Relocating to Puerto Rico - Most affordable area to live, West Coast?

I am not in the island yet, but this place has a lot of properties to buy and rent. http://www.zillow.com/homes/for_sale/1_ … 4_zm/1_fr/

Also try clasificadosonline.com and select "Bienes Raices Renta" for rentals (site is in Spanish)

IhateTaxes wrote:

We make anywhere between $50K-$100k a year (judging from our first year with our own business), and would prefer to rent a house instead of an apartment. It seems that Rincon is mostly apartments.

Is your business something that you will be able to continue to operate from PR? If so, $50-$100K is a huge amount down here. The median household income is less than $18K and >$50K is upper-middle class.

There are also plenty of houses in Rincon. If you see a lot of apartments online I suspect it is because the area has been over built by developers in recent years due to its popularity among tourists leading to a glut of inventory in the apartment housing market. (Just speculation.)

IhateTaxes wrote:

Can anyone suggest a livable area - where we may be able to rent a small house/villa or part of one? Anywhere up to an hour's drive from Rincon? With lots of nature, not in a major city? Budget up to $1000 a month (does this even exist?) The only "amenities" we need are ac and internet (for work) - and a hammock-- that's a must have :-) We want to be close to the beach - but, assume with our budget, we can't live directly on it.

You can probably live on the beach for $1000/mo. here in PR, although perhaps not in Rincon. (Although you might be able to.) Do you like dry & sunny? If so, you might try Cabo Rojo. (Joyuda and Boqueron are towns within Cabo Rojo that are on the beach. Both are relatively safe & touristy.) In the other direction, and a bit more green - but equally close to the water - Isabela might be a good option. The surf is higher over here so the beaches are better for surfing than swimming. (In fact, swimming in many areas of the north coast is very dangerous.)

IhateTaxes wrote:

Culture is important to us - so we prefer to live maybe near Rincon as opposed to in it.

There are a lot of expats in Rincon. There are some, but fewer (if that is what you are after) in some of the other areas I mentioned. Another option (that I know a lot of people on this forum might sneer at) is the San Juan metropolitan area. There are lots of expats, but San Juan is by far (IMO) the most diverse, multicultural city on the island. If you can afford to live in a nice area (and at $50K+ you will be able to if you live modestly) it is great.

Hi! Your first step should be search this sight for specific info in threads - there is plenty.

In the Rincon area you can find an apartment in a house or a house to rent for $500 - $600. Rincon is by the ocean and has a large expat community. If you travel up the nearby hills you will find places to rent where houses are not stacked on top of each other and the ambiance is rural. This can be a 10 - 15 minutes drive to downtown Rincon. By the way Rincon is like a county that contains several barrios, so Rincon is not just a town. When you specifiy that you don't want to live in it I think that means not in the barrio of Pueblo, other barrios may appeal to you as well as some of the following areas (all near beaches and relatively close to Rincon): Aguada, Aguadilla, Isabella, Anasco.

If you want to stay in Rincon for a month try Villa Pasquale, small apartment with kitchen short walk to beach and town for $400 - $500 a month.

Also you should fly from the NY area into Aquadilla (BQN) instead of San Juan (SJU). The trip from SJU to Rincon takes 2.5 hours and from BQN to Rincon 30 minutes. Jet Blue flys from JFK and, just checking prices, you can get one for $266 r/t (that's really cheap!!). United does not fly to BQN from JFK but instead flys from Newark (EWR) and is about $300 r/t. All of these are red eyes. Jet Blue from JFK leave at about midnight and arrive around 5am. United from Newark leaves at about 8:30pm and arrives around 1:30am. This in no problem in terms of renting cars because all the rental companies are open all night. The United flights are all nonstop averaging under 4 hours. The Jet Blue flights from JFK are nonstop as well as one stop, usually Orlando. The nonstops average under 4hrs and the one stops over 7 hours.

You might check out the "Cube" in downtown Rincon:
"The Cube is a unique and convenient work space perfect for non-traditional professionals working in and near Rincon. The Cube offers private, closed-door offices for rent, as well as desks for rent in a shared space, according to hourly, daily, weekly or monthly rates. Membership includes a private office or personal desk space, free Wi-Fi, air conditioning, power, water and access to a printer, scanner, phone or fax machine at an additional cost."
URLs:
.facebook.com/CoWorkPuertoRico
.rinconvacations.com/puerto-rico-blog/co-working-cube-rincon-puerto-rico/
www.rinconvacations.com/the-cube-cowork-space.html

When you visit Rincon have lunch at The Surfing Potato, a food cart in front of the post office. Teri and Nathan have a wealth of information about Rincon and are very friendly folks.

Very helpful information, Victor~ I've checked into flights out of Chicago and they always run about $150 higher to fly into  Aguadilla with a stop and arrival at wee hours in the morning.  I wish it were different   After an overnight flight with layover and then trying to get to the rental, it would be an exhausting day, haha.  For us it is easier to fly into SJU, get rental car, and then drive to Rincon.  Everyone is different with different scenarios.  I pinch my pennies too much to spend the extra $300 to fly into Aguadilla, haha, that is just me.

Thank you all so much for replying with very helpful information. Victorglass - I didn't realize that Rincon was a county - thought it was just a town, so thanks for the clarification. I'm going to digest all of this wonderful info and come back soon.

There's so much info on these boards! Anolis - thanks for your suggestion on San Juan - but we definitely know we don't want to live there. We are trying to escape city life :-)  And, I think the reality is that as much as we say we want to avoid "gentrification" - we mean the NYC suit and tie brand of it. I've traveled to some pretty crazy places - Yemen and Myanmar for example - while initially the idea of avoiding you own kind is romantic, the truth is you never fully assimilate with the "locals", especially when there are major class/lifestyle differences. So, you can end up pretty lonely.

I like Victorglass's idea of living 15 minutes from the town - that's the best of both worlds. Off to explore more. Thanks for all the helpful flight info too!

IhateTaxes wrote:

I didn't realize that Rincon was a county - thought it was just a town.

Yes - it is a municipio (municipality) which is a geographic area centered on a town or city, but which may also have other named towns within it: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Municipali … erto_Rico.

IhateTaxes wrote:

There's so much info on these boards! Anolis - thanks for your suggestion on San Juan - but we definitely know we don't want to live there. We are trying to escape city life :-)

San Juan is definitely a city!

IhateTaxes wrote:

And, I think the reality is that as much as we say we want to avoid "gentrification" - we mean the NYC suit and tie brand of it. I've traveled to some pretty crazy places - Yemen and Myanmar for example - while initially the idea of avoiding you own kind is romantic, the truth is you never fully assimilate with the "locals", especially when there are major class/lifestyle differences. So, you can end up pretty lonely.

This is a very realistic attitude; however it should also be noted that many Puerto Rican's are well-educated, progressive, multilingual, & multicultural. This segment is particularly well-represented in middle class / upper middle class areas of San Juan, but it is not exclusive to these areas. Consequently (and perhaps a little bit differently from Yemen & Myanmar) you may find that (some) Puerto Rican's are just as much 'your own kind' as the expat community you can find in places like Rincon & Vieques or Culebra. This is up to you to discover!

Anolis - Yes. God, white girl with a foot constantly in her mouth lol. I have quite a few Puerto Rican friends - one of whom is only 25 years old and working on her Masters in Math at Columbus - her whole entire family is brilliant.  So, I don't mean to come off the way I sounded.

Our last trip to Puerto Rico a few months ago, we hung out with Jet Ski rental guys, who were way more our types than the uppity hotel guests -- they MADE our vacation, and took us out and showed us a great time and an "underground" rock scene. So, lots of young and intellectual types.

But, the more I explain the worse I sound LOL.   Probably unfair to compare PR to those countries -although don't get me wrong, I met a fair number of highly educated and worldly locals in both those places too - but more or less in passing. 

We just want to make friends from all different back grounds - color, religion, shape, sexual orientation - none of that matters.  Jeeze...white Americans can't say anything about other ethnicities without sounding like morons haha.