Best Places To Retire In 2024: New Mexico Cities on the List
May 23, 2024
Barry and Susan Mendelson raised their two children in a century-old three-story, six-bedroom Prairie-style home near Lake Michigan in Milwaukee, Wisc. They knew they wanted to move someplace warmer and cheaper for retirement. But it took them six years of looking and planning before they settled, this past March, into a newly built four-bedroom single-story home about 1,500 miles to the southwest in Las Cruces, N.M., with grand views of the rugged Organ Mountains. “We wanted to be thoughtful about it,” says Barry, 74, who now works from home as CEO of Capital Market Consultants Inc., a firm he founded that provides investment research and asset management to financial advisors. Susan, 66, completely retired this year from her job as the senior director of donor relations at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. They reckon their lifestyle in the Mesilla Valley of the Chihuahuan Desert 50 miles north of El Paso, Texas, is at least 20% cheaper than it was in Milwaukee, with big savings on utility costs and real estate taxes. After selling their Milwaukee spread for more than $1 million, they could have easily bought their new Las Cruces home without a mortgage, but took out a small one to free up cash for contingencies.