Thoughts on Albuquerque?

[Bobby Larsen]

I’ve been spending a lot of time visiting and researching the Albuquerque market. I’m curious to hear others thoughts on the market.

My take is that it went through a lost decade and still to this day hasn’t recovered from the financial crisis. It was experience 1-2% annual population growth since the 1950s but 0.3% annually since the GFC. Budget cuts led to the police force being reduced and as a result crime spiked.

However, I’ve seen very promising signs over the past couple years. They’re aggressively hiring police officers, attracting businesses, and signing up projects left and right to revitalize downtown, old town, and the university district. With prices skyrocketing in Phoenix and Denver, cost of living in Albuquerque must be able to draw people and the weather seems pretty nice. These are all good signs but turning around a metropolitan area is a slow process and takes a lot of work.

That’s just my ramble on the market, I’m interested in how other people see the market.