Commuting from Santa Fe to Los Alamos (Albuquerque, Las Vegas: apartments, rental homes)

[Bejeweld]

Hi all-
We will be moving to Santa Fe in the first week of July for my husband's job in LANL. We are wondering if there is any community, where we can rent, that is convenient to Los Alamos and also walkable and not isolated. I will be keeping my current job in the east coast and working from home full time, so it is so important for me to be able to get out of the house at least once a day and do some semi-social things (e.g., going to a yoga class, walking the dog, going for running, getting coffee etc..) without feeling isolated. In the city we live now, a lot of housing developments are in unwalkable areas, and I am a little worried about being stuck at home and going crazy. At the same time, we want to minimize my husband’s commute time so that we have more time together.

Is there any vibrant community convenient to Los Alamos? I have read in some threads that communities in North Santa Fe, such as Casa Solena, Zocalo, and Los Pinones, would be convenient for the commute. Somehow, the area with Zocalo and Los Pinones looks very remote in Google street view, and we are concerned about how isolated this area could be. Should we look into the downtown area more, or would that be too touristy to live?

We are also interested in Santa Fe Community Collage area (around Zia Vista condo) as it seems to have some stores, jogging trails etc.. in walking distance. However, it looks like you would have to take the surface street for a longer time to get to the free way section of 84/285. According to google map, it will only add about 5 more minutes to commute to Los Alamos (compared with living in the area where the free way section of 84/285 starts). Is that true?

We are planning to visit Santa Fe this month to visit areas we are interested, but we will try to visit more specific areas if there is any new suggestion. Thanks so much in advance!!

[ziaAirmac]

Welcome to the NM forums! Most of the northern communities are a bit small to be called 'vibrant', but it depends on where the balance lies between commute time and your walkability. If you were leaning more towards minimizing commute time with at least basic community stuff available, than take a look at White Rock. Be aware that the portion of 84/285 that goes through Santa Fe is called St. Francis Rd. It's a surface street, a main artery, and gets very congested at times. You're almost better off looking at something near the Villa Linda mall area, although there's nothing within short walking distance. Don't ignore 599 as a quick commute around town though. It could open up some other options for you and would be a nicer drive for your husband. The issue with the downtown area is not necessarily the touristy thing. It would still place you near great restaurants and lots of things to see and do without having to hit the galleries/museums where most of the tourist are. The issue is that the price premium for being within an easy walk of the plaza is hard to justify. You didn't mention whether you were looking for a home or apartment, but there are lots of apartments on the north side of town along 84/285. It would put you within minutes of downtown, and past most of the 'traffic' of Santa Fe for your husbands commute. Good luck you two.

[Bejeweld]

ziaAirmac-

Thanks so much for your reply. We are open to either a home or an apartment as long as we can have at least two bedrooms and washer/dryer hookups. Do you have any particular apartment complex in mind? So far, I have found three apartment communities along 84/285, Zocalo, Reserve and Los Pinones. The first two communities are not rental complex, but I could find some owners on craigs list trying rent out their condos. Are there other communities we should look into?

I also looked at where Villa Linda mall is, and it looks like you would still have to take st Francis road. Does that mean that that part of St Francis road (north of cerrillos road) is ok?

Yes, the downtown area seems more expensive, and I haven't been able to find a good source of rental properties. I could only find a couple of apartments/houses in the downtown area from a realtor's website. Any recommendations on how to search for rental properties? As you suggested, we should check out whether the downtown living is worth the extra cost of living.

Again, thanks for your insights and looking forward to further comments.

[ziaAirmac]

Any of those complexes are nice and in a convenient spot for you.

As for the Villa Linda area, what I meant to suggest is that although it looks longer, 599 has no intersections and is posted at 55-65 so it's a viable alternative to taking Rodeo to St. Francis whether google maps says it's shorter or not. The only thing I seem to see right around downtown these days is people renting one room out to help with the overhead. I'd see if I could get my hands on a New Mexican (newspaper) to see if I could come up with some other rental leads.

[cynanthus]

Bejewled - you mention in your post that you'd like to find a community that is walkable and also convenient to Los Alamos. Have you thought about actually moving to Los Alamos itself? It's not as big as Santa Fe, but there'd be no commute for your husband.

Also, I wanted to point out that -- at least in my opinion -- Santa Fe is not a particularly walkable city. The downtown/Plaza area is more walkable than the rest, but in most parts of the city you couldn't walk to a yoga studio or grocery store without hiking down a major road. Most of the neighborhoods are great for walking dogs and such, but a car seems to be pretty necessary for regular life. If you don't mind hopping in your car, Zocalo, Los Pinones and Casa Solana are all pretty close to the heart of the city - both tourist stuff (which is fun to visit) and regular life stuff.

The Santa Fe Community College area is further away from the majority of town, being at the very south end of everything.

[Bejeweld]

Thanks both. We will be sure to look into these condos in north Santa Fe! We just have to keep in mind that we can't walk to stores etc.. Also, we will look at New Mexican too to see if there are available places in the downtown area. Walkability is nice, but we can live without it as we both have cars.

cynanthus- We are hesitant to move to Los Alamos for several reasons. We really like to do fun things in town, so we'd like to live in a place where we can get to restaurants, live music venues, museums, improv theaters etc.., relatively easily. Currently, we are not really gallery going people, but perhaps, Santa Fe has some music-related activities going on? On the other hand, we love the outdoors, and I can see myself going for hiking, backpacking, or snowboarding in Los Alamos.

I'm also quite concerned about whether we would be able to meet new people in Los Alamos outside of work. Given my telecommuting situation, this would be a challenge. I thought I may be able to join clubs etc.. in Santa Fe to make friends, but there may be a smaller number of people to meet in Los Alamos. At the same time, I was wondering that Los Alamos may be a more close knitted community (like everyone knows each other?) and could be easier to meet people. What do you think?

We are also politically very liberal (not like we believe in cristal healing etc.. but socially very liberal), and we thought Santa Fe may have more people like us. Sorry for my ignorance if I'm wrong.. What is the political climite in Los Alamos like? Are people open-minded there? We are an interracial/multicultual couple (I'm from Tokyo, and my husband is caucasian from the US), and it's very important for us to be in the area where people are welcoming and open-minded.

[bongo]

I have friends who rent in the village of Tesuque & there are lanes to walk there. Just like Santa Fe, I always have thought of Tesuque as being open-minded. It's just another option.

[SanfordR]

Around Trader Joes and Whole Foods would be a good area, pretty central and you could walk to lots of stuff there. Google "property management Santa Fe NM" and you will see a fair number of places with house and condo rentals. Also Craigslist. Also check out railyard area, good for walking.

[cynanthus]

I don't know much about Los Alamos having only visited there a few times, but I can assure you that Santa Fe does have a few music venues, several community theaters, great opera, etc. I telecommute to my job on the East Coast and am slowly finding opportunities to meet others here in SF. So... you can do it! Come visit and hopefully you and your husband will like it here.

[Fischer_girl]

Bejeweld~
You're right in looking at the Reserve and Los Pinones. Neither of which I would consider to be "isolated". After I moved here I made a joke about google street maps. (The picture version). I think its a bad bad idea to look at those things, especially for NM. I think all the pictures look ghetto and ugly and thankfully I did not let that change my mind about moving here. Ha! Most likely the photos were taken during the fall when everything was brown, cloudy, and lifeless!
Anyway. I commute to Espanola every day which is roughly the same distance as SF to Los Alamos minus one turn. My husband and I live in an apartment complex off of Airport which is off of the 599 route. 599 is an easy way to zip right around SF and avoid all the traffic. It adds ten minutes (at the speed limit) onto the commute. Which..really when you're already driving some 40 minutes..whats another ten?
All the apartments around here are what I would consider "cozy". Two bedrooms are usually 700-900 sq ft. In our complex we have the option of having washer and dryer in unit or not one at all. Los Pinones doesn't offer hookups as they have a laundry hub. Atleast last time I checked.
There are plenty of places to rent in Santa Fe that offer something different from one place to the next. Theres a lot of people on here who have a pretty good idea of the "dos and donts" of rental areas. The main thing to consider is what kind of traffic will you run into and how much do you want to spend. And..as stated earlier.. a general rule of thumb the closer to the plaza the more expensive (and more traffic, too!).