Top 5 CONS of El Paso Texas | 2023

Top 5 CONS of El Paso Texas | 2023

Hi, welcome to Living in El Paso, Texas. My name is John Peña. I'm a real estate agent here. If you are looking to buy or sell a home in the El Paso area, please consider reaching out to us as we do pride ourselves on being the absolute best real estate team here in El Paso. And with that being said, we're going to do a reboot of some of these videos that are very, very popular

for these types of channels, and that is the five cons of El Paso, or in other words, the five worst things, maybe, of El Paso for 2023. Now, I feel great about this episode and the five that I've chosen because now I've lived here for several years. I've owned a home here for several years.

So I feel like obviously I have a much better kind of finger on the pulse, so to speak. So let's jump right into it. Number one, one of the worst things about El Paso, hands down, property taxes. If you've followed this channel, or if you own real estate in El Paso, you probably are aware that the property taxes in Texas in general are pretty high. In El Paso, in a nutshell,

they're about 3% of the appraised value of your home. So to give you a perfect example, I'm going to talk to you about my home. So I bought my home on the west side, four bedroom home with a swimming pool for about $205,000 in the middle of

2020, right when the COVID was happening. At that point, my house was appraised at $183,000. And so I paid about 3% on that $183,000. Let me do the quick math here. I mean just over $5,000 more or less. Now, there are exemptions in place, but we've got whole other videos about that. However, I just got my property

appraisal recently, 2023. Now my home is appraised for $243,000. So within a matter of three years, my home has appraised from $183,000 to $243,000, an increase of

$60,000. Now, this is not normal. That's about 32-33% over three years. The reason that everybody's property taxes went up so dramatically is because between mid 2020 to mid 2021, home prices appreciated about 15%. Mid

2021 to 2022, another 13-14%. Now, we're back down kind of to nominal 3% to 5%. But that period when there was a crazy seller's market, interest rates were super, super low, that just blew everything up. And so without a doubt, property taxes in El Paso are definitely a bummer. Okay? Number two. My number two is

windy air. Now, sounds weird to say it like that, but I'm saying it like that for a reason. Because number one, windy. In spring, February, March, April, it can get really windy here. And we are in a desert. And guess what happens when it gets windy in a desert?

It blows a ton of dirt and dust all over and it basically is just kind of can be a bit of a mess sometimes. So it's more just of a nuisance, right? It doesn't look that nice, you know, when it's happening. But again, that's just kind of a spring thing for us. The other part of that is air. And I have a video we just did about three, four weeks ago on air quality.

And it does turn out that in El Paso, our air quality is not great. Now, it's not terrible, but it is definitely not great. It's enough for me to put this on the list at number two. Because air quality, pollution, is a situation, a problem, an issue that we do face in El Paso. And again, check out that video for more information.

Number three, this is a big one. I've talked about this before, but I think this is a better way to frame it. Number three is minimum wage. Okay, the minimum wage in Texas is seven dollars and twenty five cents. That is simply not enough income for you to live a fantastic life, quite honestly, anywhere. But even in El Paso where it's very, very affordable.

For city employees, it's just over twelve dollars. And by the end of twenty twenty six, the city is planning to pay their employees fifteen dollars an hour. So that is awesome. And according to a research study that was done, basically for an El Paso adult to live a comfortable life, they need to bring in about fourteen dollars and sixty seven cents an hour.

So basically, you know, if if you're if you're making minimum wage, you're not you're not making it like you're you're certainly probably not buying a house. You're renting for sure. You're probably looking for a second job or your significant other, you know, needs to have a job as well. And so hands down, minimum wage here is not great. Now, for those of you that might be skilled workers in health care, maybe education, you know, business, you know,

that's a whole different story because then you can capitalize on the affordability of El Paso. But for those folks that are basically going to be going after those minimum wage jobs, it's going to be tough to really make ends meet, quite honestly. OK, number four, this one is kind of a joke, but not really.

This is something that we call the El Paso special. OK, the El Paso special is basically when you try to get work done around your house, you reach out to a contractor or a landscaper and they they tell you that they're going to come. They never do. They do show up and they quote you some ridiculous price. That's absolutely insane.

Or maybe they even start a project and then like disappear halfway through. Now, this I can say with confidence, like I I've experienced myself, experienced it myself. And I have a lot of now past real estate clients who tell me about this all the time, that it's so hard to get work done around your property, because for whatever reason, you know, that El Paso special is pretty prevalent.

So, like I said, I'm kind of joking, but honestly, I'm kind of not. Trust me. And if you're from El Paso, you know exactly what I'm talking about. And finally, number five, worst things about El Paso. Now, some of you are expecting this.

And so I'll give it to you. Being a border city. OK, one of the worst things about El Paso is being a border city, but it's not what you think. Really, the reality of the situation is that being a border city doesn't impact El Pasoans very much.

Right. I've made so many videos about how the amount of law enforcement is insane. There are systems in place to handle migration. Even recently with Title 42 expiring, I did a whole video and nothing happened. Even all of the news and media had to say, oh, well, we thought it was going to be crazy.

And who knows what there was going to be some doomsday thing which never materialized. So the worst thing about being a border town are all of the false narratives and the misperceptions that that basically come from the media. And quite honestly, I don't I've only been here for three years, so I can't even imagine what it's like to be, you know, originally from here. But if you're from here, quite honestly, it's a little disheartening and frustrating and kind of insulting that the news media has to make up such grand stories about El Paso, stories that simply are not true.

So the worst thing about being a border town is simply having to see your city be basically insulted constantly and and people to have the wrong ideas. And like I said, those false narratives and those misperceptions so far for us, that's the worst thing about being a border town. Other than that, quite honestly, the advantages of being a border town. I've made tons of videos about that economic, you know, that's a that's a whole nother thing.

So quite honestly, for us, it's more of a good thing. So that is my top five cons. Worst things about El Paso. I feel pretty good about that list, quite honestly, because like I said, now that I've been here for a while and experienced the city, you know, and talked to so many of you, sold so many houses to folks and heard their experiences that, like I said, I think that's a pretty good, pretty good and honest top five cons of El Paso.

So stick around. Actually, next week, what video are we going to do? You can probably guess. Absolutely.

We're going to do the top five pros of El Paso, and that's an easy one for us, too, as well. So thank you so much for your attention. If there's anything that we can do for you, please don't hesitate to reach out and we'll see you in the next episode.