My son lives in south Florida and has about had enough. He is considering moving to New Mexico, and asked me to d some scouting around for him. I'm looking for advice on where might be a good place to start looking. He is more interested in living someplace close to a decent size city where the weather won't be too much of a shock to his Florida system. He thinks Las Cruces looks interesting, but is open to all areas. I plan to head out that way this fall and try and get a feel for what it is like. Any advice would be appreciated. He is an auto mechanic by trade, so I assume he could find work most places. He is seriously thinking of opening his own shop, so would like to find an area that could support it. Thanks for any help

From the vehicles I see in New Mexico, not much money gets spent on upkeep. They're either brand new or rolling junkpiles.

Las Cruces? I wouldn't want any part of living that close to El Paso, myself. I think the farther north you get in New Mexico, the better. There's money to be made off some of the denizens of Santa Fe, but he'll need to live someplace outside of it to come out on expenses.

Artesia or Roswell might be worth considering.

Don't know much about NM, but here is what I did when I was looking at places to move to after retirement:
I narrowed down my choices and the read the on-line newspapers for each city. This gave me a lot of insight into the quality of life in the cities I was looking at.
Good luck!

Having lived there, if I had to move back it would be somewhere between Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

Avoid Carlsbad, unless you really like the laid back, roll up the sidewalks at 8pm kinda town.

Hey, I live in Carlsbad! Although I'm working in the Augusta (GA) area now. You're right though, it is a roll-up-the-sidewalks kind of place. They do have a Buffalo Wild Wings now, and are supposed to be getting a Starbuck$.

We're going to move when her daughter graduates high school. (Show up at graduation with a full moving van....) We're thinking of the ABQ area. Decent size metro area, two Trader Joes and one REI. Still affordable, not like Santa Fe or Taos. Close enough to the four corners area for me.

Her mom & dad live in Cruces. It's not a bad place, but it is close to ELP.

If you fold the state in half diagonally, I'd avoid the whole lower left half, which would include Roswell and Artesia (both of which are similar to Carlsbad). For me, there is more to do in the upper right. Mountains (Santa Fe, Taos, Las Vegas), desert (four corners area, over into Utah), badlands.

My $0.02.

Albuquerque seems to have gotten worse or maybe my memory is off. Im there now after being away for ~6 years.

I'm just curious, what's the consensus on Farmington? I'll be in the Durango area soon and was wondering if it's worth a drive over to spend a day poking around.

I was born in Albuquerque, but just can't stand it now. I finished a project for APD last year and am happy its in my rear view. However, I will be moving back to NM when I retire, because there are so many beautiful spots in Northern NM. If you want be halfway close to the city, you could consider Los Lunas, Los Alamos or Belen. There is nothing wrong with Las Cruces, but if you wanted to be a little further out, you could look around Hatch or even T or C (that's Truth or Consequences for you non-natives).

The wife and I think that we want to live between in a square between Santa Fe and Questa, maybe in the village of Dixon or Penasco, but that is a few years out for us.

Good luck!

Thanks for the info. I'm going to try and head out there in the fall and spend some time looking around. This gives me couple of ideas. I doubt my son would be too happy in a roll up the sidewalks kind of town coming from the Ft Lauderdale area.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
I'm just curious, what's the consensus on Farmington?

Surrounded by the Navajo reservation and all of the issues that come with that.

A good friend has a Ranch near Deming...Close to Las Cruzes. I visit at least annually.

It IS a bit close to the Border. We see evidence of illegals walking through their property. Not a TON of it, but they ARE there.

Very dry and windy area. Dust everywhere. Too hot and dusty for me.

Great chili's nearby in Hatch too.

I think one could find a better area.

quote:

Originally posted by OKCGene:
I'm just curious, what's the consensus on Farmington? I'll be in the Durango area soon and was wondering if it's worth a drive over to spend a day poking around.

I was just looking at that map today. No doubt there are folks who live in Durango and work in Farmington.
Looks like it has grown a lot in the years

"If you fold the state in half diagonally, I'd avoid the whole lower left half, which would include Roswell and Artesia (both of which are similar to Carlsbad). For me, there is more to do in the upper right. Mountains (Santa Fe, Taos, Las Vegas), desert (four corners area, over into Utah), badlands."

This is actually pretty good advice. Roswell and Artesia (and even Carlsbad) seem preferable to Las Cruces to me, though. I like towns that roll up the sidewalks at 8pm. And there might be more conservatives in those towns than in Taos or Santa Fe. Maybe.

My Uncle worked at Los Alamos and liked near, then spent some time at White Sands, living in ABQ. I visited and thought it might be a great place to retire.
My wife and I spent several vacations around ABQ and points North looking for a retirement spot.

We gave up.

Those places we liked we incredibly expensive or had no water. I didn't like the politics then and I think they are worse now.

I agree about South Florida--but we have been happy here in the small town North Florida setting, in the infrequent event that we want city lights, a few hours in Tampa cures that urge.

Although Los Alamos would be fine, be careful of choosing anywhere from Espanola north to the Colorado border to reside...

quote:

Originally posted by IndyRob:
Having lived there, if I had to move back it would be somewhere between Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

This. I live just east of Albuquerque and work in Albuquerque. Albuquerque has many very nice areas, and many not-so-nice ones. He'd have to look around and really explore. Bernalillo is one option in between ABQ and Santa Fe, or Placitas. Avoid Socorro. Las Cruces is too close to the border for me. Los Alamos seems a bit meh, unless you work at the lab.

I love the variety in the state- mountains, desert, forest, scrubland, plains.

Feel free to email me if you have specific questions. I've lived in NM since 2008; I moved from the TN/KY area.

quote:

Originally posted by FN in MT:
A good friend has a Ranch near Deming...Close to Las Cruzes. I visit at least annually.

It IS a bit close to the Border. We see evidence of illegals walking through their property. Not a TON of it, but they ARE there.

Very dry and windy area. Dust everywhere. Too hot and dusty for me.

Great chili's nearby in Hatch too.

I think one could find a better area.

This. After our parents died my sis and I sold 4500 acres east of Deming that our family owned since 1873. It just was face of the moon land and not reclaimable. But, my Dad is buried in Deming where he was born so I'll be stopping in every few years just to visit and care for his grave.

I've been passing through Carlsbad, Hobbs, Artesia etc this year for oil and gas work. If you're not in the industry, I'm not sure there's a reason to be there. There's got to be prettier areas in NM.

I thought New Mexico was very Liberal.

flashguy

quote:

Originally posted by flesheatingvirus:

quote:

Originally posted by IndyRob:
Having lived there, if I had to move back it would be somewhere between Santa Fe and Albuquerque.

This. I live just east of Albuquerque and work in Albuquerque. Albuquerque has many very nice areas, and many not-so-nice ones. He'd have to look around and really explore. Bernalillo is one option in between ABQ and Santa Fe, or Placitas. Avoid Socorro. Las Cruces is too close to the border for me. Los Alamos seems a bit meh, unless you work at the lab.

I love the variety in the state- mountains, desert, forest, scrubland, plains.

Feel free to email me if you have specific questions. I've lived in NM since 2008; I moved from the TN/KY area.

^ This. Talk to this man, he knows.

State has goes from shithole to stunning beauty, you definitely need a sme. I may retire there.