Relocate to New Mexico?

[djsander]

I lived in Las Vegas NM in the 90’s. As djsanders perhaps Freudian slip (or typo) said, it was definitely an ‘effluent” smaller city. Yup, a cesspool. High crime, poor roads, limited variety of restaurants. That said the weather was magnificent!

Haha! I do a pretty good job of slaughtering spelling and grammar. I was told it was an engineering thing.

 

[COcheesehead]

We lived in Boulder for the better part of 20 years, Cañon City for a couple of years, Silver City NM for a couple of years and have traveled extensively all over both states.

I agree that the entire Colorado Front Range is just nuts now. We still have friends there and my sister lives in Denver but between the traffic, prices and wildfire smoke we avoid the place except for flying in for a short visit occasionally. A very outdoor-oriented cousin lives near Cortez and loves it but it's very small and rural. Hard for me to see the appeal of Grand Junction but YMMV. Cañon City has the mildest climate in the state, great cycling (mountain and road) and nearby hiking and is only 45 minutes from Colorado Springs shopping but is ultra-conservative and culture less. Manitou Springs, while touristy, is the Boulder of Colorado Springs and quite livable but as cold in the winter as anyplace else in the Front Range and far from cheap.

Regarding NM, a lot of people don't know that Albuquerque has one of the widest ranges of altitude and microclimate within its city limits of any city. The NE heights for example are more like Santa Fe in terms of altitude and weather, with great access to hiking in the Sandias.

We spend a few months in the summer in Santa Fe quite often and while the hiking trails are great the restaurant scene is far inferior to ABQ unless you mostly like to eat at high-end places and don't mind paying silly prices. ABQ has great pizza, bread bakeries and coffee as well as good Asian cuisine, while Santa Fe has none of these things. With over half of Santa Fe's workforce commuting in from ABQ everyday it has become a "toy town" for tourists and Trustafarians - much like Boulder and Colorado's ski towns. ABQ's crime levels are off-the-charts awful but I'd still choose it over Santa Fe.

Las Cruces may be the second largest city in the state but there are more things of cultural, culinary and artistic interest happening in Santa Fe or ABQ in a week than there are in a year in Cruces. The summers are as scorching as Tucson where we live now, the hiking is mediocre at best, and as for food, hope you like green and red chile 'cause that's pretty much it. And having El Paso as your most sophisticated big city shopping option (and the nearest place with a Costco) isn't exactly thrilling. It's NM-meets-Texas.

Silver City is lovely but very, very small: less than 10K population. The hiking and biking is the best I've ever experienced - far superior to anyplace in Colorado IMHO - but more than half of those who move there for retirement end up leaving. 3.5 hours to Tucson for your nearest Costco or Trader Joe's (or good non NM cuisine restaurant - or an airport) gets old in a hurry. Good place to be a hermit though, or if access to pristine trails trumps every other priority.

In any case ABQ is the only city in NM with complete health care services. Santa Fe friends have to go there to see specialists and Silver City folks are often flown there in case of emergencies as there are few specialists at its hospital. Meanwhile Las Cruces friends who worked in medicine for decades go to the Mayo Clinic in Phoenix for anything serious. NM is indeed beautiful and captivating but it's also extremely poor, exceptionally crime-ridden and has some of the lowest educational levels of any state, along with far and away the highest levels of alcoholism and drunk driving. It's also incredibly insular, culturally - something that many who move there from elsewhere only discover after several years of frustration.

Regarding your comment about Grand Junction, our new neighbors just moved here from Boulder. They said the valley reminds them of Boulder 30 years ago - outdoor oriented, small town feel, but all the services you need without the front range chaos. Wouldn’t we all liked to have bought real estate in Boulder 30 years ago. LOL.

 

[audreyh1]

Boulder seems cramped, but we really enjoyed the area between Broomfield and Boulder. Very scenic. Lots of green space.

 

[Pluperfect]

I spent a week in Los Alamos in 2020. It was at the beginning of the pandemic so nothing was open so I don't know anything about the restaurant/bar scene. But I slow-rolled my bike all around town on several different days just scoping out the place, while Mr. Pluperfect rode the mountainbike trails every day but one. We both liked the place.

It's definitely a small town, but Los Alamos National Laboratory (and the talent it attracts and salaries it pays) make it a nice one, especially by New Mexico standards (although it may be insular due to the lab). I remember being surprised at how high the house prices I ran across were, before I grokked why. And on that note, I didn't much care for the housing stock, but mileage obviously varies on that.

Santa Fe is 30 miles away, for significant retail and whatever else Santa Fe might offer according to one's tastes. (I like art/foreign films, and it's awash in them.)

I've never liked Albuquerque, although I have a friend I've known for 50 years who loves it there, and whenever I visit I remember that I don't like Albuquerque. And I saw it at ground level, by riding the bus to downtown one day many years ago (adventure!), and the bus driver refused to let a guy on who he seemed to recognize. My friend just shrugged, "Probably drunk."

Although I will say that I like that the Taco Cabanas in Albuquerque (and no other Taco Cabana locations) have carne adovada on the menu (along with homemade flour tortillas) that's as good as in the nice restaurant I used to like the best, until it closed.

I am a city mouse but for some reason really liked Los Alamos. And its proximity to Santa Fe, and even Albuquerque, would allow me to get my city fix without too much trouble. I don't know if it would be close enough to the medical facilities in Albuquerque for you.

I hear Grand Junction has good medical facilities, but I lived there for three months and just never grew to like the place at all. I'm sure it didn't help that I was there in November, December, and January (about 10 years ago), and it was cold.

Anyway, I'd suggest you swing by Los Alamos just to check it out if your trip takes you to that vicinity. I can't count the number of times I've been to New Mexico but never went to Los Alamos until a couple of years ago, and I noticed that nobody here mentioned it.

 

[COcheesehead]

Boulder seems cramped, but we really enjoyed the area between Broomfield and Boulder. Very scenic. Lots of green space.

Boulder is a city. The others are suburbs.

 

[DrRoy]

We enjoyed visiting NM this year (CO too), but I think NM is headed for a severe water problem. I would look at Grand Junction or maybe Durango instead.

 

[folivier]

Our cabin is halfway between Montrose and Gunnison, CO. Gunnison is more touristy. Montrose has more shopping. Grand Junction is not much farther with more shopping, etc.
Both areas are more conservative, which is a good thing IMO. If some people don't like an area or town because it's too conservative, that's ok. We like it the way it is and don't really want these people bringing their liberal ways to our area.

 

[38Chevy454]

Los Alamos housing costs are high mainly because it has limited space. Basically land locked. The higher salaries of the LANL employees also contributed, but mostly it's an available housing land issue.

Younger LANL employees tend to live down in Santa Fe and make the 30-45 minute drive. Probably more because Los Alamos is an almost zero nightlife area. Los Alamos is a nice town, just not a big city with the social and nightlife options.

 

[kevink]

Los Alamos housing costs are high mainly because it has limited space. Basically land locked. The higher salaries of the LANL employees also contributed, but mostly it's an available housing land issue.

Younger LANL employees tend to live down in Santa Fe and make the 30-45 minute drive. Probably more because Los Alamos is an almost zero nightlife area. Los Alamos is a nice town, just not a big city with the social and nightlife options.

Los Alamos seems to be at the top of NM places to live rankings quite consistently. And I recently stumbled upon a couple who are world-class mountain bike racers from Colorado who relocated there after scouting out pretty much every other option in CO and NM.

It sure seems to me like Los Alamos (if you prefer having Santa Fe nearby and don't mind the tradeoff of milder summers for much colder winters) or Corrales (if you prefer to have ABQ nearby and prefer the opposite seasonal weather tradeoff) are about as good as it gets in NM.

 

[kbunning]

Thanks so much!

We bought a place on the NW side of ABQ a few years ago and love it! It's a small rural type village called Corrales. 10 minutes to major shopping area. The town has a few very nice restaurants. It does get chilly in the winter. But we kept our place in Las Vegas NV to escape the cold! Cost of living for us is really low. Property taxes are low. Gasoline is much cheaper than Las Vegas. So is car insurance and registration. Groceries are too. It's funny, I always hear people touting the advantages of the no state tax states and have spent most of my life in Nevada. But on a whole, our COL is much cheaper in NM. Another cost that is cheaper for us than Vegas are utilities. Our house which was built in 98 doesnt even have A/C. Just an evaporative cooler. Which works great most days in the summer. Until the monsoon comes then the humidity kicks up a bit. But our electric and gas bills are low. We are on a well and septic tank so just have to plan for occasional maintenance. Healthcare is not the greatest. But that's true of most places in the SW. It's a very nice place to live despite some of the negatives some have mentioned. Crime is pretty much non existent where we are at. But Albuquerque has some issues mostly with property crime and homelessness. But what large city doesnt? You can find crime anywhere in the US. The northern half of the state is typically liberal and the southern half conservative. The state also has the largest concentration of Native Americans in the country. Which I think adds to the culture. Beautiful Pueblos around us. As for snow skiing, Sandia has a couple of lifts for locals. Santa Fe is only an hour away with better skiing. Taos is a couple hours away for more hardcore stuff!

This is exactly the type of info I'm looking for. Appreciate the details!

 

[kbunning]

Regarding your comment about Grand Junction, our new neighbors just moved here from Boulder. They said the valley reminds them of Boulder 30 years ago - outdoor oriented, small town feel, but all the services you need without the front range chaos. Wouldn’t we all liked to have bought real estate in Boulder 30 years ago. LOL.

Haha! Yup. Bought my first home in Littleton in 1998. Moved to Boulder in 2004. Our real estate in Boulder has allowed us to FIRE. Two rental properties, the one purchased in 2004, and another in 2008 (recently sold this one).

 

[audreyh1]

This has been a very informative thread. We enjoy visiting NM including the cuisine. Many years ago we took cooking classes at the Santa Fe School of Cooking and learned a great deal.

Ha ha about the Santa Fe restaurants. I love Chimayó red chile powder and occasionally make carne adovada using it. Last time I ordered that chile powder the sauce I made was just out of this world and it was the best carne adovada ever. I’m afraid the version we ordered in a well regarded Santa Fe NM cuisine restaurant was very disappointing in comparison. Couldn’t believe it.

 

[zinger1457]

Never lived there but have visited Las Cruces a few times and always liked it there. Definitely more of a small town feel and doesn't have some of the amenities of a big city but many prefer it that way. You can have a home on acreage and have some privacy and still be close to town. New Mexico State University is located there. Someone else mentioned it's as hot as Tucson but this year Tucson had 66 days where it reached 100 degrees, Las Cruces had 20, would think that's typical most years for both.

 

[audreyh1]

We once stayed a couple of nights in our motorhome in Las Cruces on the way somewhere. We enjoyed it and toured the old town learning the frontier history. We also took in the King Tut exhibit which was a real treat for me!

 

[valsdad]

You might try Mesquite NV or St George UT. Mesquite has a small hospital while St George has a major medical center. Both are close to Las Vegas, great for dining and entertainment. Also close to national parks. We chose Mesquite and haven't regretted it for a minute. Plenty of golf in both.

 

[mabuhay]

Fun fact: Santa Fe is highest elevation state capitol city in USA.

It's also the oldest capital city in the US. Founded by the Spanish in 1610..

I really like Santa Fe - fantastic museums, culture and restaurants, but yes - very dry, and cold in the winter. Notably, I have friends there that rent my townhouse here in Tucson during the winter months for that very reason. But summers there are perfect.

I have lived in at least half of the western states and those that are more southerly in latitude are in extreme drought, those to the north suffer from frequent forest fires and/or smoke in summer. Neither issue was this bad when I was a kid and we took road trips and camped all over.

 

[Safe Harbour]

Try Los Alamos

Great town. Access to the Jemez mountains and Los Alamos ski hill. Rio Grande canyon and Bandelier.

 

[pjm-7]

I'll put in my 2cents about Grand Junction. I moved here 2.5 years ago from the Denver area during the pandemic lockdown. I did not know anybody. I know people who lived here in the past and left, mostly because it was too small for them. I lived in various places in Wyoming for years, so GJ is the right size for me. I also looked and NM but I think Colorado has a friendlier tax structure (speaking as a former tax auditor). I have developed friendships and have more than enough volunteer activities to keep me busy. I also appreciate that the University of Denver OLLI program now has a wide variety of classes on zoom.

 

[Out of Steam]

NM is indeed beautiful and captivating but it's also extremely poor, exceptionally crime-ridden and has some of the lowest educational levels of any state, along with far and away the highest levels of alcoholism and drunk driving.

A couple of related stories.

I had an extended business trip to New Mexico about 15 years ago. Recall picking up a local weekly newspaper in a restaurant one night, and there was a prominent article about everyone running for a local political office having had at least one drunk driving conviction.

A former boss moved to Albuquerque some years ago and sold his BMW after arriving because, as a volunteer in church ministry, he was uncomfortable driving it around so many impoverished people.

That said, it's the only place in the American West I could even conceive of living in.

 

[COcheesehead]

You might try Mesquite NV or St George UT. Mesquite has a small hospital while St George has a major medical center. Both are close to Las Vegas, great for dining and entertainment. Also close to national parks. We chose Mesquite and haven't regretted it for a minute. Plenty of golf in both.

We stay in St George from time to time, actually Ivins. Beautiful area, but boom town is an understatement. Infrastructure is way behind. Cool houses though in Kayenta. Good restaurant in Ivins: Xetava.
We also visited Mesquite, NV down the road. It didn’t really have a downtown or much services. Seemed like a casino town on Utah’s border.

 

[imnontrad]

Consider renting first. My daughter/family live near Santa Fe and because of the altitude, they get 4 seasons but not the HOT of Albuquerque. However, one problem they have is hiring people (electricians, plumbers, etc) to do work. They either never return calls or start a job and then do not show up again. They believe it is because they are not originally from the area.

BTW, I'm in Colorado Springs - no reason to stay but no reason to leave either (yet)

 

[Shanky]

We lived in Las Cruces a few years about 10 years before I retired. We enjoyed the weather and proximity to dramatic wilderness. Golf was year round and the Organ Mountains are spectacular at sunset.