Looking to move to NM..... (Albuquerque, Las Cruces: apartment, to rent, how much)

[Vesper]

Help please.....

My family is seriouly interested in escaping California.

We have a 6 yr old mildly autistic son and are looking for a quiet, laid back area where he can play in the dirt and discover things at his own pace. We have lived in a little two bedroom apartment his entire life and we would really like to be able to rent a house with a small amount of land for him to roam. We are not hugely worried about the education system, they have done nothing for him so far, why should we expect more?

I have always earned a good salary, 50k+ but that is barely livable in CA. How much less could I earn in NM and still have a decent quality of life? My description of quality of life means being able to rent a small house/land that I could maybe have chickens etc on, going camping 3-5 times a year and eating out once of month or so.

Any suggestions?

[PHX]

Los Lunas. Close to Albuquerque. Lots of dirt. Quiet. Affordable.

[nmguy]

Depending on how you like to spend your money, the cost of living in NM is about 33% lower than it is in California.

At least, that's been my experience.

Most of the savings is in the housing/rental category.

[smiles48650]

I also have a mildly autistic son who will be turning 16 this summer. I pulled him out of a school system that was failing him terribly and have been home schooling him for 3 years now. He has made such remarkable improvement since. We will be moving to NM in two years and are hoping to find more for him out west. We currently live in Michigan and can hardly wait to escape this state. Hope your relocation is a success!

[chamorga]

North Western New Mexico has some beautiful areas, unfortunately it's also pretty rural, Albuquerque and Sant Fe are pretty much the biggest cities for 100+ miles, hard to make a good living if you're not close to one of those. Nice place to retire though...

[BrianH]

IT depends on what your job is and how much money you are bringing really. My friends son is Autistic and he is happyish with the education system here for him. Hes like 6th in his class for math which is cool.

The reason I ask how much you are bringing is that you can still by decent houses for $50k here in Clayton and we have great camping down the road at Clayton Lake State Park.

[Vesper]

Thanks for all the replies, it has been interesting researching the different towns. I see so much flaming about the various towns so it is difficult to know what to think. The exact same question on at least two other posts got totally different answers.
I am doing a bunch of research on Los Lunas and so far I am pretty happy with what I see. I think that I could probably drop to about 35,000 a year and still be able to take care of my family.

Anybody wanna rent a very nice family of three a little house?

[domino]

I hate to say this, but if you have an autistic child you are trying to educate, NM is not the place to be. I have an autistic child and have lived in various places, including NM. My recommendation would be Texas (gasp!). Schools are well funded and special ed is fully funded. We were used to paying for all additional services our son needed, but in TX everything is paid for by the school district. Other than the fact that we are stuck in TX, we couldn't be happier.

[lastra]

If you want a laid-back town, Las Cruces is a right place. Especially because real - estate is not so bad at this point. With that money, you'll be able to find a nice place. Plus, there is plenty of land that you can find, and there is a desert...Just prepare for hot, dry weather. Especially summers.

[ibarrio]

Las Cruces actually has/had some good Autism programs (at least they did when I was employed by the school district ten years ago)...if they had good programs ten year ago (very much ahead of most school districts) then it should have improved.

We were using the TEACCH Method designed at UNC.