Fajardo quality of life

I notice many more rentals in Fajardo (Clasificado24) than I would have expected, likely due to the economic downturn.  Would anyone living in Fajardo care to comment on the current quality of , i.e., access to shopping, healthcare, absence or presence of crime, relative to say, SJ metro, Isla Verde/Carolina.

Thanks

There is a couple that live there with a blog called abroaddreams.com.

I stayed away, but it looks like you are not getting many bites, so.

BearNVA lives in Fajardo the same for Sugarbird, however Sugarbird has not been in this forum for 3months now, she is active in Facebook and you can send word via Frogrock here which is her best friend.

I visit Fajardo and have family there and I can tell you that Fajardo is a center of activity for tourists and boating and commerce. Next door town of Ceiba where I own land is ready to become active as soon as they can line up investors, the old Roosevelt Road navy base is open to investment, a lot of land for houses, condos, hotels, marinas, etc. There been talks of moving the Boats to Culebra and Viequez to Ceiba, also there been talk to replace them with bridges instead which is highly unlikely.

Fajardo has a lot of very active businesses and I have not seen any reason to believe it is in decay.

Maybe people are just putting new listings to take advantage of the snow bird season.

By the way if you follow the number of crimes in the news abou Fajardo compare it to metro area, Fajardo does very well.

There are plenty of very nice apartments in Fajardo. It is a lovely community with plenty of shopping, etc and the Seven Seas Beach is very nice.

There is a huge difference between Fajardo & the metro area - especially compared to high density areas such as VSJ, Condado, Ocean Park, Santurce, & Isla Verde. There is a traditional town center in Fajardo, but the rest of the municipality is more suburban. Thus, if you want the city life, to be able to walk to bars, restaurants, museums, etc., I would recommend sticking to the metro area.

With regard to crime, safe areas of San Juan (Condado, VSJ, Ocean Park, Isla Verde) are quite safe. You will not have problems in these areas if you use common sense.

I appreciate the reply, and there are several comments.  I was looking at long term houses and condos, not vacation rentals, so even though it's the beginning of the "high" season, short-term tourists would not be signing 1-year commitments. 

Anyway, it's the "small town atmosphere" but proximity of basic necessities that I'm after.  I don't drive, so where I see that Carr 3 covers quite a bit of ground, I think I can manage. I typically only go out for shopping, and I work in the home.  I am a stranger to today's PR, but not the PR of the 1970s, which, having lived in the Condado, HR, and RP, was very, very different, but the same too -- never had good transportation.

I assume the "receivership" will start turning things around and if the currently elected governor has his way, maybe statehood if the Republicans "buy it".

Thanks again.

Fajardo, in my opinion, would be very difficult without a car.  It is very spread out and not set up for pedestrian life.

If you don't plan to drive regularly, the only place in Puerto Rico I would recommend to live nowadays is the metro area. I'd suggest Condado, Ocean Park, Miramar, Old San Juan, or Santurce (in some areas) depending on your tastes & budget.