Santa Fe, New Mexico looking for a house
 

Hello, We are thinking to buy a house in New Mexico. Probably Santa Fe will be too expensive for our budget even I love the city. Our budget is under $200,000, the best will be $150,000.-170,000.
What we are looking for:
1. Single house
2. 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms
3. Good school or close to catholic or Montessori school
4. Some stores, good restaurants, Starbucks, park for kids
5. Safe area where I can go with my kid for a walk
6. We love road biking, if there are any bike trails it will be great
7. Any kind of activities for kids- karate, piano, dance...
8. Great weather, some snow is ok but not heavy snow
9. Did I mention I am very afraid of snakes??
I will really appreciate is somebody can give me any advices. Thank you in advance.

New Mexico is the 6th largest state (physically) in the country and you're listing criteria for a town or (at most) a city.

Where exactly is/are the jobs you're moving to? Santa Fe won't have that many - it's a small town that lacks a major university and has a living wage ordinance (which suppresses the availability of low-level jobs).

You need to check Zillow or similar to see what's available.

Try city-data.com, it is a relocation forum and better suited to your question than a travel forum.

You list all sorts of specific criteria . . . but nothing about job/work requirements.

Even in a smaller place, your budget is low. I mean, houses do exist for that price in towns, but usually it's a fixer upper (foreclosure), townhouse, or much smaller than what you are looking for. (I did some browsing through zillow. I can at least say that you'd need at least double that to get a house that size in Santa Fe. That is the price of a lot there). If I was afraid of snakes, I wouldn't choose to to live in the southwest, though)

You need to forget Santa Fe. Albuquerque, the west side of it, is likely to have your priced homes. And while there are neighborhoods with some of the amenities you want, a car is pretty much required.

I have lived here 15 years and haven't seen but a snake or 2 in all that time.

I owned a rental home on this street; this is pretty typical of this area and it is a decent location. Check in the surrounding area. Zipcode 87114

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/5...67901685_zpid/

I've seen tons of snakes in Albuquerque . . . at the reptile house at the zoo. My hobbits have been to a snake farm too.

Had to chuckle at the snake deal. When we moved to Central Florida, it was snakes all the time. Now we don't even blink if we mow one over or prune one in the shrubbery. The time I pulled one out of the washer after the spin cycle with a handful of jeans was a little much, though..

Debit or anyone,
Used to have friends who lived on the west side of Alb. They always talked about high crime stats. Is it worse than any other city its size?

Westside/Northwest ABQ and NE [but pricey] is pretty ok, Linda.

We have issues, it's no lie. But it for the most part, in most places except certain areas, its ok.

Once stopping for gas before returning a rental car I ran across people having sex in a toilet stall in a combined McDonald's / K c-store at 9 am at the corner of Osuna and Jefferson so don't buy anything near there.

Sometimes people who can't afford Santa Fe live in Glorieta or Galisteo.

At least they were IN a stall...

Albuquerque ticks all your boxes.

Lee Ann