Socorro, NM IN 2012 (Albuquerque, Magdalena: rental, buy, university)

[BBABYLONDEADDECEMBER21]

I looked around for info. on Socorro, but the thread was old.

Anyone from Socorro? I'm from NYC. Had it with city life. I have 60k to my name, and I was wondering if it's a nice place to live. Is a car necessary, cause I'd like to keep it simple, if I can. Ideally I would buy a patch of land, and do the off the grid thing, What's the weather like? I have a dog. How do you think she'll like it there?

Thanks.

[Zoidberg]

Socorro hasn't changed enough to not look at the thread.

Imagine New York weather but dry. Same temperature ranges.

If you are a university student, you can get by without a car. It's probably not a good idea if you're not. Bicycling works pretty well though.

The notion of needing a car or not and wanting a patch of off grid land doesn't make much sense. How would you get to, from, and around your 5 acres without a car?

Lots of Socorroans have dogs. There are also a fair number of stray dogs.

[GregW]

I have been fascinated with Socorro since I visited a few years ago. The presence of a world class university makes Socorro much different from other old New Mexican towns. I suggest a visit before you move.

I suggest you contact the chamber of commerce for more information as well as the El Defensor Chieftain for local news and classifieds. I would look at renting a place in town before I looked for any out of town land. Unlike New York the development does not taper from city to suburb to country. Outside of the irrigated land in the valley development just stops at the edge of town and does not start until the edge of the next town. In any case the availability of water is the primary determinant of the habitability of any piece of land. New Mexico will not let you forget most of it is high desert.

Good luck and let us know how things are working out.

FWIW – if you fly to Albuquerque do not rent a car at the airport. Take a taxi into the city and rent the car there. You will avoid airport access taxes that can be quite substantial. Then drive to Socorro and investigate the territory and be certain to visit the Very Large Array radio telescope west of Magdalena on Rt 60.

[Zoidberg]

Originally Posted by GregW

FWIW – if you fly to Albuquerque do not rent a car at the airport. Take a taxi into the city and rent the car there. You will avoid airport access taxes that can be quite substantial. Then drive to Socorro and investigate the territory and be certain to visit the Very Large Array radio telescope west of Magdalena on Rt 60.

While this is tempting, I seriously doubt the taxi ride will cost less than the difference in rental price, unless you are renting for >1 week.

What does work (and I have done on occasion) is taking public transportation (Suntran bus) to an off-airport (like it doesn't call itself on-airport) location, or something like a super shuttle versus a taxi. Most airports these days make you ride one of these buslike shuttles anyway so it's not very much time lost.

I see a Rent-a-wreck that might qualify just on the other side of Gibson (I could easily walk that even lugging luggage as long as I didn't mind walking on grass and jaywalking a bit), and if you're willing/able to get to downtown, a couple of Enterprises there. Enterprise usually lets you return to the airport without paying airport fees, so in order to save yourself maybe $50 over a week by spending 45 minutes waiting for a bus and sightseeing..

[mortimer]

Originally Posted by BBABYLONDEADDECEMBER21

I looked around for info. on Socorro, but the thread was old.

Translation:

I didn't want to read a bunch of "stuff" to find the answers.

There is almost no such thing as an "old" thread in the NM forums.