Vic Kolenc of the El Paso Times reports that the median price for a house in El Paso rose in 2020. A lot.
El Paso’s median, or market midpoint, price for existing, single-family homes increased an average 8.15% from 2019 to a record $177,800 in 2020, show preliminary data released Feb. 11 by the National Association of Realtors.
The average median price increased 14.1% from 2018’s average median price of $155,800.
Price increases were highest in the second half of the year. In the fourth quarter, El Paso’s median home price increased 10.1% from the fourth quarter of 2019 to $186,100.
Why?
The nationwide price increases were because of record low mortgage loan rates coupled with low inventories of homes on the market, Lawrence Yun, chief economist for the National Association of Realtors, said in a statement.
Well, that’s not much of an answer.
El Paso’s market last year also was partly driven by a lot of out-of-state buyers, particularly from California and New York, moving to El Paso, Patrick Tuttle, a longtime El Paso Realtor said.
I suspect they weren’t really moving to El Paso. I bet they were just buying houses here.
The economy is screwed up. The Dow Jones Industrial Index is at record highs, while millions of Americans are depending on food banks for their next meal.
Rich people have more money than they know what to do with, and poor people are starving.
Some people think that the stock market is in solid bubble territory.
Warren Buffett’s favorite market indicator surged to a record high of 195% on Tuesday, signaling stocks are overvalued and could tumble in the coming months.
People are investing in real estate, and other assets, in anticipation of a stock market crash.
Even a house in El Paso looks like a good investment. Especially if you listen to all the local real estate speculators. You know, El Paso is getting ready to explode.
Rah, rah.
But look at the bright side, from Mr. Kolenc’s EP Times story:
Because the market has seen widespread sale price increases, most homeowners are likely to see their taxable property valuations go up this year, said David Stone, assistant chief appraiser for the El Paso Central Appraisal District. It’s in the midst of a reappraisal of El Paso residential properties.
If El Paso’s city and county taxing entities don’t lower their tax rates for next year, then future residential tax bills would increase based on increases in home valuations, Stone said.
But don’t worry. I’m sure all that economic development will start to trickle down any minute now.
I think we need an investigation and/or audit of the CAD.
According to my son, who sells homes for a local builder, they cannot keep up with demand for new housing, and existing home prices are indeed way higher than they used to be. I don’t know where the buyers are coming from, or if it is being driven by speculation, but there it is. And, of course, our taxes will go up, as services decline more and more. I predict that the city’s recycling program will soon gives its final cough and wheeze, and then just fade away, as we seek desperately for somewhere to toss those blue bins. Now, after this freeze, we can also look forward to even more potholes. But, that’s OK, we’re all going to be in lockdown soon, since there doesn’t appear to be a real supply of vaccine in the near future.
Looks like City Manager Tommy “Tony Soprano” Gonzalez is trying squeeze more money out of the housing market.
I found out by listening to the discussion on the budget and the eventual approval of the CO to be published that the city is doing great and that the hard times created by Covid-19 will soon be behind us this year. As some of the the council members who voted for the issuance of the bond said that the El Paso economy was improving quirkier than anticipated and another said that we have great bond ratings so the debt won’t bother us. Are we going the way of Taxafornia?