The Santa Fe Market

Just as the financial markets are constantly in flux and changing rapidly, so is the real estate market. The major difference is the tangible nature of real estate. Whether it's raw land, a home or ranch, it always has value, despite hard times. The real estate market can dip like the stock market, but your investment will never disappear. Unlike the stock market you can always rent your property if you can not sell it for what you would like, and inevitably, it always rebounds past the value for which it was purchased.

From a historical perspective, look at the trends in the global marketplace to determine which areas might be good "investment areas." Baby boomers bring a wave of investment opportunity, but particularly in real estate areas that are desirable as primary or secondary residences. Most boomers are interested in owning properties in resort areas now, as so many are immersed in health and fitness pursuits. Leisure activities are focused on sports and travel, and resort properties seem to fit beautifully within those two domains. Many baby boomers are moving to more remote resort areas for their principal residences, and operating their business via telecommunications from areas of their choice, rather than remaining stuck in a big city.

Santa Fe - Small Town with a Sophisticated Palate

Santa Fe is growing at a phenomenal pace, primarily as a result of the baby boomer population seeking to find a balance between work and leisure. Many are moving here with the idea of imminent retirement, but continuing to work for the next 3-5 years. Many purchase second homes, visiting part-time until they can move here permanently.

A mild, four season climate attracts people from all walks of life and all areas globally. Eclectic cultural diversity coupled with the arts and an extraordinary climate make Santa Fe one of the top resort areas in the nation. Located just one hour from Albuquerque International Airport, travel is easy to any other part of the world.

As Santa Fe has become one of the top destinations to visit, many buyers are interested in owning a second home here and renting it out when they are not here. Generally speaking, rentals will cover whatever mortgage payment might be on the property. Owners get the benefits of owning property while vacationing, concurrently taking advantage of the strong appreciation in Santa Fe's real estate market.

History of Santa Fe

The texture of Santa Fe is woven from a rich and multicultural history.  La Villa Real de la Santa Fe de San Francisco de Asis, or the Royal City of the Holy Faith of Saint Francis of Asisi, as it is formally called, is the oldest European city west of the Mississippi.  It is also North America’s oldest capital city, founded in 1609-1610 by Spanish conquistador and New Mexico Governor and Captain-General, Don Pedro de Peralta. 

Prior to Spanish settlement, the Santa Fe area was home to several Pueblo Indian villages, which archeologists date between 1050 and 1150.  Centuries after these pueblos had been abandoned by their mostly Tewa inhabitants, Don Francisco Vasques de Coronado claimed the Kingdom of New Mexico for Spain in 1540.  Sixty-seven years later, Santa Fe was a small community poised to become the capital with Peralta’s move from San Juan Pueblo, 25 miles north, where his predecessor Don Juan de Oñate had settled in 1598.

Tucked at the base of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains, Santa Fe became the seat of power for the Spanish Empire north of the Rio Grande and the center of commerce for New Spain north of Mexico City.

From their arrival, Spanish soldiers and officials — and Franciscan missionaries — forcefully pressed the nearly 100,000 local Pueblo Indians to submit to them politically and convert to Christianity.  Organizing across their nine basic languages and roughly 70 pueblo centers, the Pueblo people revolted against approximately 2,500 Spanish colonists in 1680, driving them back to Mexico.  After sacking Santa Fe, Pueblo Indians occupied the city until 1692, when Don Diego de Vargas reconquered the area and regained the capital.

Following de Vargas’s reconquest, Santa Fe came into its own as a city. An alliance between the Pueblo Indians and the Spanish authorities and missionaries helped secure the city from raids by Comanches, Apaches and Navajos, and also established a policy of religious and civil coexistence among the cultures.

When Mexico’s independence from Spain was finalized in 1821, Santa Fe became the capital of the newly independent country’s northern province. Trade opened to American traders and trappers, and William Becknell established the 1,000-mile Santa Fe Trail.  The economic bustle continued with brief interruption in 1837, when northern New Mexico farmers, rebelling against Mexican rule, killed the provincial governor and occupied Santa Fe. By 1840, however, the capital was mostly peaceful again and the city planted the first cottonwood trees around its central Plaza.

Six years later, in the early days of the Mexican-American War, US Army General Stephen Watts Kearney raised the American flag over Santa Fe.  When the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo was signed in 1848, New Mexico and California were ceded to the United States, and Santa Fe became a territorial capital.

1851 marked the arrival of Archbishop Jean Baptiste Lamy, a formative force in Santa Fe who undertook the construction of the Saint Francis Cathedral. Bishop Lamy occupies a historically unique literary position as the model for the protagonist in Will Cather’s Death Comes for the Archbishop.

Modernism came to Santa Fe with the telegraph in 1868, and the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad in 1880, both of which sparked a period of intense economic activity and the rise of tourism.  When New Mexico became a state in 1912, people flocked to Santa Fe for their health – the arid climate was thought to cure tuberculosis – and for their interest in the area’s exoticism. The Museum of New Mexico, established in 1909, helped spread the fascination with local history and native cultures.  A bohemian and art culture began to thrive in the early 20th Century as well, and artists, authors and wealthy patrons inspired by northern New Mexico helped establish Santa Fe as a center for contemporary American arts and modern forward political and social thought.

Santa Fe’s history is as complex as the city itself, threaded with violence and conquest, culture and civilization, notable clashes and peaceful coexistence.  The multiple traditions of “The City Different” contribute to its striking diversity and foster the unique lifestyles of those privileged people who love to call it home.