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EL PASO, Tx., January 8, 2026: El Paso\u2019s home builders started pulling fewer building permits to build new homes around August last year. The latest indicators are that new homes construction in El Paso will continue to drop this year as pressure from several factors continues to impact the local building industry. Construction is one of El Paso\u2019s largest job markets.<\/p>\n
Construction jobs in El Paso grew by 1% in early 2025 but last year\u2019s government shutdown<\/a>, expensive land, high interest rates and El Paso\u2019s high taxes are slowing new home construction putting pressure on the construction jobs. By late last year, the El Paso construction job market had dropped to a 0.6% growth rate. El Paso\u2019s unemployment rate in August, at 4.5%, is now surpassing the state and national unemployment rates.<\/p>\n New home permits followed suit with a drop<\/a> of 6.5% from the previous August, surpassing the state drop of 6%.<\/p>\n In a July 9 report in the El Paso Association of Builders monthly newsletter, Coldwell Banker broker, Patrick Tuttle, cited several factors including \u201cshifting demographics, rising costs, and regulatory headwinds\u201d for the downturn in El Paso\u2019s new home market. Tuttle said that El Paso home builders are having to \u201crethink\u201d what they build, and how they price their homes. Tuttle says that in 2024, El Paso experienced a 22% increase in home sales while housing inventories were dropping. The biggest factor is high interest rates, making it difficult for El Paso home buyers to qualify for mortgages. Tuttle added that \u201clabor shortages\u201d persist due to \u201ctariffs and stalled immigration reforms.\u201d<\/p>\n We asked Ray Adauto, the executive director of the builder\u2019s association about the downturn on new home building in El Paso. In an email, Adauto told us that home builders are \u201cunable to build enough\u201d homes that El Paso\u2019s blue-collar workers \u201ccan afford to buy.\u201d He added that the local building sector is in \u201ca downturn, or actually still in the covid downturn,\u201d adding that new housing \u201cconstruction has not recovered from the damages the shutdown caused.\u201d<\/p>\n Among the reasons for the slow growth in new housing, Adauto cited \u201cmany components,\u201d including \u201clabor costs, high prices, wages,\u201d and the high \u201cconsumer debt\u201d carried by buyers. He added that land to build on is getting more difficult to get and is more expensive.<\/p>\n The largest landowner in El Paso is the Public Service Board (PSB), the quasi-government entity that oversees water services in the city.<\/p>\n Are Immigration Raids A Factor?<\/p>\n Adauto wrote that \u201ccheap labor has vanished,\u201d adding that \u201cimmigration crackdowns are hurting the ability to have cheap labor,\u201d causing new home prices to go up. Immigration raids making headline news across the country have no impacted El Paso, although Texas leads<\/a> the nation in immigrant arrests.<\/p>\n Only one case of an immigrant job site raid in El Paso has made the news.<\/p>\n On December 31, KFOX reported<\/a> on \u201can apparent immigration raid in Far East El Paso.\u201d The station used \u201capparent\u201d because the only evidence of the raid is on video posted on social media. Officials did not confirm the raid to the news station.<\/p>\n Although Adauto cited the lack of less expensive labor, the issue of immigration raids on El Paso\u2019s job sites has not been publicly acknowledged by officials and builders as the cause of the slump in home builds in El Paso.<\/p>\n However, last month, the executive director of the South Side Texas Builders Association posted a video<\/a> online citing that immigration raids were hurting home builders in the Texas Rio Grande Valley to the point that \u201cconstruction can\u2019t continue.\u201d The Valley\u2019s construction jobs fell by 5% last year, making it the \u201csingle largest dip in jobs in the region.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/civis_polls_1.png\")
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