Head Down to Old El Paso Where Buying a Home Ain’t No Hassle

People have different reasons for wanting to buy a home in a certain city or town, or even as specific as a community or a neighborhood.

Maybe they want to live close to where they work, so they can have a short commute. Maybe they want to live nearby family and friends. Maybe it has to do with schools for their kids or for those without children, maybe the attraction of entertainment and lifestyle plays a part.

Or maybe folks just want to find somewhere affordable.

Whatever the reason, finding the right place to live is important for a would-be homeowner, but it’s also not the easiest task.

Home prices and mortgage rates are expected to rise this year and the available housing supply within a buyer’s parameters may shrink.

But some markets are better than others. Realtor.com recently released their hottest markets list for 2019.

El Paso comes in at the No.3 hottest housing market in the U.S. trailing only Lakeland, Fla. (No. 1) and Grand Rapids, Mich. (No. 2).

Economists for the website continuously track home prices, availability and how quickly homes will sell. To make this list, they combine that data with markets that are hotbeds for job growth, are experiencing an influx of new construction and are flush with millennials – the generation making up a majority of buyers in the U.S.

Situated right along the Mexico border, El Paso is a melting pot of both American and Mexican culture. You want real Texas barbeque? El Paso’s got it. You want authentic Mexican dishes? El Paso’s got it.

But it’s more than just the real Tex-Mex cuisine that makes the western Texas town so attractive to potential homebuyers.

There are great outdoor opportunities, like Hueco Tanks State Park, which is a Mecca of sorts for area rock climbers, and many hiking and bouldering opportunities that are available year-round because of the warm weather.

There are also excellent schools in El Paso, with 26 schools in the city receiving a grade of 8/10 or better from greatschools.org.

But what really makes El Paso a hot market is its affordability. The forecasted median home price is $149,643 – the lowest on the list and more than $110,000 below the national average median.

Rounding out the Top 10 list of housing markets in 2019 are Chattanooga, Tenn. (No. 4), Phoenix, Ariz. (No. 5), Bridgeport, Conn. (No. 6), Las Vegas, Nev. (No. 7), Boise, Idaho (No. 8), Miami, Fla. (No. 9) and Boston, Mass. (No. 10).