Disappointed With Alamogordo (Las Cruces, Ruidoso, Cloudcroft: condo, bill, pool)

[Cathy4017]

Originally Posted by malamute

Yes I understood that - but I think the same applies to every place, every city. What appeals to one person won't appeal to another and it's kind of sad when a relocation doesn't work out.

I think that's why it's not good if the negative posts about a place aren't allowed because someone trying to decide should read both why some people like it or love it and why others dislike it. That way they're warned fair and square.

I don't care if people don't like where I like to live - in part because I prefer living where there aren't too many people.

I don't live in Alamogordo but I believe I would like it there because it's so near the mountains and Lincoln Forest - I don't see any downside to that. It is warm in Alamogordo - but not very humid so I could like that.

OIC...and I agree.

Thank God that not everybody likes the same type of climate, or it would be so crowded that it would be impossible to live in whatever place.

Alamo, just like all other places, has its upsides and downsides.

Being near the mountains/Ruidoso/Cloudcroft--along with the beautiful scenery in the surrounding canyons and mountains in your face everywhere are the huge upsides to Alamo.

Saying Alamo is warm is an understatement to me. Alamo is just plain unbearably hot, but it's no worse than El Paso, so if you like EP weather, you'd like it here.

It was refreshing this morning, in the 60s, and this is the first cool snap to indicate that fall is on its way--the very best time of year.

We had been in the 98-102 range over the past few days. I want summer to GO AWAY.

[Phawk57]

I love the warmth. That's why I live here. If you don't like Alamogordo, there are other places more to your liking. The mountains would probably suit you better. I think one of the best areas around here is past Hamilton road in Green Acres. It is so beautiful and I would love to live there. It's close enough to town but still feels rural. You can almost touch the mountain there. But my hubby would have to work his whole life and not retire if we bought land and moved there.

[Cathy4017]

This heat here is no different than what I grew up in, other than the elevation and being slightly drier. It's just unfortunate that the year I tracked the summer temperatures for Alamo--the summer was cooler than normal. The following winter was also colder and snowier than normal, so.....

I get away to the mountains of CO every chance I get, but for now, it's going to have to be from time to time. I eventually plan to spend most of the summer up there. Right now, just not workable.

I've been looking in both Ruidoso and Cloudcroft for over 2 years now, and haven't found anything I want to make an offer on that I can afford. Having gone to Ruidoso to the races/skiing and to escape the Texas summer heat for much of my life, it was always just a tourist place--it NEVER occurred to me to actually look for a place there for relocation. My last trip to Ruidoso had been in 1984 for a ski trip until I moved to Alamo in 2007.

Then I took a trip to Ruidoso after I moved here, expecting to only cool off from the heat and have a nice lunch....boy, was I shocked. I should have looked in Ruidoso FIRST, but water under the bridge now.

Yes, it is pretty out past Hamilton Road, and the views are wonderful.

But...it's just as hot...:-)

[catman]

Cathy4017: What was it that you liked so much about Ruidoso? I've always liked it, but I'd like oher perspectives. If I could move there, I'd probably try to find something up in the western part, beyond the post office. It's beautiful there, but one would still be close to the main drags. I noted that it got up to 95 F there one day this summer, which seems really hot for the place. I haven't been there in ten years; I'd like to see it again.

[Cathy4017]

Yes, it got up to 93-95 for ONE day in June, and I was going HMMMMMMM........

For the entire month of August.....low 80s/high 70s during the day, high 50s/to 60 at night.
For July, highest daytime was one day at 86, mostly low 80s, high 70s, 50s at night.
For June, one day at 93, next highest one day at 86, the rest of the month was all over the place, with anything from low 60s to mid-80s.
For May, one day at 80, with the rest of the month considerably lower.

I have mixed emotions about Ruidoso. For me, it holds a lot of good past memories, and that might be the attraction, in addition to the cooler summer temps. The reservation (no pun intended) is with the horde of tourists, which are its lifeblood.

I just think that the housing prices are too high for what you get, and I am not crazy about a lot of the mountain construction. You also have to be careful where you buy.

But everything I need within reason (services, groceries, indoor year-around swimming, veterinary, etc. ) is there, and I wouldn't have to do that much driving to other places. The cost of living there is higher than average, so that's another factor.

It has been a revelation to me that Ruidoso's summer has been--and probably usually is--cooler than the more northern Santa Fe!

It's worth a look again for you, I think.....and I plan to keep on looking for the immediate future. I also want to see how the vote on the racetrack goes. If Ruidoso Downs leaves, the area will most likely slowly die on the vine--or at least change very substantially. That's just my opinion. The vote is sometime this month.

If you are tired of being hot, you do NOT want Alamogordo. It's FINALLY beginning to cool off a little, but we still have a lot of hot weather left. I am deathly sick of being hot, and Midland,Texas-like temperatures at this higher elevation make it worse.

The monsoon hasn't been much of one this summer, either, even though we are at about average in rainfall to date.

I am going to lose my indoor pool sometime after January--and they just told everybody that we either have to be on automatic bank draft or credit card charge beginning Oct 1.

I'm about ready to just forget about it, but the only other place in town is the Family Rec Center--ugh!!

But I really don't expect to find anything in Ruidoso, so I may still have to settle for half the year in CO and half in Alamogordo for quite some time to come.

I haven't been able to get down to Alpine yet. That whole area has been cooler overall than Alamogordo this entire summer.

Yesterday, Alpine, 90/55. Alamo, 93/63.

I just don't know whether or not I can handle the inconvenience and isolation. I can't go right now as I had originally planned, so it's going to have to wait a bit.

[catman]

I know Alamogordo gets hot, but I'd still take it over where I am because of the aridity. It was 104 here in Ft Worth some time ago, and while it was hot, it didn't feel terrible because it was relatively dry. Today it's in the the low 90s but it feels awful because of the humidity. The high this summer was 107 at DFW Airport, but 108-110 in Ft Worth.

Ruidoso has a near-perfect climate IMO, but the cost of living is relatively high and it's awfully touristy. I love to visit there, but I don't know how it would be to live there. It will be interesting to see what happens with the racetrack and what the effects are.

I absolutely love Fort Davis, although there isn't much to it. Maybe that's what I love about it! The little suburb(!) of Limpia Crossing would be ideal, but it's a fairly expensive proposition to buy property there.

[Cathy4017]

I know Alamogordo gets hot, but I'd still take it over where I am because of the aridity. It was 104 here in Ft Worth some time ago, and while it was hot, it didn't feel terrible because it was relatively dry. Today it's in the the low 90s but it feels awful because of the humidity. The high this summer was 107 at DFW Airport, but 108-110 in Ft Worth.

Yes. I will admit that the dryness does make a difference, and it's far easier to tolerate over hot and humid. But I have been in 120+/- degrees in Midland....and dry or not, that is just freaking HOT. The hottest Alamo has been since I moved here 3 years ago...104. But again, even with lack of humidity, the intensity at the higher elevation is tough sometimes.

Fort Davis and Marfa are on the list.....but I'd have to drive to Alpine for almost everything. I have even thought of looking in the more remote parts of FD in a subdivision (Davis Mountains Resort?!?) whose name I forget at the moment, but some of the properties are at 6,000 ft. The downside is that so many of those properties have to have water hauled in......there are large holding tanks that supply water to the homes.

There are also gravel roads going to most--and if it's muddy...well...ahem....

For Texas....I'd say that Marfa and Fort Davis have the very best climate, with Alpine coming in a very close third.

[catman]

Yes, those place out in the boonies around Fort Davis are a but, shall we say, rustic where utilities are concerned. Don't forget that that is also the area where the 'Republic of Texas' lunatics declared their independence from the USA some years ago, so one's neighbors might be a at least half a bubble off plumb.

I agree, 120 F is just plain scorching, humidity (how could there be?) or not. I remember the 113 F days here in DFW. When you said "intensity", were you referring to the sunlight falling upon you? I know what that is like at higher elevations, although Alamo isn't all that high. I know that in Ruidoso when it's 85 F or so, the sunlight does have that intense feel, and up on Sierra Blance above 10K feet, even though it's cool the sunlight is very intense!

The ckimates of Alpine, Marfa and Ft Davis are so similar it's hard to make a distinction. I'd say that Marfa has higher highs and lower lows than the other two, judging by the graphs on this site.

[Cathy4017]

Yes, I meant the sunlight. At higher elevations, with similar hot temperatures, it just BEATS down on you.

Until I moved here, I had spent far more time in NM in the WINTER than the hot summer. Alamo isn't that high (43-4600 ft, depending on where you are), but as hot as it is, the added elevation makes it worse than at 2800-3000 ft in Midland.

I don't swim outside here at all. I went ONE time at the Family Rec Center (yucky) at 11:30 or so....25 meter pool, swam 40 laps...and BURNED. I will NOT bathe in sunblock before I go swimming, so once I lose my indoor pool this winter, no more swimming until they cover the Rec Center Pool in October or so.

I may not even be here then, so I guess we'll see how it goes.

You're right.....the climate differences aren't that pronounced among A/FD/M. Whether those RPT nutjobs are still out there...I don't know!

[catman]

I've never been sunburned at high elevation, but I have noticed that I tan more rapidly than I do back here!

Wow, you're quite the swimmer. I don't do it often enough to have any expertise, although I basically know how. I wouldn't know where to go to do it if I got the urge. All of the public pools here are closed due to the budget crunch, and I wouldn't want to go there anyway. Lately, my idea of exercise is getting the ice cubes out of a tray.