Data tools / Housing

Building permits
in Puerto Rico

Explore the residential construction pipeline: where housing is authorized, how it changes, and what kinds of structures are planned.

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Area over time

Selected geography and structure · 2022–2025.

Housing authorizations

Puerto Rico

Annual authorizations

Annual totals. The selected area and structure filter apply to every year.

Structure mix

Where housing is authorized

Explore the records

Selected year, geography, and structure. Select a name to inspect its trend. On small screens, dollar values are abbreviated; CSV retains exact values.

Sources, definitions & methodology

What is measured? New privately owned housing units authorized by building permits, alongside building counts and reported construction value. These are not completed homes, permit-document counts, or all construction. Values are nominal US dollars, without inflation adjustment; they are not sale prices.

Coverage. All 78 Puerto Rico municipios, annual 2022–2025. Only the total basis is summed; the reported subset is never added again. No monthly or earlier-year observations are inferred.

Comparisons. Year-over-year = (current / prior − 1) × 100. A zero prior value gives an undefined percentage; two zero values show “No change.” 2022 has no prior-year comparison. Share = selected housing units / all Puerto Rico housing units across all structure types in the same year. Structure mix follows the main year selector and always includes all four structure types for the selected area. Both annual charts follow the selected geography and structure. Map YoY compares housing units against the prior year; unavailable and prior-zero comparisons are not treated as zero. Map ranks compare every municipio (or MSA group), using the selected year, structure, and map measure; ties share a rank. Playback advances the shared year selector and stops after the final year.

Metropolitan areas. July 2023 delineations are held fixed across all years. Six MSAs cover 66 municipios; the remaining 12 are grouped as “Outside MSAs,” which is not an MSA. Puerto Rico totals include all 78 municipios.

Map boundaries. Official Census 2024 cartographic county boundaries, joined by municipio FIPS.

Data access. This tool uses official Census BPS Island Areas downloads, which do not require a Census API key. It displays a saved snapshot; refresh is a separate data preparation step.

    Census BPS definitions · Official MSA membership

    Using the map

    Select an area to update the statistics, charts, and records below. Select it again or click the sea around the island to return to Puerto Rico. Tab to an area and press Enter or Space to select it. Choose Units, nominal Value, or housing-unit YoY %. The outlined area is your selection. Units and value use white, light blue, and orange ranges held fixed across 2022–2025 for the chosen structure and geography level, so playback colors remain comparable. For YoY, blue means decrease, white no change, and orange increase; hatched areas have no available comparison. A zero prior value is undefined unless both values are zero. Play advances the main year selector from 2022 through 2025 and stops; Pause or a manual filter change stops playback. The detail trend follows the map measure; ranks compare all areas, with ties sharing a rank.

    Municipio boundaries: Census 2024 cartographic boundaries. MSA membership: July 2023, held fixed across years. Vieques and Culebra appear in their geographic positions. Western offshore islands are omitted from the drawing only; all municipio data remain included. “Outside MSAs” is a separate group, not an MSA.