Comment by slamwagon on January 29, 2009 at 8:07pm

New Mexico Technology Corridor... very official sounding. :)

Comment by Keiko Ohnuma on January 29, 2009 at 8:53pm

How can it be a great city to build wealth when the salaries are so abysmally low?

Comment by Matt Barth on January 30, 2009 at 7:29am

Cost of living here is also very low here. A couple making $25,000 a piece here is going to have quite a bit more spare cash to keep than on either coast and most larger metro areas in the country.
Because of the amount of jobs here (granted our unemployment has been up, we're still behind everyone else) it isn't quite so competitive and not as many people need to go into extraordinary debt to earn an advanced degree for a mid-level job.
Now I'm not saying this is the model that fits all jobs here but ask a general question, get a general answer.

---Matt

Comment by Kelly on January 30, 2009 at 7:58am

Matt's absolutely right. Part of our choice to move here was because we could afford to buy a house with just one salary, which we did. And when the husband wanted to change careers to build his own business in a very different industry, we could afford to keep the house and our lifestyle with just one salary. We could never have afforded to do this is the places we had lived before.

Comment by Kitty Irreverent on January 30, 2009 at 3:46pm

I agree with Matt and Kelly. I've been able to work my way up educationally as well as career wise here in ways I wouldn't have been able to in other parts of the country I've lived in. I can afford to finish my current degree, and maintain a house here while assuming a fraction of the debt I would in most other major metro cities.

Comment by Paula Manning-Lewis on January 30, 2009 at 3:48pm

Not only that, but you can't beat the weather! Except maybe in Arizona or S. California!

Comment by Sarahjmd on January 30, 2009 at 8:48pm

Keiko...I moved here with 15 other people from our home town back in the late 70s. They all went back after a few years, mostly because of the wages. We were too young to realize the error of their ways. While they made such great wages back east, they couldn't afford to buy homes for years and years. Most all of them say they really made a mistake and wished they were in NM again, especially when they pay their property taxes.

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