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| October 2004: I am surprised that El Paso has not become the largest city in the United States. It IS the largest city on the border with Mexico. It's a desert town but with fertle valleys. What El Paso SHOULD be famous for is it's mild weather, mild seasons with a very warm summer, fantastic fire-in-the-sky sunsets, and the best Mexican food in the world. We are listed as the second safest city in the USA. No earthquakes, no tornados, no hurricanes, no mud slides (well we had a couple homes that some mud ran into their houses), and no real floods. Retirees are coming here because of the mild weather and low cost of housing. To live any cheaper, you'd have to move to Mexico. Hey, you can buy a 3 bedroom home, 2 baths, with a double garage for under $80,000. and live like a king in homes 4 times larger than most celebrities do for one forth the cost. UPDATE: October 2007: Well, over the past 3 years, those $80,000. houses are now $130,000. due primarily to about 200 people from the West coast that think that $500,000. is NORMAL for a 1300 sq. ft. house and have driven up the property prices and real estate taxes on everybody else. Labor HAS NOT gone up here. There is not a $100,000. worth of labor and lumber in those 1300 sq. ft. houses. The West coast (mainly Californians ) that have moved here to retire or run their businesses online ( and location doesn't matter ) have driven up the real estate costs. These homes that are 1300 sq. ft. for $130,000. are not worth that and will eventually come down or stay the same now for many years. There will be no more house values increases for the next few years and the prices may come down a bit during that time. If you are going to buy a house here, just place an offer of about 20% less and leave it at that. Most El Paso homeowners cannot pay these additional higher property taxes brought on by the buyers "from out of town" that have no idea what they were suppose to be paying. The real estate brokers just kept telling the sellers " just raise your price, the out of towners don't know any better", and the out of towner's bought it. Now, the El Paso homeowners, who have not seen any pay raises in many many years, are being held captive to $200.-$300. or more higher property taxes EVERY MONTH because of this. And what's worse, the city government fell for it too and just jacked up everyone's property taxes because of uncontrolled sales to uneducated out-of-town buyers, rather than sit back.............. and look at the whole situation and take into account these odd ball sales and keep our property taxes stable. They let the El Paso Appraisal District just go wild reappraising everyone's property. The commercial property owners are the ones who got hit the hardest. There is a yearly cap on property taxes increases of existing homes but not on commercial property. EMPLOYMENT: Let me explain something. Many companies broadcast that they are moving or coming to El Paso and will provide 100 or 1000 jobs as well as telling everyone that these are good or high paying jobs. Once they are in El Paso, they find out that all the jobs they were paying high wages elsewhere for, that in El Paso, they can pay the employees about half what they paid elsewhere. ... or just above minimum wage. Can you say ...." Too many people that are unemployed and for every job there are 500 applicants." (You'd better learn Spanish if you want to work in El Paso. 99% of all jobs here require you to be bilingual with English and Spanish.) Many of these people do not work and normally live at home so that's why such a large area, with so many unemployed, can exist. A lot of the population in El Paso has 2 and 3 or more familes living in each house ! Adult married couples living with their married parents and grandparents, all in one house. They all can "decide" to work or apply for work, or they can stay home with very low living expenses. Many and I'd say A LOT of El Pasoan's live on less than $12,000. a year. IF YOU are thinking of moving to El Paso, do not plan on making the same money as elsewhere. No matter what you've learned in the "Harvard Business School", it will not apply in El Paso. This is a business model that has yet to be understood. If you move here looking for work, you'd better speak English AND Spanish. |
| El Pasoans will probably not hold any big federal offices or appointments. EVERY family that has lived here more than 30 years has hired illegal maids and workers from Mexico. And at night, the maids and workers go right back across the border to their homes. That still goes on, for the most part. Everyone that works for the Immigration or Border Patrol or local police here, has family that either USED to hire illegal maids.... or... still do. If you relocate to El Paso, you'd better speak Spanish ! (you keep saying that!..... I know, I know.) |
| El Paso is now about 80% hispanic, 10% anglo and 10% black and other. The working anglos have been slowly moving away, because high paying jobs are really not here, (and they THINK they HAVE to have high paying jobs to be happy). If you like paying LOTS of income taxes, live somewhere else ! If you think dinner for 2 should cost $75.00 or more, live somewhere else. If you like high car payments because you have to keep up with the neighbors, live somewhere else. The retired anglos and hispanics that left years ago are slowly starting to move back in. English and Spanish is used all over the city. El Pasoans are pretty laid back. The out-of-towners stick out like a sore thumb. If they live here long enough they learn to LET the ashes fall off the cigarette. By the way, El Paso is one of the first large cities to enact a smoking ban in all buildings, clubs, pubs, bars, restaurants and businesses so the employees and other customers are free of the smoke, smell and health risks. |
| El Paso is divided by the Franklin Mountains. Right down the center. Yes sir-ee Bob. Right down the center. So there are at least 2 El Pasos, maybe even 4 El Pasos as El Paso has TOTALLY different people living in each area. |
| The West side of El Paso is rolling hills to steep hills as the city climbs the West side of the mountain. All those mountain views means high real estate values which means...hey, that's where most of the larger homes are and that's where most of the higher income folks live. Because......... they can afford the real estate. (they pay more property taxes too.) |
| The East side of El Paso is sloped, but not enough to really notice. Kind of flat, so that's where they put the El Paso International Airport. On flat land. That's a good idea. The West side people have to drive at least 10 miles to the airport. The East siders see it every morning. The East side is also where Fort Bliss Army Base is. For the most part, East El Pasoans are middle income people for the most part. You know, regular folks working at stores, fixing cars, serving food, making web sites, riding their Harley motorcycles, going to their motorcycle bars. El Paso HAS the world's largest Harley dealer here, (Barnett Harley Davidson). The famous from all over the world come here to just walk among the world's largest selection of Harleys and just say: "Give me the pink one... for my wife ...of course". and plunk down $30,000 in cash. And then ride the bike home....for the little lady...of course. Yea, right. You're gonna tie a small teddy bear to the handle bars and ride into the wind. And going over Transmountain Road and the Anthony Gap Road is just for that. At sunrise, those in-the-know, warm up the engines of their Harleys and convertibles, put the Stephenwolf tape in with "Born to be Wild", turn up the volume and ride ! WOW ! |
| The Northeast side of El Paso is just North of Fort Bliss Army Base that's been there for over 75 years. So that's where military housing is, on base and off base. So the Northeast has developed along those lines. The property values are what military can afford and where the top brass also live so they can be near the base, PX, military golf course and Korean restaurants. Hey, I don't know WHY most of the Korean restaurants are there. When a LOT of the military are overseas, business in Northeast El Paso kind of drys up too. But when they are here...it's party time !!! The idea here is to live in the smallest-cheapest house you can and the smallest house on your block and the smallest house in your neighborhood. Those smaller houses always hold their value. |
| El Paso has 2 valleys. The Lower Valley and the Upper Valley. The Lower Valley is LOWER in altitude and lower in cost and housing. The Upper Valley is the valley of mostly farm land on the West Side and the property value is higher. So high now, that the farms are being developed into home sites. The Rio Grand River connects the 2 fertile valleys. The river is the lowest part of the city because that's why the river is there ! In the Lower Valley they grow cotton, chille peppers and some corn. In the upper valley they used to grow a lot cotton before the land became so expensive and now there are just a few cotton farms but there are lots of pecan groves. Living in EL Paso, Diane |
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