Eco Lifestyle And Home News – March 2022
Dear Friends, Clients, Business Associates and Neighbors,
March marks the 71st edition of of Eco Lifestyle and Home Newsletter produced by Kachina Mountain Realty. We offer Real Estate & Lifestyle news in the email newsletter covering Santa Fe, Taos County and beyond.
In this edition, we offer the following:
- COVID-19 UPDATE
- Lifestyle: Cultivate
- Real Estate Market Update
- Santa Fe Real Estate News
- Taos County Real Estate News
- Home Decor Insights:Colors for 2022
- Sierra Updates!
- Calendar of Event Links for Santa Fe, Taos Ski Valley, Taos County & all around New Mexico
- Entertainment Links for Santa Fe, Taos County & around New Mexico
COVID-19
New Mexico is Opening Up
Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham on February 17, 2022 announced she has lifted the requirement for face coverings to be worn in most indoor spaces, effective immediately.
The indoor mask mandate remains in effect for congregate settings, including hospitals, long-term care facilities and detention facilities. The decision on masking in schools will be left up to governing school bodies, which may elect to keep or suspend masking requirements. An updated public health order, in effect as of Thursday, February 17, can be found here.
The New Mexico Department of Health (NMDOH) announced an enhanced COVID-19 tool kit for a subset of immunocompromised New Mexicans. Among the updated recommendations are increased access to treatments, continued mask wearing, and an additional booster vaccine for severely immunocompromised individuals, transplant recipients, and those in active cancer treatment.
“Hospitalizations and case counts are down, but we need to be mindful of those in our communities at higher risk for severe outcomes associated with COVID-19, including the immunocompromised and those with chronic illnesses,” said Acting NMDOH Cabinet Secretary David R. Scrase, M.D. “We demonstrate our support by recommending additional boosters to those eligible, increasing access to treatments, and calling on all New Mexicans to respect that many will continue to wear masks indoors.”
Please be mindful that many people who have been fully vaccinated may have underling health issues such as pulmonary, respiratory and immune issues, therefore they should still take precaution in wearing masks, as well as continue with social distancing.
What you can do
Get a COVID-19 vaccine as soon as it’s available to you.
If you are fully vaccinated, you can return to many activities that you did before the pandemic — without wearing a mask, except where required by a rule or law. However, if you are in an area with substantial or high transmission of new cases in the past week, the CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public.
If you haven’t had the COVID vaccine, you can take many steps to reduce your risk of infection.
What We Know
- COVID-19 vaccines are effective at preventing COVID-19 disease, especially severe illness and death.
- COVID-19 vaccines reduce the risk of people spreading COVID-19.
- The Delta Variant is more infectious.
What We’re Still Learning:
- How effective are the vaccines against variants of the virus that causes COVID-19?
- Early data show the vaccines masks work against some variants but could be less effective against others.
- How well the vaccines protect people with weakened immune systems, including people who take immuno-suppressive medications.
- How long COVID-19 vaccines can protect people?
As we know more, CDC will continue to update our recommendations for both vaccinated and unvaccinated people.
Want to learn more about these recommendations? Read our expanded Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People.
Resources & Links:
CORONA VIRUS
| Santa Fe Information: | New Mexico Information: |
| Santa Fe Information » | |
| https://www.santafenewmexican.com » | https://www.hhs.gov |
| Taos Information: | US Centers for Disease Control: |
| https://www.taosnews.com » | https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/index.html» |
| https://holycrossmedicalcenter.org» | https://www.coronavirus.gov |
| https://www.taoscounty.org» | https://www.epa.gov |
Lifestyle
We must cultivate our own garden to foster growth. When you cultivate happiness, love & kindness, it gives you clarity & compassion for all beings.
What do you want in your life? How do you want to live? What is important to you?
No matter what your answer is, it all comes down to 3 things: mental happiness, physical happiness, and ease of well-being. If you want financial stability, good health, love, the ability to travel, time with friends, time for making art etc… The answers revolve around happiness and ease of well-being.
But how do we succeed in reaching our goals? It starts with cultivation. It takes work, actively engaging in taking action: active learning, active thinking, active analyzing, active searching… If this all sounds like work, it is. Cultivating anything, takes ones active participation and it takes practice, tenacity, & intention.
To help one on the road to cultivate ones desires and reach ones goals, here are some steps to take, not just read, but to actively engage in discovering (cultivating) the answers.
- Visualize yourself in 5 years from now. What do you see for yourself? What do you see yourself surrounded with? What do you see yourself doing, being, feeling?
- What are you afraid of, right now?
- What are you willing to do to stay true to who you are or who you want to be?
- What areas of your life are in sync with what you want?
- What areas in your life do you wish to change?
- What do you wish you were doing that would make you happier?
- What kinds of problem solving makes you feel successful?
- What makes you unique?
- What are your values?
- Who are some of the people you admire and what are their characteristics that you admire?
- What are some of the commonalities in the people that you admire?
- What are your qualities that others would admire, if they knew you?
Creating a life worth living takes cultivation. Learning, solving problems, active participation, an eagerness to learn, to grow, to dream, to imagine, to make mistakes, and to fail. It’s not whether you get knocked down, it’s whether you get back up. Cultivation takes nurturing, learning, growing.
I am committed to cultivating kindness, compassion, understanding, wisdom, success, prosperity, good health and above all love. It takes practice; practice over and over and over again, and again. I think by the time I really “get it”, I will be on my deathbed and see the “light”. And then it is over until it starts again. The merry-go round keeps on turning. Cultivating is an endless process.
Thank you for reading our newsletter & feel free to pass it on to other kindred spirits. ~ Dianne McKenzie & Sierra
Real Estate Market Update
Santa Fe has more buyers than homes for sale. Mortgage rates will play a critical role in the coming year. Mortgage rates have reached their highest levels since April 2020. Given the two previous years’ appreciation and the potential for higher interest rates, now might be a good time to evaluate your real estate value and adjust your strategy and thinking as necessary.
At the end of 2020, we thought that the market might stabilize, but 2021 proved us wrong. The rate of change in our real estate market has been hard to quantify but here we have some standout numbers: an increase of nearly 12.5% in the number of sales and a huge increase of 32% in total sales volume over an already record-setting 2020. Santa Fe is a popular destination for many Buyers. We saw continued interest from major metro areas with inbound buys coming from Los Angeles, Dallas, Denver, Las Vegas and Seattle. We expect this type of demand to continue.
For people who are looking to place their home on the market for sale, there are many important things that homeowners should focus on to make their home more sellable, thus get the highest price for their property. One of the key elements to help ensure the marketability of a home is the home’s aesthetic appearance and whether it is in good repair.
Santa Fe Real Estate News
Aldea Real Estate Stats
2022 Stats: Sold, Pending, Listed
SOLD: 1 Homes, DOM 0 | 0 Lots, DOM 0
PENDING: 4 Homes | 1 Lots
LISTED: 0 Homes, Avg | 1 Lots, Avg $90,000
Aldea de Santa Fe consists of 345 acres, with 205 acres of perpetual open space with 13 miles of walking trails, basketball & tennis courts, community center, (which offers yoga classes, exercise equipment & gathering space for events), a local cafe, superbly located in the high-value northwest corridor of Santa Fe County, with easy access to Highway 599, all just 10 minutes from downtown Santa Fe.
The highest 2021 priced home sold in Aldea, on the market 1 day with an offer, closed in 37 days. 3,00sqft, sold at $366.67 a sqft. for $1,100,000. The highest priced home that sold so far in Aldea for 2022 sold for $1,100,000, on the market 0 days with an offer, closed in 25 days, 2,778sqft, $396.25sqft.
Currently there are no homes listed for sale.
Pending:
Las Campanas Real Estate Stats
2022 Stats: Sold, Pending, Listed
SOLD: 7 Homes, DOM 34 | 1 Lots, DOM 1,251
PENDING: 28 Homes | 5 Lots
LISTED: 22 Homes, Avg $3,117,568 | 33 Lots, Avg $254,000
There are currently 22 homes for sale in Las Campanas
- 0 Homes under $1,000,000
- 22 Homes over $1,000,000
There are currently 33 Lots for sale in Las Campanas
- 3 Lots under $100,000
- 30 Lots over $100,000
Marketing Properties, Not Just Listing Properties
If you are thinking of selling your property, why not list it with a realtor who will market the property, not just list it in the MLS? By actively marketing your property, the property gets the most exposure to other realtors and to the general public through online blogging, email campaigns & the typical MLS exposure.
Call me, Dianne, 505.603.9300, to discuss your property needs, or for a tour of Lots & Homes in Aldea, Las Campanas and the Santa Fe region.
Taos Office: 575.776.7576
Visit the website for Santa Fe information: RealEstatePropertiesSantaFe.com
Visit the Kachina Mountain Realty company main website: KachinaMountainRealty.com
Taos Real Estate News
2022 Stats: Sold, Pending, Listed
*SOLD: 33 Homes, DOM 130 | 13 Lots, DOM 238
*PENDING: 90 Homes | 59 Lots
*LISTED: 28 Homes, Avg $752,378 | 173 Lots, Avg $247,743
* Areas tracked:
Lower North, Upper North, West North, Town of Taos, Taos Ski Valley, South West, South East
See map for areas »
Taos is very different than Santa Fe in many ways. With a population of 5,763 people and many surrounding neighborhoods, Taos is the 39th largest community in New Mexico. The greater Taos area is made up of several unincorporated areas and neighborhoods that separates out as if they were their own destinations or towns. Unincorporated areas around Taos have distinctive names that represent the ancient traditions of naming a place for a stream or topographic feature. Arroyo Hondo, Arroyo Seco and El Prado are all such places. These are not towns and have no political jurisdiction, they are simply places that help folks zero in on a very specific neighborhood. Within Taos itself are many such neighborhoods that may comprise no more than six “blocks.”
Selling real estate in Taos county is challenging for sellers, buyers and realtors, as the typical closing time for a property averages 90+ days, compared to under 30 days in Santa Fe. I have closed properties in Santa Fe under 20 days. There is a shortage of title companies which the realtors can work with in Taos. The back log of properties waiting to close often creates buyers to back out and leave the sellers in the same cycle for closing when the next offer comes in. Many buyers become frustrated as their lenders charge additional hold fees or back out all together. Below are some statistics that highlight the problem.
Recently, I have received inquiries from out of town buyers who are researching homes in the Taos area. These buyer profiles are looking to live in a safe community, with a country atmosphere, small homes, with flexible spaces.
Buyers are wanting to move to the area, but can’t find the properties that offer amenities that don’t include huge HOA fees. They want walking trails, localized eateries, a small grocery store, community activities and a sense of neighborhood. They are either downsizing their home and retiring or wanting a second home. They are wanting to go smaller, but the quality of their lifestyle and home features are upscale.
“Does such a community even exist?” they ask.
In the coming months, I will be featuring such a community.
If you have been thinking about selling your home, now is probably a good time. Inventory is low and the demand for quality homes is up.
Call our Taos Office: 575.776.7576
Home Decor Insights
Decorating for Spring
Spring is a time of renewal, the season when days are becoming longer and brighten, flowers begin to bloom, spirits lift, and hope springs eternal. It’s also a time when home decorators get a particular type of spring fever that has them beckoning for a deep spring cleaning, and ready for a spring fling to freshen up their home decor. Decorating for spring can be as simple as adding a vase of tulips, a spring garland on the table or mantle, a new pastel wall color, changing to pastel throw pillows, or adding more green. Shake off your winter blues and change up your seasonal decor that will help you celebrate the joys of spring.
Ideas to consider:
- Create a springtime table with a flowering bulb centerpiece in shades of purples and yellows
- Add spring garland & wreaths to your home
- Fill a vase of spring flowers
- Brighten up your space with floral elements like potted foliage, window boxes, and hanging plants. Artificial flowers are great for their longevity, and they look fresh all year round. They are easily stored as well.
- Balsamhill is my go to place for garland & wreaths. https://www.balsamhill.com
For ideas on decorating with spring in mind, check out Pinterest and explore a whole new way to spend your time online and check out my Pinterest page: KachinaRealty Happy pinning!
While you are surfing the “net” check out Flipboard for a variety of news and lifestyle reading.Sierra
CFO, (Chief Fun Officer)
Our 2.11 year old female silver standard poodle
February 1-28, 2022
February started off with snow. It always amazes me how quiet it is when it snows. There is a deep sense of stillness as the snow falls from the sky, collecting on the ground.
I weigh & measure Sierra once a month, so here are her stats as of February 28, 2022: 14″ collar, girth: 24″, height to shoulder: 25″ weight: 33.5 lbs (Sierra has gained .5lbs).
Photos for the Month of February 2022 »
In Celebration of Sierra’s 2nd year »
Sierra’s Videos »
You really need to watch Sierra’s videos as they capture her spirit!
Here is the link to Sierra’s Videos »
Sierra’s 1st video explains who she is and her new role at Kachina Mountain Realty. In Sierra’s 2nd video she talks about Dianne’s role at Kachina Mountain Realty in the era of COVID-19. In Sierra’s 3rd video, Sierra talks about selling and buying real estate during the COVID-19 pandemic. In Sierra’s 4th video she talks about how staying safe in the era of COVID-19.
Sierra’s web page: www.diannemckenzie.com/sierra
More photos will be continually posted on her own web page, so check back monthly, as we chronicle her life with us!
Calendar of Events
New Mexico has long been a center for arts, culture, classes and gourmet food. With such a strong art market, there are hundreds galleries to explore and experience, along with a wide selection of thriving restaurants. Our Museums feature culture, history and traditions of the region and the world. Santa Fe, Taos County and beyond have something scheduled every day & night of the week, all year long.
Santa Fe »
Entertainment
If there’s one thing you can count on when spending time in New Mexico, it’s the treasured experiences and wide selection of entertainment: music venues, great sporting events, theatrical and musical entertainment as well as year-round festivals.
From festivals, music concerts and dance performances to theatrical offerings by local and touring groups, the performing artists work hard to keep its locals and visitors entertained by both New Mexico performers and acclaimed stars from around the world.
Santa Fe »
About Kachina Mountain Realty
I am passionate about real estate development. I consider myself a “Dream Maker”, and strive to help my clients manifest their dreams and lifestyle goals.
I believe that, “…the dreams which accompany all human actions should be nurtured by the places in which people live and work”.
To promote this possibility, I encourages my clients to develop and share their dreams and lifestyle goals as part of the process of selling, buying or investing in property.
I have over thirty years of business experience as an executive producer, web architect, social media marketer, business developer, architecture assistant, real estate marketing developer and real estate consultant.
I am a licensed real estate qualifying broker for Kachina Mountain Realty & an accredited ACRE® real estate consultant. I have worked in the Santa Fe & Taos real estate market for years. I specialize in working with buyers and sellers who are looking for a solid real estate investment.
Contact me, Dianne McKenzie, for your real estate transactions & let me help you manifest your dreams!
I am readily available by cell phone, text, (505.603.9300) & email. I return calls promptly, seven days a week!
Taos Office: 575.776.7576
Dianne & Sierra
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