There were 883 total housing units sold in Puerto Rico during the month of February 2022. Compared to February 2021, sales were down by 263 units, or 22.9%. Compared to January 2022, sales decreased by 153 units, or 14.8%. Out of these sales, 73 were new housing units and the rest, 810, were used housing units. The average price of a housing unit sold during February was $170,905. Compared to February 2021, this was a decrease of 2.2%.
Used housing unit sales decreased by 239 (22.8%) compared to February 2021. Compared to January, sales decreased by 85 units (9.5%). The average price of a used housing unit sold in February 2022 was $168,854. Compared to February 2021, this was a decrease of 0.1%.
New housing unit sales went down by 24 units (24.7%) compared to February 2021, and by 48.2% compared to the month of January. From May 2020 to December 2021, new housing unit monthly sales averaged 91. This had averaged 58 in 2019. The average price of a new housing unit sold reached $193,671. Compared to February 2021, this was a decrease of 18%. Compared to the previous month, this was a decrease of $46,026 (19.2%). This month’s average was below the 2019 average of $216,004.
This increase in new housing unit sales has begun to slow down in 2022. A combination of rising interest rates and inflation have been large contributors. However, Puerto Rico continues to be an attractive market for non-local investment in real estate.
While we can expect another slowdown in sales for the month of March due to the uncertainty provoked by the Russian invasion of Ukraine, over the long term, we can expect this new higher baseline of monthly sales compared to 2019 to continue.
