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The mainland US is in crisis with rising rents/home costs, inflation, homelessness, and high costs of living in general. I personally know several people at my job thinking of moving to Puerto Rico for cheaper rents and lower cost of living. I myself have thought about saving up money and moving to the Northern Mariana Islands (Saipan) for the same reasons. I can rent a nice 2 bedroom apartment in Saipan for $500-$700 a month, such a thing is impossible nearly anywhere else in the US. I predict the U.S. territories will see a population influx from the mainland in the coming years.
While I clearly understand your desire to move to the CNMI, you may want to factor in the impact climate change is having on low lying islands. For example, Kiritabi has been slowly disappearing since the 90's due to sea level rise.
As for PR, I personally know a California couple who just purchased property in PR. Similarly, I heard of a San Francisco couple who purchased an oceanfront home for $20M in PR's north coast.
Beware of rising property values when the Californian's show up.
While I clearly understand your desire to move to the CNMI, you may want to factor in the impact climate change is having on low lying islands. For example, Kiritabi has been slowly disappearing since the 90's due to sea level rise.
As for PR, I personally know a California couple who just purchased property in PR. Similarly, I heard of a San Francisco couple who purchased an oceanfront home for $20M in PR's north coast.
Beware of rising property values when the Californian's show up.
Yeah, I think the secret is finally out on Puerto Rico
Well The U.S Territories of Guam and The Commonwealth of The Northern Mariana Islands(CNMI)are far away from the U.S Mainland,and whenever Statesiders relocate there it's usually because they want to be near Asia and Australia.
Puerto Rico's inland areas are cheaper for real estate and rents than most US cities but so are small towns in US "flyover" areas. Then you add in PR's power problems and 300% higher electric rates, frequent moderate earthquakes and the need to stock up on food, water, propane, generators, etc etc etc and you might not have the bargain you think you will be getting. Also anywhere with 50% English language fluency will be near California-pricey (Dorado, Condado, Rincon, Palmas del Mar) because that is where the upper class Puerto Ricans and Anglos congregate, including actual Californians selling ultra-overpriced homes and being happy as a clam buying only moderately overpriced homes. All these places are on the ocean. For bargains you'll need to go inland and brush up on tu espanyol. PR is only 35 miles wide so you are always within an hour of the ocean so really never landlocked by US standards and the climate is better in the beautiful mountain towns at 2000-3500 feet like Cayey, Aibonita, Cidra, Jayuya, and Adjuntos (80/60 vs 90/75, cool nights you dont need expense AC in summer). You can have a wonderful life as we have in PR despite having to rebuild extensively from Hurricane Maria but you don't come here for cheapness or living with the same lifestyle, comfort, and culture that you leave in LA, Seattle, or even Miami. Kissimmee maybe yes :-) (inside joke).
I don't see that happening, especially for Puerto Rico. Island territories usually have higher cost of living for amenities and services than many mainland areas, especially compared to the Midwest and deep south. Also Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands has high crime rates worse than St Louis or New Orleans, and matching the norm in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Also, in Puerto Rico there is a growing anti-"gringo" sentiment, and a growing number of Puerto Rican millennials are becoming more pro Independence. Americans of non-PuertoRican ancestry make up about 1% of Puerto Rico, but the vast majority of them are very wealthy, millionaires seeing PR as a tax Haven, not working class folks looking for a cheaping living. There usually live segregated from the Puerto Ricans, and there is some tension.
Puerto Rico's inland areas are cheaper for real estate and rents than most US cities but so are small towns in US "flyover" areas. Then you add in PR's power problems and 300% higher electric rates, frequent moderate earthquakes and the need to stock up on food, water, propane, generators, etc etc etc and you might not have the bargain you think you will be getting. Also anywhere with 50% English language fluency will be near California-pricey (Dorado, Condado, Rincon, Palmas del Mar) because that is where the upper class Puerto Ricans and Anglos congregate, including actual Californians selling ultra-overpriced homes and being happy as a clam buying only moderately overpriced homes. All these places are on the ocean. For bargains you'll need to go inland and brush up on tu espanyol. PR is only 35 miles wide so you are always within an hour of the ocean so really never landlocked by US standards and the climate is better in the beautiful mountain towns at 2000-3500 feet like Cayey, Aibonita, Cidra, Jayuya, and Adjuntos (80/60 vs 90/75, cool nights you dont need expense AC in summer). You can have a wonderful life as we have in PR despite having to rebuild extensively from Hurricane Maria but you don't come here for cheapness or living with the same lifestyle, comfort, and culture that you leave in LA, Seattle, or even Miami. Kissimmee maybe yes :-) (inside joke).
two things, a) power prices are similar to new england and probably california but reliability is an issue, especially with PREPA employees having declared war on LUMA and vowing to undermine it which is likely the cause of many of the outages. second, PR politics are hopeless. about a decade ago fortuno proposed converting many ancient oil fired plants to natural gas. there were protests and the project was sunk, so the island is stuck with ancient oil plants at a time of high oil prices. oil is a significantly less efficient way of producing power than gas.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DRPRCubaSpain
I don't see that happening, especially for Puerto Rico. Island territories usually have higher cost of living for amenities and services than many mainland areas, especially compared to the Midwest and deep south. Also Puerto Rico and the US Virgin Islands has high crime rates worse than St Louis or New Orleans, and matching the norm in the Latin America and Caribbean region. Also, in Puerto Rico there is a growing anti-"gringo" sentiment, and a growing number of Puerto Rican millennials are becoming more pro Independence. Americans of non-PuertoRican ancestry make up about 1% of Puerto Rico, but the vast majority of them are very wealthy, millionaires seeing PR as a tax Haven, not working class folks looking for a cheaping living. There usually live segregated from the Puerto Ricans, and there is some tension.
PR is a lot like many us cities, stay out of the projects and crime isn't that bad. as for growing tax haven, it was probably a mistake to remove the original restrictions for people to get the tax benefits, specifically, you had to move your company to the island. that is still happening and is good for PR, but there are many others who simply come for the taxes. for those people, I think it's good they congregate in certain places, especially when those places are far from major employment centers such as palmas del mar.
the island is in desperate need of tax reform. it isn't just tax haven but there are all kinds of tax breaks but very high taxes, ridiculous policies like free power for certain entities for economic develop which burden rate payers.
I’d sooner move to middle America before I’d got to a foreign place. You can still buy inexpensive houses and support small town businesses all across America.
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