Moving to New Mexico (Santa Fe, Deming: houses, neighborhood, high school)
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You guys are great! You made my day! We are experiencing a high of 4 degrees this week and it has been snowing everyday for over a week. Not huge amounts, but enough to make me want to scream if I have to go out and shovel one more time. I have been doing lots of research. I was afraid that the warmer weather in New Mexico might be too much of a culture shock after 40 years in Wisconsin winters, but I'm finding depending how elevated or how far north I go, snow will still be a part of my life. I haven't decide if that's good or bad yet.
I too am a Wisconsin Native who will be relocating to NM. As I sit here with every bone in my body hurting from shoveling snow on a daily basis I really doubt I'll ever miss the stuff. I'm planning on moving to the Deming, T or C , or Silver City Area. If I miss snow I can always take a drive to see some. I will NEVER miss the sub zero Arctic Blasts we get this time of year.
We settled in Cibola county (northwest quadrant) at 7,000 feet. Had no idea the winter temps would drop well below zero at night and there'd be a foot or more of snow on the ground--not what we expected!
Did you just throw a dart at a map? There isn't anywhere within hundreds of miles that doesn't get below freezing in winter.
Southern CO would be too cold for me most of the year. I found that out the year I rode a motorcycle across southern CO on September 26 and froze my tail! Alamo might get a mite hot, but at least it's a dry heat compared to DFW. It's usually either too hot or too cold, isn't it?
Actually, I think you'd love Alamo's winter temperatures.....70 degrees in January is quite nice, and there really isn't much of a four-season climate there. Summers are far too hot to my liking, but most of the rest of the year (Oct-April) is pretty nice!
I just happen to like colder (western) winters, having lived in temperate winters most of my life!
-13 IS a tad cold, yes. I like it in the teens in Dec-Feb at night, and 20-40 during the day.
You would probably be comfortable riding your bike up here (outside of Durango) from about May-August.
In Alamo and vicinity, you'd probably be comfortable about 10 months of the year.
I too am a Wisconsin Native who will be relocating to NM. As I sit here with every bone in my body hurting from shoveling snow on a daily basis I really doubt I'll ever miss the stuff. I'm planning on moving to the Deming, T or C , or Silver City Area. If I miss snow I can always take a drive to see some. I will NEVER miss the sub zero Arctic Blasts we get this time of year.
Good luck with your move!
I know you're sick of the long cold and having to shovel snow, but I think you'll find T or C and Deming awfully hot.
I've never been to Silver City, but I know that it's cooler than the other two, but still not nearly as cold as northern NM is in the winter.
I spent Saturday looking at several properties in Farmington and Aztec. There is remaining snow (though it was sunny and dry) and icy patches in the shaded areas.
The temperature extremes between southern and northern NM are amazing.
The summers can get hot, but you don't see 100 and above that often for the northern part, though it does happen.
My older daughter spent a summer in the Phoenix area and said even 116 degrees there was better than 90's in temp and humidity here.
I'm disabled and my almost 18 yr old is on the Autism Spectrum. We spent her first 13-14 yrs in a village of less than 600 and now reside in a bedroom community of about 8K. At the moment, community size, crime rate, affordable housing, and lack of snow seem to be the main requirements. If the town doesn't supply all our needs, Las Cruces is close and large enough to cover any which are missing. I'll have our doctors double check.
Up here it's cheaper to cool a house than heat one and I'm assuming it's the same down there with the added bonus windows can be opened at night during the summer and during the day in winter.
Well, if you all know what Phoenix summers are like (so do I), you won't be bothered by anything that New Mexico has to offer in the way of heat!
Where I live in NM, it is cheaper to heat than cool, especially if you have refrigerated air. As swamp coolers are worthless in southern NM during the humid monsoon season, it can get rather uncomfortable. I'm glad I have refrigerated.
My older daughter spent a summer in the Phoenix area and said even 116 degrees there was better than 90's in temp and humidity here.
True (although 116 seems like hell by any scale), but there is a difference between a 100+ degree summer that lasts 4-5 months and a 90 degree + humidity summer that lasts 2 months.
Where I live in NM, it is cheaper to heat than cool, especially if you have refrigerated air. As swamp coolers are worthless in southern NM during the humid monsoon season, it can get rather uncomfortable. I'm glad I have refrigerated.
As they aren't used here I totally forgot about Swamp Coolers (heard about them once) and just assumed everyone had AC (refrigerated).
I've been reading through the forums and have probably looked at the City-Data profiles for probably 80 to 90% of the towns and cities in NM. I have to admit it all gets so confusing after a while.
I can't afford to make a trip down before the move so am trying to find the best place I can with the tools at hand. Once down there we can always personally research other areas if we find we don't like where we land.
Up here our options are extremely limited and no move would get us into better weather. It's going to be -15 by Thursday night.
As they aren't used here I totally forgot about Swamp Coolers (heard about them once) and just assumed everyone had AC (refrigerated).
I've been reading through the forums and have probably looked at the City-Data profiles for probably 80 to 90% of the towns and cities in NM. I have to admit it all gets so confusing after a while.
I can't afford to make a trip down before the move so am trying to find the best place I can with the tools at hand. Once down there we can always personally research other areas if we find we don't like where we land.
Up here our options are extremely limited and no move would get us into better weather. It's going to be -15 by Thursday night.
That's a tad chilly.......LOL!!
Refrigerated air is common in Texas, but not so much in NM. Most new construction is refrigerated, and many people in older homes are gradually making the transition. I'd say that it has been only about the last 10-15 years that refrigerated is finally beginning to come into its own in southern NM.
Parts of Northern NM are another story. While most of the new construction in the Four Corners area is refrigerated, I am also finding some new construction that is swamp/evaporative, and I'd guess that up north, refrigerated only began to make inroads about 8-10 years ago.
I'm finding some properties I like up there that have existing swamp cooling--and the estimates for conversion to refrigerated run from 8-10K, depending on what they have to do.
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