Where to Live In El Paso Texas | 2022

Where to Live In El Paso Texas | 2022

Hi and welcome to Living in El Paso, Texas. My name is John Peña and in this video we're going to talk about specific places to live in El Paso, Texas. Hi, thanks so much for checking out the YouTube channel Living in El Paso, Texas. My name is John Peña, your real estate agent. If you have any buying or selling

needs, please consider reaching out to us. We're going to have that contact information on the screen for you. If you find this kind of information valuable, by all means, please consider subscribing to the YouTube channel. And in this video we're going to kind of reboot one of the very first videos I ever did

and where to live in El Paso, Texas. It's one of our most popular videos and the reason that it's so popular, I think, is because a lot of people who are relocating to the city, well they want to know like what areas, you know, they should potentially think about moving to. And now that I've lived here longer, I

have a much better grasp of the exact neighborhoods, the exact areas, how much these areas cost, what's happening in those. So we kind of wanted to refresh this video and give you an updated, you know, kind of outlook on that whole perspective. And so this video we're going to break down the main areas of El

Paso. The West Side, the East Side, the Far East, Horizon City, Northeast, and we're adding Central. And so in the future we're going to create very detailed videos, let's say, about the Far East, exactly what neighborhoods, what areas, you know, you might want to consider. And I know that people love seeing what the

houses look like and the streets, and we're going to capture all of that so that this is your one-stop shop for all things real estate in El Paso. So we are at Scenic Drive. So we'll show some of the drone footage of this. Scenic Drive is basically the nose of the Franklin Mountains. So the Franklin Mountains run

north-south, and they split the east side from the west side, and then they kind of come down to, if you go down south on the Franklin Mountains, they kind of nose down right basically behind me, right where we're standing. So we're kind of at the end of the Franklin Mountains, and they conveniently kind of point right at

downtown. So we are in what we're going to call kind of central downtown Central El Paso. And so some of the areas here that are great to live in are the following. Now downtown, there's not a lot of housing options downtown, not yet at least. I hope that is a trend, and I hope that we start to see more opportunities

for places to live in downtown, because our downtown is growing, and I think it's fantastic. So there's a lot of great restaurants down there, bars, nightlife, you name it. So there were some plans for some luxury condominiums before COVID, and those kind of fell apart. But hopefully those types of development

projects start to come back. So currently not a lot of options if you want to live downtown, not yet. On the west, on the very west side, literally just over here, a couple of awesome neighborhoods. Kern Place. We've done videos on Kern. We'll do another one. But Kern is fantastic. It's a very charming

community with really lovely homes that are kind of nestled up onto the west side of the Franklin Mountains. There's great little parks up there. They are higher price point homes, but all of the homes up there, very charming, a very popular location. That is right by UTEP, the University of Texas El Paso. There is,

as you can imagine, a lot of student housing around there, some apartment buildings and such. And then also in that same area, Sunset Heights. This is one of, we've also featured this community as well. This is a really historic district, older homes, super charming, super close. You can literally walk from Sunset

Heights across 10 and you're right there in downtown. So Sunset Heights is an amazing community which we will feature as well. And then if we look to the east of the Franklin Mountains, before we get to the east side, before we get too far north into the northeast, there are also some great little communities. One of my

favorites is Manhattan Heights. Again, a historic district. We're going to feature that. There's an amazing park over there, Memorial Park, which is great. And so as far as central goes, I'd say the price ranges are pretty drastic. You know, there are some homes down here that are probably like $100,000.

You know, these are older, smaller homes that have been around forever. They're probably going to need some work. But then we go Sunset Heights, Manhattan Heights. There's homes in there $500,000, $600,000, $700,000. And so it's a pretty wide range of price ranges. And so a real quick just kind of pros and cons about living in

central or downtown El Paso. Pros, super convenient to basically everything including downtown, highways, whatever you got to go to. Great if you're looking to do an investment. These are fantastic Airbnb short-term rental opportunities. Other pros, charm. Some of the homes in these areas are so

charming. They're wonderfully crafted, well put together homes that are really unique. Cons, I guess we could go the other way. They're really old houses that are really unique. And so once you do that home inspection, you know, you're probably going to find some issues. So there is not really like any

new construction in central El Paso, except for there is a little pocket in Kern. We've done some videos about that. But for the most part, cons, if you're looking for new construction, central El Paso is not going to be the place for you. Other cons, maybe it's a little bit too near say like Interstate 10.

Every once in a while you can hear the train going by. So it might just be a little bit too much city hustle and bustle for some folks. So that is central El Paso, a fantastic opportunity if you want to be surrounded by more of an urban feel. If you don't want to be surrounded with that kind of urban

city life, then you're going to want to check out some of these next areas that we're going to explore right now. All right, so now we are over at the west side. And as you can see from that first footage, we are really stepping up in the in the world here. And El Paso now

has its own Dutch Bros. So everybody is pretty excited about that. There are a lot of people here. We just talked to the girl inside. She says that they're pretty not busy at about 5 a.m. And other than that, it's pretty full-on. So the west side. The west side is obviously the area west of the Franklin Mountains. We'll

put the map up so you can check that out. Now the west side is is different than the east side, primarily because on the east side of El Paso it's pretty flat. So Horizon City, the Far East, all of these areas, they can keep developing for a long time. The Northeast, it's flat. They can just keep going. Over here on the

west side, it's not so much that way. The elevations are a little more varied, so the lots cost a little bit more. According to the builders, they're a little trickier to build on. And there just isn't as much available land before you either hit the Rio Grande River or New Mexico. So the west side does tend to

come at a premium price. So in our average home price in El Paso is about $200,000. I'd say that if you really want to get into the west side, you know, we're really starting to start closer to $225,000, you know, to kind of balance out what you might get on the east side. So what do you get with that additional, you know,

premium cost on the west side? A couple of things. Number one, we have slightly better amenities on the west side in that, you know, there's one Whole Foods in El Paso, and it is squarely on the west side, right? Some of the higher-end retail is on the west side. Also, all of our schools are rated really pretty, pretty

good. Eight, nines, tens. However, the highest rated schools are on the west side. So, you know, that's something to keep in mind. Other than that, the west side is great. It's close to the Franklin Mountains, obviously, so there's tons of hiking, tons of mountain biking, all of the things that you would, you know, want

to do if you're more of an outdoors nature type of person. And so, no shortage of things to do. As you can see, we're going to run some drone over this area where we're at. This Dutch Bros is brand new. There's a lot of new development happening out here, and a lot of it is a little on the higher end, which is pretty

awesome. So this is just kind of an overview video for for the channel, kind of spotlighting the main areas. But we are going to break down the following areas on the west side for you. The traditional west side, this is basically the west side that's been around the area between, you know, I-10 and the

Franklin Mountains. A lot of older homes here, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, maybe in the 2000s. A couple of other areas, there's an area called the Upper Valley, which is closer to the New Mexico border, down by the Rio Grande River. That's a really awesome area. Bigger lots, water rights, kind of a lot of fancy houses down there, to say

the least. There's an area called the Northwest, which is kind of north of 375, this Enchanted Hills area, where they're starting to do new construction. Cimarron Canyon you could probably include in there. There's an area that I call the Far West, which is on the east side of Interstate 10, closer to the New

Mexico border. Again, lots of new construction happening there, and so there are some unique different areas in the west side. But like I said, for this overview we just kind of wanted to give you a general idea of what you could expect in El Paso, in the various places to live. Okay, so now we're talking about

the Far East. So we're of course now on the east side of the Franklin Mountains, and just like the name implies, we're a little bit further east. So if you look on the map, you can see that essentially we're actually in the kind of northeast quadrant of the county. So the northeast, it's tucked nicely right up in there

against the Franklin Mountains. To get to the Far East, though, you're gonna have to drive a little bit further east. And so the Far East is, dare I say, the most popular suburb area in El Paso. This is where a lot of the newer development really started to take off. So a lot of the homes that you're going to see here

are 1990s, early 2000s, 2010s, and as you're going to see in some of our future videos on our particular kind of neighborhood spotlights, there's some really nice brand-new, brand-new construction that's happening out here as well. So here's some of the highlights of the Far East. Number one, this area is

very popular with families. And the reason that it's so popular with families is because of places like this. So we are in the Beast Urban Park. This is a newer community rec center space that is actually still being built, but there was an Oasis water park here. Miguel did a video on that earlier. There

is this massive pool infrastructure here, which is awesome. There is a gymnasium, basketball courts. This is going to span over 92 acres. So this is one of the many amenities that people in the Far East get. So the Far East also boasts a lot of parks and, again, some of the newest schools, some of the nicest

schools in the area. The Far East is also pretty popular with the military because it's pretty close to Fort Bliss. You can basically jump on 375 and just book it right into the base. Now, this also, though, has one drawback, and that's a drawback that's becoming, unfortunately, a reality for all of El Paso, and that is

our traffic is getting a little bit busier, right? And so the Far East can be a little busy in the mornings around rush hour and in the evenings around rush hour with everyone trying to get in and out. So the Far East, though, by all means a fantastic area. I would say that the price point for the Far East is more

or less...it's funny, actually I was just at a house 10 minutes ago that was listed for $160,000. Now, it was a smaller house, just over 1,200 square feet, but at the same time it shows you where the prices can start. So I'd say that's about as low a price point as you're going to find for a home in the

Far East. And then the prices average more around $200,000 to $220,000, and then they go all the way up into the $300,000, almost getting into the $400,000 price point. So the Far East, a fantastic area, like I said, very popular with families. It's kind of far enough to feel like it's not really in the downtown or

even near the downtown area, but it's still close enough that you can still get to amenities. And yes, we did a video on this in the East Side Shopping, but this area does have plenty of stores, grocery stores, retail stores, all of that kind of stuff that you would expect, restaurants, good bars, all of that. So

the Far East, dare I say, the most popular suburb or area of our Where to Live in El Paso video. All right, so we are now in the Northeast. We're actually at kind of a new development. It's kind of a, there's like a coffee shop in here, there's a brewery, a

restaurant, sports bar, fill up your growler kind of place. So this is a great example of some of the new development that is happening a lot here in El Paso. So with that said though, we are in the Northeast. And so you can see from the map here, the Northeast is essentially just east of the Franklin Mountains and

a little bit north of that area that we were kind of calling Central, right? So the Northeast is actually one of the original, one of the first areas that was actually developed for residential housing in El Paso. So El Paso kind of grew from downtown and then it kind of grew north up through the Northeast. So a

lot of the southern part of the Northeast is older homes. We were just in a couple of days, an hour ago, 1957, 1968. Some of these homes, a lot of them are single-story ranch brick homes, two to three bedrooms, three bedrooms mostly, but older homes, right? Because those are the homes that were developed initially. Now

the good thing about those homes is that they're pretty affordably priced, and the lots are bigger, and they have, you know, some mature trees, the landscaping is filled in, nice quiet neighborhoods. So that is fantastic. Now as you go further north, you're going to actually see some of the new construction that is

happening in the Northeast. We did a video on a projected development that's going to be done that's going to be pretty fantastic, but there are some other neighborhoods, North Hills, Mesquite Hills. We will feature these specifically in our Northeast video, but there are some areas where there is

newer construction as well, and those are also very popular. As you go closer to the mountains, further west, and actually up the mountains, then you actually get some really beautiful homes that are actually up in the mountains. Yes, they're a little bit older, but they're higher price point, and they have pretty

amazing views over everything. So also in the Northeast, it's pretty close to Fort Bliss and the airport. This is why the Northeast is one of the most popular areas with people in the military to either rent or buy, because it's super convenient for them to basically get to the base in, you know, 10-15 minutes tops.

So those are some of the pros of the Northeast. Some of the cons of the Northeast. Now I say this all the time that El Paso continues to rate as one of the safest cities in our country. That remains true. However, there is a pocket in the Northeast that some people might say is a little scrappier, and that has

maybe a bad reputation. This is absolutely true. So there's a little area around Hondo Pass off of 54 called Angels Triangle. I've heard it called Devil's Triangle. Yes, this area does have a bad reputation. Is it bad reputation in like there are people being shot and, you know, killed and all of this? No,

absolutely not. However, full disclosure, there are some pockets of the Northeast that do have a slightly less favorable reputation. Of course, as a real estate agent looking out for your best interests, these are not the areas that we're going to, you know, let you buy a home unless you're like, I want to buy

here. And then, of course, more power to you. So one other little thing that I wanted to say about the Northeast to kind of offset some of that reputation stuff is that the Northeast is changing. There's a lot of really great smaller homes that are being picked up by flippers, and the flippers then are

remodeling these homes and selling them, and that's having an effect of bringing up the property values in these areas. These areas are also great if you're considering investing because these are perfect short-term rental opportunities because you're close to everything. You're close to the airport. You're close

to downtown. You've got the beautiful mountains there, and so the Northeast does have a lot of great things going for it. And with that, we're going to go ahead and move on to our next area of town. Okay, so we are now in Horizon City, and as you can see, this is where one of the

new big Amazon distribution centers is located, right off of Interstate 10 and Eastlake Boulevard, essentially. So Horizon City is essentially basically about as far east in El Paso County as you can go. So it's just north of Interstate 10, right past 375. So if you look on the map, like I said, kind of due

east of El Paso. Now Horizon City is, you've heard you've heard me talking about it since this channel began, this is a great area because it is where a lot of new construction is happening. Yes, there are some older homes here and there, but primarily Horizon City is basically all new construction. Most of

these homes have been built within the last 10 to 15 years, and they are building a lot of new construction. Now you've also probably heard me say that Horizon City is still the place where you're going to get the most bang for your buck, meaning that the prices of these new homes is very affordable. Again,

we're still staying right around $200,000, but now that $200,000 is buying you pretty much a brand new three-bedroom, two-bath home in a great, great kind of suburban location. So some of the pros about Horizon City. Bang for the buck. If you want new construction, this is the place to find it.

And the Far East, and some other places, but this is really Horizon City's bread and butter, new construction. Pretty conveniently located. We're right there by Interstate 10, right by 375. Great location, great schools, parks, the rec centers, all of that. Now, some of the cons about Horizon City. Since it is a

newer area, they're still having to catch up on, you know, grocery stores and retail. And we've featured some of it, you know, like the Eastlake Marketplace. There is a lot of new retail coming in, but at the same time, since this is a newer area, they're a little bit behind the curve. So, you know, that's

definitely in the works. So, also talking about in the works is, let me groom myself, also in the works, a lot of Horizon City, you're going to find yourself in what's called a PID, a Public Improvement District. This means that, this could be the Far East too, or even some of the West Side, but some of these

new areas, you're going to come into a situation where you've moved into a new community, and that new community needs to pay for infrastructure, whether it's, you know, sewer, water lines, street lights, more streets. And so, you're going to pay a little bit for that infrastructure improvements. Everybody has to pay their

fair share. So, if you see PID, then chances are, yes, you're going to come in and you're going to have an extra, essentially, financial obligation to contribute to some of this. I just sold a house in the Far East that's in a PID, and the buyer had an opportunity. They could either pay $3,000 up front, or it

was like $200 for, you know, a year for 12 to 15 years, something like that. So, that could be one of the cons, is that, like I said, since this area is new, you know, we don't necessarily have all of the amenities that you might be looking for, and you might pay a little more just to be a part of a new and developing

community. But, again, Horizon City, it really is a fantastic location. Maybe for military people, it's a little further from the base, but for everybody else, still a pretty convenient location. And again, like I said, if you are looking for fantastic, beautiful new construction, Horizon City could very well be the

place for you. Okay, now we are in East El Paso. So, as you can see from the map here, this is still really close to downtown. That's one of the pros for this area, that it's very conveniently located to a lot of things. Where we are right now is called The Fountains. This is a newer retail development that, you know,

it's only a couple of years old. Really nice, higher-end stores, lots of stuff for families, kids events, movies, all sorts of stuff. But Interstate 10 is literally right there. So, great location. So, the east side, as far as the residential, the homes go, this is a more well-established

area. This area has been around for a while. Most of the homes here started being built in about the 1950s. The majority of the homes, I would say, I'd say primarily 1980s, 1990s. There aren't really a lot of newer homes here. There aren't too many homes built over the year 2000. So, it is a more established

area. These homes though, they are nice. A lot of them are single-story ranch, brick homes. One of the nice things about the homes here on the east side is that the lots are a lot bigger. So, you know, in the Horizon City, the Far East, even the west side sometimes, there is actually... I thought this guy was going to walk right

through me. There are actually, you know, those communities, the homes are a little bit, a little bit tighter packed, right? Whereas over here, there's more space. Your backyards are going to be bigger. There's going to be more mature trees, landscaping, all of that. There's also actually a pretty high number of pools

in this area. So, with those bigger backyards, you're going to get swimming pools and things like that. So, primarily though, older homes, 1980s, 1990s. Price point, we're still right around $200,000 for the average home on the east side. So, very competitive. Some other pros, very close to the airport, pretty

close to Fort Bliss. Plenty of shopping. This area has been around long enough. You know, there's the Sam's Clubs and the Walmarts, the Targets. Nicer high-end shopping, like the fountains. And so, as far as cons go, I really can't come up with too many cons, quite honestly. You know, you are closer to the airport, so

there's a chance that you're going to see planes and hear planes maybe flying overhead. But I haven't really heard too many people complain about that. And the only other cons, I would say, is if you are really attached to wanting a new construction, there's probably not going to be a lot of that on the east side. If

you're, if you're gonna, if you want new construction, that's going to be Horizon City. That's going to be the Far East, or some of the areas in the west, or even the northeast. And so, that kind of sums up the east side. A fantastic location, great schools, tons of parks, rec centers, bigger lots, older homes, well

established neighborhoods. Of course, very, very safe. And so, in the future, in our east side video, we're going to spotlight some of the specific neighborhoods that we think are the best.