Seeking general housing cost info (Albuquerque: city hall, to rent, mortgage)

[EnjoyEP]

Hi all -

Most of you regular posters know my story - I am from the Milwaukee, WI area from birth to my mid-20s, moved with my wife to Albuquerque and loved it quite a bit, had 2 kids while in Albuquerque, after 4+ years in Albuquerque moved back to WI (this past July) because we thought it would be the best with our kids to be closer to family...now, as you probably know, we extremely regret it and miss the Albuquerque/El Paso region so much.

For many, many reasons, we are eager to right our personal wrong decision and get back to the Southwest. So even though it might seem kind of unconventional at best to try to relo back to an area with a family after only a 1/2 year (I will admit that many would find that nuts), it is what we are trying to do actively and eagerly.

While our plan has been to relo back to the El Paso area (instead of Albuquerque or some other SW'ern jaunt) - not due to a dislike of Albuquerque but due to our joint passion for the El Paso area (the weather, the cost of housing / living, the culture and vibe of the city...no El Paso sucks comments please, I know of the intense rivalry on this board between the two towns...we just love them both) - we over the past week have hedged a hare into bringing Albuquerque back into the equation for us too.

So now, we are targeting both El Paso AND Albuquerque, not limiting ourselves to just El Paso, and will go to whichever one presents an ideal professional opportunity to myself first.

As much as we love El Paso and are still somewhat leaning to preferring that route (again, no El Paso sucks comments!), the big problem with EP obviously is finding a job long-distance in my profession that would pay a respectable salary; EP to me has so many great qualities, but the job market is one that even the most ardent EP proponents and also detractors admit is one of its worst qualities. Also, although I wish it were different, I am not bilingual, which while doesn't disqualify me professionally in EP, doesn't help my cause as a long-distance candidate.

We feel that very likely, Albuquerque may be an easier (not easy, just easier) professional-match area for those two reasons (a friendlier job market to professionals in my area as well as not being as bilingual heavy).

ANYWAY...now that I have babbled on...my big question concerns housing costs:

-What are housing costs like in general compared to July? What do you think they'll be like in 6 months?

I have done some MLS searching, etc., however am not quite certain a definitive answer.

One of the most appealing aspects of El Paso to my wife and I is the low cost of housing and living. I realize Albuquerque's housing market is more expensive, however, that is somewhat offset by the lower property taxes.

My wife and I would find a low-maintenance - the newer the better - house in the 1500 to 1800 square foot range with 3+ BRs and 2 BRs and a nice garage to be a good house. So it isn't like we need a mansion. However, we are in the less-than-$190K range too.

Is this possible anymore in Albuquerque without going to the Southwest quad? Will it be possible in six months?

I see tons of great values housing-wise in the Southwest quad, however, my big problem with that area is just that is distance-wise is so freaking far from so much rest of the city. For even things like stores, groceries, etc., it is just too far to deal with.

What are your perceptions? This is a big, big deal to us with a young family (on a single income...my wife is a stay at home mom! )...the house above can be purchased in El Paso for $120-$175K...I realize we aren't in that ballpark in Albuquerque, but are we even in the stadium?

Thanks my friends!!

[EnjoyEP]

PS - Sorry that post was so long / a book.

[finmqa1]

If your heart is telling you EP I would go for it. You've lived here it might be worthwhile to give EP a shot. Would you be willing to rent for a year so that it gives you enough time to figure which city would be best for you and your family? While I too like EP weather slightly better (from a year round perspective) I still think ABQ has more to offer.

As for the housing cost in ABQ, you can live in Ventana Ranch for the price mentioned above. I currently reside in VR and find it to be one of the most family friendly communities in ABQ, as well as one of the best maintained. Some people fear the commute, but getting Downtown takes me 25 minutes door to door (not bad). If you don't mind a fixer upper you can find great housing in the NE, Downtown, and other areas of town too. Obviously I'd prefer to see you back in ABQ representing us here on the forum, but I know you would do so from EP as well.

[_yb]

I would move to El Paso for 6 months or so to see if you really like it or not. Then when that phase is over you can get on back to Albuquerque. You should be able to find a home that fits your price range soon.
Whatever you chose good luck and have fun.

[EnjoyEP]

Thanks finmqa1! I appreciate the helpful words.

Originally Posted by finmqa1

If your heart is telling you EP I would go for it. You've lived here it might be worthwhile to give EP a shot.

Yeah, my heart hedges slightly towards EP (heck, you can tell by my screen name), however, I guess my wife and I came to two major conclusions:

1) Professional-related
I have only been aggressively pursuing the El Paso area for a month now professionally, however, we are realists. To obtain a professional position that would provide a salary in my requirements without having a bilingual skill in El Paso may be a very, very hard thing to do. While it wouldn't be "simple" in Albuquerque (or anywhere for that matter - long-distance job hunts are never fun), I believe that in my area it would be much more possibly realistic and / or doable.

While for the reason you cite I probably would lean towards EP if my heart were solely doing the voting, I also realize that you have to pay the bills and the mortgage at the end of the day, and the job market it just so much more open in ABQ than it is in EP, especially for non-bilinguists.

I guess what we've discussed is if it would take me six months to get us relo'd to Albuquerque or three years to get us relo'd to El Paso, we'd far more prefer the Albuquerque option so we can be back in the region we love and retreat from the high taxes / high cost of living / long cold winters and mosquito-filled summers.

2) Quality of life
While I admittedly do favor El Paso slightly to Albuquerque, I mean, this is for my wife and I like comparing ice cream to green chile - you really don't lose either way. I love Albuquerque almost as much as El Paso, and while we prefer some things in El Paso (weather, cheaper housing, family in the city), we actually do prefer things in Albuquerque more too (the neat cultural things like the Balloon Fiesta and Old Town, the summers, closer to Denver - lots of family, our familiarity with the town, etc.) So if El Paso to us is an "A+" then Albuquerque is an "A", not a "C".

Originally Posted by finmqa1

Would you be willing to rent for a year so that it gives you enough time to figure which city would be best for you and your family?

Absolutely, but I guess the thing is that we know ABQ so well that we wouldn't have to rent, but I am more concerned about the actual housing costs being higher (for us and our meager middle class single income! )....with two young children, a house would have to be a "must" fairly quickly.

And in El Paso, the housing isn't the issue as much as a job is.

Originally Posted by finmqa1

While I too like EP weather slightly better (from a year round perspective) I still think ABQ has more to offer.

Yeah, I just love EP's weather. I give ABQ's year-round weather a solid B+ (which is great), but EP's a solid A...nearly perfect for my wife and I. But we agree that ABQ does offer many things that EP doesn't (I guess for my wife and I we see this one both ways! ).

Originally Posted by finmqa1

As for the housing cost in ABQ, you can live in Ventana Ranch for the price mentioned above. I currently reside in VR and find it to be one of the most family friendly communities in ABQ, as well as one of the best maintained. Some people fear the commute, but getting Downtown takes me 25 minutes door to door (not bad).

Ventana Ranch would absolutely work for us. Thanks for the tidbit, I will look into houses in VR. Our range is really kind of the $170s kind of area, so hopefully that would work. Thanks for this!

Originally Posted by finmqa1

If you don't mind a fixer upper you can find great housing in the NE, Downtown, and other areas of town too.

See, this is where we are really difficult folk. We just aren't fixer-upper type folks. No skills for it really, but moreover, just can't afford to funnel thousands of $$s into a home. I wish I was born with kind of that "do-it-yourself" handyman gene, but that one passed me by!

Originally Posted by finmqa1

Obviously I'd prefer to see you back in ABQ representing us here on the forum, but I know you would do so from EP as well.

Thanks my friend. You know that whether I am in Texas / El Paso, Wisconsin, or Bangkok, I will always be a big advocate of Albuquerque and on these forums! Albuquerque is one of the great cities in the US.

I admittedly in my gut would prefer El Paso, however, if job-wise it is more realistic to do Albuquerque and housing costs are doable, we have come to really realize that our passion for the Albuquerque area would suit us just fine too!

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by _yb

I would move to El Paso for 6 months or so to see if you really like it or not. Then when that phase is over you can get on back to Albuquerque.

Thanks _yb...I know you aren't a huge EP fan!

While this is sound advice - thanks!, the problem is with a job I wouldn't want to do alot of job hopping...it just tears up the resume and makes it harder to get other posts. Also, with two young children, having just done one six month-then-want-to-move, it is just alot of hopping to try to just keep doing it.

If I were a single lad still and had say a PhD where I knew I could always quickly get a job, I would probably do this, but with my ol' 4-year degree and conventional (eg: ordinary) business background and a wife/2 kids, I probably have to go with one where A) I can obtain a suitable professional position, and B) am content to sit put at least for a few years.

Plus, the big problem for me with El Paso is seeing if I could even get that one job in the first place! (that would be a good fit for me professionally and still fiscally make sense for my family and I).

Originally Posted by _yb

You should be able to find a home that fits your price range soon.
Whatever you chose good luck and have fun.

Thanks much _yb!

[norm]

Maybe you would be better off to try and find a job in Abq since it has more opportunities for you and rent a house there. Then you will be in a better position to pursue a job in EP and being so much closer you could hop down there for interviews. If you can't find what you like in EP then you could buy a house in Alb and have had the time to check out where you can afford to live.

[Sixx Foot Three]

EnjoyEP......

Only you and your family can decide whether to leave Wisconsin and move back to Albuquerque but that being said i'd say forget El Paso right now and come back to ABQ where you'll do better in the job market here and besides you can always drive to El Paso any weekend and visit where as in Wisconsin how often can you visit being so far away.

El Paso is changing for the better as there are many projects going on like Ft.Bliss 3 billion dollar expansion with 30,000 new troops coming in with all that money and also the new Texas Tech Medical School and Utep's massive expansion of it's Science, Enginering and Law schools and Downtown redevelopement and TXDOT Freeway projects etc...but it will be 6,7 or 8 years before these are completed.

Anyway there is some exciting things going on in ABQ this year like Mesa Del Sol taking off and these reciently new companies coming in and the new housing getting ready to start in march out there. Besides we need someone to go down to City Hall and give Mayor Marty a hard time about the Red Light Cameras.....lol......

6/3

[mortimer]

EnjoyEP wrote:

> I probably would lean towards EP if my heart were solely doing the voting, ...

That is enough reason to pick El Paso and worry about the job later.

El Paso, is, after all, a *metropolitan*area* with lots of things going on and thus sooner or later, you will be able to find a good job.

> ... house above can be purchased in El Paso for $120-$175K. ...

If you are sure that you can get an equivalent house for, say, $30k or more less then you can deduct a couple hundred dollars a month from your required income and buy some time.

You already are pining for a place you regret moving from. Why go almost all the way and spend more time wishing you had (gone all the way)? Life is too short to live where you don't enjoy 100%. You can always visit Albuquerque for the reasons you cited.

[EnjoyEP]

Originally Posted by 6 FOOT 3

EnjoyEP......

Only you and your family can decide whether to leave Wisconsin and move back to Albuquerque but that being said i'd say forget El Paso right now and come back to ABQ where you'll do better in the job market here and besides you can always drive to El Paso any weekend and visit where as in Wisconsin how often can you visit being so far away.

El Paso is changing for the better as there are many projects going on like Ft.Bliss 3 billion dollar expansion with 30,000 new troops coming in with all that money and also the new Texas Tech Medical School and Utep's massive expansion of it's Science, Enginering and Law schools and Downtown redevelopement and TXDOT Freeway projects etc...but it will be 6,7 or 8 years before these are completed.

Thanks Harry, this is kind of hitting on what I am mulling over with my wife / fearing as I pursue oppty's in El Paso. Especially not being bilingual, I am seeing that while I think I probably could eventually land a good professional opportunity in El Paso, the pickings for a person of my professional background with no bilingual skills - no Master's Degree - and being long-distance are going to be tougher. I realize that - grudgingly!

Whereas in Albuquerque, not only is there a bigger field of jobs available by far in my professional areas, and not only do bilingual skills not come into nearly as big of a play, but being a long-distance candidate at least they can see that I have had years in Albuquerque and thus may be more apt to fly me down for an interview. I believe that once I interview for a position, I have a very high chance / success rate at closing the deal.

I guess my heart slightly leans towards El Paso, but my heart doesn't pay the bills and the mortgage. And I would rather be professionally able to get us to ABQ in six months than if it would take me two years to get us to El Paso.

Originally Posted by 6 FOOT 3

Anyway there is some exciting things going on in ABQ this year like Mesa Del Sol taking off and these reciently new companies coming in and the new housing getting ready to start in march out there.

Yeah, the Mesa Del Sol thing might be great for a person like I (looking for affordable newish housing stock) - that is agreat point. All of the business influx doesn't hurt either.

Originally Posted by 6 FOOT 3

Besides we need someone to go down to City Hall and give Mayor Marty a hard time about the Red Light Cameras.....lol......

6/3

Yeah, I hate those things as much as you. I listen at work often to streaming online audio of 770 KKOB and cheer on the anti-red light camera haters.

I know they have those in El Paso too...it doesn't seem to bother El Pasoans as much as Albuquerqueans. I hate those things more than life itself though.

Thanks for the feedback Harry, you make mucho sense my friend.