Question 1

What makes government and healthcare tenancy the strongest permanent-debt story in El Paso?

Accepted Answer

Because roughly a fifth of the county's paychecks come from a government payroll that doesn't move with the local housing cycle. Government jobs total about 69,225 of El Paso County's 342,914 covered employment as of the fourth quarter of 2025, roughly 20% of the base, and health care and social assistance adds another 50,919 jobs, the single largest private sector in the county. Layer on Fort Bliss's 30,288 active-duty soldiers and William Beaumont Army Medical Center, and an office, medical retail, or mixed-use asset serving that base is leasing to demand that doesn't evaporate in a downturn. No El Paso cap-rate or vacancy survey we could source attaches a number to that story, so we underwrite it on the lease and the tenant, not a market report.

Question 2

Does the Ysleta port and the cross-border trade corridor actually support industrial and warehouse tenancy here?

Accepted Answer

Yes, and the volume is documented and growing. The Ysleta port of entry alone handled $86.8 billion in total trade in 2024 and supports 174,030 direct and indirect jobs. Total trade through the El Paso district was up 21.9% year over year as of May 2026, a surge the Dallas Fed ties directly to a shift toward higher-value electronics manufacturing across the border in Ciudad Juarez. Transportation and warehousing alone employs 19,682 workers countywide. Warehouse, cross-dock, and small-bay industrial serving that freight are the clearest stabilized-industrial play in this metro. We still have no El Paso vacancy or cap-rate data to quote you, so the file has to carry your executed leases.

Question 3

How real is the data-center nearshoring story for a permanent-debt underwrite, versus a headline?

Accepted Answer

It's named investment, not a rumor, though it's still early for stabilized permanent debt. Meta is building a $1.5 billion, 1-gigawatt AI-focused data center in El Paso, the Army has announced a self-contained data center on Fort Bliss due by 2027, and Wiwynn, a Taiwanese server manufacturer, announced a $150 million manufacturing and testing facility in El Paso after expanding its Juarez production. Computer and electronic products trade through the El Paso district rose 87% from 2023 to 2025. That's a strong signal for the industrial and light-manufacturing tenancy this metro will need permanent debt for over the next few years, but it's ground-up and stabilization activity right now, not a stabilized asset with trailing income. Talk to us early if you're positioning a permanent-debt exit around this corridor.

Question 4

How much does the El Paso property tax stack eat into stabilized NOI on a commercial asset?

Accepted Answer

Roughly 2.64% of assessed value inside the City of El Paso, and it climbs from there depending on the ISD and any utility district overlay. The county-plus-hospital-plus-community-college-plus-city-plus-El Paso ISD stack (0.458889 + 0.240892 + 0.103563 + 0.759649 + 1.080700 per $100 of value) runs about 2.64, per the Texas Comptroller's 2025 Tax Rates and Levies. On the county's newer far-east side, Paseo del Este municipal utility district overlays run 0.62 to 0.80 per $100 on top of that base stack, which can push a parcel past 3.3%. There's no homestead exemption or appraisal cap on investment property in Texas, so model the full rate against a stabilized commercial asset's trailing NOI, and check the specific parcel's overlays on the appraisal district before you lock a number. Talk to your CPA about how the stack runs across a long hold.

Question 5

Why won't you quote an El Paso cap rate or vacancy figure for my commercial property?

Accepted Answer

Because none exists at the metro level in any primary source we've checked, and we'd rather tell you that than make one up. No El Paso CRE vacancy, rent, or cap-rate data for any asset class was located in a review of the available Zillow, Realtor.com, BLS, Census, and Dallas Fed data for this metro. What we do have is strong, sourced context for the tenancy story: government and healthcare payroll, the Ysleta port's trade volume, and the named data-center investment moving into the corridor. A permanent-debt quote here gets built from your executed rent roll, your tenant credit, and your trailing financials, the same way it would in a market where the published data was thin. That's a more honest starting point than a borrowed number from a different metro.

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