Santa Fe Young Families? (Albuquerque, Tesuque: house, neighborhoods, to buy)

[Katrina7]

Hi all,

My husband and I live in LA, but are seriously thinking of moving to Santa Fe. We are starting a family and can only afford a tiny house in a good neighborhood or a nice house in a ghetto neighborhood (even with falling prices) and this is in the range of 600-700K. I despise traffic and have terrible asthma, so the valley is out. My husband worked in Santa Fe for 5 months this year and fell in love with the city. I also spent time there as well and felt so relaxed and in awe of the beauty. My question is it seems like there are a lot of rich retired types that live there. Is there much diversity in this town? Are there young families / people with different backgrounds? The one thing I do love about LA is the wide variety of people & friends we have. Also, what are some neighborhoods you would recommend that are within 10 min. to the town square? Thanks in advance for your advice!

[Devin Bent]

There has been a bunch posted about Santa Fe recently and we are probably all tired of talking about it.

But I'll offer a few thoughts:

1. Go to a site like Great Schools and scope out where the good schools are and focus on those neighborhoods. You can't count on all the schools being good.
2. Relax that 10 minutes-to-the-Plaza criterion a little and you can get a lot more house for your money -- maybe twice as much. I think that in practice you will find that the Plaza doesn't really have the things you need on an everyday basis.
3. Prices are soft here -- not a bust like out there, but we never had the boom, so this is a good time to buy. Find a good realtor and try to find a motivated seller.
4. As posters will be eager to tell you, you can find housing cheaper in other New Mexico cities, but, of course, they are not Santa Fe.

Oh, diversity -- I think that you will find more as you get away from the Plaza a little -- generally you will find more young people and more Hispanics in the other neighborhoods. Hispanics here -- you may already know this -- are for the most part not Mexicans -- they are people whose ancestors got here centuries before the Anglos did.

People who can afford to live close to the Plaza do tend to be older Anglos. The men are white-haired Anglos who look like me but with more expensive haircuts. Some of the developments may be heavily older Anglo also. You will probably find greater diversity in older neighborhoods.

Tesuque is also incredibly expensive and becoming less diverse everyday.

[Katrina7]

Thanks for your reply. That's good to know about - the more you get away from the plaza, the more diversity. It makes sense. Depending on where I can find a teaching job, I think we're going to check out Albuquerque as well. I've already signed a contract with my school, so it won't be for another year. All in all, though, I'm looking forward to a change. I am tired of materialism here! Thanks again and I'll keep you all updated.

[Devin Bent]

Originally Posted by Katrina7

Thanks for your reply. That's good to know about - the more you get away from the plaza, the more diversity. It makes sense. Depending on where I can find a teaching job, I think we're going to check out Albuquerque as well. I've already signed a contract with my school, so it won't be for another year. All in all, though, I'm looking forward to a change. I am tired of materialism here! Thanks again and I'll keep you all updated.

ABQ has a lot going for it. A bigger city, it offers things that Santa Fe can't -- a zoo, a much better airport, a greater depth of shopping choices, more neighborhoods to find your niche in, etc. Yet by California standards it is still quite small and uncrowded and easy to drive out of into more open country.

Yes, further away from the Plaza and perhaps some other "exclusive" -- that word makes my skin crawl, who are they excluding anyway? -- developments.

Good luck.