EL PASO --El Pasoans continue to flock to affordable housing on the fringes of the city, but the cost of driving from home to work and play has made their choice an expensive one.

A study by the Center for Neighborhood Technology -- a Chicago-based organization that looks at housing affordability -- shows that the average El Pasoan spends 51 percent of his total annual income on housing and transportation.

According to economists, households should spend no more than 45 percent on these costs. In sum, it means most El Pasoans are living beyond their means.

"It's so easy for someone to think of home affordability as rent or mortgage only, but they don't take into consideration the amount of money it takes to drive back and forth," said Linda Young, a research director with the Center for Neighborhood Technology, and one of the people in charge of conducting the study of El Paso.

"El Paso has low density, though, and purchasing a car and maintaining it to help you get from one end of town to the other for things like work or groceries can be expensive," she said. "That's what's making the people of El Paso spend too much in housing and transportation."

El Paso has the highest average for housing and transportation costs among the large cities of Texas.

But the study also showed that residents of San Antonio, Austin, Houston, Fort Worth and Dallas also spend too much money to pay for rents or mortgages and driving to and from work.

A map of El Paso designed by Young's organization showed that mostly Central neighborhoods have residents who spend less than 45 percent of their total income on housing and transportation.
The average El Paso household has a median income of $31,051 a year, according to U.S. Census figures. That means that in order to live within their means the average household should spend no more than about $14,000 a year in housing and transportation.

Housing costs include rent or mortgage, plus insurance and taxes. Transportation costs include car payments, gas and maintenance costs such as oil changes.

Young said people should not spend more than 30 percent of their annual income on housing and 15 percent on transportation.

With few exceptions, most El Paso neighborhoods offer affordable housing. But the transportation element pushes most of the city's residents over the affordability threshold.

Suzy Shewmaker-Hicks, president of the Greater El Paso Association of Realtors, said home buyers tend to look for neighborhoods that are close to good schools and other family members.

"The issue of transportation is not really that high on the list of priorities for most of the people here," she said. "They are willing to travel far for work, as long as the house they are buying is close to their family."

Shewmaker-Hicks was not familiar with the study that the Center for Neighborhood Technology published, but said that El Paso is still a very affordable place to live.

Official listings with the Realtor association show that nearly 10 percent of all listings in El Paso for single-family homes have an asking price of less than $100,000.

Figures from Realty Track, a national Web site that tracks home listings, also show that El Pasoans are -- by far -- less likely to default on their mortgages.

The national trend is that one out of 398 homes will go into foreclosure. The number for El Paso is one of 1,807 homes.

"If people are living beyond their means, it is not showing up on the number of foreclosed homes," Shewmaker-Hicks said. "People are obviously making it work."

El Paso officials, though, said that the findings from the study -- whose $5,000 cost was funded by the city -- are clear and that more needs to be done to guarantee people in El Paso can afford living here.

West-Central city Rep. Susie Byrd said the findings reinforce her push to develop growth patterns that focus less on urban sprawl and more on the smart growth principles like walkable neighborhoods and efficient mass transit.

She also said the study will help the City Council make better decisions about growth.

"So many of the policy decisions we make are based on affordability," she said. "With this information, it will now be easier to point out that affordability has to do with much more than the price of building a home."

Young said the goal of the study is to promote better decision-making for home buyers. She said many times people tend to forget the cost of transportation when they decide where to live, and that the omission can be disastrous for a family's budget.

"For many families, it is very easy to say that their mortgage payment is so much a month and they think they can afford it," Young said. "Figuring out the cost of transportation is trickier, and we tend to forget about it."

According to census figures, the average El Pasoan must drive 25 minutes to get to work from home.

The cost of transportation is even higher for families with two or more vehicles. According to census figures, that is the norm for most of El Paso.

"There's three people living in my house and all of us have a car we drive around all day," said Rachel Mares, a far East Side resident who works near Canutillo. "I drive a lot and spend a lot on gas. I just don't want to live anywhere but on the East Side."

Gustavo Reveles Acosta may be reached at greveles@elpasotimes.com; 546-6133.