Does anyone live there or nearby who can give me some advice on Caguas? Specifically, is it a good place to move if we have four small children? Is it relatively safe?
I live 15 minutes from Caguas and it's the town where we go for shopping other than groceries.
Like any other place, it depends on the neighborhood if it's safe and good for children. If the house you might buy is in a gated community you should be just fine.
Is the traffic going into San Juan just as bad as the traffic going into San Juan from the west?
Yes, it's bad during rush hour. There are basically two ways to get to SJ from Caguas and both of them are one big jam roughly from 6:30 - 9:30 in the AM and in the other direction from 4 - 7. I have some customers in the metro area and I try to arrive at or before 7AM and leave no later than 3PM or be there at around 10AM and leave after 7PM.
A one way trip that should take you 30 minutes can easily take 90 minutes during rush hour.
For the rest Caguas is OK, not too big, most stores are there.