santa fe demographics (Las Cruces, Alamogordo, Alamo: for sale, real estate, mortgage)

[parteira]

please help me understand the santa fe demographics (i'm in abq).
i agree with thoughts from another recent thread, that santa fe isn't the extrememly unobtainable place it's cracked up to be, but it is true that real estate there is not cheap. last time we looked, we couldn't find much in the <400,000 range, in town.

so my question is, where are all the people affording these homes working? i know a fair number of homes are owned by folks out of state, but what about the people living and working in SF? what kinds of local work are supporting these houses? are people moving in-state with money aquired out-of-state? I just don't get it!

[Cali-girl]

Hello:

Interesting question, most of the people who can afford (?) to buy $400+k homes in Santa Fe are from the East Coast also known as "cashouts." This info was given to me by a Santa Fe BofA bank officer. The locals do not make enough to support a large mortgage such as the amount you made reference to in your post. This is nothing new and is pretty much what many desirable areas are experiencing: locals cannot afford to buy due to out-of-towners making home purchases without blinking or not trying to bargain down the price.

However, with the downturn in real estate on both coasts and the nation in general, home prices *will fall* in Santa Fe (as everywhere else) - just wait due to the lag time of local sellers waking up to the new reality. Give it about 2 years.

With the proposed elimination of the mortgage deduction on 2nd homes, you (mentioned owners who rarely occupy their residence) may well see more homes go up for sale - I have been watching a certain area in CA, however, these prices have not dropped enough to reflect their true value and many sellers are holding on to a fantasy value that reflects what they paid for or the HELOC(s) that they took out against the home and now want you to pay for.

Just wait - you do not want to lose $100k+ because you didn't want to be patient for a year or two!

I am in Las Cruces and the same thing is happening here.

All the best to you

[Devin Bent]

Originally Posted by parteira

please help me understand the santa fe demographics (i'm in abq).
i agree with thoughts from another recent thread, that santa fe isn't the extrememly unobtainable place it's cracked up to be, but it is true that real estate there is not cheap. last time we looked, we couldn't find much in the <400,000 range, in town.

so my question is, where are all the people affording these homes working? i know a fair number of homes are owned by folks out of state, but what about the people living and working in SF? what kinds of local work are supporting these houses? are people moving in-state with money aquired out-of-state? I just don't get it!

The fact is that Abq generates more jobs than does Santa Fe. Ever since the railroad came through and passed south of Santa Fe, Abq has generated more jobs and grown faster -- considerably faster than Santa Fe. The airport only accentuated the existing trend. Go back far enough and Santa Fe was the bigger -- but the Santa Fe Trail just doesn't generate the business that it used to.

Some people do make big money in Santa Fe and buy the big houses, but I can't point to any one industry. And, of course your suspicion is correct -- some significant percentage of the people buying the big homes made their money elsewhere and chose to come and spend it in Santa Fe. I don't know the exact percentage -- if you should ever see it in some authoritative source, please let me know.

[Cali-girl]

Just wanted to add (in case you're wondering) where from the East Coast home buyers have been coming from: the bank officer stated "New York and New Jersey."

HTH

~Cali-girl

Note to Californians: Santa Fe is like Bishop, Eastern Sierras, climate-wise.
Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County has the Santa Fe-style architecture without the cold/snow and lacks the Santa Fe tag of being a sanctuary city.

[Devin Bent]

Originally Posted by Cali-girl

HTH
~Cali-girl

Note to Californians: Santa Fe is like Bishop, Eastern Sierras, climate-wise.
Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County has the Santa Fe-style architecture without the cold/snow and lacks the Santa Fe tag of being a sanctuary city.

I was all set to sell my house in Santa Fe, NM, and move to Rancho Santa Fe in California. After all RSF (CA) doesn't have the cold and the snow -- and I have seen a couple of inches here in SF this winter. And my G**!! Santa Fe (NM) is a sanctuary city and you cannot imagine what a problem that is in our daily lives.

But -- and perhaps you can help we with this -- I did a Yahoo Real Estate Search on Rancho Santa Fe, California, and found 290 properties and the cheapest was $495,000. The other 289 were in excess of a half-million.

I will have to suffer here in Santa Fe.

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by Devin Bent

I was all set to sell my house in Santa Fe, NM, and move to Rancho Santa Fe in California. After all RSF (CA) doesn't have the cold and the snow -- and I have seen a couple of inches here in SF this winter. And my G**!! Santa Fe (NM) is a sanctuary city and you cannot imagine what a problem that is in our daily lives.

But -- and perhaps you can help we with this -- I did a Yahoo Real Estate Search on Rancho Santa Fe, California, and found 290 properties and the cheapest was $495,000. The other 289 were in excess of a half-million.

I will have to suffer here in Santa Fe.

I certainly can. It is a downer in all ways for local residents....and it has changed the city for the worse, over what it was 20 years ago.

Having said that, Santa Fe is still a beautiful, beautiful place....and if I could have afforded it, I would have moved there in a heartbeat, its liberalism notwithstanding.

But....I really do love Alamogordo. I have the best of all worlds here, other than it gets hotter than I like....

[Devin Bent]

Keeping this on a positive note, I discovered an interesting thing about Santa Fe City.

1. We have done a inconsistent job on keeping temperature records. For a few years, they are recorded in a couple of places and then one or more locations move some where else. And then another few years and another locations closes and another opens etc. So we have records dating back more than 100 years, but not in a single consistent place.
2. So with the above caveat, no one has ever recorded a temperature (in the shade which is the way temperature is measured) higher than 99 degrees Fahrenheit in the city of Santa Fe.

Linking this back to the topic of the thread -- this lack of 100 & up temperature may be one of the things that attracts all those wealthy outsiders. The downside -- for all of you from points south -- yes we do get a few inches of snow most years.

Admittedly, it may might have hit 100 in the county. It is a thousand feet lower where I live and it's probably broken 100 here.

[Devin Bent]

Moderator cut: orphaned, off topic

But just to bring this back to the thread -- which is Santa Fe Demographics -- a very useful site is
http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/35/3570500.html: (broken link))

You can use the pulldown menus to compare Santa Fe or any other county or incorporated city with the state of New Mexico. (The url above gives Santa Fe, but you can easily change.)

It is a very useful site for Santa Fe bashers or defenders. You can discover than yes Santa Fe has more expensive housing than average but and sorry for you bashers, but the commuting time is less than average for the state.

So be my guest

[autumngal]

** Just a reminder to please keep the thread on topic . And the original post can be found below.

Originally Posted by parteira

please help me understand the santa fe demographics (i'm in abq).
i agree with thoughts from another recent thread, that santa fe isn't the extrememly unobtainable place it's cracked up to be, but it is true that real estate there is not cheap. last time we looked, we couldn't find much in the <400,000 range, in town.

so my question is, where are all the people affording these homes working? i know a fair number of homes are owned by folks out of state, but what about the people living and working in SF? what kinds of local work are supporting these houses? are people moving in-state with money aquired out-of-state? I just don't get it!

[Devin Bent]

Back to topic. Yes, you are not going to find much for 400K in town. But a great adobe place across the road from me on five acres with views of the Sangres went for about 400K recently. Well and septic -- good water. Perfectly maintained by a retired Marine. It sold quickly -- a bargain. 20 minutes -- honest -- to the plaza. Five minutes to an excellent wellness center and to the basics of shopping

However, I am beginning to understand that many of the people on this board are looking for cheaper -- as little as $20,000 per acre. Yes, they will never find that in Santa Fe city or county.