Business View Civil & Municipal | Volume 2, Issue 8

66 CIVIL AND MUNICIPAL VOLUME 2, ISSUE 8 DEMING, NEW MEX I CO average, with a median home cost of just over $100,000. “We have a very affordable housing market,” Arias-Ward explains. “The community is currently working on plans to help improve the availability of housing. In efforts to attract and retain a solid population base, the city is working with the county to address the need for adequate housing in the heart of our community, near amenities such as Trees Lake, restaurants and retail, and Rio Mimbres Country Club.” When it comes to the workforce, there’s plenty of opportunity for skilled laborers in Deming because southwestern New Mexico is very different from other parts of the country. Arias- Ward acknowledges, “People will commute 60 miles and up to 120 miles a day and not really think anything of it. It only takes two hours to drive 120 miles, versus some of your more metropolitan areas where it takes two hours to go 30 miles. It’s a different geographic landscape that enables us to pull talent from our surrounding areas.” Becoming more metropolitan is not something the administration of Deming is looking to achieve. They have taken an active role in ensuring businesses that come to the area are a good fit for the landscape and atmosphere that the city has to offer. “We really try to attract industry that fits our community,” Arias-Ward says. “The economic development team actively seeks projects and businesses that fit our existing industry clusters and fit our workforce because we don’t want to offer anything that we don’t have. What we do have is open land and Economic and Tourism Development Coordinator, Cassie Arias-Ward