Early stages of a possible move to PR

petedod New member

Member since 11 November 2009

petedodNew member11 November 2009 16:28:22

My wife and I are looking into a move to Puerto Rico. We are a young couple in our 30's. She works via the internet, so work is not an issue. We will be able to outright purchase property, we have family owned land in the Ponce area, specifically in Guanica. My questions are more related to expenses such as: what do utilities run for say a 3 bedroom 1500sq.ft. home? Is internet fairly reliable? We live in Florida currently, and here you want central air conditioning, do the you expats find not having central air hard to adjust to? I'm sure I'll think of more questions.
Thanks in advance for your answers.
Peter

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Gary ViP

Member since 09 April 2006

GaryViP14 November 2009 22:26:46

1845

Electricity: if you don't use airco, around $100/month. With airco it depends on which type, how many units etc. If you have a window unit in one bedroom and use it every night (all night), you'd pay 40, 50 dollars monthly in electricity for it.

We live in the hills, like at 800 feet up. We only use the airco in the bedroom in the really hot months (July, August, September), only to cool the room for a couple of hours. In summer I pay 20 bucks more for electricity than in the other months.

The price of water depends on your location. We pay like $ 15/month; my brother in law, who lives 15 miles form here, pays around 60 dollars monthly.

Internet is not reliable, neither is electricity and water supply. Especially if you live in smaller town or out in the country, make sure you prepare for outages. Get a good generator and a couple of water tanks on the roof and a install a water pump. I got myself a wireless broadband contract from Sprint which is more reliable than DSL.
In most towns you can get DSL and in many places there's internet over the cable network available. Contracts start around $25/month.

Anne H New member

Member since 24 October 2009

Anne HNew member15 November 2009 16:03:35

I pay about 100-200 dollars a month for electricity but I use my bedroom split unit everynight all year round because it is never cool enough for me to not use AC. I had a hard time adjusting to not having central air and bought split units for most of the rooms. Its just never cool enough to not have AC here. I pay about 20 dollars a month for water. I have DSL but I never tried anything else. It seems somewhat reliable but I only use it for pleasure. I definitely think a cistern with a pump and a generator are great. I dont have either and wish I could afford it. Well good luck and have fun. The best thing to do in Puerto Rico is try to let things roll off you because this place is nothing like the USA.