We are considering retirement to Red River. Any comments (Ruidoso: ski resort, homes)

[Rikey]

Wrong.

Once you sell here, you can not come back. I could not qualify for the loan on my own home now, much less after selling somewhere else. How do you know what CA has become? Our area is quiet, peaceful with a view of the ocean.

Oregon has had your attitude for 30 years or so. They have quit complaining for some reason.

I am a Swede, tall and strong. My son is a MMA fighter and we fight the locals here for fun.

[catman]

Rikey: I think the main idea here is simply to make you more aware of what you would be getting yourself into if you move to Red River. I love the place and have visited it many times, but the winters are not to be taken lightly, with their attendant disadvantages. I like cold weather to a point, but Red River passes that point. I followed a snowplow out of there on October 16th one year. That should give you a clue as to what to expect! It's warm compared to Montana, though, to be sure.

[Huckleberry3911948]

that is amazing i admire people that have their lives so together they just go thru the process and then pick a place to reside. mine was kinda like escape from alcatraz. not alota mulling over where i was going once i got out of the freezing shark infested currents.

[Rikey]

I am a Swede and your weather it like Florida compared to home. We also get almost no sunlight in the winter.

Say you must sell your home in NM and your restate agent will not show it to a CA couple. Is that good for you. I read the average time on sales now in one NM town I looked at was 284 days. Is that what you want. Then keep your hatred and see keep your home.

JAZZ L. I would love to meet your friend. Can you arrange a meeting?

R.

[mortimer]

Rikey stated:

> Now Uncle Sam says I can sell this house and not pay any tax on
> $500,000. You can do it one time only.

That's not true. You can do it over and over again - up to once every 24 months.

> Most of us have 500K plus homes, ....

If you have a house worth $500k then you don't have $500k worth of gain
that you're looking to avoid tax on.

You also make it sound like it's an extreme hardship that someone who, say
bought a house in CA for $200k then later sells it for $900k has to pay the tax on the gain in excess of $500k.

That sounds like a problem and a tax bill that most people would like to have.

For the mathematically challenged, that's a tax on the $200k excess or about $40k on a total gain of $700k.

[JDTH]

If you want isolated try Ouray, CO. Beautiful place (Switzerland of America). I like to spend a few weeks there, but could never live there. It really is isolated.

Is the mob looking for you or something??

[Rikey]

Funny and tnx for town.

I was told about a big guy in Northern NM with a gun who burns down "foreigners" homes.

Can you believe that. Sad to say, we have this in Sweden. Drink a little and we go out looking for someone from Turkey, Finland or wherever. No guns but knives and all hell breaks out. It is called xenophobia. We don't have this in CA. People too busy doing other things.

Since no one from Red River here, I will check out.

Tnx all for names of towns. I will follow up.

B. Rick

[rybert]

Xenophobia, nah. It's more of an anti-carpetbagger thing.

[mortimer]

Rikey heard:

> ... about a big guy in Northern NM with a gun who burns down "foreigners" homes.

If you mean Swedes and such, that's probably not what's meant by "foreigners."
"Foreigners" probably means "outsiders" which would include people from Albuquerque.

That's part of the unintended consequences of the $500k exclusion written into tax law in 1997.

It was meant so that people moving from place to place in CA could do so without paying tax on gains that they could not benefit from. Now, people from high-value places like CA come into places like NM and build 7,000 sq ft trophy homes with five garages in places where old 1,100 sq ft bungalos are the norm.

You can see this in N. Sandia Acres and in the foothills in Albuquerque.

These are homes with, sometimes, 2 or 3 mobile homes parked outside in the driveway and utility bills larger than my mortgage payment.

I can see where the urge to commit arson comes from.

Our convoluted tax laws are largely responsible for the real estate bubble that just popped.
Why should you be able to deduct your mortgage payment?
Why should your capital gains on home sales be tax free?

[debbie at bouontiful]

Well, I lived oversees and know how these small mountain communities make you think fondly of the mountain European countries. Like Switzerland, Austria, Northern Italy....Balveria, Germany all that makes you think your back when visiting towns like Red River. Now, I like isolation so I've always been interested in Chama. But...medical does scare me. Now people in these rural mountain towns must get old and what do they do just die or what?

I talked to a lady in norther Idaho today and she was telling me that Montana does not have sales tax. I wonder which states are best for income tax. We're retiring in a few years and will be selling a cattle ranch in Eastern OK. Property taxes are so low here it impossible to think of any place lower. We had moved here from ILL and the property taxes there were quite high.

I wonder about a comparision for people who do not need to work but just live which place would be cheaper. Northern New Mexico, Southern Colorado or whatever mountain area.