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I'm trying to figure out a good place to move to. My husband and I are both professionals in our late 20s/early 30s, and have no kids. I work in Biotech, he is in IT.
We have been thinking hard about Southern California, but it is so expensive, and I'd like another option. We are currently living in a 200,000 person city (500k metro area) in the midwest. I'd like to move somewhere larger and with better weather. I'm not a huge fan of humidity, so I hesitate with Miami and Atlanta, two of the other places we are thinking about. I hear NM is nice, so I want to mainly know if there are any places we should look at!
I've lived in the Albuquerque area most of my life. I love it. The population is closing in on 1 million people and lots of nice things are starting to happen here. Like anyplace, there are nice areas and not so nice areas of Albuquerque. The weather is great....you get a little bit of every season (but not too much). I'd be glad to help you if you are interested in relocating to Albuquerque or even just finding out more about it. My wife and I just moved to Bernalillo which is about 7 miles north of Albuquerque. We love it as we have both the Rio Grande River and and Sandia mountains very close to be able to recreate!
Good post....it's nice to see someone praising New Mexico and looking at the positive and bright side of things after reading some of the negative posts here.
If you do have an interest in NM, Albuquerque is the only mid to large size city here. The only other sizable candidates would be Santa Fe (which feels very tiny once you get there) and Las Cruces (near El Paso in the south central part of the state - but also very tiny.) Here's the scoop on ABQ (my opinion of course.) I lived there for 2 years.
Pros:
Generally great weather: not as hot as other desert towns due to its high elevation (about 5000 ft) and dry (yep, the old saying "It's not the heat, it's the humidity really is true.)
Wonderful outdoor things to do: There's great hiking in the Sandias (right next door) as well as other areas that are fairly close in the state. Mountain biking and skiing are also popular options.
Mmmm Authentic Mexican Food: Many great mexican dining options, some fun restaurants
Cost of living: The cost of living is still pretty low, but generally comparable to the Midwest - so maybe not as much of a benefit for you specifically.
Fun Road Trips: Once you get outside ABQ, the roads are generally uncrowded and the speed limit is 75 - there's lots of natural beauty out there and fun things to do (Santa Fe is close as well as other stuff.)
Cons:
Culture: the cultural outlets are still a bit lacking in ABQ (come here for the outdoors, not the indoors You won't find a great diversity of cultural, shopping, dining, or nightlife experience here. Of course, that may depend on how you define culture - There's an opportunity to explore some old west history, native American culture, and Hispanic cultures.
Desert: If you like seasons or greenery, this won't be the place for you. You could drive to the mountains if you miss the green (but even the greenest areas by western standards can look dry to an easterner / midwesterner.)
I have many other thoughts about Albuquerque but generally pretty personal observations that may not apply to your situation.
Oh, and if biotech is your thing, have you also considered San Francisco, Boston, DC, and the NC research triangle areas?
For your backgrounds you don't have a lot of options in New Mexico. Santa Fe is about as expensive as california. I would think it is Albuquerque or Los Alamos. Albuquerque is day and night from Atlanta. You are right about the humidity in Atlanta where Albuquerque has very little . I have lived in both
and worked in both cities and Atlanta will offer a lot more for degreed professionals. Albuquerque is starting to develop but I just read the metro
area population is about 800,000 where Atlanta's metro is right at 5,000,000.
Atlanta has many many corporate headquarters where Albuquerque has very
few. They are two very different cities and I do like Albuquerque but if you
have advanced degrees I would want to make as much return on my investment as I could. I last worked in Phoenix before retiring to New Mexico and there are more high paying jobs there but Phoenix is very hot in the summer and about 3.6 million people for the metro area. Las Cruces is nice but very few high paying techy jobs. I think if you check you will find that
NM is way down the list for pay scales and I think # 2 for poverty in the
country. I think Miss. is the worst but I could be wrong. If either of you
have medical backgrounds you could move almost anywhere and do well.
I move alot I loved your pros and cons. Thanks for that. I too am in the same boat and this helped. I just wish the housing was comparable to the midwest too as I'm in Nebraska now and it's CHEAP housing compared to you.
I lived and grew up in southern California. You absolutely cannot beat the weather there, it's more perfect in my opinion than anywhere else but there are a lot of cons to moving there... more than in NM it sounds like.
Cons:
Culture: the cultural outlets are still a bit lacking in ABQ (come here for the outdoors, not the indoors You won't find a great diversity of cultural, shopping, dining, or nightlife experience here.
Oh, and if biotech is your thing, have you also considered San Francisco, Boston, DC, and the NC research triangle areas?
A bit of update: ABQs restaurant scene has vastly improved and diversified over the last couple of years. The SE Asian options are maturing, Gruet Winery has opened a couple of flagship places, and a fair number of independents are doing well in Nob Hill and other scattered oases.
Santa Fe-based National Center for Genome Research is hiring...
NCGR :: Jobs at NCGR (http://www.ncgr.org/jobs/ - broken link)
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Albuquerque
