Dear Friends,
In the current issue of El Paso Inc, Reyes Mata shows that rent for a two-bedroom apartment in El Paso increased 16.9% for the 12 months ending in August, while nationally the average increase was 13.8%.
For his report, Reyes interviewed three renters, a real estate broker, and the Executive Director of the El Paso Apartment Association.
However, he did not interview any apartment owners, who would have told him that the sharp increase in their property tax, coupled with the increase in their property valuations, has been a major factor in the sharp rise in rent.
Many renters may not grasp that the City’s insane deficit spending raises the property tax on their landlords which then gets passed on to them in the form of higher rent.
With hundreds of millions of dollars in authorized municipal bonds yet to be sold, our property tax rate–already the second highest in America among the 50 largest cities–will rise even higher starting in FY2023.
What, you thought the City would hold its property rate at $0.91 per $100 of valuation beyond next fiscal year, even though it has already risen by 38% since Tommy Gonzalez became City Manager in 2014?
Think again.
Max