Medellín vs Miami, Phoenix, Denver and Chicago: what the move is actually worth

Most cost comparisons between an American city and a Latin American one are built from mismatched sources: a rent figure from one site, a grocery figure from another, a restaurant price from a blog. The result reads convincingly and means very little.

Numbeo publishes all of these cities on a single index, calculated from the same basket, scaled against New York City at 100, and updated on the same cycle. It is crowd-sourced and imperfect, but it is internally consistent — and because it is an index rather than a dollar figure, it does not move when the peso does. That makes it the right tool for this particular question.

Where the discount is, and where it isn't

The shape of the discount matters more than the headline. Rent and restaurants are where a retirement budget genuinely transforms. Groceries barely move: Medellín's grocery index of 52.7 against Phoenix's 82.7 is a meaningful saving but not a life-changing one, and imported goods — American brands, wine, electronics, anything that crosses a border — often cost more in Colombia than at home.

The retirees who report the biggest real-world savings are the ones whose spending was concentrated in housing and eating out. The ones who are disappointed usually brought American consumption habits with them and are buying imported versions of everything.

The number that explains why this works for retirees specifically

Numbeo also publishes a local purchasing power index. Medellín scores 36.6. Denver scores 136.4, Chicago 144.1, Phoenix 135.3, Miami 106.0.

That gap describes something bleak about local wages, and it is the reason Medellín is not cheap for the people who live there. But for a retiree with a US pension or Social Security, it inverts: you are importing Denver-level income into a Medellín-level price structure. That arbitrage is the entire financial case for the move, and it is worth naming plainly rather than dressing up as a lifestyle argument.

It also carries an obligation. You are the beneficiary of a wage gap, not of a cheaper country. Paying local rates rather than negotiated-down ones, and not treating prices as absurdly low, is the difference between a retiree the neighborhood likes and one it tolerates.

What the visa actually requires now

Colombia's M-11 retirement visa requires proof of lifetime pension income of three times the monthly minimum wage. For 2026 the minimum wage is 1,750,905 pesos, set by decree in December 2025, which puts the threshold at 5,252,715 pesos a month.

At today's rate of 3,130 COP to the dollar, that is roughly $1,678 a month. Five months ago, at 3,670, the same peso requirement converted to about $1,430. Nothing about the rule changed; the dollar did. Anyone whose qualifying income sits close to the line should understand that the peso threshold is fixed for the year and their dollar income is not.

U.S. Social Security qualifies, and Colombian authorities in practice prefer official government pension certifications to private ones. The requirement that trips up the most applicants is not income — it is the all-risk health insurance policy valid in Colombia including repatriation coverage, required under Resolution 5477. A standard American travel policy usually does not satisfy it.

The Medicare problem

Safety, compared honestly

Medellín's homicide rate was roughly 14 per 100,000 in 2023 and trending lower through 2024. Chicago's 2024 rate was around 22. Denver's was around 14. New York's was about 3.8. We do not have verified 2024 figures for Miami and Phoenix from the same dataset and are not going to estimate them.

So: Medellín is statistically safer than Chicago and roughly level with Denver on this one measure. It is considerably more dangerous than New York.

That comparison is real and it is also incomplete. Colombia carries a U.S. State Department Level 3 — Reconsider Travel — advisory as of 31 March 2026, citing crime, terrorism, civil unrest, kidnapping and natural disasters. Medellín is not in a Do Not Travel zone, but the country-level designation applies and you will find it yourself within five minutes of searching. Anyone who tells you Medellín is simply safer than a US city is giving you one statistic and omitting the rest of the picture.

There is also a category of risk that has no real US equivalent: scopolamine drugging of foreigners, usually men meeting strangers through dating apps or in nightlife districts, which has caused tourist deaths. Phone theft is common. Express kidnapping through street-hailed taxis is why residents use ride apps exclusively. These are avoidable through behaviour, which is precisely why they are worth stating.

What you give up

The comparison so far is favourable to Medellín. Here is the other column, and it deserves the same directness.

• No US–Colombia tax treaty. Americans can face taxation in both countries on the same income. The Foreign Tax Credit mitigates it; the Foreign Earned Income Exclusion does not apply to pensions or Social Security. Over 183 days in any rolling 365-day period you become a Colombian tax resident, taxed on worldwide income, and the treatment of foreign pensions is genuinely unsettled. This needs a cross-border professional, not an article.
• The 180-day rule. Under Resolution 5477 the retirement visa terminates automatically if you spend more than 180 consecutive days outside Colombia. This is commonly misread as a days-per-year limit. It is not.
• Currency risk, which has already bitten. The dollar has weakened substantially against the peso. A budget built at 5,000 pesos to the dollar in 2022, or even 3,670 in April 2026, buys materially less today. If your income is entirely in dollars, this is an ongoing exposure, not a one-time adjustment.
• Distance from family. Direct flights from Miami run about three and a quarter hours; from New York about five and a half. That is closer than most people expect and further than a grandchild's school play.
• Spanish. Outside a few blocks of El Poblado, life happens in Spanish. This is a cost paid in effort rather than money, and it is not optional for a good outcome.

Who this move actually works for