Home Appraisals Steady, Apartment Appraisals Up

Here’s a story from the June 25 issue of the El Paso Inc.:

Preliminary valuations of single-family homes by the El Paso Central Appraisal District remained little changed for the second year in a row, but values for apartments jumped 15 percent and commercial property by 7 percent.

That’s innersting, que no?

One might think that, apartments and single-family homes being complementary goods, the prices would track similarly.

But I guess that the supply and demand for single-family homes has remained relatively constant, while the demand for apartments has outrun the supply. Right?

I mean, it’s not like everyone is building a lot of new apartment buildings, is it?

The CAD’s valuation figures show 66 new multi-family properties account for $52 million in value or 2.3 percent of the increase.

Oh, well then the demand must be surging, right? Here’s a letter from Rick Soto of the El Paso Apartment Association in this week’s Inc.

When the Army, Department of Defense and city of El Paso asked for more apartment units due to Base Realignment and Closure and the resulting need for El Paso and Fort Bliss to house incoming soldiers, local developers stepped up and built to meet the demand. Deployments, sequestration, and shrinking of the military have led to dramatically lower occupancies for some EPAA member properties while their property taxes are increasing.

Wow, those nice apartment landlords were just trying to help out, and then the city, et al, stabbed them in the backs by raising evaluations.

Hmm. I’m stumped.

Here’s another interesting statistic, from last week’s Inc. article:

In El Paso, 1,892 new homes were built last year, adding $347 million to tax rolls.

Wow. Considering that the city’s population only grew by 1,956 people from 2015 to 2016, that’s about one new home for every new resident.

Figuring out the financing of government budgets is hard work. I’m glad all I have to do is trust them and cut a check.

6 comments

    1. That’s correct. For the County of El Paso. The City of El Paso only grew by 1,956, according to estimates by the U.S. Census Bureau.

  1. The dirty secret the home builders of El Paso don’t want you to know is that there’s a glut of housing. This is evident in the population increase compared to new houses built. At the same time, our utility rates go up. Property taxes go up to pay for the new infrastructure that doesn’t get built nor the repairs to old infrastructure. Those roads in the new developments? The city doesn’t build them, the builders do; then they’re handed over to the city for upkeep.

  2. Chris is a genius. The majority of the county population increase are poor people who sont buy homes but get free upgraded HACEP housing or live in sparks. None really contribute but suck up services

  3. Meanwhile, I suspect that resale homes remain very stagnant. One very small indication of this is a new listing on our street. We have been here for four years now, and I find this new listing of a house across the street, very similar to ours, is actually listed for less than we paid four years ago!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *