moving to artesia, nm (Albuquerque, Roswell: real estate, new home, find a job)

[lescamry]

My husband and I are relocating to Artesia, NM from Central California, I have never been out of California and am excited/terrified. Can anyone out there calm my fears??? I have been told it is beautiful country. We have 7 dogs and are relocating to 5 acres. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!
Excited/Terrified in California

[spindoc]

Since you're moving from cali to NM, let alone Artesia, I would advise you to have low expectations. NM has beautiful scenery overall but unfortunately Artesia is not where it is at. Unfortunately, IMO, it is probably the least pretty part of the state. SE NM is full of oil fields and poverty. Artesia is in the heart of it. There has been some recent growth there and therefore the prices of real estate is artificially inflated. Oil and the boarder patrol training center are the source of growth I believe.

On the upside, if you have bought 5 acres you will notice, coming from cali, that the price of buying that much land is not very expensive. Hope you looked at the lot beforehand. It is pretty much open country out there scattered with oil pumps. Get use to the smell of sulfur every day.

Sorry but that is my impression of not only Artesia but SE NM in general. Hope someone can provide you with a contrasting opinion.

[lescamry]

Thanks for your opinion. Not very encouraging, though. So much for adventure. I know zip about NM to begin with and now to hear this is a real downer. It is all in the family (property etc) sounded good to me at the time. We are coming from a very small valley city in Cali and was looking forward to a real climate and lifestyle change, ya know, get away from the materialistic nature of things that make everyone so pretentious lately. I hope someone else can give me some encouraging uplifting opinion about this location. Thanks for your time!!!

[6 FOOT 3]

Originally Posted by lescamry

get away from the materialistic nature of things that make everyone so pretentious lately.

lescamry......if the above statement is what your looking for then you might acheve that there in Artesia. Thou i have never lived there i have been there numerous times in my life. Its very laid back atitude with lots of Oil and the Fletc (border patrol, customs, homeland security etc.. school) out there. Yes it is very flat out there and its that way going east probably for 100's to 1000's of miles but you are only about 25 miles from Brantley Reservior (water sking/jet sking) on the Pecos river to the south and 45 min or so from the Guadalupe Mountains recreational areas (hiking,camping) to the southwest and about 65 miles from the Sacramento mountains recreational areas (camping,mountain lakes and streams) directly west. So there's you some more info on the good and bad......

[jalfff]

For those who prefer small towns Artesia is wonderful...

Have you relocated yet?

I've been waiting to get back there for 5 years,

I finally get to go back 4/17.

If you like the outdoors, animals, gardening, & friendly faces

Artesia can be a wonderful place...

Check-out the garden club , the bowling alley...

Short wide open trips (no traffic )can change your scenery
on a day trip... ..

You can grow most anything with little effort..

I've lived in more of the US than I haven't, for the weather,

people, cost of living, Artesia is hard to beat for families...

If there are children check-out the benefits of NM education!

[KalinRoswell]

I actually joined this thing to be able to reply. First, I live in Roswell, 40 miles north of Artesia. Just moved here from St. Louis in july. One thing you will notice from the folks up north is that they have little idea of what SENM is all about. For instance, yesterday on a newscast, Portales was located on I-40, where Tucumcari actually sits.

Moving to Roswell has been great. my wife and I have bought a house, met friends, etc. The school systems here are great and in Roswell NMMI offers one of the top boarding experiences you can find. You also are close to the mountains, but don't have to put up with as much bad winter weather. Artesia is a great town with good schools. I think you will be very happy in SENM, just remember that as the Central Valley is forgotten by the coast in Cali, so is SENM...and for us, thats not necessarily a bad thing!!

[Norma Riggs]

I live in Carlsbad which is about 45 minutes south of Artesia. Artesia is in the process of giving their town a face lift and building is also going on. I have noticed several new business going up on 285, which runs through Artesia going south to Carlsbad and north to Roswell. Artesia has a very nice park and a small but, from what I hear, good hospital. I don't know about the school system, since mine are grown and gone. Housing has gone up in price after they opened the FLETC training center, but they have some nice, modest homes there. If you have property, you can probably build just what you want if it doesn't have a house. If it does, be sure to check out plants before you waste your money if you have a green thumb. Not ALL plants grow out here unless you work on the soil. All in all, I think your experience will be what you make it. I moved to Albuquerque, NM from Florida and boy did I have a scenery & culture shock! Then I moved to Carlsbad after I met my husband and received a larger shock. We ARE out in the middle of the desert and I thought I would hate it. But the desert and surrounding areas offer so many beautiful yuccas, cactus and wildflowers, it's hard not to see the beauty. So, relax, come with an open mind and make it what You want it to be. I would say my overall experience has been great, simply because I adapted and watched and learned about the land and wildlife.

Hope this helps to set your mind at ease.

[Mums The Word]

I grew up in Artesia but have lived all my adult life in Texas. Over the years I have gone back for short visits and find that it is still a very nice and friendly town. I think the facelift that they've been doing to the main street shows that the town is not dead and that it has people with visions and goals. I do not agree with one of the other posters - I think Artesia is situated in a very pretty part of the state - the Pecos Valley. There is a lot of farming in Artesia as well as the oil business. There is a refinery and I promise that you'll get used to the smell. In fact, that smell always meant that we were getting close to home! I don't remember that we smelled the refinery throughout the whole town - it just seems like it was when we were going into town.

I wish you the very best on your move and I hope that you enjoy living in Artesia!

[Sabine]

Here is my opinion on Artesia, NM... (we have lived here for 5 months now and are aiming for the North of the US again):

Landscape-wise Artesia is not really worth mentioning unless you like flat land with lots of cactusses and tumbleweed. It is even hard work to grow gras here, since the ground is all burnt and drained. You can barely find flowers here. The heat in Artesia is hardly dry anymore because it has been raining so much during the last few months. Some locals call it the New Mexican rain forest, because they have not seen this much nature in one place, they say. The sewers are not being cleaned and so they are stopped up with dead plants, mudd and wood. There are always floodings after a bit of rain.

There are so many drug-addicted (and toothless ) people living in this town that it is very easy to find a job, because most of the locals cannot pass the drug tests conducted prior to employment. Shopping is only possible in KMart and Wal-Mart, both places that are understaffed, the staff is underpaid and not motivated. The shelves are half-empty, dusty and so is some of the merchandise.

It is nearly impossible to find a house in this town, because FLETC (Federal Law Enforcement Training Center) has taken over. Which means that the Government is paying for their houses and anyone that is not rich cannot afford houses in Artesia anymore.

The air here often smells like oil, gasoline and sewers (number two, if you know what I mean), and it has been proven that the oil fumes have damaged genes in this area.

And the good things about this town:

It is cheap to live here. It is sunny. There are never any traffic jams. There are jobs here. The police shows up relatively fast in case of an emergency. The downtown area looks great. There is a movie theatre and a bowling alley.

Don't get me wrong... I don't want to knock this town for people who love it, Artesia is just not our style, because we love the four seasons, and that is why I pointed out the bad things as well.

Sabine

[clairz]

Originally Posted by lescamry

My husband and I are relocating to Artesia, NM from Central California, I have never been out of California and am excited/terrified. Can anyone out there calm my fears??? I have been told it is beautiful country. We have 7 dogs and are relocating to 5 acres. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks!!
Excited/Terrified in California

Lescamry, I am interested to know if you got there yet. When my husband and I were getting ready to move from New Hampshire to Clovis, NM (job transfer) I was pretty discouraged when reading opinions about Clovis on this forum. Luckily, we were delightfully surprised by our new hometown--so now I can offer a positive opinion to people looking for information.

I am just wondering if perhaps the same thing might have happened to you. We all have such different opinions of what makes a good place to live that you can't really make a decision based on what other people think (although I get a ton of information from this forum!). You just have to check things out for yourself.

~clairz