Voted one of the best small towns in the United States by different publications, Santa Fe, NM, is a fantastic place to live and retire. Combining great weather with a small-town atmosphere, excellent food and culture, and beautiful architecture, Santa Fe looks like a fairytale location. It is also a favorite place for many Americans.
What’s it like to retire in Santa Fe, and what are the best communities to retire in? Here are our top picks:
- Brookdale Senior Living
- The Montecito
- El Castillo
- Ventana de Vida Senior
- Vista Living Care
- Las Soleras Senior Living
- Pacifica Senior Living
- Casa Villita Apartments
- The Legacy
- Encino Villa
Is Santa Fe a Good Place to Live?
Santa Fe is an incredibly popular place to visit, receiving around 2 million tourists every year. This might drive prices up a little, but it makes it an excellent destination for young people wanting to go out and enjoy dining out and a diverse culture. The overall laid-back atmosphere of Santa Fe, along with its great weather, make it an ideal place for a family or a single person. The city has a large intellectual community and a lively music scene, too.
Santa Fe is also a good location for lovers of the outdoors: it’s well-known for excellent mountain biking and hiking trails, and it has lots of other surprises within reach. Count on kayaking, fishing, visiting hot springs… even skiing in winter.
Is Santa Fe a Good Place to Retire?
Santa Fe has been voted one of the best places to retire, not just in the US but worldwide. This is thanks to the city’s proximity to natural parks, great climate, and overall relaxed and inclusive atmosphere. The retirement scene in Santa Fe is so famous it’s led to the city being known as the “Land of Enchantment.”
Moreover, Santa Fe has one of the best hospitals in the region, the Christus St. Vincent. Finally, its retirement communities are renowned for their friendly staff, great amenities, and altogether being wonderful places to live.
Top Santa Fe Retirement Communities
1. Brookdale Senior Living
This retirement community in Santa Fe offers independent and assisted living options in pueblo-style homes with great views and a range of facilities. Brookdale residents can get help with everyday activities and benefit from a resort-style set of activities and the great climate in the New Mexican desert. You’ll be waking up every day to views of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains while being located close to the heart of Santa Fe, where you can enjoy the city facilities too.
Seniors looking for independent living will have access to apartment homes with a fully catered dining plan and all the community activities and social events. If you opt for assisted living, you will be supported in a range of actions from day-to-day household chores to medication management and coordination with third-party healthcare providers.
2. The Montecito
For a luxurious retirement experience, the Montecito focuses on top-of-the-range resort-style living on a 15-acre campus with independent living apartments and villas, assisted living apartments, and memory care accommodation. The great thing about Montecito is that all these communities are blended together, creating a sense of friendship between all residents. Additionally, the memory care seniors benefit from a Montessori-inspired program of care focusing on maintaining their physical and cognitive abilities.
The Montecito features a salon and spa, a clubhouse, and a fitness center, to address everyone’s tastes in relaxing and keeping fit and active.
3. El Castillo
Another luxurious retirement spot is the aptly named El Castillo. “The Castle” is right at the heart of the city and offers a maintenance-free lifestyle for seniors who want to get the best out of on-site facilities while also retaining the flexibility to go into downtown Santa Fe. They provide independent living options and fully assisted living plans, which can interchange as required.
4. Ventana de Vida Senior
At Ventana de Vida, you can choose from 1- and 2-bedroom apartments with full amenities for rent. They also have a fitness center and a clubhouse on site. This community offers more of a city-living independent feeling as you’ll be living in apartments you can manage yourself fully. You’ll have the advantage of living in a neighborhood full of entertainment, bars, and restaurants, and you can easily commute into the center of Santa Fe, as well. However, this living option is less attractive for those looking for a full community feel with a resort-style arrangement like the ones listed above.
5. Vista Living Care
Specifically set up for residents living with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia, Vista Living Care brings together a range of experts fully attuned to the requirements of seniors with memory care needs. It is made up of three different retirement homes: Sierra Vista, Vista Hermosa, and The Arbors, with the latter being the most experienced freestanding Alzheimer’s and dementia care residence in Las Cruces, south of Santa Fe near the border with Mexico. This is a family-run business where the comfort and care of the residents always come first. Lots of activities and exercises are provided, from art and music to dance and outdoors exercise. The homes are also pet-friendly and pride themselves on offering comfort food “and laughter.”
6. Las Soleras Senior Living
Fully embracing Santa Fe’s tourist side with a direct architectural and stylistic connection to the city’s pueblo-style buildings, Las Soleras Senior Living is a retirement community that puts art at its center. There are art galleries and exhibitions that will delight art lovers and a whole host of activities centered around healthy living and social interaction. Las Soleras also encourages residents to be involved in their community by supporting volunteer programs and local organizations.
You can choose from independent and assisted living housing options, as well as a memory care plan at Las Soleras.
7. Pacifica Senior Living
If you’re looking for a retirement community focused on special care for your everyday needs or memory care, Pacifica Senior Living is ideally located out of the city center in a peaceful yet well-connected space where you can have visitors or travel conveniently. This is a premium community where you can enjoy resort-style living coupled with 24/7 care and assistance with everyday maintenance and anything else you may need. Here, services and amenities include a daily social program, an in-house salon, a fitness center, an arts and crafts center, a bar/pub, and a café/bistro to facilitate casual socializing. All apartments are offered as private accommodation or shared; they are pet-friendly and designed with the comfort of seniors in mind.
Pacifica put a lot of care in their memory care plan, which provides residents with a daily outdoor walking club, art classes, live entertainment, social events, everyday care and assistance, and even escorting to and from meals and events.
8. Casa Villita Apartments
This affordable retirement community in Santa Fe is focused on independent living in stylish apartments with a range of amenities. It is minutes away from downtown shopping and dining while also offering an on-site community center, game room, and library. This is part of a tax credit community, which means that the property was partly financed by federal tax credits, and it is aimed at people making a certain income.
9. The Legacy
This facility to the west of Santa Fe is dedicated to assisted living and memory care for seniors. To provide residents with as independent living as possible, the Legacy employs a suite of assistance options and services they call Concierge Senior Living. With skilled in-house nursing services, lots of activities, and a peaceful neighborhood, retiring at the Legacy looks both comfortable and fun. Not to mention the “culinary excellence” experience: home-cooked fine dining for all residents!
10. Encino Villa
Located on Santa Fe’s outskirts, close to major road networks and local shops and amenities, Encino Villa is one of the housing developments by Monarch Properties, offering affordable rented studios and 1-bedroom apartments for senior living.
It is an independent living community without any organized events and central hubs for activities. However, it allows low-income seniors the opportunity to rent a subsidized apartment in the vicinity of a lively city and with convenient walking distance to shops and farmers’ markets, public transport, etc. An excellent alternative to more expensive resort-style living options for those who don’t need assistance.
Santa Fe Retirement Communities – One of the Most Desirable Communities for Retirement in the US
To review, here are our favorite picks once more:
- Brookdale Senior Living
- The Montecito
- El Castillo
- Ventana de Vida Senior
- Vista Living Care
- Las Soleras Senior Living
- Pacifica Senior Living
- Casa Villita Apartments
- The Legacy
- Encino Villa
With its ideal location, climate, and vibrant art and culture scene, the living and retirement options in Santa Fe are endless. The city has been voted a top tourist destination by various publications for many years. It welcomes tourists from all over the world and people from all walks of life relocating to New Mexico for love of the outdoors, proximity to the mountains, relatively lower living costs, and more.
Retirement communities in Santa Fe NM, meet any combination of requirements and preferences, from homes for sale to rental apartments, for all incomes and medical needs. Choose from one of these for your retirement, and you will not be disappointed.