Wanting To Buy Land In New Mexico (Albuquerque, Santa Fe: for sale, real estate) - (NM) - City-Data Forum

Talking Stick · 10-13-2006, 12:32 PM

Hi,

Mountain land in New Mexico, near Sante Fe. Anyone know what the options are - price per acre, water rights, community, etc...? Any good links to view?

Thanks

mmarch · 10-20-2006, 05:03 PM

I am looking to invest in some land (5-10 acres) to build a home for our future retirement. I live in New Jersey and plan to visit New Mexico in the near future. Right now I need some advise on where the best investment would be to purchase land and hold onto it for 5-10 years. Any suggestions or advise would be greatly appreciated. Some of the areas I have looked at online are Magdalana, Soccorro, Grants and Ramah. Thanks

BrianH · 10-20-2006, 07:49 PM

Land is pretty cheap in the Clayton Union County area. There is some big development coming in a year or so, so now is the time to buy before the prices go up IMHO

Crackerjack · 10-20-2006, 09:32 PM

Four places come to mind for real estate value. One is Edgewood, NM. It is growing and will continue to grow because it is near ABQ and has all the pretty mountain scenery, but be sure you have property with a good water well. Two, Silver City is becoming a popular retirement city, so it will hold value really well. Three, Ruidoso has been and will continue to be a popular place to visit, live and retire. Four, Cloudcroft is a popular place and it is still small. I would caution on Ruidoso to buy land not covered in pine trees so thick as to be a fire hazard. It can have droughts and could be in a fire, so I would go more for open or pasture land and maybe some trees. There are others but these cities are a good place to start.

mmross105 · 10-28-2006, 03:20 PM

Go www.realtor.com (broken link) and view the "find a home" box to start a search. After entering the city/state, next to the "go" button is a "more search options" button. If you click on that, you can select only "land" it will give you the results.

ontheroad · 10-31-2006, 03:50 PM

North of Santa Fe, you can and will find many variable lots and prices. I have some friends that bought a beautiful lot and are nearly finished with their house building. I think a prime lot is close to USD150,000 for an acre. However, I recently met some folks selling multiple aces for about $10,000 - near the Colorado border.

You can check on line and read some of the newspapers in New Mexico; many have full real estate sections.

PS - I just remembered some friends have a yurt up in the Santa Fe Mountains - about 15-20 miles from the City--and I believe I saw quite a bit of land for sale up that way. I imagine some of that land, in the woods itself, might be reasonably priced. It is a tricky little road off Santa Fe Trails, but beautiful and with some direct road access right into Santa Fe's plaza.

Good luck!

Steve97415 · 10-31-2006, 05:52 PM

Water rights are a complicated issue and well worth looking into. Many water rights are based on common law or territorial codes from centuries past. The state of NM has not yet allocated the majority of water rights. There are Native American rights, Federal rights, private landholder rights, municipal rights, agricultural rights and so on. I'm not sure if NM has any mandatory curtailment agreements for fish and wildlife. The bottom line is this: don't assume that you can take as much water as you want from a creek or river that runs through your property. How water rights in NM apply to a drilled well on property you own is something you will have to investigate. 1000 Friends of New Mexico has made the helpful publication "Living Within Our Means" available online. Here's the link:
http://www.1000friends-nm.org/publications/living_within_our.html (broken link)

ontheroad · 11-01-2006, 09:07 AM

Steve, what a good point: water rights! They continue to confound me even though I've read and read. Even now I'm not certain who has the rights to my water.

kingrokon · 11-03-2006, 01:20 PM

Unlike in some rural areas of the country, crime can be a major problem even in relatively rural areas in New Mexico. The area around Espanola is especially notable, but anywhere from just north of Santa Fe, to well north of the Colorado border, can be a problem. You might think you're going to be living a peaceful bucolic lifestyle, only to find out that you're in a "rural ghetto" with crime and drug usage figures that rival the bad areas of some major cities.

Then again, there are some areas that are quite safe. Los Alamos, Angel Fire, and Red River are fairly safe, but are pretty expensive and isolated. There are other, more rural places, that are safe. Use the crime figures in the main part of this site, as well as other sites on the web. Also talk with people who have recently moved to a specific area, or lived there a few years, but originally came from somewhere else.

catman · 11-04-2006, 01:37 PM

Good point, kingrokon. There is a huge range of opinions concerning crime about many places in New Mexico; just look at all the comments made about Albuquerque! I would think that the statistics in the other part of the site are a good guide, although the particular neighborhood would enter into it too. No place is completely crime-free.