Cost of living depends on what you're buying. Property is cheap to buy unless you are buying prime beachfront property. My house + 10 acres good farmland was about 130K US. (I read recently about someone who bought what is basically a big *rock* in Manhattan i.e. a tiny plot of land consisting of a big rock. They paid something like 10 million for it. Now *that's* expensive.). Rent is cheap, again except at prime beachfront tourist areas. Food is cheap. Outside of tourist areas, a restaurant meal is generally under 1000J. Sex is cheap (but I won't admit to buying it! ). . On the other hand, anything imported is expensive because then you're paying world-market prices plus Jamaica's import tax which is something like 100%. So for instance, cars cost at least 2x what they'd cost in the US. Same with computers, TVs, cellphones, etc. Gas costs at least 2x US prices. If you go into the local equivalent of Walmart, you'll find Walmart-quality merchandise (i.e. junky) at about 2x - 4x Walmart prices. While Jamaicans typically earn 10% of what an American would earn at the same job. When my wife married me and moved to Boston and found a similar job as she had in Kingston (administrator at a university) her income went up more than 10x, no exaggeration. No wonder Jamaicans feel so squeezed financially. I think it's that financial squeeze that causes the "life is expensive here" complaints.