Your question asks the blind men to describe the elephant they're touching: there are at least half-a-dozen "Puerto Rico" community types available. Your biggest constraint right now is internet signal, then sewer, then electricity, then water, then healthcare services, then food, THEN shelter. If you constrain those items above to be immediate "Must-Haves" then you're going to end up in 2 or 3 spots that may as well be Miami Beach. If you can get creative, you can explore the communities that, while within sight of the coast, may still be a half-hour (or more) away. [!!!] Go there and rent the smallest car you can find, fill the tank, and take a drive. Circumnavigate the island in a day. If you find some place you like? Hit your banking app. and search for the nearest ATM.
Of course the advantage for US taxpayers is attractive, but I've heard that PR is a "shithole place to live". Are there places where that's not true and perhaps make it worthwhile to move there?
There are lots of shithole places in the USA. Would you live somewhere like Youngstown, OH or Odessa, TX for same tax advantages? I won't even bother asking about Camden, NJ or Baltimore.
Not the same thing at all. My question was, "are the places in PR which are NOT shitholes". The country is poor, corrupt, hot & humid (?), and is periodically severely damaged by hurricanes. To live there you'd have to put up with all of that.
Recently read where some high profile hedge manager plans to move his operation to PR as soon as his kids graduate from college. There must be places on the island for suitable living. (??)
San Juan is a great town with beautiful beaches, great food and shopping but it's expensive. Haven't been there since the storm so don't know about current infrastructure.
Although you do have a point, you don't stay in PR all year long. You only need to spend there 50.1% of the year and smart people choose after the hurricane season let's say Nov-April. There are plenty of communities with perfect internet, food, water, etc. Cost can be as low as 1K per month... For ideas check out r/digitalnomad on Reddit. Like:
I know a few actual 6-figure-a-month entrepreneurs who live there. I don't know any trade-options-in-my-underpants-while-I-shoot-iguanas-from-trees guys in PR, though. I'm sure some quit their jobs, try it a few months, then go back to their employers on their hands and knees, though. Like someone else said, the ones I know spend a decent amount of time outside of there. I'm not sure if the tax benefits, beaches and other perks outweigh hurricanes and corruption, though.