Moving to NM - Las Cruces vs. Carlsbad areas? (Albuquerque: relocating, housing)

[danandsassy]

Hello all, and thank in advance for your help! My fiance and I are getting married in April and are strongly considering relocating to New Mexico in about a year. We are looking at the Las Cruces and Carlsbad areas, and would love to hear some "insider" opinions on these cities.

We can't wait to get away from overcrowded, expensive NJ. We are looking for a safe, small, friendly town that's not very expensive and has great schools and people. We love the idea of the desert and we enjoy being outdoors, hiking, swimming, camping, you name it! I'm in the medical field and my fiance is a woodworker, so any info about job availability would be appreciated.

We would be looking to rent a home, and would like to know what expenses are like in the area - rent, car insurance, etc. Please keep in mind we're used to NJ prices ($1,000/month for a 1 bedroom apartment, $2500/year car insurance!).

We would like to start a family in a few years, so any info about the communities and schools would be appreciated. Basically, which is a better town to live and work - Las Cruces or Carlsbad??

Thanks so much and we look forward to reading your responses!

[chilegal]

I would suggest that you look up all past posts about both cities.
With all the building and medical fields with 2 hospitals I would think Las Cruces would be a good choice.
With renting for a year or so you can check out with all the locals about schools and communities.
Good luck.
Jane

[happymostly]

The best place to research rental prices in Las Cruces is in the Thrifty Nickel . You can check their ads online at American Classifieds. More reasonable rentals are going to be in there. We have a lot of retirees, so medical should be good and there a numerous home health agencies and 2 hospitals, plus rehab and cancer facilities. I have not lived in Carlsbad, so can't speak to that. I have absolutely nothing good to say about Las Cruces Public Schools but I don't know if Carlsbad's are better.

[Towanda]

Just my two cents here.

I would NEVER even begin planning a move to New Mexico until I had visited the state, and personally checked out any towns that I am interested in.

Several trips would be my suggestion, at different time of the year.

New Mexico is not for everyone. Some people love it. Some people hate it. It is truly very different than every place else in the country.

Good luck to you!

[TKO]

From Carlsbad you'll have a very long way for higher end goods. Like decent bread. Carlsbad is a small city out of the way with El Paso (3+ hours) being the closest good shopping. I lived in Jersey, flying back next week for Gint's Skins game as a matter of fact. You'll find enough of the things your used to in Cruces to get by IMO. Not in Carlsbad. Carlsbad is cheaper though.

It seems that if you're coming to rent, bailing out if you don't like it is a little easier. I suspect, that like me, the ability to plan that far ahead and reasearch with trips and such probably isn't there. Of course if I am wrong, then you absolutely should avail yourself of some research first. I've made most of my moves cold, due to lack of choice. I guarantee I won't do that with the last move though, when I retire I'll have researched it very well and it's sound advice.

$1000/month in either place will get you decent living quarters (small three br/two bath) maybe a little bit more money in Cruces. I think you'd see much more of a difference in purchase prices between the two than you would in rent. My insurance for two cars (one with full coverage and one just liablity) in cruces is about a $1000 a year. I think insurance rates are probably high here because of uninsured motorists and theft to Mexico.

Plenty of work in the medical industry in Cruces, with all the retirees coming in that's not likely to slow down any. Not sure about Carlsbad employment.

[6/3]

DanandSassy.....i would say Las Cruces is superior over Carlsbad especially in Employment and Health Care facilities as the city and metroplex is booming. The Population is around 90,000 (130,000 metro) for Las Cruces and 28,000 for Carlsbad. Also Las Cruces has NMSU at around 20,000 students where as Carlsbad has NMSU-C at around 2,000.

However in all fairness to Carlsbad you are right on the Pecos river which has Jet sking and tubing right thru the city and Brantley Reservior about 10 miles north of the town for recreational opportunities and also the Guadalupe mountains are next to it also.

Some like a larger more hip and happening city and others like a small city with that community feel that you don't find in large cities.....

6/3

[skoro]

Las Cruces is twice the size of Carlsbad and continuing to grow at a decent rate, making job opportunities better there. It also has a major university, with the advantages that holds for young folks like yourselves. In addition, LC sits at the foot of a mountain range and is a 90 minute drive from a decent ski area. Carlsbad sits on the margin between the plains and the desert, in a flat mostly featureless landscape. And even though there's very little difference in climate between the two cities, LC has a much more dramatic setting.

For me, LC has all the advantages in any comparison between these two locations.

[radcomander]

Originally Posted by danandsassy

Hello all, and thank in advance for your help! My fiance and I are getting married in April and are strongly considering relocating to New Mexico in about a year. We are looking at the Las Cruces and Carlsbad areas, and would love to hear some "insider" opinions on these cities.

We can't wait to get away from overcrowded, expensive NJ. We are looking for a safe, small, friendly town that's not very expensive and has great schools and people. We love the idea of the desert and we enjoy being outdoors, hiking, swimming, camping, you name it! I'm in the medical field and my fiance is a woodworker, so any info about job availability would be appreciated.

We would be looking to rent a home, and would like to know what expenses are like in the area - rent, car insurance, etc. Please keep in mind we're used to NJ prices ($1,000/month for a 1 bedroom apartment, $2500/year car insurance!).

We would like to start a family in a few years, so any info about the communities and schools would be appreciated. Basically, which is a better town to live and work - Las Cruces or Carlsbad??

Thanks so much and we look forward to reading your responses!

As far as Carlsbad!
The Air Force training has taken over the town,there is no decent place to live,rental property has skyrocketed and even shaby homes to buy are out of site, the government should be ashamed.

[jbdykstra]

There is almost no way you won't find southern New Mexico cheaper than NJ as far as housing costs go. Take people's advice and check it out closely before you move though, especially if you've never been to NM. I live in Roswell and love the weather here, but the crime rate is crazy for a town this size in the middle of nowhere. Carlsbad is a pretty well-spoken of place, but it's also a very small town. It's a completely different world from NJ that's for sure. Las Cruces is generally the more desired destination. It's more of a city and a lot of people say it's like what Albuquerque used to be like 20 years ago (in the good sense). New Mexico is a state that has a lot of people that come from other places, but that tends to be more the case in the bigger towns or the well-known places. The southeastern part of the state tends to be a lot more like west Texas and is a lot more rural and conservative than some other parts of the state. New Mexico can be a wonderful place for a lot of reasons, but if you are from the East Coast, and you are looking for a safe place with good schools to raise kids, definitely do some checking ahead of time or you could end up disappointed.You will get a lot more than a 1 bedroom apartment for $1000 a month almost anywhere in NM outside of Santa Fe and Taos. There are 5-bedroom houses across the street from mine that rent for under $1000 a month. If you want a bigger city-like atmosphere, you might also want to check out Albuquerque and some of the areas near it like Belen, Los Lunas, Rio Rancho or Edgewood.

[Duckcollar99]

I've been contemplating a retirement move to Las Cruces in the near future and have done some research on the internet, on websites such as this one and Moderator cut: linking to competitors sites is not allowed On the latter website, violent crime and property crime in Las Cruces are both rated at 7 which is pretty high. Many of the people who have posted messages on bestplaces. net say that Las Cruces is becoming too crowded, it's full of illegal immigrants, the spanish-american legal population doesn't speak English, their daughters get pregnant at 14, their children don't graduate from high school, there's a huge drug problem, particularly with crystal meth, there's trash all over the place, and then there's the culture of "manyana" where you can't get any work done on time. I could go on and on but you get the drift. Is it really this bad? One
message poster even stated emphatically, "Don't move to Las Cruces!"

Can a native resident of Las Cruces give me the real "low-down" on the place?
Would really appreciate it! Thanks! My regular e-mail address is: yorktown1668@hotmail.com.