any thoughts on New Mexico?

[timo2]

my DW is from ABQ and we plan on moving back there in 3 years. We are in Colorado now, so get down to NM often (she still has relatives there also). Santa Fe seems like it has gotten a little more snobby over the recent years, we noticed on our last off season trip there (last year), so that dissuaded us from continuing to look there. The housing around Rio Rancho (north of ABQ) seems affordable. If you get over to the Sandia mountains east of town, those properties get pricy, especially on the east side of the mountains.

We had an Aunt and Uncle that retired to Silver city. They liked it fine. It might be a little remote for some though. And the geography is great. Northwest from Silver City across the Arizona State line is the Apache-Sitgreaves National Forest which I like a lot for its beauty, and it is far enough from the AZ population centers that is doesn't get overloaded with people.

 

[ABQ2015]

Can you clarify how this affects the quality of life of your friends? Is it the lack of humidity in the air causing health issues? or something else?

There are various effects on quality of life. Drought generally means excessive heat so it has been hotter over the last ten years or more (at least it seems like it). Many older and less expensive homes have evaporative coolers are not that efficient at cooling once it gets to mid 90's or hotter.

When the wildfire danger is extremely high, the government closes the national forests to the public or camp fires are not allowed. I live near the Bosque where fire is a threat and those hiking trails may be closed. Fireworks are banned. Of course the forest fires are a danger to those who live in the mountains or have vacation homes there. As someone pointed out, lakes are low. And the ski resorts suffer from less snow. So recreation is impacted.

The large wildfires last for weeks and pollute the air and reduce visibility for many miles and are health concerns to those with asthma, etc. It depends on your proximity to the fire. But for large forest fires where the wind has shifted towards ABQ or fires in the nearby Bosque, the smoke has been bad so that I've had to shut down my cooler or will be drawing smoke into the house. This happens infrequently, a few times a year, but I've had some bad head aches from the smoke. And it is less appealing to go to Taos or Santa Fe or a mountain resort for the weekend if the air is full of smoke. However the wildfire season usually ends by mid July when the rainy season starts.

These are just a few examples. I'm sure there are many more. And they apply to more than just New Mexico.

 

[timo2]

There are various effects on quality of life. Drought generally means excessive heat so it has been hotter over the last ten years or more (at least it seems like it). Many older and less expensive homes have evaporative coolers are not that efficient at cooling once it gets to mid 90's or hotter.

When the wildfire danger is extremely high, the government closes the national forests to the public or camp fires are not allowed. I live near the Bosque where fire is a threat and those hiking trails may be closed. Fireworks are banned. Of course the forest fires are a danger to those who live in the mountains or have vacation homes there. As someone pointed out, lakes are low. And the ski resorts suffer from less snow. So recreation is impacted.

The large wildfires last for weeks and pollute the air and reduce visibility for many miles and are health concerns to those with asthma, etc. It depends on your proximity to the fire. But for large forest fires where the wind has shifted towards ABQ or fires in the nearby Bosque, the smoke has been bad so that I've had to shut down my cooler or will be drawing smoke into the house. This happens infrequently, a few times a year, but I've had some bad head aches from the smoke. And it is less appealing to go to Taos or Santa Fe or a mountain resort for the weekend if the air is full of smoke. However the wildfire season usually ends by mid July when the rainy season starts.

These are just a few examples. I'm sure there are many more. And they apply to more than just New Mexico.

I entirely concur with the above examples, even though I'm in Denver, the examples still apply. For me the most egregious example is a friend who had an extreme case of asthma that was terribly inflamed by a several week long nearby forest fire. His breathing became more and more difficult, and within several years he was dead, at age 43. There is no doubt the smoke from the fire pushed his lungs over the edge, and he never recovered. I used this information during another recent fire to encourage people working for me with breathing problems to stay home from work, as the office building was allowing the smoke into the always on ventilation system.

Regarding the heat, we live in an older house, and almost all houses built before 1990 in Colorado do not have air conditioning. Many have evaporative coolers, but many do not. Since the summers have been getting so much hotter, we noticed some interesting things, like we had candles melting and changing shape during the day while we were at work. So we did finally get actual air conditioning. I was telling someone this story recently, and their comment was "so you decided to be part of the problem by getting air-conditioning?". My response was "yes".

New Mexico has and will continue to have serious water problems. They seem to be working on it. It is a concern, but many places have this same concern.

 

[F4mandolin]

Northwest.....you can pretty well pick your weather/scenery. Rain.....lots of rain.....or very little rain. West side fairly wet....East of the Cascades can range from fairly dry to very dry. Great summers on the East side....but Winters can last longer than some would like. Property can be cheap if you stay away from the Seattle/Portland. The Spokane area....depending on what kind of property you want....$250K can buy you a fairly big house with a couple of acres (out of town). Living in places with good weather all the time would bore me to tears. Florida.....Texas.....Hawaii...not for me. I can see their appeal.....and I WOULD like a slightly shorter winter here....but I LIKE snow and cold weather (I also like heat and sun).

 

[HFWR]

Living in places with good weather all the time would bore me to tears. Florida.....Texas.....Hawaii...not for me.

We do indeed have weather, but I'm not sure that "good" is the adjective I would use...

 

[F4mandolin]

We do indeed have weather, but I'm not sure that "good" is the adjective I would use...

I spent 5 years in Okinawa. Loved it at first.....warm/hot/humid weather most of the year, but with a cooler 3 months or so during winter. Loved the typhoons.....they know how to build houses to cope there.....even at up to 150mph winds we often wouldn't even lose our electricity. During January a typical day might be 54 in the morning and 65 in the afternoon....and warmer if it was sunny. It just got boring to have the good weather almost all the time. Others.....have stayed there for 30 years working because it is such a comfortable place. If we can scrape the money together (iffy at the moment) we are planning on moving back to N Yorkshire in the UK.....the weather is NOT good.....makes W Washington (where I grew up) look like good weather. Living in a place like Phoenix is my idea of terrible weather.....boring.

 

[timo2]

One of the drawbacks of New Mexico is that we have higher crime rates. But if you live in a good neighborhood and take reasonable precautions to prevent property crime, it is not usually a problem. Other drawbacks are poor public schools and lack of good jobs but these are not a concern for retirees.

Related to this I would say that NM consistently being in the top 5 on lists of the poorest states. Here is an interesting list about the poorest states meant for tourist from Norway, possibly. 2013 September: Ten poorest states in the US | Trygghet for utvekslingseleven

 

[NW-Bound]

In one RV trek, we spent some time in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos. Earlier this year, coming back from New Orleans we spent a day in Las Cruces, from which to visit White Sand. Quite a few full-time RV bloggers spend a lot of time boondocking in NM state parks due to the state generous policy towards campers. Silver City is frequented by many RV'ers, and I have not been there. Ruidoso is a more upscale town, I believe, and I have not stopped there either.

Though living in its neighbor state, up until we started RV'ing we had not visited NM. I plan to spend a bit more time RV'ing through NM next year. My 2nd home in the AZ high-country is not too far from the state border.

One of the drawbacks of New Mexico is that we have higher crime rates. But if you live in a good neighborhood and take reasonable precautions to prevent property crime, it is not usually a problem. Other drawbacks are poor public schools and lack of good jobs but these are not a concern for retirees.

Related to this I would say that NM consistently being in the top 5 on lists of the poorest states. Here is an interesting list about the poorest states meant for tourist from Norway, possibly. 2013 September: Ten poorest states in the US | Trygghet for utvekslingseleven

The site mentions "exchange students". This makes sense as it also describes school quality, which a tourist would not care much about.

Curiously, this site shows some areas of New Mexico under Arizona, such as the town of Farmington and the county of San Juan. Look on a map, and one will see that many of the places shown on this site are not something a tourist or an exchange student want to visit. Nogales in AZ is a border town with Mexico, so one can imagine what it is like.

And then, some counties in AZ and NM are mostly Indian reservations. I once drove on US Route 491 going from Gallup, NM to Cortez, CO. This road passed through a desolate high-elevation desert totally devoid of vegetation. It was like a moonscape, and looked very inhospitable. Yet, there were a few houses or ranches sprinkled about. How one can make a living in these places in the Navajo Nation is beyond me! Did the US cheat them and give them this large dry swath of land to scratch a living out of?

Another thing one might consider is that the list of 10 poorest states is based on income. I do not think they consider the cost of living, which might change the order a bit.

 

[audreyh1]

I considered it, as I love the state, the food, and love to visit.

But I couldn't get past the 4.9% state income tax (on income over 24K) and I think they have a capital gains tax too.

Yes, you have to pay property taxes in TX, but if you live modestly and outside a major metropolitan area and have exemptions, for us these are much less onerous than income taxes.

Drought and fires is a concern too - a huge area of the western US is vulnerable to forest fires.

We have plenty of drought in south TX. I'm always aware of where water is coming into the Rio Grande (our water supply). We've had some improved flow this year, and slightly better rains than 2011.

 

[NW-Bound]

I once spent some time working with a company in DFW. When the engineers were asked where they went for summer, they said NM. A few had 2nd home there. This should not be surprising, as the average elevation of TX is 1,700 ft, while that of NM is a cool 5,700 ft. That of AZ is 4,100 ft, and that's because its western side is the Colorado River course which is of course lower elevation. By the way, CO has the highest average at 6,800 ft.

 

[brewer12345]

Did the US cheat them and give them this large dry swath of land to scratch a living out of?

Yes. Done over and over to many groups.

 

[Chuckanut]

The entire Southwest is long people and short water. We have periodic droughts that get scarier and scarier as the years pass.

Several years ago a person from Arizona (meaning the dry place) asked when does it stop being a drought and just become our normal weather?

 

[NW-Bound]

It might be hard to believe but CA is in a worse drought than AZ at the moment.

See this:

 

[timo2]

The site mentions "exchange students". This makes sense as it also describes school quality, which a tourist would not care much about.

And then, some counties in AZ and NM are mostly Indian reservations. I once drove on US Route 491 going from Gallup, NM to Cortez, CO. This road passed through a desolate high-elevation desert totally devoid of vegetation. It was like a moonscape, and looked very inhospitable. Yet, there were a few houses or ranches sprinkled about. How one can make a living in these places in the Navajo Nation is beyond me! Did the US cheat them and give them this large dry swath of land to scratch a living out of?

I didn't notice the exchange student mention. That makes more sense that people want to know if they are exchanging with a good school. Some of the links on that page were interesting as well. I had to look up my own house on Neighborhood Search for Home Buyers and Real Estate Investment - NeighborhoodScout

Clearly (to me anyway) Arizona and New Mexico make the 'poor lists', in (large) part because of the Indian Reservations.

One of the attractions of Silver City to me is its proximity to the Arizona high country. I lived in Springerville, AZ for a while.

 

[smurray5991]

Back on the NM water issue, groundwater shortages that many communities depend on are also in critical mode. From a recent article:

"Depleted groundwater is a problem all over the Southwest in this dry season, and New Mexico is one of the states that has it the worst. Last week, a state task force released a report that shows as many as 300 communities have water systems vulnerable to the same combination of factors that led to the sudden failure of Magdalena’s supply: Drought, falling water tables, limited sources of drinking water and aging infrastructure — which is often monitored by volunteers rather than water professionals."

So my friends are literally concerned about the water just running out... or becoming more expensive to develop more resilient supplies.... or having onerous restrictions placed on how they use it.

On a more positive note, Las Cruces is also a less-famous-than-Santa Fe/Abq option for retirement settling. I have some friends who lived at other times of their lives in northern NM, and then moved to southern California for several years. They wanted to return to NM for retirement, and really like the small university town atmosphere of Las Cruces.

 

[timo2]

here is a link to USGS groundwater information for NM USGS Groundwater Information - New Mexico Water Science Center

 

[NW-Bound]

The problem with living in a small town anywhere is lack of advanced health services when one gets older. It may not be a big problem when one is in the 50s or 60s, but by the time people are in the 70s, many health issues surface. Of course, some unfortunate people need advanced healthcare quite early, way before their 70s.

 

[photoguy]

Brewer/ABQ and others - thanks for the feedback on the water issue. I've been pretty much a city slicker for the past ten years and don't really think much about water (I turn on the tap and it comes out).

I used to do a lot of camping in Ontario but there is so much water there, I kinda just took it for granted.

 

[meierlde]

Brewer/ABQ and others - thanks for the feedback on the water issue. I've been pretty much a city slicker for the past ten years and don't really think much about water (I turn on the tap and it comes out).

I used to do a lot of camping in Ontario but there is so much water there, I kinda just took it for granted.

Here is a link to an article saying that conservation efforts in Albuquerque are working so well they have to raise the water rates because there is not enough revenue coming in. Of course IMHO if you stop landscape watering completely and go to all native vegitation or perhaps bare rock you can save lots of water

 

[meierlde]

The problem with living in a small town anywhere is lack of advanced health services when one gets older. It may not be a big problem when one is in the 50s or 60s, but by the time people are in the 70s, many health issues surface. Of course, some unfortunate people need advanced healthcare quite early, way before their 70s.

Of course this depends on the size of the region. If you get up to 20-30k then you have reasonable options all be it no level 1 trauma center (they fly folks to San Antonio for that). If you have a big city 60-80 miles away if you need that kind of care you are close enough to get at it. (In some small towns in counties of 4k folks you have to leave town even to find an OB/GYN.

 

[brewer12345]

Brewer/ABQ and others - thanks for the feedback on the water issue. I've been pretty much a city slicker for the past ten years and don't really think much about water (I turn on the tap and it comes out).

I used to do a lot of camping in Ontario but there is so much water there, I kinda just took it for granted.

Water issues in the West are nothing new and will always be there. If the rest of the package works for you, I would not let it dissuade you. I chose to move to CO and don't plan on leaving. Population growth puts pressure on things, but there are a lot of (potentially unpopular) levers taht can be thrown to improve water supply balance issues. Just about every subrurban yard near me has sprinklers and they are used throughout teh summer. Start shutting that off and you make a huge difference. That is only one way to do it.

 

[Ally]

I grew up in Albuquerque and my parents stayed there until they died a few years ago. My brothers still live there and in Santa Fe. I love to visit, enjoy the food, the art and scenery. The thing I don't like is the crime and feeling that you have to always be cautious. My brother worked in the DA's office for a number of years prosecuting juvenile crime, some of which was horrific. My parents lived in an upper income neighborhood and still, many of their elderly neighbors experienced violent crime in their homes. So we live in West Texas, and just visit. Besides, it is less expensive for housing where we live. Overall it is a beautiful state, but not perfect.

 

[nvestysly]

Albuquerque has come up in the conversation several times. The Balloon Fiesta is a great time to visit (if you can tolerate the crowds). Check out this time-lapsed video:

Albuquerque's 42nd annual International Balloon Fiesta timelapse. [VIDEO]

 

[Huston55]

My wife and I plan on retiring and moving (from Wisconsin) in 5 years. We've begun auditioning potential areas to relocate to (I enjoy the change of seasons, but 5 months of Winter is too much). Our list and current thoughts:

• PNW (Oregon, Washington): love the area with ocean and mountains nearby, but don't know if I could take the lack of sunshine and rain
• NoCal: same advantages as PNW with better weather, but taxes and cost of housing would be a big problem
• Virginia: like easy access to ocean, but not cheap and summers are hot/muggy
• Colorado (Boulder/Fort Collins corridor): our current leader; love easy access to mountains and shorter, milder winter

What are the pros/cons of New Mexico?

Have you visited the Olympic peninsula? Port Townsend or Port Angeles areas? There are many areas there which get <30" of rain/yr; some <20"/yr. They're in the rain shadow of the Olympic mountains.

Olympic Rain Shadow Map and Location

 

[Surfdaddy]

My mother lives in Paradise, CA, which is North of Sacramento in the Sierra foothills. Property is relatively cheap. The city of Chico is nearby (~100K people). The weather is hot in the summer and not too bad in the winter (Paradise, being higher, gets a bit of snow, while Chico does not). You're 2 hour drive from Sacramento and a 3 hour drive from San Francisco.