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I have spent hours reading every post on this forum.
My wife, myself, son (age 8), and daughter (age 12) want to get the heck out of Illinois. We lived for 8 years in Alaska (still have the 90 acres and log house I built, but wife found it TOO extreme) and we find ourselves back in IL. I would much rather be in Alaksa, but the wife says she had enough. I am willing to compromise on NM.
We are driving to NM January 5 to check it out.
I am a Math teacher, high school & community college ( 10 years)
my wife is a respiratory theripist. (10 years).
We will be driving, (did the numbers, much cheaper.).
We plan on driving the Santa Fe -Taos Loop.(January??),(we are driving a Hummer)
Checking health facilities, schools, Community Colleges, rental prices, slopes, bars, spas, .....general feel of the state of NM.
Any comments, suggestions, job offers, rental refferals would be appreciated. (Negative comments will be regarded that you don't want more people to move to your state because it is such a great place. . Thats what we do in Alaska. Great place to visit, but not so great to live here.)
We plan on driving the Santa Fe -Taos Loop.(January??),
Checking health facilities, schools, Community Colleges, rental prices, slopes, bars, spas, .....general feel of the state of NM.
I don't consider that a general feel of New Mexico, but it is a start. While in Santa Fe, consider going 60 miles south to also get a feel for the Albuquerque area...
I should warn you that Santa Fe is VERY expensive compared to anything else in the state. You can do well in Eldorado (suburb, essentially, of Santa Fe) or in some areas of ABQ. Taos is a great town if you like land and skiing in the Winter.
While I can understand wanting to get out of Illinois (I am stuck here too), finding good schools will be hard. Most people use the private school system if they can afford it.
I find Taos about as expensive as SF in regard to real estate & the same for commodities. Santa Fe has much more inventory of real estate & variety of commodities. Both have ski areas. Taos is much smaller, quainter.
I would suggest find the teaching job first. As a fellow teacher, I find math one of the most marketable skills. One of your best bets would be to find a teaching job near one of our bigger cities like Albq where a respiratory therapist opening is most apt to be. I would also recommend carefully checking out schools for the kids. You could get lucky with both jobs in other places too.
I'm an NM/Alaskan who misses Alaska too- nothing like it. If you get to NM like my PT in Taos said to me "you're not in Alaska anymore"!
Disclaimer: I would never choose to spend a winter in Alaska, so our perspectives may not align.
But I too would encourage you to visit a little further south, including the south central highlands, for a future home. There are still places of relative expanse, with good schools and other amenities. PM me for more, if you like.
I agree with what everyone here is saying about Santa Fe and Taos being expensive Dan. Also traveling in January in Northern N.M. can be very dangerous because of the Snow and way below zero temperatures you might spend your time Stranded because of road closures and driving in bad weather is not fun. Northern N.M. is beautiful country with its mountains and forests and winding roads but its an area best traveled in the Spring or Summer.
I would suggest checking out the East Mountain area its close to Albuquerque and Santa Fe although in January it will have below zero temps and probably plenty of Snow also but the weather is not as Drastic as Northern N.M. Also the East Mountain area has lots of recreation activities in the Summer and at the end of Summer and lots of Land at great prices and the people are the friendliest of any place in N.M. and your close to the city life of Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
I would suggest the Middle of New Mexico and traveling out to the Southern part of New Mexico if the Snow and Temps get too bad in the center and being in the center of New Mexico gives you a chance to decide whether to head north or down south. Also read my post on Buying land and homes in New Mexico. One drawback about the East Mountain area if you work in Albuquerque is driving through Tijeras Canyon in the winter if the roads are bad or if theres an Accident you could get stranded in a Roadblock for hours.
Check out the East Mountain Telegraph and the Independent two Newspapers from the East Mountain Area. I suggest Moriarty or Estancia area two small towns but i would say they have some very good schools there or did years ago. I like the people from that area and they just built a new Wal Mart there a couple of years ago its the biggest Wal Mart in the State. Im not much for the Edgewood area but you might want to check out that area also its not a bad place and about 20 minutes from Albuquerque. I myself prefer the country atmosphere and the East Mountain area has the mountains close by for hiking but i dont like living too close to forests and hungry bears its been so dry that Forest Fires can be a danger but what can i say to somebody from Alaska about those things. Feel free to ask about most any place in N.M. if i cant tell you some helpful information someone in this group probably can.
I just found this site for finding things to do in Santa Fe. Seems like an excellent time to move to SF since the housing prices have dropped. As a student I love the community college but my friend that is an adjunct teacher has a difficult time surviving due to limitations on how much she can teach because they don't want to pay for benefits. They don't seem to hire many full-time professors. Eldorado is a great place to live and not too far out of Santa Fe.
The East Mountain is one of my favorite areas but I don't see that it is any cheaper than Santa Fe (last time I was at a friend's house down there the gas was higher) and you'd spend more in gas money getting to ABQ. But if you don't mind driving in hazardous weather and longer distances it is beautiful.
My wife and I grew up in Fairbanks, Alaska, and spent most of our first 40 years there. We moved to NM two years ago and are living in Bernalillo, about a third of the way between Albuquerque and Santa Fe. We love it here, partly because many aspects remind us a lot of Alaska. See //www.city-data.com/forum/new-m...jerseyans.html for some posts I did previously on the similarities (and differences).
As we've aged we've become wimps - no way can we handle the -40F to -60F below zero winter temps in interior AK now. But IMHO NM is the closest thing you can find in the lower 48 to that part of AK and we view it as sort of a mild version of AK. (Although I still really miss the long daylight/twilight hours of a summer in Fairbanks.) I think it's a great compromise between living in AK or somewhere else.
You didn't say what part of Alaska you lived in. Like AK, NM has a lot of variety in climate, urban vs rural, etc. The SF - Taos Loop is very different than other parts of the state, and like others I suggest you also investigate other areas. A key issue is whether you want to be where it can get quite a bit of snow and cold in the winter, would rather just have a taste of winter weather (which is what we get here compared to AK) or would prefer to be in shirt sleeves just about year round (e.g., like down in Las Cruces).
Anything east of the mountains will be wetter and colder, and the higher you go in elevation the more snow and cold you'll have, so the SF-Taos area is definitely toward that extreme vs other parts of the state. We like being where there's just enough winter weather to remind us of our years in AK but not so much that it's at all uncomfortable (at least to us). Plus we can always visit SF-Taos or other places in the mountains (Jemez, etc.) if we want to play in the snow. But you and your wife may have different views and tastes.
If you can provide additional specifics on what you're looking for, I and others can probably give you more informed opinions about where might be a good fit for you. Also feel free to PM me with specific questions if you want.
For your wife, Christus-St.Vincent's hospital would be a good place to check out for a job.
Rentals - figure an average of $1/square foot per month. Some nice apartment complexes off St. Francis Drive between I-25 and Zia Road, and on Zia east of St. Francis. Several condos are also offering attractive rentals (Zia, San Mateo, The Reserve).
The Drive - The Santa Fe - Taos "loop" in winter shouldn't be a problem in a Hummer or any decent 4x4. Man, that's a beautiful drive - the loop actually starts north of Santa Fe at the turnoff to Nambe/Chimayo off Hwy 285N and then returns through the Rio Grande Canyon to Espanola and back to SF, or vice-versa. The loop from Taos to Angel Fire, then Red River and back to Taos is also really beautiful.
Slopes: Santa Fe, Taos (lots of black trails), Angel Fire and Red River (more family oriented).
Bars - In SF I like the Cowgirl, El Farol, Del Charro and so many more.... in Taos check out The Taos Inn and the Alley Cantina.
Spas - Ten Thousand Waves in Santa Fe (on the road to the ski area) is fantastic.
I'll add our Sipapu ski area to the slopes- cheap, no issue with lines & snow!
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