. We have the option of paying monthly, but if we pay for the full year, we get a discounted rate. Community maintenance fees can vary depending on the neighborhood and amenities.
Property Taxes
You’ll be happy to know that property taxes in Mexico are very low. The property tax is called a Predial and is assessed and paid for at the beginning of the year between January and February. The earlier you pay, the better the discount. The first year when we only had a lot and we paid less than $100 USD. For 2025, our property tax was 7320 pesos ($352 USD) based on 230m2 of construction.
TRANSPORTATION AND CAR EXPENSES
Until we bought a car, we used Uber exclusively for one month. If you decide to live in Centro, a car will not be needed because everything is within walking distance and there is very little parking. You might need an Uber once a month if you plan to shop at Costco or Walmart or want to go to one of the fancy restaurants along Fray Junipero.
We live on the northern edge of Juriquilla, a 25-minute drive from Centro. On occasion, we prefer to take an Uber to Centro instead of dealing with traffic and finding parking. An average Uber ride is 160-220 pesos ($8-$11 USD)one way to Centro. During peak hours and holidays, the price does go up.
Car Insurance
You can get car insurance through the car dealership or the bank. We get our car insurance through our bank. They can compare different insurance companies easily on their computer and set up the yearly payment to be automatically drawn from our account.
Car Emissions
Queretaro is stricter than other Mexican states about car emissions. If you buy a new car, you can get a 2-year sticker (called a Doble Cero). After this has expired or if you buy a used car, you have to get your car checked for emissions every 6 months. For more details on emissions and maintenance, read our post:
INCOME TAX
Income tax in Mexico is around 30% and is taken out of your paycheck every month if you work in Mexico.
If you are still a resident of the United States but work for a Mexican company, you can claim the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion (FEIE). For tax year 2024, the maximum exclusion is $126,500 per person. If you work online and get paid exclusively by a company in the United States, you have to file income tax forms with the United States.
Both the United States and Mexico tax on worldwide income. There are ways to not be double-taxed. It’s best to contact an international accountant to learn about what needs to be reported, credits, and deductions.
More Research Tools
SUBSCRIBE TO INTERNATIONAL LIVING
Our research on finding the best place to live started with a subscription to International Living. This magazine and website prints real stories from real people living in other countries around the world. From big cities to small villages, it’s been a wonderful resource for us in evaluating the cost of living, finding the ideal weather, and being centrally located to several towns and countries for travel.
Writers for International Living go more in-depth on topics such as taxes, banking overseas, health insurance and real estate.
NUMBEO.COM
Compare your hometown with a place you want to move to on Numbeo.com for a complete breakdown of expenses, grocery prices and crime rates. This website helped us narrow down our interest in cities around Mexico.
Mexico is a fantastic place to live with warm-welcoming people, a fabulous food scene and jaw-dropping landscapes. Queretaro has the cooler mountain weather, modern conveniences, and availability of international food products that we enjoy.
I hope this post helps you in deciding where you want to live and what is comfortably affordable to you.
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Relocation Consultation
Do you have questions on prices, neighborhoods, and expectations about starting your new life in Mexico? Ask us directly! We can set up an hour long video conference call on Whatsapp and help answer questions that pertain to you and your lifestyle. Our consultations are $70 USD for an hour. If we go over the allotted time, no worries. We won’t charge you extra. We want you to get the answers you need to make the best decision for a new life. Plus, we will send a follow-up email with other resourceful links specifically for you.
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Are there property taxes? What about income taxes?
Hi Steve! Those are excellent questions. I have updated this post with information to answer these questions. Thank you so much for helping us make this post better!
Great post, Tiff! Glad to help. FYI, not sure you realize it, but that picture of downtown you posted is right around the corner from our house.
What about health insurance?
We have not included health insurance yet because we have not gotten it. We asked for a health insurance quote from our bank (the banks are connected to all kinds of insurance companies) and we were quoted $3000 USD for the two of us. Healthcare in Mexico changed in 2019, and until we have it and go through all the paperwork, we do not feel knowledgeable in mentioning it.
What an informative post! Thanks for sharing! Do you have a post about the cost to build a home there? And what neighborhood were you able to find such an affordable rental? We are in Texas and considering moving there to do exactly as you did, rent for a year or so and ultimately build a house. Due to the current downturn in the U.S. housing market, we may not make as much as we had hoped on our home in Texas, so we’re just trying to work out how to accomplish our dream. We also have 5 kids, which makes it a little harder, because we would ideally want a 4 bedroom, although a 3 bedroom miiiight work. The kids are pretty eager to move there and don’t mind sharing if they need to! It’s such a beautiful, peaceful city. Hopefully we’ll be neighbors before long!
Hi Tatiana! We do have a post on some of the costs on building a house. Obviously, the costs will be different depending on what you want in your house and how big the lot is. Here is the pos that goes over some of the pros and cons of building https://www.epicureanexpats.com/buying-land-and-building-a-house-in-mexico/. If you would like a more detailed explanation, we would be happy to jump on a relocation consultation call with you. Email us at epicureanexpats.com for more details.
I’m trying to figure out what the property tax rate is for Queretaro. I read the post and you provided the amount that was paid, but it would be helpful if we knew the rate so we can calculate it based on the property value.
Hi Greg. When you buy a property, you will need to pay a 2% acquisitional tax. Every year, you will pay the predial (property tax) based on the assessed value of the home and land, not on the actual value. The assessed value is typically a lot lower than the actual value. Once we receive our predial, I can update this blog with the information.