Nice areas in El Paso to live? (Houston, Sunset: neighborhood, high school)

[bily4]

Thanks all. This is good feedback. I love this forum.

[KimK]

I would also urge you to look at these older neighborhoods like Sunset Heights. I am in favor of fixing up what one has rather than building tons of cracker boxes all over the city. Here is the issue I have found with renovation in El Paso. Unless you do the work largely yourself, it is very difficult to find skilled, reliable labor. I have gone through a number of a/c repair, plumbers, electricians, etc. and it is very difficult to find them of good quality. Yes, there are huge number of people that tell you they "do everything" but we all know some of these trades require actual skills. Good luck.

[WildWestDude]

I recommend the area just north of UNLV and the westside.
El Paso could be a nice place to live be if you have a set job. Sure, it has gotten more expensive but it is still a bargain compared to other places in the recent years.

[Desert Raven]

Hey, WWDude, I believe you mean UTEP. That's quite a distance from Vegas. lol I agree, Kern Place is abosulely beautiful but way more expensive than the city's other historical districts.

Sunset Heights ROCKS!!! At least it did in the mid 90's when I lived there. Hard to beat the Heights for super easy I-10 access. A local musician friend (Fungi Mungle-sp? -- man, it's sad when you don't know how to spell the name of your friend's band)... Anyway, he told me about two or three years ago that Sunset Heights had gone to the dogs in the last decade, and he was tired of having his rental broken into. But if what Holmes says is true, I'm glad to know SH is making a transition back to its former glory. Btw, guess where the musician moved after leaving Sunset Heights. To what used to be his mother's house in Austin Terrace. It's not one of the mansions - far from it - but that little house is a showplace! Truly beautiful.

There are really nice neighborhoods all over EP, in every section of town: Upper Vally, Westside, UTEP, Downtown (San Francisco Historical District), Central, North Central, East Central, Northeast, Far NE, Eastside, Far Eastside, Lower Valley. You just have to know where they are.

[holmes]

Oh heck yeah, I love this neighborhood. I haven't heard of anyone I know getting broken into in a while. It happened to my sister like 10 years ago, but then again, they did leave the window open. I'm happy to say that more people are taking an interest in this neighborhood. Way more than when I used to rent there when I was going to utep 7 yrs ago. I've lived here for about 2 yrs and the neighborhood is different (for the better). I've seen more than a few homes resurrected (or in the process) in that short time period. As a matter of fact, my bro-in-law and I are days away from closing on an investment property. We were planning to have it on the annual tour of homes to show a house in progress this year, but our closing slipped a few weeks. Hopefully come spring we'll be able to check off one more home that's come back from the dead. Wish us luck.

[WildWestDude]

^^
which neighborhood you're talking about man?

[holmes]

sunset heights

[Muhnay]

What does Sunset heights entail? I live out near Andress High School, does my neighborhood have a name too? Thats one thing I never really knew about El Paso.

[Chuco]

Originally Posted by Desert Raven

I'm no El Paso fan either (okay, I hate it), but there are some wonderful, safe, clean neighborhoods other than the on the Westside and the Upper Valley.

My absolute favorite area of the city for residential living is Central El Paso, EAST of U.S. Highway 54. The Radford Hills and Austin Terrace neighborhoods are so lovely and safe, with lots of dog-walking and jogging. Radford Hills, along Radford Street, runs north and south from the Pershing Gate extrance/exit of Fort Bliss and connects with the Austin Terrace Historical District.

Beginning north at the Pershing Gate, the area includes Roger Bacon Seminary (recently refurbished - looks amazing), Radford School, the mansions (yes, REALLY!) of Austin Terrace, along with smaller homes. Head east a couple of blocks to Loretto Academy, and back north to Pennsylvania Circle (a must-see at Christmas), and across Hastings Drive to St. Anthony's Seminary.

It's gorgeous, it's safe, and while many covet the area, only a few buy there - those who know about it. Sky-high property taxes, though. New homes are being built on what used to be an empty lot and/or bird trail where elder residents went for nature walks back in the day. The lot is directly across from Radford School.

My parents' neighbor, a 40-something single father, lives in a lovey and large home. His daughter recently graduated from one of the private schools mentioned, and he works in Juarez with no more than an eight or ten minute drive to the bridge.

The public elementary school and the high school (Burges not Austin!) are very good. However, what used to be a great junior high is now a middle school with a horrible reputation, since creating alternative classrooms for the city's thugs. Other than that, the area is a precious diamond in the rough.

Great post Desert Raven! I live in that area (Radford). Back in late 2003, we were moving back from California and were deciding on an area to find a new home.. I didn't know much about this area..since I had grown up as a kid in the Pebble Hills area in the Eastside of town.. but after looking at all the new homes..that I didn't like that much.. We found this gem in this area, I wasn't too happy at first looking at "older" homes in Central.. but after we found this home that has 6 Beds and 4 Baths at only $200k that sits on 1/2 an acre of land.. we took it as fast as possible. These homes are quality made, since they are older they were made to last too. Our home wasn't a fixer upper.. since the people that lived here took care of the place so we were lucky with that and that was a huge plus too.

People jog here at all hours of the day.. I am amazed at seeing people jogging in the middle of the night all the time.. its totally peaceful and quiet.. I can't believe how lucky I am that we found this house. Everything is about 20 minutes or less from here in either direction.. we have good access to both I-10 and the Patriot Freeway.

Back in 2003, when we looked at the house.. the housing boom hadn't really hit El Paso like the rest of the country, so this house was on the market for about 8 months before we finally snatched it up.. after that happened, the housing boom exploded in EP and more people found out about this area.. last year and even this year whenever a house goes up for sale in this area.. it gets sold within a month. A few months ago, a smaller house down the block from us, had 8 buyers with offers within 2 days of it going up on the market.. so its kind of hard to get a house around here now.. but if you can get one.. I definitely recommend it.

[holmes]

Originally Posted by Muhnay

What does Sunset heights entail? I live out near Andress High School, does my neighborhood have a name too? Thats one thing I never really knew about El Paso.

Sunset heights is bounded to the south by downtown, west by I-10, east by oregon st, and north by schuster (utep). I'm not too familiar with the andress area, but andress high school is just out of the boundaries of the austin terrace historic district (across the freeway). I'm not exactly sure what you'd call that neighborhood. Of course, if it wasn't for the freeways, these old neighborhoods would be contiguous.

There are so many neighborhoods around the central area that aren't in a designated historic district. I usually just refer to them by their location. Like the neighborhood between sunset heights and five points.. I just refer to it as the el paso high area, or better yet by specific streets. But I'm not aware of it having any formal neighborhood name..