The State of Housing in Puerto Rico
An analysis of the factors that impact housing and rent prices in Puerto Rico and proposed strategies to increase housing affordability. Foundation for Puerto Rico, 2023, Advancing Equitable Neighborhood Development grant, funded in part by NALCAB, the National Association for Latino Community Asset Builders. Every table in the study is shown below as published, then extended to all 78 municipalities with the Census Bureau's data for every year from 2010 to 2025. Choose a year in the bar above and every map and chart follows; open any dataset to see all of it.
Latest data (click any number to open its full data)
As published in the 2023 study
1 · Population change
Puerto Rico resident population, 2010–2025 Census Bureau
2 · Housing stock, vacancy and weekend homes
1.6 million units, over 370,000 vacant, an estimated 300,000 dilapidated or abandoned, and fewer households than homes (Section 2). Vacancy by municipality and year, the share of units the Census classes as "for seasonal, recreational or occasional use" (the closest public proxy for weekend homes and short-term rentals), and the "other vacant" units that are neither for sale or rent nor seasonal: the usual public stand-in for abandoned housing.
3 · The housing cost burden
HUD calls a household cost-burdened when it pays more than 30% of income for housing. The study found 52% of renters and 38% of mortgaged owners burdened (Tables 3 and 4). Below, the island-wide distribution for the selected year, rebuilt from the ACS, then each municipality.
Gross rent as % of household income Table 3 methodACS
Owner costs as % of income, with a mortgage Table 4 methodACS
4 · Home ownership affordability
Table 6 of the study converts median income into the largest 30-year mortgage a household can carry at 30% of income. Against a median home value of $111,800 and asking prices of $90,000 and up, most of the population could not buy. The published table, then the same arithmetic for the selected year and for every municipality: the affordability ratio is the median home value divided by that maximum loan (above 1.0 means the typical home is out of reach for the typical household). The loan uses the study's fixed 5% rate in every year, so years differ only through prices and incomes.
Median income vs median home value by municipality ACS
5 · Who owns their home
Owner-occupied housing by age of householder (Table 7), as published and for the selected year, and the owner-occupied share of occupied units by municipality. Poverty is added as context.
Owner-occupied units by age of householder Table 7live
6 · Short-term rentals and the housing market
21,340 short-term rental listings, 1.3% of the housing inventory, with only four municipalities above 7% (Section 2.5). Guests stay two days longer in a short-term rental than in a hotel (Table 8). The ten municipalities with the highest share of listings versus housing units (Table 9), with the study's own change columns for 2012 to 2021. Listing counts come from Transparent Inc. and are reproduced as published; the maps use the Census seasonal-unit share as the public proxy.
Average length of stay, days Table 8
Short-term rentals vs housing units, top 10 Table 9
Table 9 as published, with the live ACS change for the same municipalities Table 9ACS, from the base year to the selected year
7 · Low-Income Housing Tax Credit projects
Six LIHTC projects funded with CDBG-DR, 851 units, $242 million of development (Table 10, Map 6). Locations are shown at the municipality. HUD's current LIHTC database is not available to automated downloads, so this table stays as published.
LIHTC projects Table 10
8 · Disaster recovery: FEMA housing assistance
Households approved for FEMA Individual Assistance (owners and renters) and the dollars approved, by municipality and the year a disaster was declared: Hurricanes Irma and María (2017), the 2020 earthquakes, Hurricane Fiona (2022) and others. Years with no declaration show the most recent earlier year. Source: OpenFEMA Housing Assistance data.
9 · Municipality profile
The study closes with Ceiba as a case for equitable development (Table 11). The same card for any municipality and the selected year, with the study's variables on the left and the housing indicators on the right. The small line beside each value is its trend from 2010 to the latest year; click a label to open that dataset in full.
10 · Land use: where housing can go
The study's first strategy is zoning that allows mixed use and density in areas already served by infrastructure (Section 3.1). The Plan de Uso de Terrenos 2015 classifies every hectare as urban, urbanizable, rústico común or especially protected. The share of each municipality already urban, the land set aside for growth, and how much of its tourism supply sits on protected rural land. The plan is a single 2015 snapshot, so these maps do not change with the year. The polygons themselves are a layer in the Data Observatory.
11 · Data: every dataset on this page
Each dataset opens in full: every municipality and Puerto Rico as a whole, every year available, margins of error where the Census Bureau publishes them, a trend chart, and a CSV download.