El Paso — In the Land of the Sun

All of the El Paso real estate agents know that if its sun you want, El Paso Texas homes can’t be beat.

Situated in what locals fondly call the Land of the Sun at the western tip of Texas along the Rio Grande, El Paso , the sixth-largest city in Texas and the nation’s 21st-largest city, had an official 2006 population of 609,415, with 736,310 in the metropolitan area not including Mexico. El Paso stands next to Cuidad Juarez, Mexico’s fifth-largest city. Combined the two cities form an oasis in the desert with a total metropolitan population of about 2.3 million. El Paso has now grown so much that El Paso real estate has extended into and around the Franklin Mountains, which nearly divide the city into two sections.

Demand For El Paso Homes For Sale

The population of El Paso has increased nearly sevenfold since 1940, when less than 100,000 people lived there. From 1950 to 1960, the growth rate soared to a staggering 11.3 percent annually. El Paso’s population has doubled over the past 40 years.

All that growth has led to a demand for quality, affordable housing and the city’s home-building community has provided many fine example of El Paso new homes for sale over the last few decades.

Varying Landscape

Its location in extreme West Texas makes El Paso the only major Texas city in the Mountain time zone. Intertwined with the Franklin Mountains, El Paso is officially listed as 3,740 feet above sea level, but the rustic North Franklin Peak, which can be seen for 60 miles in all directions, rises to 7,192 feet within the city limits. The 24,000-acre Franklin Mountains State Park is completely contained within the city and is the largest urban park in the U.S. Many volcanic features dot the Rio Grande Rift, where the great river flows, including Mt. Cristo Rey and volcanic craters Hunt’s Hole and Kilbourne Hole. Encircling all this is the Chihuahuan Desert.

Sun City

The sun shines 302 days per year on average, including 83 percent of the daylight hours, a fact that long ago bestowed the nickname “Sun City” on El Paso. Summers are hot, with an average high of 97 degrees in August, but winters are cool, with average temperatures in January ranging from 55 to 28. It is usually dry, with rainfall averaging less than nine inches per year, although 15 inches of rain fell within a week in August 2006, leading to major flooding citywide. One of college football’s oldest bowl games, the Sun Bowl, premiered in 1936 and has been held in El Paso ever since.

El Paso through the years

Over the years, El Paso has become much tamer than it was in the Wild West of the late 1800s. Intense fighting during the Mexican Revolution occurred just south of the border between 1910 and 1920, with some of the exile Mexican leaders taking refuge in El Paso.  Conrad Hilton opened his first high-rise hotel in El Paso in 1930. Continental Airlines started in El Paso as Varney Speed Lines in 1934.

But by the end of World War II, El Paso was poised for explosive growth, mushrooming into a sprawling city. The expansion of Fort Bliss from a small frontier post to a major military installation brought thousands of soldiers and support personnel to El Paso and when their military service ended, many of them decided to stay nearby. The oil business and mining, especially copper, provided jobs and new, lower-wage jobs, primarily making clothes, attracted people from Mexico. New homes sprouted up and El Paso began to branch out far to the west, east and northeast.

Plaza Theatre renovation

Although copper mining has declined since 1990 and the NAFTA trade agreement of 1994 prompted the loss of some industrial jobs, El Paso has continued to grow because El Paso’s citizens have willed it to move forward. A primary example is the recent completion of a renovation of the city landmark Plaza Theatre, which originally opened in 1930, but fell into disrepair and faced the wrecking ball by the mid-1980s. The $38 million project to restore the theater was completed and the Plaza was reopened in 2006.

Other El Paso projects

A growing urban area will only get bigger when an ongoing highway construction project is completed on the eastern edge of El Paso. In addition, the expansion of Biggs Army Airfield has prompted the city to construct a new Inner Loop that will connect the eastern end of the city to the airfield, which is projected to become larger than Fort Bliss with an expected assignment of 18,000 military personnel and their families to El Paso bases.

Beyond the city limits

Despite some tensions, El Paso and Ciudad Juarez have largely enjoyed a complementary relationship and El Paso has often been at the forefront of civil rights issues, leading by its good example. A trolley line connects the two cities and tens of thousands cross the border daily along the Paso Del Norte (Santa Fe bridge).

But El Paso officials have become increasingly concerned in recent years about how the population growth of their neighbor across the border — which is growing at a much faster rate than El Paso — will affect things north of the border.

El Paso and Ciudad Juarez share deep connections developed over many years. But the two municipalities vary widely on their approach on how to handle issues that result from growth, especially air pollution and traffic flow. The New Mexico cities of Las Cruces, Santa Teresa and Sunland Park, all less than hour from central El Paso, and even Alamogordo, N.M. 90 miles away, are also part of the equation.

El Paso neighborhoods

Major residential neighborhoods of El Paso include:

• Central El Paso, the second-oldest part of the city, it includes downtown El Paso and contains numerous historic sites and landmarks and has become the center of the city’s economy and a thriving urban community.
• Coronado Hills, a rapidly-growing district in the western part of the city northwest of downtown with upper class to middle class residents.
• East El Paso, located north of Interstate 10, east of Airway Boulevard and and south of Montana Avenue, East El Paso is the fastest-growing as well as the largest area of the city, with a population of more than 150,000, living in mostly middle class neighborhoods and some pockets of affluence. East El Paso also possesses the greatest number of entertainment venues in the city.
• Kern Place, a historic neighborhood and the first suburban community built in El Paso, lying east of the University of Texas at El Paso and north of downtown.
• Mission Valley El Paso (including Lower Valley and Ysleta), is considered the oldest area of El Paso, dating back to the late 17th century, is the third-largest area of the city, behind East El Paso and Central El Paso.
• Northeast El Paso, (sometimes called North El Paso) is located north of Central El Paso and east of the Franklin Mountains and is one of the more ethnically diverse areas of town. Development of the area started around the 1950s, when many homes were demolished in the process of the construction of Interstate 10, although the expansion of Fort Bliss and Biggs Army Airfield should stimulate growth here.
• Northwest El Paso (including Upper Valley and the Willows), (better known as West El Paso or the West Side), one of the fastest-growing areas of the city, is located north of the downtown area and on the west side of the Franklin Mountains. It is home to some of the most affluent neighborhoods within the city, including magnificent mansions perched high on the mountains, as well as some spectacular homes in the Upper Valley.
• Sunset Heights is a historic area which existed since the late 1890s. Many wealthy residents have magnificent houses and mansions built on this hill.
• Tierra Del Este is a neighborhood in East El Paso that is completely made up of new houses built in the last five years east of Loop 375 (Joe Battle Boulevard). It is a booming area with many El Paso new homes and schools being built.
• Tigua of Ysleta del Sur Pueblo Nation (an Indian reservation)

In addition, several towns in New Mexico are considered northern suburbs of El Paso, including: Anthony, Chaparral, Santa Teresa and Sunland Park.

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