1st time El Paso home buyers struggle amid rising housing prices

EL PASO, Texas -- The demand in the housing market is far outpacing the supply of homes available, causing prices to skyrocket and and first-time home buyers to struggle.

William and Andrea Galban were looking for a house for six months in El Paso before finally getting one of their offers accepted. They had already bid on five house before, and each one they were outbid.

“The first few weeks on the market we had to look at ourselves and say we’re not going to be able to do that. You know, we can’t get a house at that price,” William Galban said.

Low interest rates and remote working have caused many Americans to look for a new home, but the supply is not meeting the demand right now.

According to the Texas A&M University Real Estate Research Center, the number of houses listed in El Paso County dropped by almost 1,000 from 2019 to 2020. Meanwhile, the median price for a house went up almost $15,000 in that same time frame.

The high prices and severe competition frustrated the Galbans.

“We would make offers on houses and the market is just so toxic and it made it a struggle. We just didn’t want to keep going sometimes,” William Galban said.

The Galbans were able to finally get on of their offers accepted on the west side of town. Their bid came in over $20,000 of the asking price, but the young couple is happy to finally be home-owners and have a garden.

“It’s great, last year we were growing stuff in a little window and we had more tomatoes than we could hope for. So we’re really excited to see what we could pull out of here next year," he explained with a chuckle.

The Galbans biggest advice for anyone looking to buy their first home was to save and stay determined.