El Paso’s Zillow measures set the screening frame: ZHVI is a typical city home value of $237,834, and ZORI is typical observed monthly market rent of $1,521. Their implied gross yield is 7.7%, before management, maintenance, vacancy, insurance, taxes, financing and capital work. ZHVI is 4.0x ACS median household income; annual ZORI is 30.5% of income. These ratios flag affordability and cash-flow questions, not a property’s achievable rent.
Citywide ACS context describes 265,320 housing units, a 7.5% vacancy rate and a 39.2% renter share among occupied units. Its median owner-reported home value is $184,500, while median gross rent is $1,073 and includes contract rent plus selected utilities. These surveyed occupied-housing measures differ in concept and period from Zillow’s typical value and observed market rent. They should not be averaged, treated as interchangeable comps or read as current asking terms.
Direct city depth is mixed: 53.4% of measured renter households spend at least 30% of income on gross rent. Single-family structures are 70.5% of units and large multifamily structures are 7.0%; neither share measures available inventory. For-rent units are 34.3% of vacant units, but this reason share cannot establish leasing speed. Population increased 0.05% between overlapping ACS vintages, with possible boundary effects. Median household income is $59,745, poverty is 18.4% and unemployment is 6.0%. These descriptive constraints cannot establish tenant quality, collections or submarket performance.
In El Paso County, the property-tax rate is 2.03%, requiring parcel verification, while county for-sale listings have a median 65 days on market; neither figure measures city rental absorption. In the broader El Paso, TX metro, payroll employment rose 0.58% over the reported span, providing labor-demand context rather than a city result. In the broader El Paso, TX metro, for-sale supply is 3.3 months, relevant to exit conditions but not rental availability. Nationally, the Freddie Mac mortgage rate is 6.58%, a benchmark rather than a borrower quote.
The main limitation is the gap between area-level typicals and an asset’s cash flow. Verify address-level asking and signed-rent comps, condition, utility responsibility, concessions, lease terms, screening standards and realistic downtime. Obtain the parcel tax bill, insurance and hazard terms, association charges, management and maintenance budgets, inspection findings and near-term capital needs. Price debt with an executable quote and stress vacancy, repairs, collections and exit costs; citywide stock measures cannot replace these checks.