El Paso Real Estate - High Ratings By Money Mag for 2007-08

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by lipbalm

Well, maybe not sports cars but at least a dependable newer model vehicle and maybe taking your family out to eat (not chicos) once a week, while still puting away money for retirement.

I was making 45K when I left EP, and I did not think it went as far as I hoped.

After taxes that 45K is more like 36K.

I guess it just depends on what people want out of life. I am the sole-bread winner in my family (my wife stays home with our two young children) and make roughly $45K up here in Albuquerque, which is a little more costly to live in than El Paso. Yeah, we by no means are swimming in money, I don't even know if I would consider myself middle class, but we do relatively fine and don't "hurt"...I have crunched the numbers and if (I realize that is a big IF because EP's wages are comparatively usually a little lower than ABQ's) I were to make the same wage in EP, my money could go a decent amount farther.

[lipbalm]

Originally Posted by EnjoyEP

I guess it just depends on what people want out of life. I am the sole-bread winner in my family (my wife stays home with our two young children) and make roughly $45K up here in Albuquerque, which is a little more costly to live in than El Paso. Yeah, we by no means are swimming in money, I don't even know if I would consider myself middle class, but we do relatively fine and don't "hurt"...I have crunched the numbers and if (I realize that is a big IF because EP's wages are comparatively usually a little lower than ABQ's) I were to make the same wage in EP, my money could go a decent amount farther.

You are right, it's all about what you want out of life. I dont think I am asking for to much though, it's not like I want a private jet, and become a paris hilton socialite, but I do want to be economically secure, be able to retire, and send my kids to college.

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by lipbalm

You are right, it's all about what you want out of life. I dont think I am asking for to much though, it's not like I want a private jet, and become a paris hilton socialite, but I do want to be economically secure, be able to retire, and send my kids to college.

I guess all my basic point is still though probably something we both could agree on - maybe $45K is still a little lean in EP for you and pretty good for me - but I think we could agree it would take you a whole lot farther in EP than a place like Boston or San Fran, etc. A whole lot farther. So I will compromise - make it $55K (instead of $45K) and you can live really comfortably in EP - not in Boston / San Fran, etc.! (Again though, I cede in many occupations it isn't as easy to make $55K in EP...just if you can, it can take you much farther)...

[holmes]

I think $45K is decent pay for el paso, but you may struggle a bit if you plan on supporting a family, mortgage, car, etc. Meaning that only one adult in the family is working. However with both parents working I believe its certainly doable. Let's say the other breadwinner is making $30K on top of your $45K -- $75K in el paso is nothing to sneeze at. Although I think a large part of what's "enough" for income is largely to do with lifestyle and debt. But I think one can still live comfortably here on that pay, definitely.

[lipbalm]

You are correct. When I was single and fresh out of college I made only 38K per year and it was more then enough to support my lifestile, but then I got married, had kids, got a morgatge, started to put away money for retirement, had car payments, all this while my wife stayed home with the kids. It was tough going on 45K per year, and then I find out that my friends that lived in other Texas cities were already making up to 50% more then me, and the cost of living was about the same. What really irked me was that the company I used to work for in EP would sometimes recruit people from out of town at a higher rate then local candidates for the same job. EP workers get no respect and until more people refuse to work for such low salaries the situation will not change. In my case I said enough is enough and left town for better pay.

[EnjoyEP]

Wow...you guys are making me feel impoverished! I live in ABQ where the cost of housing / living is higher than El Paso (although still reasonable compared to many parts of the U.S.) and my wife stays at home now with our two little ones. I make roughly $45K...a little less actually...and am the sole breadwinner, and we seem to do fine. Yep stuff is tight and we have to watch our dollars and drive older, paid-off cars, etc., but we don't really struggle either. It isn't like we are eating mac and cheese and taking 2-minute showers or anything.

We actually still once in awhile go out to dinner and even have a Roth IRA for college, etc.! It is doable. Yeah, I see colleagues whose homes have dual-incomes - $80K - $100K - and at times it is somewhat of a jealousy thing, but they are often working so hard they don't have time to be with their kids much and essentially pay others to bring them up.

I dunno...the day when $70K+ is necessary just to exist in a home as a middle class citizen in the U.S. is kind of a disappointing day to me.

[lipbalm]

Well, thats inflation for you, and then there are the gas prices which they will only keep going up no matter what anyonelse tells you. Things like that eat at your purchasing power every day. Honestly my mistake was not buying a house as soon as I graduated from college, back then the prices were really low (60-80K) and consequently the morgatge payment ridiculously low (500 to 700 per month) as well. But back then most of my money went for things like alcohol, and "party trips" to Las Vegas. Live and learn I guess.

[holmes]

When I was going to grad school in chicago, my brother-in-law would flaunt the fact of how cheap the housing was in the historic areas. He's bought several properties in the neighborhood in the last 5-7 years, rehabbed them and has watched their value climb tremendously. They bought their present 1800 sqft home just 3-4 years ago and paid about $90K. When me & my wife finally got around to buying in the neighborhood 1 1/2 yrs ago I was looking forward to paying similar prices, but found a ~2000 sqft home for $145K we just couldn't pass up. Still dirt cheap, but an indicator of what's going on in the neighborhood.

They're almost done with their renovation and the appraised value of their home has skyrocketed in that short amount of time. Planning on some major rehab starting later this year too.. These homes are a nice investment and with the interest in the downtown revitalization spilling over, these old neighborhoods will soon get some fresh blood and new life. Just the other day the neighborhood association got word of a developer looking into creating high-end condos just down the street on an empty lot. Frankly I'm more interested in them doing rehab of old homes, but I think this will be the catalyst to getting some quality stuff going on here..

[KimK]

Something I have noticed here is that the appraisal industry is kind of slow to catch on to rehabbed property. Before I go too far, let me say, I do not know the rules about appraisals. I have noticed you need to get the right appraiser to look at rehabs. If not, they will look at it and ding you down because, "its old." Also, I recently had an appraiser give me a very low estimate on a property with two homes, one about 1200 Sq. Feet and the other 875 sq. feet. I rehabbed both of them totally and rent them both. They have separate meters, entrances and each has their own yard. They are both rented too. The appraiser told me only the big house counts and the back house gave me the top per square foot amount but that is all. I was baffled by this. I don't know if its a Texas thing or a gray area, etc. Then the same appraiser went to a new house I purchased and gave it rave reviews indicating to me "it looks great." The funny thing is that house did not have a finish coat of stucco on it. The seller was trying to pull a fast one and just painted the scratch coat. I don't know what to make of the whole thing. Anybody have some thoughts on this.

[holmes]

Which neighborhood are these homes located in? Some of the neighborhoods I'd say are good investments right now would be Kern Place, Austin Terrace, Manhattan Heights, Sunset Heights, and one other I forget the name. I'm not sure I understand what you mean about the two houses you describe. Sounds like they're on the same lot, perhaps a main house and a guest house/converted garage?

My bro-in-law has three properties in the neighborhood. His home and two rentals that are original duplex homes. He's updated and spruced up the rentals a bit, but the major appraisals that I'm talking about is on their home, which they've done major work on. Honestly I have no idea what the rentals are worth, but I'm sure they've appreciated in value substantially for the mere fact that he bought them when they were ridiculously cheap and still in decent condition.

On a happy note, the house my bro-in-law & I are planning on flipping is getting close to reality. Tomorrow we're walking through, getting some measurements, etc. If we can get him to sell for the price we're hoping for, we should be able to do some good things. We'll see..