Visit: Las Cruces, New Mexico
Come for the sun, stay for the stars.
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Las Cruces, the second-largest city in New Mexico, isn’t just attracting new residents with an average of 340 days of sunshine per year. Las Cruces has earned a reputation as one of the nation’s top aerospace research, testing, and development hubs. In addition to housing Virgin Galactic's operational center at Spaceport America, this high desert enclave along the Rio Grande hosts major aerospace firms such as Boeing, Honeywell, and NASA.
Las Cruces is also a vital member of the Borderplex region, the largest metropolitan area and economic hub along the US-Mexico border. To keep up with its growing population, the city of about 100,000 is in the process of converting large swaths of land to new and affordable housing.
Named one of the best places to retire in 2024, the cost of living, particularly housing and groceries, in Las Cruces is significantly less than the national average.
Just north of Las Cruces is the nation’s first commercial space facility, Spaceport America.
Las Cruces, El Paso, and Ciudad Jurárez make up the Borderplex region, the seventh-largest manufacturing center in North America with a population of 2.5 million.
Situated in the Chihuahuan Desert, near White Sands National Park and San Andres National Wildlife Refuge, this New Mexico city offers unique outdoor recreation.
With abundant sunshine, this southwestern city has a growing renewable energy industry, including solar, biofuel, and wind generation.
Photo Credits: Ben LaMarca, R Tyler Gross, Halbergman, Blend Images/Getty Images, Spaceport America
