Looking Beyond the Numbers: What Taos' Housing Market Is Telling Us

Housing has become one of the defining conversations in Taos. Whether it's employers struggling to hire because workers can't find a place to live, young families searching for their first home, or longtime residents wondering if they'll be able to stay in the community they love, the effects of today's housing market are being felt across the county.

Those experiences are real, but they also raise an important question: Why has finding housing become so difficult?

The Taos Housing Partnership recently commissioned Site Southwest to perform a Housing Market and Needs Analysis to better understand what's happening beneath the surface. While many of the findings confirm what residents have experienced firsthand, the report also challenges some common assumptions about the local housing market and provides a clearer picture of where the biggest challenges lie.

One of the more surprising findings is that about one-third of the county's housing units are classified as vacant. At first glance, that seems impossible in a community where finding a home or apartment has become increasingly difficult.

The explanation is that most of those homes aren't actually available. Nearly half of the vacant homes are used seasonally or recreationally, while others are undergoing repairs, being held off the market, or are otherwise unavailable for long-term residents. In other words, the housing that appears to exist on paper often isn't housing that local families can actually live in.

That distinction helps explain why the housing market feels much tighter than the numbers alone would suggest.  The report also makes clear that affordability remains one of the community's biggest challenges.

Today, the median sales price of an existing home in Taos County is about $424,500. Newly constructed homes are even further out of reach, with a median sales price of nearly $687,000.

Now compare those prices with local incomes.A typical two-person household earning the county's median income can reasonably afford a home priced around $225,000. That leaves a gap of nearly $200,000 between what the average household can afford and the price of the average existing home. For new construction, that gap grows to more than $450,000.

Those aren't just numbers on a spreadsheet. They help explain why so many teachers, healthcare workers, first responders, tradespeople, hospitality employees, and young families struggle to put down roots in the communities they serve.

The rental market tells a similar story. More than half of renter households in Taos County are considered housing cost burdened, meaning they spend more than 30% of their income on housing. At the same time, available rentals remain scarce, and the units that do come on the market are often priced well above what many local households can afford.

Perhaps the biggest takeaway from the report, however, is that Taos doesn't simply have a housing affordability problem. It has a housing mismatch.

Very little new housing is being built at prices that match local incomes. Instead, new construction is concentrated at the upper end of the market, while more modest homes (the kinds of homes that have historically allowed young families and working households to enter the market) are becoming increasingly difficult to find. Add to that the fact that more than 60% of the county's housing stock is nearly 50 years old, and it's clear why both homebuyers and renters feel like they have fewer options than ever before.

The good news is that the community is beginning to respond.

Several efforts are already underway to increase the supply of housing that better serves local residents. Habitat for Humanity recently had a ground-breaking ceremony that will bring a 3-bedroom home to completion in 2027. The Town continues to build seven new homes at Chamisa Verde, Phase 1.  Phase 2 has entered design and utility infrastructure, including waterlines, sewers, and streets, is expected to begin in late 2026. Este Es Otono is a new development that will provide 35 affordable rental units for seniors over the age of 55, with a preference for veterans.  The development team has received conditional finance commitments and expects to break ground in early 2027. THP has also provided technical assistance to ECOHAB, a local housing non-profit, on an affordable homeownership pilot that will create new affordable energy efficient homes for local buyers. 

At the same time, local governments are exploring how land use policies, public investment, and partnerships can help make future housing developments more attainable. None of these efforts alone will solve Taos' housing challenges. Housing shortages develop over decades, and addressing them takes sustained commitment, collaboration, and investment.

But perhaps the most important contribution of this report is that it moves the conversation beyond anecdotes. It helps explain why the market feels the way it does, where the biggest gaps exist, and why simply waiting for the private market to correct itself is unlikely to produce the housing local residents need.