Here are the latest figures on home sales in Puerto Rico and other possible sources you could consult.
What's happening? Total home sales in Puerto Rico fell 3.2% in the second quarter of 2025 compared with the same period in 2024 (from 2,616 sales in 2024 to 2,533 in 2025: 83 fewer), but new-home sales rose 13% (from 200 sales to 226: 26 more), according to a report from the Oficina del Comisionado de Instituciones Financieras (OCIF).
That increase is smaller than the one initially reported the previous week, which was 25% (638 sales, or 438 more) and had been questioned by organizations such as the Asociación de Constructores, which doubted the figure was correct.
The OCIF said that a mortgage institution made an error in its report and classified all home sales as new, inflating that number. The corrected report was published on Wednesday, Dec. 3, one week after the previous one.
Why does it matter? OCIF reports are among the few official sources available for tracking home sales activity in Puerto Rico, but they only cover transactions in which a mortgage was taken out, not cash sales. They draw on information that financial institutions provide to the government through the OCIF.
These figures are used not only to monitor the real estate sector. They are also used to determine home values when properties are appraised and to establish average market prices, Ricardo Negrón, executive director of the Mortgage Bankers Association of Puerto Rico (MBA), explained to Platea.
🏡 Our Housing coverage
What data are available on housing in Puerto Rico?
Mortgaged home sales: At the government level, the OCIF is the entity that reports new and existing home sales based on mortgages issued by lending institutions.
Cash home sales: Cash property sales are not recorded at any financial institution. They are documented at the Registro de la Propiedad, which is attached to the Departamento de Justicia (DJ), but that office does not publish reports or provide details about the type of property whose title is transferred, Negrón explained.
Instituto de Estadísticas: It draws on data from various agencies, such as the Departamento de la Vivienda, the Administración de Vivienda Pública and the Federal Housing Administration (FHA), to present a range of housing data for Puerto Rico. Information on home sales comes from the OCIF.
The home price index is based on mortgage data from the FHA, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York to produce property price estimates by region. The Instituto also publishes an Informe de Infraestructura de Unidades de Vivienda de Interés Social (IIUVIS) detailing programs that generate affordable housing, whether for sale, rental, rehabilitation, subsidies or other purposes.
Industry reports: Other private entities, such as Comparables Online, produce reports on cash and mortgaged property sales, but these are generally available only to subscribers and do not capture every transaction that takes place, only those the firms can verify through interviews and relationships with industry organizations.
Consulting firms such as Estudios Técnicos, Inc. (ETI) produce analyses and estimates of the housing sector based on Census data and other sources. ETI, for example, is the firm that develops the Índice de Vivienda Asequible, which measures a family's ability to qualify for a mortgage loan.
State Housing Plan: The Department of Housing presented this plan in September and detailed its goals from 2024 to 2030. The document includes the social and economic context of Puerto Rico and how it affects access to housing, as well as an analysis of the real estate sector based on data from the Census (which measures vacant and non-vacant housing units, the type of housing and the condition of the structure, among other things), the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), the OCIF, ETI (which also includes an analysis of the construction sector), and others.
This content was translated with the assistance of Artificial Intelligence (AI).
