New Mexico Housing Market: Home Prices, Rent and Affordability
The typical New Mexico home is worth $318,241, up 1.7% over the past year and up 25.9% over five years, 13.7% below the national $368,697 (Zillow, latest release). That ranks #31 of 50 on price. A 20%-down mortgage runs $1,637 a month and takes about $83,498 of income; the median New Mexico household earns $57,488, $26,010 short.
In Albuquerque, the state's largest metro, typical rent is $1,499 a month against a $1,800 principal-and-interest payment on the typical home, so renting is $301 a month cheaper before taxes, insurance and maintenance. The market is cool: 23.7% of listings cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 60 days (national 53), and for-sale inventory is up 3.6% from a year ago.
All figures are Zillow Research's published numbers for August; median household income is from the Census Bureau. How the data works → · Home prices in all 50 states →
New Mexico Housing by the Numbers
How much does a house cost in New Mexico? The typical home is worth $318,241, the median sale price is $350,483 and the median list price $399,000. The six figures below describe the market this month, each with the national comparison.
How Have New Mexico Home Prices Changed?
The typical New Mexico home value every month since 2000, with the national typical home as a dashed line. Values rose 1.7% over the past year, are up 25.9% over five years, up 80.0% over ten, and unchanged since January 2000.
Is It Cheaper to Rent or Buy in New Mexico?
Two direct answers from the Zillow data. Rent versus buy sets typical asking rent in Albuquerque, the state's largest metro, against the mortgage payment on the typical home there, since Zillow publishes rents by metro rather than by state. The affordability gap is the income needed to buy the typical New Mexico home minus what the median household actually earns.
Rent vs. buy · Albuquerque, NM
The payment excludes property tax (0.74% of value in New Mexico), insurance and maintenance, all of which push the cost of owning higher; renting builds no equity. If values kept rising at the past five years' pace (25.9%), equity would narrow that gap over a long stay.
Affordability gap · #35 of 50
A $1,637 monthly payment takes 34.2% of the median New Mexico household's income before property tax and insurance; lenders generally cap total housing costs near 28–31%. Full budget for your household →
Is New Mexico a Buyer's or a Seller's Market?
Market temperature is our label from three Zillow signals compared with the national market: the share of listings with a price cut, days from listing to pending (days on market), and whether homes for sale are up from a year ago. New Mexico is cool: it leans toward buyers: two of the three market signals point cooler than the national market.
Median sale price $350,483 against a median list price of $399,000, so the typical home closes 12.2% below asking.
Where the New Mexico market is heading
Compared with a year ago, two of the three signals point looser, in buyers' favor: the share of listings with a price cut is down 0.9 points from a year ago to 23.7%, homes take 6 days longer to go pending than a year ago (60 now), and the number of homes for sale is up 3.6%. The typical home value rose 1.7% over the same period and is at an all-time high. We publish no forecasts: these are Zillow's current-month readings, not a prediction of where New Mexico home prices go next.
Home Values and Rents in New Mexico Cities
Zillow publishes a city-level home value or rent for 19 of the New Mexico cities we track. The most expensive is Santa Fe ($581,279) and the cheapest Portales ($138,873). Click a city for its full profile.
| City | Population | Home value | 1 yr | 5 yr | Rent | Rent 1 yr | Value ÷ income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albuquerque | 560,283 | $345,503 | +1.6% | ||||
| Las Cruces | 114,891 | $290,170 | -0.7% | ||||
| Rio Rancho | 110,660 | $361,320 | +0.6% | ||||
| Santa Fe | 89,157 | $581,279 | +0.8% | ||||
| Roswell | 47,823 | $176,603 | +1.1% | ||||
| Farmington | 46,339 | $289,574 | +7.1% | ||||
| Hobbs | 39,887 | $216,560 | +3.8% | ||||
| Clovis | 38,153 | $164,546 | +1.0% | ||||
| Carlsbad | 31,813 | $256,596 | +2.2% | ||||
| Alamogordo | 31,063 | $223,281 | -2.9% | ||||
| Gallup | 21,333 | $221,673 | -1.9% | ||||
| Los Lunas | 17,932 | $331,123 | +3.0% | ||||
| Sunland Park | 17,085 | $226,688 | +1.1% | ||||
| Chaparral | 16,642 | $228,579 | -2.1% | ||||
| Deming | 14,735 | $159,235 | +4.6% | ||||
| Los Alamos | 13,471 | $581,096 | -0.9% | ||||
| Las Vegas | 13,120 | $238,186 | +9.9% | ||||
| Artesia | 12,555 | $249,252 | +3.5% | ||||
| Portales | 12,023 | $138,873 | +0.6% |
Home value and rent are Zillow's city-level indexes; population and median household income are Census ACS. Cities without a Zillow index are omitted. All New Mexico cities ranked →
How New Mexico Compares With Nearby States
The West states closest to New Mexico on price. Each card links to that state's housing page; the compare link puts the two states side by side on every category.
More on New Mexico
New Mexico dashboard
→Overall rank and grade, every category score, taxes, utilities, safety, schools and all tracked cities.
What you'd keep in New Mexico
→Take-home after housing, taxes, childcare, utilities and groceries for your household and income.
Who is moving to New Mexico
→IRS migration data: where new residents come from, where leavers go, and what both groups earn.
New Mexico Housing Market FAQ
What is the average house price in New Mexico?
$318,241 is the typical New Mexico home value according to the latest Zillow Research release of the Zillow Home Value Index, which tracks homes in the middle third of the market. The median sale price was $350,483 and the median list price $399,000. That makes New Mexico the #31 most expensive state; the national typical home is worth $368,697.
Are home prices dropping in New Mexico?
No. The typical New Mexico home value rose 1.7% over the past year and is at an all-time high. Over five years it is up 25.9% and over ten years up 80.0%. Nationally, values rose 1.2% over the year.
How have New Mexico home prices changed over the past 1, 5 and 10 years?
+1.7% over one year, +25.9% over five years and +80.0% over ten years for the typical New Mexico home value, per the latest Zillow Research release; the national figures are +1.2%, +20.3% and +77.9%. Since January 2000 the typical New Mexico home is unchanged. The monthly chart above shows the full series against the national line.
Will the New Mexico housing market crash?
We publish no forecasts, so this page cannot answer that; it can show the current readings and the historical worst case. Right now the typical New Mexico home value is at an all-time high after it rose 1.7% over the past year; 23.7% of listings have cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 60 days (national 53), and inventory is up 3.6% from a year ago, per Zillow Research. The largest decline in Zillow's monthly series for New Mexico was 16.4% from December 2007 to February 2012, and values took 87 months to regain that peak.
Is it a good time to buy a house in New Mexico?
The New Mexico market is cool right now, which means it leans toward buyers: two of the three market signals point cooler than the national market. 23.7% of listings cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 60 days (national 53), and for-sale inventory is up 3.6% from a year ago. Affordability is the constraint: buying the typical home takes $83,498 of income, $26,010 more than the median household earns. Whether the timing is right also depends on mortgage rates and how long you plan to stay.
Is New Mexico a buyer's or seller's market?
New Mexico leans toward buyers. Fewer listings are cutting prices than the national average (23.7% vs. 26.4%), homes take 60 days to go pending (national 53), and the number of homes for sale is up 3.6% from a year ago at 9K listings. Two of those three signals point toward buyers.
What is the average rent in New Mexico?
In Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest metro, the typical asking rent is $1,499 a month, up 1.5% over the past year and up 25.2% over five years, per the Zillow Observed Rent Index. The national typical rent is $1,948. Among New Mexico cities we track, rents range from $1,014 to $2,541 a month.
Is it cheaper to rent or buy in New Mexico?
Renting is cheaper month to month in Albuquerque, New Mexico's largest metro. Typical rent is $1,499 and the principal-and-interest payment on the typical home with 20% down is $1,800, a difference of $301 a month in favor of renting. The payment excludes property tax (0.74% of value in New Mexico), insurance and maintenance, and renting builds no equity, so the full answer depends on how long you stay.
How much income do you need to buy a house in New Mexico?
About $83,498 a year, using Zillow's assumptions of 20% down at current mortgage rates and a payment of no more than 30% of income. The median New Mexico household earns $57,488, so the typical household is $26,010 short. That is the #35 smallest affordability gap of the 50 states. The monthly payment of $1,637 equals 34.2% of the median household's income.
Where are homes cheapest and most expensive in New Mexico?
Among the New Mexico cities we track with Zillow data, the most expensive typical home is in Santa Fe ($581,279) and the cheapest in Portales ($138,873). Also at the top: Los Alamos ($581,096), Rio Rancho ($361,320), and Albuquerque ($345,503). The city table above lists every tracked New Mexico city with its value, one-year change and rent.
How does New Mexico compare with nearby states?
In the West, the closest comparisons on price are Wyoming ($371,854, up 1.4% in a year), Alaska ($398,663, up 5.7% in a year), and Arizona ($417,990, down 1.1% in a year). New Mexico's typical home is $318,241, up 1.7%. On affordability, New Mexico ranks #35 of 50 versus Wyoming at #30, Alaska at #29, and Arizona at #32.
How current is the New Mexico housing data?
Every figure on this page comes from Zillow Research, which publishes state, metro and city data free each month for the prior month; the latest month shown is August. Median household income is from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. We rebuild the page from the newest Zillow files as they are released.
Home values, rents, mortgage payments, income needed, inventory, price cuts, days to pending and sale and list prices are published by Zillow Research and shown as released, with attribution. Median household income and city populations are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Home prices and housing markets in all 50 states →