The Free New Mexican has this rare report from Santa Fe. "Santa Fe homes are overpriced all right, but the excess is nowhere near places such as Naples, Fla., or Salinas, Calif., according to a study. In fact, Santa Fe’s overvaluation is slightly lower than Farmington’s."

"Santa Fe real-estate agent Alan Ball, who is a board member of the Santa Fe Association of Realtors, doesn’t think there’s much to worry about when it comes to overpriced homes in Santa Fe. 'I said previously there’s no out-of-control price appreciation, and it’s still true,' he said. 'It’s even more solid and true than before.'"

"Richard Mares, owner of Mares Realty, agreed that real-estate prices are high in Santa Fe, but he doesn’t believe they’ve gone up any more than can be expected. 'In Santa Fe, we don’t have the peaks and valleys we see elsewhere,' he said. 'It’s pretty much steady as she goes. I keep reading about real-estate busts elsewhere, but it’s never going to happen here.'"

"The study showed the price for a single-family Santa Fe home in the first quarter of 2006 was $267,900, compared with $246,000 in the first quarter of 2005. That’s an increase of 9 percent. Another study had somewhat more sobering information to offer, it indicated New Mexico ranked 12th in a list of house-price appreciation by state for the 12-month period ended March 31. The state’s price rose by 15.88 percent."

"Santa Fe housing prices aren’t negative, of course, but they aren’t charging ahead, either, Ball said. 'A fractional increase is normal,' he said. 'Some huge jump would be very scary for me.'"

"Any rapid price increase, similar to what happened in housing booms in Phoenix and Denver, would be unwelcome in Santa Fe. 'Developers here don’t build more than they can sell,' he said. Developers would build more than they do now, but the City Council 'controls everything,' Mares said."

"In other cities, municipal government helps with infrastructure, which lowers the cost of development for home builders. Not in Santa Fe, Mares said. 'Unless we do it any differently, high home prices 'are always going to be the case,' he said."

"As for high-end homes, they may not be drastically overpriced, but they tend to stay on the market for months because there are so many of them for sale, Mares said. 'Buyers have a lot to choose from.'"