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Welcome to New Mexico. I usually stay close to ABQ or venture north from there but I had my first taste of Las Cruces over a weekend last month and thoroughly enjoyed it. The people were very friendly and with the typical New Mexico laid back attitudes. I'll be planning another visit.
Thanks, Pancho and SunGrins.(like your handle..I haven't stopped grinning since I arrived here)
When we left Montana we downsized the accumulation of a 41 year marriage. It is amazing how much stuff a person can hang on to! It's also amazing how much stuff a person doesn't need! When we pulled into town, everything we owned fit into a 12 ft Uhaul trailer! It was like coming home when we hit the exit ramp off 25 onto Main St in Las Cruces.
I had not planned on going to work or looking for a job. Being retired is OK but I'm too young and healthy to sit still for long! (Golf is on hold for a while since I tore my rotator cuff dammit)
I have not worked for wages since I retired from the Army so we are considering maybe a small cafe or something along those lines.....
Thanks for the follow up and congrats on your recent move. I really hope things go that smoothly when we decide to move. Tomorrow, our high temp is expected to be in negative numbers.
Thanks for the follow up and congrats on your recent move. I really hope things go that smoothly when we decide to move. Tomorrow, our high temp is expected to be in negative numbers.
Getting rid of everything took some determination and a strong mind set! Once we were able to get rid of everything the move was really simple and uneventful. Housing is not nearly as expensive as I thought it would be......The weather here is spectacular, and I rode my motorcycle yesterday.
As an update on our own situation, my husband and I made a 4-day trip to LC last March. Since we had never actually been there, but were looking at real estate on Zillow, I just HAD to get there and see what feeling I got from the place. I make a lot of my life decisions based on gut instinct, along with a lot of planning using my head too. But if the gut feeling isn't there, forget it. So when I found air fare to El Paso for $150/ticket, off we went! We got to El Paso on a Wednesday, rented a car and our first stop was to a Sonic for lunch! You have no idea how wonderful it felt to sit in a drive-in eating Sonic with the windows down and 80 degrees! Then we drove to Las Cruces and checked in at the Hotel Encanto. This hotel in our area would have cost over $200/night, but we paid about $160/night. What a gorgeous place to spend a few days!!! The employees thought we were crazy because we spent an hour in the outdoor hot tub on a "chilly" windy afternoon. It was about 70 degrees and the rest of Las Cruces was in a full blown dust and wind storm, but we were in the enclosed Courtyard of the hotel. We did take an afternoon and drove to Alamogordo. We lived on Holloman AFB and in Boles Acres very briefly about 20 years ago. We even found the Brown Bag Deli where we used to get lunch quite often. But remember that "gut instinct" thing? I just was not a fan of Alamogordo. We even found our old rental in Boles Acres and that community has never been nice, but had absolutely taken a turn for the worse.
We spent two days hiking at Dripping Springs and went to see the Roadrunner. We did not make it to the Farm & Ranch Museum or to see the college campus. There just wasn't enough time. We even drove around looking at houses for sale. Unfortunately, most of those in our price range were in very tight subdivisions. I don't need 20 acres like we have now, but I would like more than 3 feet between houses too. But overall, we came away from there with a love for Las Cruces. I do have a bit of a concern that the population has tripled since the 1960s. How long can a community sustain that type of population increase? I know we would be adding to the problem, but damn we really love it there and also plan on moving as soon as we possibly can. I take care of my mom's needs here, and that is the only thing that keeps us here.
Yea, I understand the closeness of houses. We moved from 15 acres on the side of a mountain 50 miles from town to a city!
Unsure of the area, we rented what they call a patio home with zero lot lines, in Fairway Village Subdivision in the Picacho Hills area. This gave us the time we needed to explore the area more fully and see what homes were available and what the area was like.
We found the density of the Sanoma Ranch area unappealing, although there are some very nice homes at reasonable prices there. The area East of I 25 near the University has some very nice homes on much larger lots. The prices were in the same ball park as where we bought our house.
The house we bought is also a zero lot line home but it has a larger yard. I have looked at housed for the last three months and found plenty of houses that are in the same price range (under 300k) all around the area.
Nancy and I love this town! I totally get what you mean about the vibe. The people here are wonderful, and probably friendlier than any place I have lived. What I really find appealing about Las Cruces is that there is no real metro area! There are no hi rise buildings or skyscrapers. It is very easy to navigate around town. Sure there are some problems, and probably some areas that I wouldn't wander around in after dark, but for a city this size, it really has a small town atmosphere.
Thanks for the added info. Every little bit helps. I expect we'll be selling our current home in the $200,000 range and would like to be mortgage free. We are working on paying down debt as much as we can too. I would love to be avle to move free and clear.
Wise choice and something you will not regret. It is a great feeling. I paid everything off a long time ago, continued to live in my 1172 ft² home and put everything into saving for retirement.
As far as lot sizes in newer developments in LC, that was something that was not at all appealing to me. On my first visit a couple of years ago I absolutely loved the architecture and details of the homes but definitely wanted more space than the most of the new developments provided. That lead me to purchase a lot out behind "A" mountain (Tortugas) and my new retirement home is now about 1 month from being completed.
I think some of the older subdivisions in LC have larger lots though.
Congratulations bccruce on your move to Las Cruces.
We moved to Cruces almost 6 years ago for retirement.
We have not regretted it one bit....it is a great area with wonderful people, plenty to do, beautiful area, and nice university community.
New Mexico is a beautiful state.....there is so much to see and love.......you made a good choice and welcome to LC.
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We did take an afternoon and drove to Alamogordo. We lived on Holloman AFB and in Boles Acres very briefly about 20 years ago. We even found the Brown Bag Deli where we used to get lunch quite often. But remember that "gut instinct" thing? I just was not a fan of Alamogordo. We even found our old rental in Boles Acres and that community has never been nice, but had absolutely taken a turn for the worse. 
