Would you choose New Mexico or Southern Colorado? (Las Cruces, Santa Fe: new home, purchasing)
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If I had to work in albuquerque, I would definitely look at a place near enough to the Railrunner to avoud having to drive very far. I am plannibng on a retirement/snowbird deal near socorro in a few years.
I think you should take a look at Silver City. That's kind of neat small town.
We lived in Silver City for 2 yrs the only thing is that housing is pretty expensive for that area. Alot of retirees from CA so it raises the housing prices. But rental properties are definately needed there, the Border Patrol in Lordsburg is getting more agents and alot of them live in Silver City. Finding rental properties was our biggest issue there. If you are outdoorsy sort of people there is alot to do otherwise it is either 150 to El Paso or Tucson for the larger city. They only have a WalMart, Albertsons and another small grocery store. Schools are only so-so. They do however has a college there.
The East Mountain area is a great place to live and its in the center of N.M. with lots of nice people and summers rarely get to 100 and nights can get in the 40s. Winters can get windy and cold and temps can drop below zero and snow is common. Moriarty has a Glider Museum and Airport and Albuquerque and Santa Fe are Close by to go in and get out when one visits there. If you like the Country life and low crime and low prices on rent to owns read the East Mountain Telegraph or the Independent. I tell people to explore N.M. first before buying because each place in N.M. might be better then the Last. Ive been to almost every city or town in N.M. and if i take a vacation it would be visiting the whole state and seeing the changes in the last 20 or 30 years. Remember big cities and plenty of smog and traffic and crime is another reason to consider the smaller places. Most of N.M. is 4000 feet in elevation or higher. The center of N.M. can be 6000 to 7000 or higher but we have temps about 15 degrees colder then say Silver City at 6000 feet in southern N.M. which is a nice place with wonderful people but too far away from Albuquerque and Santa Fe. I think from Silver City to Santa Fe its over 300 miles. el pintada kid
Pueblo is the exception to the rule. Mortimer's right- elevation is around 4700 ft. But you don't have to go far north to run into trouble in a snowstorm. 60 miles north of Pueblo (20 miles north of Colorado Springs) lies the Palmer divide and it gets nasty. This past spring I ran thru a storm there. Visibility 200 feet and the wind blowing 30 m.p.h. Not to say it couldn't do that in N.M., especially Raton to Clayton.
I'll second that. It's a bit isolated and you'd need to go ~150 miles to get to a big airport, but it is a funky town of ~10k in a beautiful area. Great climate... awesome mountains and wilderness. Good mix of hippies, miners, ranchers, Californians, etc... getting kinda expensive from the latter...
In some ways Silver City is a great location -- surrounded by wilderness areas but it's not too bad a drive to Phoenix/Tucson, El Paso/Las Cruces, Deming. Lake Roberts is a beautiful lake, not so crowded like so many lakes in NM are and there's loads of ghost towns around, the Indian ruins, archeological sites.
The most appealing part I think is the giant Gila Wilderness where you can get so far away from "civilization" that you can look out and not see city lights unless you use binoculars.
I really liked Santa Fe and will look maybe a little closer to that area along with the Chama area. Just can't get the beauty of Chama out of my mind.
Hear hear to that! Chama is spectacular!
Though, oceankidz, your criteria suggest you may want a somewhat larger town. Since snow is apparently a challenge you're ready to face, I'd advise Durango. It's a wonderful area that is fairly centered in the best all of Northern NM and Southwest CO have to offer. I believe it's also large enough to have land grant University outreaches as well as its own colleges and a Green University that offers a good deal of environmental education, though I'm not privy to Colorado Universities and ideal locations for those. A google search could do the trick for you there, though.
First of all, I personally love to hike/snowshoe/backpack/camp in mountains and enjoy replenishing resources in friendly small towns amidst those excursions. So that's where I'm coming from. I'm sure you've got some stories that could stir my nautical wanderlust, though.
I personally live in Albuquerque to build my resume just out of college and get enough pay to jump start my savings, but after accompanying a friend on a professional photography trip through the backroads in the Grand Junction/Telluride/Durango triangle last fall, it occured to me that the day I can pick where to live, Durango will be about as high on my list as the Christchurch, NZ vicinity (probably an easier move, too).
Thank you all for your varied and very interesting responses....all worthy of further investigation. StingrayNm - I agree with you on Durango, it is wonderful- but we have sort of counted it out due to the property prices being so high, even Bayfield has got rather expensive. Christchurch NZ is where some of my family is from - grandad. NZ was an option when we first left SA 15 years ago.
Even if New Mexico enjoys some beautiful mountains, I'd say Colorado is the place for real mountains, and New Mexico the best choice in culture. In certain areas of New Mexico those considered 'strange' elsewhere are the norm. Kind of refreshing. Fantastic art. Many people have a real sense of the land and spirit.
Idunn - its that tempting choice of culture over beautiful mountains...we can always visit the mountains!
Ziaairmac -great info on the flying. I am currently with a large FBO group and although they do have bases in NM it is fun to explore the smaller ones....that way we could live in the country , I could work at a small FBO and my husband could fly to work in a little Cessna - oh dreams - keeps one going! We'll get west one of these days.
Yes, we are finally getting to come and visit....mid October and the plan is to fly in to Denver and after spending 2 days in Pueblo - drive south to Taos and onto Santa Fe - checking out all the wonderful places in the north that you have all recommended. Flying out of ABQ - which will give us the most time to explore New Mexico and hopefully help to answer my own question northern New Mexico or Southern Colorado
Don't expect to see much, if any, green in the higher areas by mid-October. The aspen will likely be well past peak. In a lot of years, the trees in the high country are bare by mid-October. The lower areas may be browning-up considerably by then, too. On the plus side, the weather tends to be very nice--albeit with an early snowstorm possible up in the mountains.
It's probably good that you are coming then, because you will see what the region looks like for at least 6-8 months out of the year. If you like it, good. But if you don't--well, you'll know.
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