My wife and I have been exploring moving somewhere near mountains as we love the scenery.  We have discuss Colorado, Utah, and such, but recently she brought up areas like Taos and Santa Fe.  

What are the pros and cons to those areas?  I think Santa Fe would be the winner, because of my job and job potentials. I'm looking for anything regarding cost of living, how friendly are the people, is it a poor area or more wealthy, schools, really anything.  Thanks for your help.

Well, Santa Fe is the Moonbat capital of NM- Austin probably is a bit right of SF, including the city Govt. Also has become very expensive to live, with a lot of resentment from life-long locals, and a lot of traffic (although a lot of people from large cities laugh at me when I complain about traffic anywhere in NM)

It is a beautiful place with a lot of history, but I personally wouldn't care to live there.

Taos is another "Arty" community, and Northern NM has always had problems from "El Nortenos", if you aren't a native.

These things aren't really overt most of the time, and you will find most people very friendly (throughout the entire state), as long as you go along to get along.

There are a lot of people that commute to and from Santa Fe and surrounding areas, and there are many beautiful places to live rurally or semi-rurally if you're willing and able to do a commute.

If you like skiing, Taos of course, is world class, and Santa Fe ski area is a lot of fun. Hunting, fishing and other outdoor activities abound in NM year round.

Just a couple IMHOs, hopefully others can chime in. (As you can see, we're a little slow here in this forum )

Good Luck!

Thanks.  You have me worried with the Austin comparison .

Santa Fe, is San Francisco lite.

And I'm only  exaggerating a little bit.

I use to work in the Santa Fe area, a few days a week, years ago. Nice place for a vacation, but has become a liberal bastion.  Look into southern NM.

Go to ruidoso.... The rule about NM is the farther north you go the more liberal the people tend to be. Your welcome.

Ruidoso hasn't been NM for several decades.  The Texans stole it back a long time ago.

Utter nonsense

OP what field are you in and/or looking for?
What budget would you be in for a home/property?
Looking for metro, rural, or?
NM is full of conservative minded folks, in fact most of the state is rather rural with a small town attitude.

This is true.

As a recent transplant to SF from a conservative state, it certainly is very liberal, but most of the time it doesn't bother me too much. I don't work in town though, so I'm only really here on the weekends.  A lot of dumb hippies here, many of who are wealthy so they drive up the cost of living. The old timers said that it started a long time ago from Cali transplants and there are certainly many natives who despise them for it. There is a lot of tourism, so that can be annoying. Some of the worst drivers in the country and to add to that we get lots of tourists from Ca, Tx, and Co so it sucks to drive here most of the year, although the amount of traffic is not bad compared to large cities. Honestly, the best part about this place is the restaurants and outdoor activities that can be done year round. The fishing in the state is some of the best in the west and hunting isn't too far behind. I think I'll be in NM for a long time. Whether we stay in SF hasn't been decided yet.

ETA I've only been to Taos once, but it's more secluded than SF, although it was bigger than I expected the town to be. If you're obsessed with skiing that is the place to be.

The Las Cruces area is getting progressively more liberal. And it often feels like northern Mexico.  I get it, we are near the border.  We don't have to act like this is Mexico proper.  Sigh.....

I miss the southeast part of the state.  Was a different type of people there, a different way of life.

If I were looking for a place in the mountains I would look around the Cloudcroft area. You are close enough to Alamogordo for day to day stuff and Las Cruces and El Paso for stuff from a larger city.

It's a fun little mountain town. The Dona Anas are just a short drive away.  And you skip the liberal shit.

lol. I wouldn't go that far. Austin is a fruit loop town if I've ever seen one.

santa fe is more, old retired libtards, nosy CA and east coast cunts that want to know everyones business, also a bunch of earth muffin granola eating fucks  .... contrasted to hipster misplaced 20 something LA freaks that make up Austin, Austin  has them in higher concentration.


to me Taos, Cerillios and Madrid are actually worse, burn out old hippies.

I live near the rez soo its uber liberal around here.

Los Alamos is said to be liberal but I dont see it where I live. The cars with osama and sanders decals leave after work to drive elsewhere.  I love it up here, although it gets cold and snows up here so I dont get to ride motocycles as much as I did in CA but I'm ok with shooting nfa in bad weather.

i just moved from Los Angeles and i have been told that Los Alamos is the conservative area of Northern NM.  The areas surrounding is very entitled.  I have not been here long enough to make a judgement.  It is awesome compared to fucked up CA.  Good small town feel and good gun laws (compared to what I came from).  I only go into Santa Fe for Trader Joes once every couple of weeks so I dont have much to judge.  Espanola is supposedly the black tar herione capital.  I was warned about going to the walmart there, but it was nothing compared to where I lived in East LA.