This blog is something of an act of self indulgence.
I adore living in northern New Mexico. I view it as a deep privilege to be here, to be a part of the culture, to be among the lovely and warm people, and frankly, be able to write about it. So I am.
Roughly half of the posts’ll be on living in New Mexico (thus the name) and the other half on topics outlined below. In that respect, The New Mexico Life blog may seem like naked boosterism, and have no issue with that. It’s a cool place! And if, for some terrible and inexplicable reason, you don’t live here or visit somewhat regularly, I’ll seek to change that. Indulgence No. 1!
On the other end of the content spectrum, I indulge my wonkish, nerdy, and analytical self in evaluating and describing the state of national bond and mortgage markets, real estate trends, and the Santa Fe real estate market, which will be covered at a pretty granular level, to borrow a much-abused business phrase. Indulgence No. 2! Isn’t this fun?
These two types of content, as you might imagine, often intersect. And that meeting is why I think this blog’ll be an interesting exploration.
My first wonkish post uses a research piece published by Freddie Mac as a hopping-off point to look at why the supply of residential property nationwide has contracted so vastly. Entirely nerdy and geeky stuff, but it’s fascinating to examine how it all works. Not everything about real estate markets is “location, location, location.” A reading of that post will show you that the most important factor right now (nationally and in Santa Fe) is monetary policy, monetary policy, monetary policy. We can all thank Jay Powell for that.
I’ll tie it all together for you.
What You Won’t Find Here
There are certain kinds of content I’ll avoid like the plague (not just the regular old plague, but the 1351 plague, which was the whopper):
• Property listings — there are many places for listings. Not here. Unless it’s a house that has particular cultural or historic value, it ain’t gonna be here.
• ‘Rah rah’ circusy stuff — The New Mexico Life is aimed at entertaining and informing those of us who live here (and those who don’t yet). It’s not cheerleading room for someone’s roofing business.
• Speculation or conjecture — Regarding posts on economic issues, you won’t find articles on the bond, mortgage, or real estate markets which are not backed up by data and which are not well sourced and researched. I’m trained in the highly regulated field of investment management and am reflexively careful about what I write. One learns to be cautious when FINRA’s hovering over your desk, waiting to slap you with a ruler.
What You Will Find Here
• Explorations of the wonderful, positive things about New Mexico, and northern NM in particular.
• An occasional post about economic, educational, or governmental issues within New Mexico.
• Articles on the bond and mortgage markets, what drives them, and how to better understand them.
• Posts on related national economic developments that may affect on mortgage or real estate markets.
• Insights and data on local real estate markets, tailored to help us all better understand what markets are doing now and what they may do in the near future; the first of these (on bare lot sales in Santa Fe) is already posted.
• Probably a lot of typos.
• Some seriously funky and inventive grammar.
—JWS
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