Santa Fe is expensive and cold. If you want to live in NM then look at Las Cruces or Alamogordo. If I were in your shoes I’d go to Southern Arizona and never see snow again.

My parents want to retire in the same region, around the Mesa. Arizona area. I hear it is very nice, only rains a couple times a year, and the seafood is dirt cheap. I’d say it’s a great place to retire cause you can be outside all the time and you don’t have to tend to a lawn as most “yards” are either just dirt or rocks.

If you are wealthy it is a fine idea.

You might first take a look at my town.
Ruidoso, NM
It is a third of the cost. Beautiful mountains, homes, and not touristy.
Santa Fe is now crowded and touristy