New Mexico

has come from.

I keep on wanting to say, "Yep, you're right, it's so expensive that no one lives there any more and wild javelina roam freely though the Plaza."

I moved here from Johnson County, Kansas, which is considered by all the rest of Kansas and nearby Missouri to be too expensive for anyone to live in. Yep. It's likewise totally depopulated. I'm going to pass on posting the sarcasm thingy.

I think what people look at here is that the high end of housing is very high end. If you want to live near the Plaza, THAT'S expensive. But so is Mission Hills or Hallbrook back in Kansas. Let me put it this way: the small place I bought here three years ago cost around half of the local median price for a home, and it's more than adequate for my needs. Other things, like gas, groceries, movie tickets, eating out, and so on, are all the same as I was used to paying back in Kansas. Which really, despite the claims of non Johnson Country residents, is still a relatively low cost of living part of the country.

We also have the second-highest local minimum wage in the country.

Again, you name almost any big city in this country -- Los Angeles, San Francisco, Washington DC, NYC, and any number of others, and it's far more expensive than it is here.

What I really don't get are the people who live in Albuquerque, because rents are cheaper there, and then commute up to Santa Fe to work. Even if the cost of gas doesn't matter, time spent commuting should. Oh, well, I've never been one willing to commute any distance for a job.