The first neighborhood major housing development built in Santa Fe after World War II was Casa Solana followed by Casa Alegre. Seventy years later both of these areas continue to be in high demand. Back then construction was more affordable, so many of those homes were built with added features like wooden floors, wood beam vigas and wall nichos. By the 1960s that type of construction was abandoned and cookie cutter houses began to appear all over town. Both the South Capital and Canyon Road districts have interesting adobe homes but those areas are not only expensive, there’s lots of vacation rentals and parking is limited. Built in the 1980s, the Candlelight District is another desirable part of town to live. That neighborhood doesn’t have the added features of the first developments but it’s centrally located with the houses situated on large lots of land of a third of an acre or more. Most of the newer, affordable developments are further south of town and are built closer together without much yard space. The north side of Santa Fe is where most of the high-end luxury developments are located. A large percentage of these expensive houses are located in the foothills on dirt roads. It’s so ironic, in other parts of the world poor people live on dirt roads in the hills but in Santa Fe it’s the exact opposite!

One more tidbit: the communities surrounding Santa Fe are incredibly beautiful and less expensive than living in town. However, the further out you get, well, the further out you are. Some people who move here from big cities are used to long commutes but once they’ve been living here for a while a 20-minute drive to town becomes a real drag, since spontaneity is no longer an option and it’s harder to take advantage of all the activities taking place in Santa Fe. So, if possible, take the time to look around before taking the real estate plunge.

Like the array of restaurants that Santa Fe has to offer, the town also has hundreds of realtors. Below is a list of some the major companies in town. The Santa Fe Association of Realtors is a great place to start your search. The organization has hundreds of members representing all facets of the real estate experience. SFAR also provides classes for realtors to achieve a Santa Fe Specialist Designation that provides them with the expertise in all aspects of home sales from water rights, to property easements, adobe architecture, to history.  I teach the quarterly class on Santa Fe History, Culture and Art for SFAR. Any realtor that has the Santa Fe Specialist Designation is more than qualified to assist you in your search for a home in Santa Fe. As your realtor takes you around town to show you the various listings, you’re going to run into several streets that begin with the name Don. Don is a Spanish honorific which means de origen noble, of noble origin. The first colonists of New Mexico, and other areas around the world that were established for the Spanish Crown, were the families of nobility.