Reviews & Comments
Portales, NM
re: Low key, good quality of life - 11/18/2007 -
6/11/2008A lady I know just bought a small 2 bedroom house with a loft and hardwood floors near downtown Portales for $63,000! This is impossible back in California in 2008. She moved here to take a job near family and with the cheap mortgage can afford a lot more travel than before.
Portales, NM
What Crime? -
11/21/2007I've been here a year and I don't see the crime. The gangbangers just are not here like back in Cali, or in Clovis. There are a few cruisers with boom boxes but most look like bored mexican nationals. I think the paper lists reports like "suspicious car reported in neighborhood" as the big stuff in Portales.
Portales, NM
What Crime? -
11/21/2007I've been here a year and I don't see the crime. The gangbangers just are not here like back in cali, or in Clovis.
Portales, NM
A Nice Place to Live -
11/18/2007Portales is a real family town with a large university and reasonable home prices. The city is a compact 5 square mile oasis of neighborhoods and commerce in the heart of the southern High Plains. At 4,000 feet, both winter and summer are mild, although the sun shines 300 days a year.
While the "big shopping" is in Lubbock, 90 minutes away, Portales has two of everything. For more expensive fast food and mall offerings, the dumpy city of Clovis is just 20 minutes north.
One key fact: Portales has 39 houses of worship and two bars, quite amazing considering there are 4,000 Eastern New Mexico University students in a town of 12,000 people.
The historic town square and compact shady neighborhoods host kids playing on front lawns. The downtown area will be undergoing major renovation, and so modest early 1900s bungalows a few blocks from the square can be had for under $100,000. Most of the newer neighborhoods are in the south part of the city, and it's hard to find any home listed for over $250K (2007).
The prehistoric grasslands and bird habitat of Oasis State Park are just a few miles north of town, and the ski slopes of Ruidoso are lest than three hours southwest.
Portales, NM
Low key, good quality of life -
11/18/2007Portales, New Mexico was rated "9th best small town for quality of life" by bizjournals in 2007. Portales has 4,000 college students and a historic downtown. It is surrounded by picturesque High Plains dairies and farms. The beautiful Eastern new Mexico University hosts two PBS stations and any number of continued education classes, from yoga to accounting. Winters are mild with just a little snow and summers cool down well at night. Despite a bit of shabbiness here or there, neighborhoods are generally tree-lined and clean, with home prices among the lowest in the region for a quality small town.