Durango, Taos and San Juan Capistrano (Montrose, Cortez: best towns, real estate, credit)

[fordycek]

Hi everyone,

We currently live in Encinitas (north-coastal San Diego) and are looking for a slight change. We've narrowed our search down to San Juan Capistrano (CA), Durango (CO) and Taos (NM). We're a couple in our 30's with a 3 year old child. My husband is in green-development and real-estate, and I am an alternative health practitioner. We're looking for somewhere pretty liberal, with lots to do for families, great out-of-the-mainstream schools (like Waldorf, Montessori, etc.) and lots of natural beauty. Having a great town-center with coffee shops, restaurants, and health-food stores is important too.

Does anyone have any comments on which would be the best of the 3 areas we're looking into?

Thank you!

[Idunn]

Not too much experience with San Juan Capistrano, CA, but enough to know you've picked a very eclectic mix. Hmm.

San Juan Capistrano would surely best match that you are accustomed to; either Durango, CO or Taos, NM will be much more of a divergence. But just possibly what you are seeking?

Both Taos and Durango are expensive, with Durango possibly a bit more so, but basically a draw there. Of course by San Diego, CA standards either might seem a relative bargain. Both also enjoy beautiful settings, if dissimilar, with ready access to the wild and natural. Both will also offer most of the features you desire, but in different measures.

Of the two Durango would be more conventional and typically 'family friendly.' Not sure about alternative schooling but Fort Lewis College is located above town, and schools in general probably good. It is a civil place with a nice ambience, increasingly upscale and expensive, and this change something not all would welcome. With the growth an increasingly liberal area, certainly more so than many rural areas of the state. With the growth surely good opportunities in real estate, although at some point people will have to contend with exactly what sort of place they wish to live, and Durango become. A lovely downtown with lots of nice shops, some big box stores on the edge of town, and Durango is the regional shopping hub for southwest Colorado. Lots of activities, and great for those with outdoor tastes. In many respects a lovely town situated on the edge of spectacular mountains (San Juans), with the one major downside the increasingly high cost of living for those on modest local incomes.

Taos is very much a different enchilada. While it is certainly enchanting, particularly for the tourists, it probably will not strike you as charming or civilized as Durango. And it isn't, at least not in any conventional sense. Most people live there for other, and deeper, reasons.

The San Geronimo Lodge in Taos has hosted at least one gathering of alternative educators, and a perfect place for it. But the general schooling in the area probably questionable. So it might take some creativity (something in abundance there) to find or make a good fit, but the entire family will inevitably be schooled in many another aspect of life you never imagined.

If interested in green/alternative architecture and development you would be hard pressed to pick a better place. In direct proximity there are many examples of Earthship residences which embody green design and living. Many people in the area have an innate almost visceral sense of the earth.

Taos would also be an ideal location for an alternative health practitioner. Many in the community accept this as second nature. Lots of good options in town and the broader region, and the very local should be excellent and conducive to one's practice in heightening and intensifying it.

Taos is a mix of Hispanic, Caucasian and Native American peoples and culture. Which makes for very interesting alchemy. The arts flourish there, and per capita Taos has more galleries than Santa Fe. It may be impossible not to live there and not have a strong sense of place, of the land and that it imbues. This can make for strong lightness and darkness, which is not always in good balance.

Of the three Taos will probably change you the most. In some respects also the most challenging. It may open the very doors you wish, or never imagined.

[brightdoglover]

Durango has a far more developed economy than Taos. Both areas are rife with alternative health people, although I don't know if they're all making a living
In Taos, the split between locals and tourists (haves/have-less) is much more marked than Durango. Note, I haven't lived in either place, only visited. I did visit Durango with a thought to move there, but decided that the work situation was too dicey. I had some negative experiences in Taos with local men (and heard of many from people who had moved there) but it was a long time ago, and maybe things have changed.
Summer in Taos felt like being in Greenwich Village West. Strange to see so many men in boots and perfect jeans with perfect hair who had never seen the back of a horse. Like a New York invasion.

[Solidwood]

San Juan Capistrano is the best choice. You need to check Durango and Taos out before you make the big move. Taos has the least benefits for kids of the two. Taos is a marrieds-without-kids, artsie community that more for adult and not much of that. Durango has above and beyond the highest real estate prices (400K in town home) and the usual small town woes in school budgets and doctors not available.

[coltoncity]

How funny, my daughter just came back from Encinitas and San Juan Cap., Taos is our favorite place in the world and we are going to the durango area next week to see about relocating.
Anyhow what you have heard here is good advice. I want to live in Taos sooo badly but even a friend who lives there said she would never recommend any single woman especially with a daughter toi move there and live alone right now. Not a place for kids. LOTS of drinking. But there is a calm you feel, the arts, the scenery, the connectedness you feel when there. One day I will move in.

San Juan Cap. is beautiful from what my daughter said and the little I saw of the area she is right. It also wouldnt be the culture shock and you would know what to expect from the schools. NM is a heck of a drop in school levels.

Durango Ill know soon enough but I would say only if you wont miss the California lifestyle and the variety of landscapes.

[borborygmi]

Originally Posted by Solidwood

San Juan Capistrano is the best choice. You need to check Durango and Taos out before you make the big move. Taos has the least benefits for kids of the two. Taos is a marrieds-without-kids, artsie community that more for adult and not much of that. Durango has above and beyond the highest real estate prices (400K in town home) and the usual small town woes in school budgets and doctors not available.

As a physician, I can tell you that the big problem with recruiting doctors (PCPs, anyway) to rural areas is the huge discrepancy in income potential between practicing in a rural environment versus urban. Compounding this problem, the unfortunate truth is, med school tuition has become so expensive that many physicians graduating from medical school these days are saddled with a huge debt burden. Factoring in the income hit for rural physicians combined with such overwhelming debt, the quality of life as a rural PCP has become simply unattractive, even prohibitive for many new physicians.

The tradeoff is that the low cost of living, as well as the better quality of life to be found in smaller towns, can offset the lower income potential. The problem Durango has is that it's basically a rural town with a rural pay scale, but with big-city living costs. That's a major reason why there's such a huge a PCP shortage there. You won't have trouble finding specialists in Durango, mind you- there's plenty of those, as they'll make a pretty solid living anywhere. But the much more reasonable cost of living in nearby Farmington and Cortez basically is the reason that most PCP's in the area prefer to live and practice in those towns instead.

[jazzlover]

Originally Posted by borborygmi

The problem Durango has is that it's basically a rural town with a rural pay scale, but with big-city living costs.

Funny, whenever I have posted anything to that effect, I have gotten pilloried right and left for being "anti-Durango." I'm glad someone else had the courage to step up and call a spade a spade. When Durango was an "ordinary" western Colorado town (which, admittedly, it has not been for a lot of years), I considered it one of Colorado's best towns. Now, despite whatever natural attractions it has--and there are many--it is simply unaffordable to most normal wage-earners. It has been largely left to often-transient low-wage workers, and a monied gentry--who mostly have brought their money from somewhere else. When local living costs are considered "out-of-line" for a practicing physician, there is something pretty hosed-up about the local economy vs. living costs. Time for the "bubble" to burst . . .

[justmyopinion]

After living in southern CA for 52 years, working and living in New Mexico extensively, and now living in CO, I have to say all 3 of your choices are expensive! I think San Juan Capistrano is beautiful, but unlike years ago when it was a "town within itself", it is now just an extension of Los Angeles and San Diego. Everything in Southern California has become one gigantic "city", from LA to San Diego......they are all connected. And with SJC being so close to Irvine/Mission Viejo.... the traffic there is terrible. And the price of homes there are by far the most expensive of the 3.

Of course with Taos, you won't have the traffic problems, and it is lovely. I could easily live there (I love New Mexico, my favorite state, and hope to live there someday) BUT, to raise children, Taos might be a little TOO small for me personally. But look into it; because of the size, the schools may be very good there.

Durango is pricey, but beautiful, and there are wonderful things here for kids to do. To me it is the "right size"; small enough, but still large enough to get some of the necessities in life. I do not have children, but I know there are some difficult issues facing the schools here. I have many friends here who home-school, not as a first choice, but because they don't like the quality of teaching in the public schools of Durango. That is something you may want to seriously check in to. Also, finding a doctor here is nearly impossible.

[5stones]

Again I am going to suggest Montrose CO. The cost of living will be better than Durango and I feel it's a great small family town. You are close enough to GJ for hospitals/malls etc but far enough away too.

Do some research on it, I think you may really like it. I don't anything about the school situation though.

Montrose Visitors and Convention Bureau Home Page

[Sockeye]

justmyopinion wrote:

Of course with Taos, you won't have the traffic problems, and it is lovely. I could easily live there (I love New Mexico, my favorite state, and hope to live there someday) BUT, to raise children, Taos might be a little TOO small for me personally. But look into it; because of the size, the schools may be very good there.

The main drag thru Taos is always congested, particularly by the Square downtown. You have to use alt. routes in Taos to get around. I will give due credit to Taos for keeping the big box stores away, though. Having had relatives there for nearly forty years, I've seen it change from a village to a small city. For me, its a smaller, earthier version of Santa Fe, replete with a city council not wanting Taos to become another Santa Fe, but that sentiment is always subject to change. There is an understandable rift between many locals and tourists/2nd home owners. The chasm between the rich and poor is a stark one, and N.M. itself has a very large poor population. The closest full health care is Santa Fe, and for major health problems its Albuquerque.