The Santa Fe suburbs and surrounding area are home to several of the wealthiest towns in New Mexico.
Not long ago, a study analyzed and identified the wealthiest places in Arizona. Continuing with states in the southwest, New Mexico is getting its turn to get analyzed. This study evaluated over 520 cities in the state in order to identify the richest cities in New Mexico. The way in which the cities were evaluated and scored each city’s ranking is detailed below. Read on to find out what the richest city in New Mexico is, plus the top 15 wealthiest cities in the state overall.
What Are the Richest Cities in New Mexico?
In order to assemble a list of the richest cities in New Mexico, several datasets were pulled from the Census Bureau’s 2023 American Community Survey, and a four-factor scoring system was constructed to help identify the wealthiest cities in New Mexico. These were the four datasets:
- Median household income
- Mean (average) household income
- Median home value
- Median property taxes paid
When it comes to Census data, for certain factors its numbers have upper limits. What is meant by that is, for example, for median household income, the Census Bureau has an upper limit of $250,000; any place with a median income above that is simply denoted as “$250,000+”. For median home value, the upper limit is $2,000,000, and anything above that is “$2,000,000+”. Lastly, for median property taxes paid, the upper limit is $10,000, so any amount above that is“$10,000+”. For these reasons, the mean or average household income dataset is critical because the Census Bureau has exact figures for it. All four of these metrics were scored, added up, and then ranked by the cities’ combined scores.
Below you’ll find a table detailing the top 15 richest cities in New Mexico and their respective dollar figures for each metric:
The No. 1 richest city in New Mexico in this ranking is Las Campanas, a golf course community and CDP in Santa Fe County. It only first appeared as a CDP prior to the 2020 census. Las Campanas is west-northwest of Santa Fe, and is home to the golf course The Club at Las Campanas. This place has some serious homes. And it’s actually bigger than one might expect, with 875 households. In Las Campanas, the median household income is $196,023, which is one of the highest in the state. The average household income is much higher, at $261,178. The median home value reported by the Census Bureau is over $1.5 million. Not surprisingly, Las Campanas has the highest property taxes paid in New Mexico, the median being $6,666 per household per year.
The second richest city in New Mexico is Hyde Park. Like Las Campanas, this CDP only just appeared in the 2020 Census. It too is located in Santa Fe County, this time northeast of Santa Fe. This is a somewhat secluded place, which can be accessed by State Road 475, and is made up of a series of streets. It’s much smaller than Las Campanas, with just 129 households. The median household income here isn’t far behind that of Las Campanas, at $182,446. The average household income, though, beats the No. 1 richest city, at $286,089. The median home value is $1.1 million, one of the few places in New Mexico where it exceeds one million. The property taxes paid are high as well, at a median of $5,714 per household.
Coming in as the No. 3 richest city in New Mexico is Paa-Ko. This is yet another CDP that only appeared in the most recent Census in 2020. And like the No. 1 wealthiest city in New Mexico, Paa-Ko is a community centered on a golf course, the Paa-Ko Ridge Golf Club. This place is northeast of Albuquerque, in between the Sandia Peak Ski Area to the west and South Mountain to the east. This place has 311 households, making it over double the size of Hyde Park. The median household income here, however, is markedly higher than in Hyde Park, at $217,946 a year. The average household income is no slouch, being $234,386 per year. The median home value is a bit lower, but at $744,500 is still substantial for a New Mexican city. The property taxes per household is high compared to the state overall, at a median of $4,444, but less than the first two entries on this list.
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