July Home Sales Plummet

For months, the country’s housing market has taken hit after hit of bad news.

El Paso has largely been unscathed – until now. El Paso home sales for the month of July plummeted by 44 percent compared to just one month earlier.

“I’ve actually had it on the market since April,” said homeowner, Arcy Munoz. “It’s been completely refurbished, light fixtures, countertops, everything is brand new. It’s a cute little house.”

Munoz, just like 4,000 other people, is trying to sell her Northeast El Paso home.

“I’ve kind of had this notion that since it’s here in the northeast and with all the troops coming in, I thought it would be something that would come easy,” Munoz said.

In El Paso, there were 433 closed sales for the month of July. That’s 335 less sales than June’s total.

“Because of what happened with the economy, there’s a lot of buyers that are actually having trouble qualifying,” Munoz said.

Many people can’t qualify because banks have tightened lending standards, but real estate experts say there are other factors.

“A big factor is really because of the expiration of the homebuyer tax credit,” said Charles de Wetter, president of Coldwell Banker de Wetter Hovious.

Despite the drop, de Wetter said the number of ‘for sale’ signs is nothing to fret about. He said El Paso is well positioned to sell.

“There are lots of military families,” de Wetter said. “We have a growing medical base with the new Paul Foster School of Medicine as well as the Texas Tech school.”

De Wetter estimated as much as 20 percent of his company’s buyers are from Juarez, but until potential sellers can scoop out a buyer of their own, many say they’ll reluctantly lower their price.

“I lowered the price on my house and we’ve actually had more movement this week ever since I’ve done that,” Munoz said.