Dec 16, 2009

Just an observation:

Over lunch with a friend the other day the conversation turned to El Paso's affordability index. His observation was very interesting and I am paraphrasing him from our conversation.

He said," I see reports that constantly show El Paso's affordability index as being very high, meaning that in El Paso our average household income is lower than in comparable sized cities.

I've always wondered if these reports take into consideration dollars after all living expenses are calculated. For instance, here in El Paso, in many cases there are families with young kids and both parents work. More than likely they have an Abuelita (a Grandma) who takes care of the kids for them. In other cities, I would bet the expense of day care is a choker.

In El Paso there is the existence of close net families that provide help and that may not occur in other communities throughout the country and that could translate to higher expenses. I am talking about everything from construction to car repairs- so El Paso's affordability index might be quite different if all these factors were just taken into account and an affordability index were computed based on the back end dollars and not just on dollars earned at the front end."

I think he had an excellent point. I was at a fundraiser last night for a local politician and in attendance were two people, who during my conversation with them, who made mention that Grandma (Abulita) was taking care of their small children for no charge. Come to think about it, I was working with a young couple a month or so ago trying to find them a home in El Paso and they wanted to find a home near her parents so that it was convenient for Abulita to take care of them. Since they were looking in an older neighborhood many of the homes did not have enough bath rooms but she has an uncle in the construction business that was going to add that extra bath for them as a present.

The more I think about it the more I believe there is validity to my friends reasoning and the more it makes sense now. What do you think? I invite your input