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I haven't seen much new information on southern NM lately so I thought I would start a new thread...
My wife and I are planning on relocating to NM sometime later this year, our first trip out is coming up in June, and we had several questions:
Generally speaking, how is the real estate market in southern NM (Las Cruces or Almagordo in particular)?
What is the job market like, specifically nursing?
How has local crime changed over the last few years (newspapers sensationalize, at best, and most of the comments I have seen in various threads have either been old or (I believe) exaggerated based on the follow up comments)
I have just "retired" (does anybody really retire anymore?) and my wife and I are both looking for warmer climes and an area of the country we have never lived in before. Our other purpose is to work with a group like the Indians, elderly/retired or military personnel as each group has their own special needs and we believe we can be a blessing to any of these groups.
I thought I would have more questions to start but this is enough to get the ball rolling...
Las Cruces would be my choice of the two places you mention. As a university town the culture is much more vibrant, real estate prices are still very reasonable and the chances of positive appreciation in LC is much better than Alamo, IMHO. Shopping, recreation choices- both indoor and outdoor-, restaurants, cultural institutions, etc. are all vastly superior in LC, and the economy is generally better.
Crime is really a non-issue, despite what you read. I'd avoid a few neighborhoods, mostly low income East Mesa, where morons in low hanging baggy pants and athletic jerseys just can't seem to get over shooting at each other or their houses. But there's stupidity anywhere you go.....I just don't live near it and never really see it and I'm unconcerned about crime, as is my wife.
The vast majority of LC is very nice and liveable, with tons of choices of housing, neighborhoods, etc.
Thanks to the folks who have responded, it helps hearing some "fresh" opinions. What was a good idea a few months ago or a year ago may now be a tanking market, crime spike, flies, frogs, lice, pick your disaster so it's good to have recent info. Some posts have made LC seem like it was on it's last leg (downtown), had folks with big shoes and red noses running local government or other such issues that would keep someone away. Then there were the follow-up posts that disputed those comments (in a reasonable fashion) and the positives were always greater than the negatives, but I have seen enough to know that not all the negatives are completely groundless. At the end of the day it seems that the LC area is just like anywhere else; there is good and bad and you seek to change the bad into good as best you can.
I have been lurking for a couple of months now, off and on, and most of what I saw was specific to the particular thread and interesting in only a general sense to us. At this point we are looking for more so generic information and since anyone can write anything (try making sense of the reviews at one of the big-box stores or Amazon!) it can be difficult coming up with intelligent questions, especially with varied commentaries. We have never been to NM, although I did make a trip to Colorado Springs a few years ago, and we have lived in six different states from IA east so the southwest seemed like a good idea and the direction we are being lead in.
As for a place to live our wants are simple; room inside and out and community we can connect with, so I guess we will see for ourselves when we get there...but keep those cards and letters coming!
Here is the standard advice from someone that is also planning to snowbird or move to NM.
Get a copy of the Benchmark Maps "Road and Recreation Atlas of New Mexico" and any and all information available on the State website concerning relocation and tourism. Then check the city or town websites.
If I were looking in that area I would check out Mesilla near Las Cruces and Tularosa near Alamogordo.
Tulie (Tularosa) is a nice little town. You could easily live in Tulie and your wife could work a the big hospital in Alamogordo (Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center). It's probably a 20 minute drive.
Also, I don't know if you want to live in the mountains, but Cloudcroft is also nice. It's at 9000 feet though, so you will get snow in the winter. Probably 20-30 minutes to GCRMC.
bobnsharon08 - I want to give you a little more information about southern New Mexico, specifically Alamogordo, New Mexico. My wife and I, our son and our Pomeranian, Chow Chow and 2 rescue tabby cats relocated to Alamogordo in Jan.'13. I would give Alamogordo a decent grade for a place to live but wouldn't recommend it over every other place in America as a place to live.
On the positive side is it's relatively low population (37,000 people), it's fairly low crime rate (I won't be providing actual police stats in here supporting this statement, only that notion I get from living in Alamo for 4+ months), a zoo - the oldest and first zoo in the desert southwest - it got its start in 1898, the Space Museum is located here, a new 10-screen movie theater called The Aviator, close proximity to White Sands National Preserve, close proximity to the Trinity site (first atomic bomb test site), a satellite of New Mexico State U. is in Alamogordo and a hospital, Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center.
If your spouse wants a nursing job there are about 20 openings right now at Gerald Champion Regional Medical Center.
There are more things I like about living here but one of them that is standing out to me is the geography of the place. It is a large basin Alamogordo is located in, the Tularosa Basin. It was evidently once under water, and that is not hard to believe when you see all of the beautiful white sand of White Sands National Preserve. Alamogordo is nestled at the edge of the most-southern chunk of the Rocky Mountains called the Sacramento Mountains. You could find prettier mountains in the Alps and Cascades and such but I love that we have large mountains viewable out our living room window.
Also, you mention involving yourself with Indian groups. Just to our east up in the Sacramento Mountains lies the villages of Cloudcroft and Ruidoso. The Mescalero Apaches run a casino/hotel/resort near Ruidoso called the Inn of the Mountain Gods. Singers Smokey Robinson and Lori Morgan just performed over there. But the native American presence in Alamogordo and Ruidoso and Cloudcroft is big and large. Check it out online if you haven't already.
Last edited by elkotronics; 05-09-2013 at 09:57 AM..
Also, I don't know if you want to live in the mountains...
I think if I wanted/needed to work in Alamogordo, I'd look at Lamborcita Cyn out of La Luz... close, enough elevation to cool things off, and not the traffic you'd have going to Mountain Park or Cloudcroft.
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) and my wife and I are both looking for warmer climes and an area of the country we have never lived in before. Our other purpose is to work with a group like the Indians, elderly/retired or military personnel as each group has their own special needs and we believe we can be a blessing to any of these groups.
