I've lived in a couple different areas of NM. One being Albuquerque. I enjoyed Albuquerque but they do have some problems. The other being the "shit hole" the other poster was referencing. The majority of the locals didn't have past a 6th grade education and that 6th grade level was not comparable to CT or any northeastern state. A friend was a teacher in that particular town. Her 3rd graders were reading at a 1st grade NM education level. She had also taught 1st graders and would get kids who didn't even known letter sounds. I'm not talking a few kids. I'm talking full on entire classes of kids not able to make letter sounds because this was their first experience with school. At the time they had no kindergarten and no pre school. The lack of funding was astounding. People complain about lack of funding for schools in New England, they have never seen what happens when a state can't fund their schools. The majority of NM is a beautiful state, along with the other states on that list, but they have systemic issues. One may not care if they don't have kids but you should care. An educated society helps all. Those kids will grow up and have to work. Do you really want poorly educated people running the local government or working as aids in elderly homes.