I have lived in NM since I was 3 years old, for the record, Silver City (which I lived in until I was 12) is in the southern part of the state
. Its a bit to small for my tastes, but could be a nice place to retire "rural".
Las Cruces isn't to bad (also southern part of the state). Weather in both of those is warm to hot and very dry. I'm not a fan of Las Cruces, to much Desert weather for me. Albuquerque can be nice (Still will be warm and dry, just not as bad as the southern half of the state). We sold a 2300SF 2.5 acre house in the Sandia Mountains (east of Albuquerque) 2 years ago for $300K and bought a little 1200SF house in the city for 150K. (Older 1950's houses)
We are in a decent neighboorhood, someplace I feel safe letting my kids play out in the front yard... if they were a bit older, I'd let them wander the streets alone.
If you are looking to spend alot of money on a house, you can get to about $600-800K, but much beyond that, and your getting into 'speciality houses'. (Down by the river or up in the foothills, 5000SF+ types of houses). You can get a very nice house for $250K-300K in a great neighborhood.
The other option if you don't have to travel into Albuquerque for a job, is the "west side" the city of Rio Rancho which is west of Albuquerque (across the Rio Grande river) has good housing costs and would be a nice place to live if you don't have to drive into Albuquerque every day.
Albuquerque is in my opinion the "right size city". Not to big, not to small. You can get across it in 30 minutes or less (usually less). Weather is nice, you can mountain bike almost year round, and when you can't Mountain bike, usually you can get onto the road bike with out to much weather trouble. There is also a real (10K) mountain that has a ski area right next to the city, so in the winter, you can Ski, summer you can MTB there (or the 200+ miles of trails around the area). So you get alot of outdoors activities that are with-in 20 minutes.
Hope that gives you a flavor.
Laters,
-d.
ps.
Actually it sucks, and nobody should move here.