Tale of Two Cities

My son has been living in Denver, downtown, for 18 years. In that time he's seen the city grow explosively and the initial allure turn into traffic, congestion and ridiculously high prices. In his time Denver's metropolitan area population has gone from about 2 million to 3 million. (The entire state of New Mexico has just 2 million people.)

He thinks he might want to leave. 

Unthinkable at one time -- he loved the Colorado Front Range lifestyle and the city bars and music scene and nightlife. He has thrived on the outdoor opportunities and mountain getaways. He has a tiny house and urban garden that he's made into a sweet home.

The highway near his house

Recently he asked me to show him neighborhoods in Santa Fe. He might want to move here. What?

I thought he might be reacting to Jim's declining mobility and our more restricted lives now, wanting to be nearer aging parents. Denver is 6 hours away by car and his brother and family are a plane ride away. Jim's daughter lives on the other coast 2,000 miles away. It's a concern.

But he convinced me leaving Denver is logical for him. He wants more house for his money -- he'd still only get a small place but he could get more here. 

He'd like to go skiing and mountain hiking in winter without spending hours in bumper to bumper traffic to get to the mountains.

He wants easier access to challenging biking (his idea of a nice bike ride when he came to visit this summer was an 80 mile tour around Taos with a 6,000 foot elevation climb). 

Open roads and mountain climbs for biking are all around Santa Fe

He doesn't care any more about city nightlife, he has apparently aged out of that. I told him the singles dating scene was not great and lots of retirees live here. He shrugged. 

What he wants is to live in a quieter place that has its own special identity. Santa Fe, with its long multi cultural history, art, quirkiness, scenery, oddballs and individuality has that. Denver and its endless generic growing suburbs doesn't. 

But we're talking about two very different living situations.

Two cities - Denver (3 million) / Santa Fe (100,000)

I took him around to various neighborhoods he could afford (barely) if he did decide to move here some day. His job situation would have to be flexible and interest rates would have to come down, but some day. 

Of all the areas in Santa Fe he saw, the one clear winner for him was here. I mean right here. In our development, which has smaller houses that would suit him, close shopping, easy outdoor and mountain access, and very quiet streets. 

Could I live a block from my son? Could he live in this small (very small) city after a place like Denver?  Would this ever really happen? 

This has all kind of thrown me for a loop.