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ILUVNM Thank you for the information!
I was wondering if you find people and feel of Pagosa and Mancos similar and if there was a large temp difference between the two?
Is elevation in Mancos so high?
Are both places accepting different heritage/race?
How about crime and drug problems? Do you hear muc about it on the news?
My Mom has a cousin who has lived in Farmington for ever but she's not in contact ... she must like though she has stayed for many decades.
Thanks again for everything, you are a dear!
ILUVNM Thank you for the information!
I was wondering if you find people and feel of Pagosa and Mancos similar and if there was a large temp difference between the two?
Is elevation in Mancos so high?
Are both places accepting different heritage/race?
How about crime and drug problems? Do you hear muc about it on the news?
My Mom has a cousin who has lived in Farmington for ever but she's not in contact ... she must like though she has stayed for many decades.
Thanks again for everything, you are a dear!
As far as I know Pagosa and Mancos are nice cities. I am Hispanic and I never felt mistreated at either. Mancos is small, you can pass it in a blink of an eye but it is growing some. Pagosa is growing pretty good, especially west of there. I would not think Mancos or Pagosa would have much crime. Just not enough people. Farmington being so big does have drugs and crime. You cant go into certain areas without caution such as west of Farmington. I try to stay in the much safer north and east parts. Still Farmington is much safer than dangerous Albuquerque where I moved from. Albuquerque is a very dangerous place. Oh, temps, Pagosa would probably be a little more colder with more snow. Mancos is on the other side of Hesperus which Hesperus is like Pagosa but Mancos more like Durango. Cortez is the warmer of them all in southern Colorado. Farmington being the warmest of all of them but again it is in New Mexico. I dont know much about Cortez though just that it has a good amount of cowboys and is pretty conservative. That is about it.
Last edited by I_LUVNM; 12-19-2006 at 01:55 AM..
Reason: added stuff
I was over in Durango today to see the snow (if you havent read my posts before, I live over the border in New Mexico where we dont get that much snow) and it was SOOOO beautiful in Durango! My friend who lives there is so lucky! They got 6 to 7 inches and the roads were all dry. She said in part thanks to the fantastic snow crew and part due to their sunny weather. I didnt want to leave and their resort got over 2 feet of snow, which is higher up. Durango, you are lucky. If I could afford you, I would be there right now!
I am delighted to hear your description of Durango. Now it is ON my short list.
I hope you have plenty of $$$ if Durango is on your short list. Bluntly, that is what it takes. About 15 years ago, I had a job opportunity there that paid about $35,000 a year. I looked at a typical house in town that I thought was overpriced at about $135,000. That same house today would be around $400,000--the same job would now pay about $50,000 a year. Your get the picture.
Pagosa is somewhat cheaper, but the prices there have just plain exploded in the last two years. There are relatively few jobs.
The big future problem in southwest Colorado is still that everything that people need to live (food, clothing, etc.) has to come from a considerable distance. So, increasing fuel prices will disproportinately inflate the cost of living in places like Durango and Pagosa. Also, the area's economy is heavily dependent on tourism. Increasing fuel prices will also hurt that part of the local economy. People wrongfully assume that because the area has been a haven for retirees, second homeowner's, tourists and the like for the last 15-20 years that it will continue to be so indefinitely. They ignore the fact that all of this growth occurred during the period that fuel prices were at the very cheapest in real dollar terms in all of history. That era is OVER.
An acquaintance of mine of who lives in the Durango area (and has for many years) and who owns a tourist-related business told me that 20 years ago many Durango tourists came from as faw away as the East Coast and overseas, 10 years ago many of them from the midwest and southern states, many of them now from Colorado, Texas, and New Mexico cities. Tomorrow, probably most will come from within a few hundred miles, at most. His assessment is that southwest Colorado is devolving from an international/national tourist destination to a regional destination, at best. As he put it, for most people, "It just costs too much to get here now." He added that he never would have been able to afford to stay in Durango had he not bought his home years ago.
This does not surprise me. Places with a high quality of life are in general going to be more expensive to live in. Employers don't have to pay people a lot to convince them to come there. Houses are in desirable locations and the market will bear high prices. As open spaces in places like Durango shrink, costs will rise further. But so will the costs everywhere else. And so will the earning power, eventually. Not everyone got in when the getting was good. But you can still get in to places like this and survive, it just takes some sacrifice. This is why people are waiting longer to buy homes, have kids, take annual vacations, etc. etc. Trade offs. If you're on the Internet and you've taken the initiative to investigate where you want to live by posting on a message board, (and have the excess finances to pull off a move) chances are you have enough wit to earn enough income to pay the bills. If not, buy a bus ticket and go back to where you did when it fails. Rejection is better than regret, every time.
Prices for most things in Durango, excluding homes, is about like everywhere else now. Gas is in the 2.90s as of today. It was cheaper until a few days agos where it is now in the 2.90s. Isnt that what most are paying as of today? My friends house cost 325,000 she bought last year, 2200 square feet. Pretty nice, not a mansion or anything. Her taxes are cheap something like around 600.00 or so a year. Her electric averages around 125.00. Groceries arent bad since there are the supermarkets like Albertsons and City Market and they compete. I dont know, it doesnt seem high to me, it seems like everywhere else. The houses are higher in Durango, but not compared to the east coast or west coast, it is cheap compared to the coasts. It is higher compared to the midwest and mountain states but not as high as other cities like Aspen, Telluride, Boulder, etc. There are alot of middle class people in Durango too. And Jazzlover, you arent correct on people coming in only from around the area now. I have met many recent people coming from all over Europe, Poland and Russia that are recently here, also people from Scandinavian countries moving. I know Jazzlover you see everything with the glass half empty, most of your posts about Colorado especially the Front Range reflect that and that is your opinion and fine to voice it but they arent reflecting accurately on Colorado, at least Durango since I know this area well and in the now, not ten or twenty years ago when you were in the area. Yes homes are higher in the city but there are many suburbs here now and they are about average compared to the country. Bayfield is cheaper too, so is Cortez. I see Durango, the Front Range and all of Colorado for that matter with a glass half full. You live in Wyoming and I feel for you, all that cold and bitter wind, I guess I would be posting downgrading posts on Colorado too if I lived in such a cold windy place, it would make living in Wyoming a little more bearable I guess.
My husband and I visited Durango several years ago as a potential retirement spot. I haven't seen any mention of those oil? pumps in people's backyards. We asked about them in town. We were told that oil, gas companies etc. have the right to place a pump on anyone's property without permission from the homeowner. Many told us people wake up in the am or return home from work to find these rigs in their backyard and they make a lot of noise. Check it out. It deterred us from relocating there.
I think you misunderstand my view of Colorado in general and southwest Colorado (and northern New Mexico) particularly. First, I love the region and have since I first laid eyes on it over four decades ago. I probably know and have known more people who live or have lived around Durango, Cortez, and Pagosa than you may know there today. Over the years, both work and recreation took me there at least several times a year, sometimes much more often. For nearly 30 years, I lived only about 150 miles away from the area.
I have worked in the public, private, and non-profit sectors of the Colorado economy for many years, so I have quite a bit of "institutional" memory of what has gone on, good and bad, in that state. Yes, I am extremely troubled about the direction Colorado, and the nation is headed. I've lived through the booms and busts in rural Colorado. Bluntly, most of the residents in much of Colorado, including southwest Colorado, are neither old enough nor resided there long enough to experience a "crash." The bust in western Colorado during the early 1980's was unpleasant enough, but for those who lived through the Great Depression in rural Colorado (and I have known quite a few over the years), it was pretty darn horrendous. Because so few of current residents have ever experienced such a thing, they think it can not happen or "it won't happen here because of 'X'." Sadly, I believe they are mistaken. I believe, on a national level, we are headed for a severe economic correction. Everything in my experience and training (much of my education was in Economics) tells me this. We are absolutely, as a nation, financially and psychologically unprepared for this. We are, as a society, largely "in denial" about this, despite ample signs of trouble ahead. Because of our collective "denial," anyone who suggests anything other than "business-as-usual" gets the label of "Chicken Little," "Doomsday Prophet," "Pessimist," "Nay-sayer," or "Glass-half-empty" crackpot. Well, every so often, the "crackpots" get proven right. We'll see.
As far as rural western Colorado, it currently relies almost exclusively on tourism, affluent retirees, and resource extraction for its livelihood. You, ILUVNM, are fortunate, economically speaking at least, that you live in an area that is producing some critical natural resources--albeit with the trade-offs that come with that. That sector of the economy may "cushion the blow" in the coming crisis, but it can't change the fact that the tourism/recreation/retirement economy of places like Durango will not be sustainable in a severe economic downturn.
Truthfully, I can't think of a place that has surrounding geography as wonderful than does Durango. Many years ago, my mother knew a fellow employee where she worked in Denver that had left Durango in the early 1940's. She asked him why he had left such a beautiful place to move to Denver to work. His answer was cryptic, "Because my family didn't have enough to eat."
Finally, I consider your remark about Wyoming a "cheap shot." Yes, it is windy, very windy at times in places. It also, like most western states, has some very desolate areas. It also has some very nice communities populated with decent, hard working people, along with some of the most beautiful and unspoiled country in the lower 48 states. Unlike so many areas, Wyoming people tend to embrace things like family, community, thrift, and cooperation. To be sure, Wyoming has its less desirable areas and problems, but I assure you the state is quite bearable. I consider myself a Westerner at heart, and the fact that a political boundary makes me a Wyomingite versus a Coloradan is of probably no more concern to me than the fact that a political boundary makes you a New Mexican versus a Coloradan. I don't think the geography stops at the state line. By the way, I made a conscious decision to live here, eyes wide-open. There are still things, places, and people in Colorado that I love, but I love Wyoming, too. And, yes, there are places and things that I love in New Mexico. Like I said, I'm a Westerner--those state boundaries don't mean that much . . .
I dont mean any disrespect to Wyoming or you Jazzlover. I just feel that your forecast for Colorado, although I am sure is from the heart, isnt based on the way things are now. Tourism used to be a major part for Durango but with the new light industries moving in, (Farmington, 50 miles to the south in New Mexico, has become one of the biggest cities in NM), only Albuquerque and Las Cruces are bigger, and yes oil is a part of this area but it keeps the taxes low and offers jobs to roughnecks who otherwise would be out of luck. But what I am trying to make a point at, but I guess not clearly enough from my NM education, my language is not the best, but your forecast for America, if true, would affect ALL the west. So I dont understand why you are singling out only Colorado. Wyoming would suffer just as much if not more since they rely more on tourists, ie Jackson Hole, Yellowstone. So I dont understand why you are saying that Colorado is going to suffer, but then you need to look in your own backyard and say Wyoming and all the west would suffer too, so the point is mute. If their is an economic slowdown out west, ALL the states suffer, not just Colorado. I can also understand your concern on growth but the flipside to growth is stagnant and stagnant isnt good either. Colorado just has to learn to balance growth.
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she has stayed for many decades.
Durango...again
