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I agree, eddie gein. Alamogordo has a lot to offer for a retiree. Small yet big enough to supply most all a single person or couple would need. The housing stock is actually quite good and the house value one gets for their hard-earned dollar is also impressive.
We lived here a few years ago, left for 3 years and have been back now for 3 years. This time we bought a house we love near Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center in a nice neighborhood. The law enforcement here won't tolerate too much abhorrent behavior at all, which is nice. You'd be right near the White Sands National Park and we have the New Mexico Space Museum as well. New Mexico has quite a space history as well as the distinction of having the first atomic bomb go off 77 miles NE of us in 1945.
It's more than agreeable as a town to live in and reach out towards all that life has to offer.
We are not retiring yet. We are in our 40s. But we don't want to wait to move somewhere we love. I didn't say so at the beginning, but we lived in Alamogordo for a hot minute back in 1994. Lived on base and then rented a house in Boles Acres. I have nothing against Alamogordo, but I'm a much bigger fan of Las Cruces. We will just hide our time and be ready to jump when the right house comes along. It's looking like we'll be down in April sometime. I am terrified and very excited.
If anoyone's still considering relocating to Las Cruces, I wouldn't hold back that pursuit. It's got a lot more stores than Alamogordo and it's got a population of 104,052, so there's a lot more mouths ta feed. In comparison, Alamogordo's population is 32,357. Both cities have their goods and bads. The worst thing I can think of about Las Cruces ta say is that at times the traffic can get a bit bothersome. Watch Lohman Ave. going up the hill towards the Mesilla Valley Mall - the lanes are sort of thin and you can get "driver claustrophobia" a bit. Other than that, I like the city a lot.
Just a little bit more perpective for anyone's who perusing the two cities.
While you are correct that LC was overbuilt, there are NOT a lot of nice homes currently for sale - inventory is at an all time low & it will likely remain that way for the next several months. Factor in what the OP can afford & personal preference and that number shrinks even further.
Rentals are available but a lot fewer than normal. It's the same issue as home sales, people are staying put whether they own the house or are renting so there isn't the usual turnover in rental properties. That might improve come summer when there used to be a glut of rentals available.
Rentals are even challenging now. The vacancy rate as of right is 1%.
I have never been to LC or Alamogordo. I don’t count driving through I-10 as being there because I didn’t stop,
But as I’m starting to think seriously about retirement, Alamogordo caught my attention because of location. My favorite thing to do is hiking and I like to walk a few miles each and everyday.
So weather is important to me. I don’t want it too hot (Phoenix) or rain too much (I’m in South Carolina for work right now and it just rains too much here).
Also, Alamagordo seems like it has a lot of options. I could drive out to White Sands and hike through there on numerous routes, or I could go to Cloudcroft area and hike up there in higher elevation. Both places aren’t too far.
That seems more desirable than LC if you are into hiking?
Other places I’m considering are Sierra Vista and Prescott AZ. Bisbee looks good too?
Anyway, thinking about getting a small condo in Scottsdale for when I want to do city things and then getting a bigger place away from a population center, and Alamogordo seems like an underrated place that needs to be checked out.
Regardless, I know I can’t go by city data chats, I need to see firsthand and I plan on staying a bit in LC and Alamagordo to get an idea about the place.
But just curious, and my question to the OP is what about LC made it so desirable to you?
Location: We_tside PNW (Columbia Gorge) / CO / SA TX / Thailand
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After trying several retirement destinations (after leaving Colorado due to Altitude issues) my mom liked LC for these reasons:
Very friendly, engaged, and educated retirement community (lots of things to do together including volunteering for community events).
Events at colleges and churches / community center - fit their social and activity desires. YMMV (including affordable season passes to college sports)
Choice of medical care
Quite a broad variety of medical specialties (Had to go to ABQ for one proceedure, but never to ELP)
Ole Mesilla is a nice neighbor (More to do, nice place to visit for a change of pace)
Mtn Views
Fairly mild weather (barring the dust storms)
Close to ELP (45 min)
You might find similar benefits in other places.
I can see benefits to each... LC and Alamogordo. BTW.. my mom kept her RV on a river lot during summers in Ruidoso (once they were over age 85 and didn't want to drive the MH cross country much), That was nice for a few yrs as a retreat. They could go for a couple days or a month if they wanted.
For some reason she really loved LC since first seeing it. (I think that was AFTER a rough winter at their 7000ft Colorado home. )
BTW: I have helped move retirees to Sierra Vista, Tucson, Bisbee, Willcox, PHX (and area), Prescott, and Prescott Valley. As well as Silver City and Deming. All of them stayed! Must beat their previous places. (Usually the rainy PNW, or fleeing Colorado (crowds))
About five years ago, we decided we were leaving Wisconsin once my mom passed away. So we started researching. Weather was the single most important thing for us. We are a married couple with no kids and will always have a dog or two. We have lived near Lake Superior almost all our lives at just a few hundred feet above sea level. The lake is beautiful. But we love mountains more. Being this close to sea level makes you almost feel like you are drowning. After just a few days at altitude, the sinuses clear out and I feel like a real person again.
On any given week, we can spend 10 hours either moving snow around or mowing the grass (we live on 20 acres with a 300 foot driveway). We've lived here 20 years, we've had horses, and a plethora of dogs. We decided when we could, we were going somewhere warmer with a lot less maintenance.
We researched a lot of areas online. No interest in AZ. CO is too expensive. No interest in CA and too expensive. We can't stand the humidity of FL or other SE states. So where is it warm, dry, and has mountains? That's right, NM. The northern parts of the state still get more snow than we would like. We kept looking south and eventually landed on Las Cruces. I love the fact that it has it's own craggy mountains, the weather is the most ideal of everywhere we looked, and it is also agricultural in some areas. It ticked all the boxes, so we flew down three years ago and immediately knew it was the right spot. I would have liked to spend even more time before deciding, but I doubt my mind would have changed. We did spend a few days in Santa Fe and surrounding areas a year ago, and I didn't like it as much as LC. While we were in LC, we drove to Alamo and went to lunch at the Brown Bag and then drove out to Boles to see where we used to live. I decided I liked Las Cruces best out of everything I had seen.
So we've spent the last three years getting ready. My mom passed in June and six months later we have a buyer for our house. Even with job and house scarcity, we are determined to at least try. We don't want to be those people who always said they were going to leave, only to stay and remain miserable. This is not the place to live when your only hobby as a couple is to ride your motorcycles to some new restaurant destination and ride home. Our riding season is 4 months long.
We have done our research and are taking a huge leap of faith, but we are determined to make our best go of it.
Sounds like you're making the right decision, Camille98. You're doing what you feel is best in your hearts, and I think you guys are going to be able to make it work for you.
I have never been to LC or Alamogordo. I don’t count driving through I-10 as being there because I didn’t stop,
But as I’m starting to think seriously about retirement, Alamogordo caught my attention because of location. My favorite thing to do is hiking and I like to walk a few miles each and everyday.
So weather is important to me. I don’t want it too hot (Phoenix) or rain too much (I’m in South Carolina for work right now and it just rains too much here).
Also, Alamagordo seems like it has a lot of options. I could drive out to White Sands and hike through there on numerous routes, or I could go to Cloudcroft area and hike up there in higher elevation. Both places aren’t too far.
That seems more desirable than LC if you are into hiking?
Other places I’m considering are Sierra Vista and Prescott AZ. Bisbee looks good too?
Anyway, thinking about getting a small condo in Scottsdale for when I want to do city things and then getting a bigger place away from a population center, and Alamogordo seems like an underrated place that needs to be checked out.
Regardless, I know I can’t go by city data chats, I need to see firsthand and I plan on staying a bit in LC and Alamagordo to get an idea about the place.
But just curious, and my question to the OP is what about LC made it so desirable to you?
A few comments on this. Alamo and Sierra Vista are very similar in feel due being similar in size to being military towns. Alamo has LC/El Paso close. Sierra Vista has Tucson close. IMO I don't think SV is quite as windy as Alamo but it's also a little bit further to the mountains. SV doesn't have anything like Cloudcroft or Ruidoso close by.
In Alamo there are some hiking trails up into the canyons on the east side of town that are quickly accessed. LC has the same thing in the Organ mountains but I don't think they are quite as accessible and I don't think they are quite as interesting. There is also a trail along the Rio Grande in LC that goes for ever.
If you are going to get a condo in Scottsdale then the obvious answer is Prescott. Way more expensive but it is easily the nicest place of all those towns. There are trails in the pine forest around Prescott and the nice thing is that you don't have to hike up to the pine forest. You are already there. I used to go out to around the Thumb Butte area a lot.
A few comments on this. Alamo and Sierra Vista are very similar in feel due being similar in size to being military towns. Alamo has LC/El Paso close. Sierra Vista has Tucson close. IMO I don't think SV is quite as windy as Alamo but it's also a little bit further to the mountains. SV doesn't have anything like Cloudcroft or Ruidoso close by.
In Alamo there are some hiking trails up into the canyons on the east side of town that are quickly accessed. LC has the same thing in the Organ mountains but I don't think they are quite as accessible and I don't think they are quite as interesting. There is also a trail along the Rio Grande in LC that goes for ever.
If you are going to get a condo in Scottsdale then the obvious answer is Prescott. Way more expensive but it is easily the nicest place of all those towns. There are trails in the pine forest around Prescott and the nice thing is that you don't have to hike up to the pine forest. You are already there. I used to go out to around the Thumb Butte area a lot.
That’s interesting to know that LC has somewhat good hiking options too. There are just so many options to retiring in AZ and NM and it’s gonna take awhile to figure out which place feels the best to me. So many towns I need to see first. No place is perfect that checks all the boxes, so you just have the find the place best for you. Only way to do that is physically go to each and everyone.
I’ve been to El Paso a couple times, I was surprised that I liked it as much as I did. It’s reputation isn’t the best, so I wasn’t sure what to expect. Been to Phoenix a lot so I know all about the metro area, but never been north of North Phoenix. Been to Vegas and liked it, but I’m kind of concerned about the future of that place. But north of Phoenix seems to be getting more and more expensive. That’s why I started looking at New Mexico, seems like a better deal for your buck? LC is 5 hrs from Scottsdale and Alamagordo is 6 hours. That’s a nice drive that can be done easily in a day making a lot of stops to eat and sightsee and whatever. But Prescott might just be the best option for a hiker like myself.
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