Financing a home in El Paso: how the 915 is laid out

How the El Paso area pages are organized

The area pages linked from this page follow the parts of town the way El Pasoans name them, not an official City map: the Westside (including Coronado), the Upper Valley, the Northeast, Central El Paso (Downtown, Kern Place, Sunset Heights, Manhattan Heights, Five Points, Segundo Barrio and Chihuahuita), the Eastside (including Cielo Vista), the Far East, and the Lower Valley and Mission Valley, which many locals simply call el Valle.

Each area page lists the ZIP codes most often associated with that part of town. That pairing is local usage, and a ZIP code can cross more than one area, so the figures on those pages describe the ZIP code, not the neighborhood.

Several places often counted as El Paso are separate. Socorro, Horizon City, San Elizario (San Eli), Anthony, Clint and Vinton are incorporated in their own right. Canutillo and Fabens are unincorporated Census places with their own pages, and Westway, another unincorporated Census place in the county, is covered on the Canutillo page. Fort Bliss, the Army installation on the Northeast side, has its own page too.

Five school districts serve parts of the city

El Paso ISD, Ysleta ISD, Socorro ISD, Canutillo ISD and Clint ISD all serve parts of the City of El Paso. As a rough guide, El Paso ISD covers much of the Westside, Central and the Northeast; Canutillo ISD reaches into the Upper Valley and the northwest edge of the Westside; Ysleta ISD serves much of the Eastside and the Lower Valley; Socorro ISD serves much of the Far East and parts of the Eastside and Mission Valley; and Clint ISD serves part of the Far East.

District lines inside the city do not follow the names El Pasoans use for areas: the Eastside alone is split between Ysleta ISD and Socorro ISD, and the Upper Valley between El Paso ISD and Canutillo ISD. Before making an offer on any house inside the city limits, check both the district and the attendance zone for that exact address with the district office.

The district also shows up on the tax bill. Each school district sets its own rate, so two houses inside the same city limits can carry different total tax rates, and with them different yearly tax bills to plan around.

The city tax rate is one layer of the bill

The City of El Paso adopted a rate of $0.759649 per $100 of taxable value for 2025. For tax year 2026, the City's notice of public hearing dated August 4, 2026 proposed $0.809487 per $100.

That is the city's share only. El Paso County, the school district, El Paso Community College and the hospital district (University Medical Center) each levy their own rate on top of it. To total the layers for a specific address, use the El Paso County truth-in-taxation site, which posts the rates of the taxing units in the county.

Once an owner lives in a house in the city as a principal residence, the owner can apply for the residence homestead exemption, and the El Paso Central Appraisal District can confirm the details for a specific property. According to the Texas Comptroller, school districts must exempt $140,000 of a homestead's value from school taxes, and an owner who acquires the home after January 1 may receive the exemption for the rest of that tax year if the previous owner did not receive the same exemption for that year.

Financing a home in El Paso: what to know in general terms

Property taxes belong in the monthly housing budget, not only in a once-a-year bill. Many mortgage loans collect a share of the yearly property tax and homeowners insurance each month through an escrow account, and federal rules require the servicer to review that account at least once a year. In El Paso, the total tax bill depends on the city, the county, the school district, El Paso Community College and the hospital district, so the same price can mean different monthly budgets on the Westside, in the Lower Valley or in the Far East.

Some subdivisions, including newer ones in the Far East east of Loop 375, sit inside a water district, such as a municipal utility district (MUD), or a public improvement district (PID), or belong to a property owners association. Each can add its own tax, assessment or dues on top of the layers above. Texas requires a written notice to the buyer before the contract binds: Water Code 49.452 for a water district, Property Code 5.014 for a PID and Property Code 5.012 for an association. Reading those notices early helps when working out a monthly budget with a loan officer.

The homestead exemption described above does not apply automatically at closing. The owner files with the El Paso Central Appraisal District after moving in, and until it takes effect the tax bill, and any escrow based on it, reflects the property without the exemption.

A loan officer usually asks for documents that show identity, income, assets and debts, such as a photo ID, recent pay stubs, W-2 forms or tax returns, and recent bank statements, along with permission to review credit. The exact list depends on the loan type and each borrower's situation, which is a conversation for the loan officer, not this website.

Pre-approval generally means a loan officer has reviewed those documents and credit and issued a conditional letter. In Texas, a conditional pre-qualification or conditional approval letter must be issued and signed by the licensed loan originator. This site does not issue letters, review documents or make credit decisions; questions about pre-approval go to the loan officer.

Fort Bliss sits on the Northeast side, and JetMo lists VA loans among the loan types it offers. A VA home loan requires a Certificate of Eligibility from the Department of Veterans Affairs; the Fort Bliss page on this site covers moves tied to the post.

To talk through financing a home anywhere in the city, from Kern Place to the Far East, you can send a request to Eduardo Cepeda, a Texas-licensed loan officer with JetMo, who follows up by phone or email. You are free to choose any lender or loan officer.

Reading El Paso home value figures

The numbers block on this page shows the Census Bureau's median home value for the city, $184,500 in the 2020 to 2024 survey. It comes from owners estimating what their own homes are worth, so it is an estimate, not a record of sales.

For a wider view, the Zillow Home Value Index modeled a typical home value of $234,069 across the whole El Paso metro area as of August 31, 2026. Because it covers the metro and not the city alone, it will not match the Census estimate. Neither figure is the price or the appraised value of any particular house; for a mortgage, the value that counts is the one set for that specific house during the loan process.