Cost of living in Puerto Rico in 2022

Region where I live: Isla de Roque Estates, Barceloneta (walking distance to the beach)

Monthly rent: $800/month for a 3 bedroom, 2 bathroom single family home in a gated community. Includes HOA. Facility has pool and other common amenities. Steps from the beach.

Monthly charges:
- Water: $25-30
- Electricity: $150-160
- Common area maintenance charges: Included with rent
- Mobile phone: $50
- Internet subscription: $75
- Netflix: $16

Commuting: I bought a used car for around $11k (cash). I only go to San Juan once a week (for work). The rest of the time I work from home. Has prices have obviously gone up recently. Plus I keep a budget for tolls and maintenance. So maybe around $200/month?

Grocery shopping: i shop at Costco, Walmart, and some local grocers. I probably spend around $600/month for family of 2

Health care: Health plan provided by employer (federal government).

Children's school: N/A - but I spend way too much on 3 cats!

Budget for leisure activities: Maybe around $300-400/month (including restaurants, movies, beach, etc)

Total monthly budget: ~ $2,500-3,000/month

Hello jenmayodc,

Thank you for taking time to reply.

That is a very well detailed post. 

It will be very useful for the future expats. 

Cheers,

Cheryl
Expat.com team

I hope it's helpful!

I forgot to mention that this budget only works if you stay away from places like Dorado, Palmas, Guaynabo, Condado, etc. If that's your target, rent alone will probably be >$3k.

I decided not to go that route to save money bc I'm building a house (in the Mar Chiquita area in Manati) and that's where I want to spend my money!

I live in Humacao in Barrio Junquito & pay $400 for a small 2 bedroom house. I'm 5 minutes from Humacao Nature Reserve & Punta Santiago beaches. Naguabo or Yabacoa are both about 10 minutes away in opposite direction Caguas is about 20-30 minutes away depending on traffic.
I pay $25 to $30 for water, electricity is $120 to $160 and we run an air inverter most of the time.
I pay about $200 for cable, internet with premium channels & 3 DVR boxes
I work part time remotely from home with a company in Miami.
We shop various places for groceries either Walmart, Ralph's, Econo plus I have Costco & Sams memberships. It's only 2 of us & we usually buy meat in local stores as it's cheaper if you buy Puerto Rican chicken, pork or beef most times. I spend probably about $500 per month.
My husband is retired from USPS & our insurance is about $225 a month with Triple S (BCBS company in PR), so far it's covered things at a much cheaper cost than when I had just BCBS before we switched. Most hospitalization are free & medications are usually $2.
We are also not yet retirement age either since that makes a difference in receiving social security or Medicare

We built a house in Quebradillas. It runs on solar. The installation was expensive but will pay for itself in about 5 years.  In general prices in P.R. are about the same as in U.S. Groceries and all other items which are imported from U.S. are expensive because they need zo be shipped here and are taxed in addition.  Thaz id true for cars as well and used cars are quite expensive as well. Good health insurance is priced similar to U.S. . We paid $ 1k a month for the two of us.    What is cheaper is property tax. May be 1/10 of U.S.. Gas is $4 a gallon. Eating out is quite expensive.  But it is a beautiful island and the weather is almost perfect.

@jenmayodc wow, your rent is so low! Is that because of the location?

@jenmayodc wow, your rent is so low! Is that because of the location?

- @m2marks

Third, my boyfriend's family is originally from this area....and he did the negotiating

@jenmayodc thank you for being so through. This is helpful inform. Thank you so much.