Alamogordo, New Mexico
Area Profile
31,307 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Alamogordo, in Otero County.
How this area ranks
Data updated · 13 sourcesEmployment conditions sit below most comparable cities measured: unemployment is 5.8% and the Opportunity signal places Alamogordo in the bottom 3%.
In the public schools here, 25% of students met the state standard in mathematics, with 14.4 students for every teacher.
Residential permitting has slowed: 6 units authorized over the past twelve months, against 8 the year before. The permit count and 1 other measure here are published for Otero County, NM, which contains Alamogordo, rather than for Alamogordo alone.
These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.
At a glance
Jobs & opportunity
Unemployment of 5.8% — higher than in all but 9% of the 4,226 measured US cities.
Unemployment has been rising for 4 consecutive months, most recently 5.8%.
Employment fell 2.5% over the past year, to 11,147 employed residents.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Income of new arrivalsOtero County, NM’s figurefiling years 2022–2023 | $47,670 | 5th percentileof 4,101 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Income of those who leftOtero County, NM’s figurefiling years 2022–2023 | $54,946 | 15th percentileof 4,101 | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Median household income ±$2,9932024 ACS 5-Year | $55,952 | Bottom 33%of 29,223 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Per capita income ±$1,9872024 ACS 5-Year | $32,590 | Bottom 46%of 31,420 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Poverty rate ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 17.0% | Bottom 29%of 31,773 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Average commute ±1.5 min2024 ACS 5-Year | 19.6 min | Top 16%of 31,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Bachelor's degree or higher ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 25.5% | Top 38%of 31,919 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Drove alone to work ±4%2024 ACS 5-Year | 80.2% | 61st percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| EmploymentJuly 2026 | 11,147 | Bottom 4%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (3 years)July 2026 | −2.1% | Bottom 23%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Employment change (year over year)July 2026 | −2.5% | Bottom 13%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor forceJuly 2026 | 11,835 | 4th percentileof 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Labor force participation ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 74.8% | Bottom 39%of 31,513 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Public transit to work ±0.4%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.4% | 79th percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Unemployment change (year over year)July 2026 | +0.9% | Bottom 4%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Unemployment rateJuly 2026 | 5.8% | Bottom 9%of 4,226 | July 2026 |
| Worked from home ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 7.3% | 48th percentileof 31,433 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
Unemployment rate
Median household income, successive ACS releases
25% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 37% in reading, across the schools here that reported results.
There are 14.4 students for every full-time teacher across 10 public schools, fewer than in most measured places.
| School | District | Students | Per teacher | Math | Reading |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Alamogordo High | ALAMOGORDO | 1,440 | 15.0 | 17% | 39% |
| Chaparral Middle | ALAMOGORDO | 513 | 13.9 | 23% | 36% |
| Mountain View Middle | ALAMOGORDO | 479 | 14.5 | 23% | 39% |
| Desert Star Elementary | ALAMOGORDO | 466 | 15.5 | 34% | 36% |
| Sunset Hills Elementary | ALAMOGORDO | 436 | 13.6 | 27% | 27% |
| Sierra Elementary | ALAMOGORDO | 284 | 17.8 | 47% | 52% |
| Buena Vista Elementary | ALAMOGORDO | 222 | 14.8 | 32% | 37% |
| Yucca Elementary | ALAMOGORDO | 179 | 11.2 | 32% | 37% |
| North Elementary | ALAMOGORDO | 159 | 10.6 | 17% | 22% |
| Stepping Stones Preschool | ALAMOGORDO | 114 | 12.7 | — | — |
| Nm School for the Blind and Visually Impaired | NM SCHOOL FOR THE BLIND AND VISUALLY IMPAIRED | 45 | 3.8 | — | — |
| Academy Del Sol Alt. | ALAMOGORDO | 0 | — | 3% | 8% |
100.0% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with, not how the schools perform, so it is shown and not scored.
Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against New Mexico’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.
Housing & affordability
How it’s calculated — housing affordability →The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for the non-metropolitan parts of New Mexico is up 37% over five years, and up 1.3% over the last year. It follows repeat sales of the same homes, so it measures price change rather than which homes happened to sell.
Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $1,133 a year in real estate taxes, about 0.66% of the median home value.
HUD’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom, set near the 40th percentile of recent new leases, is $973, some 8% above the $902 tenants already here pay.
At HUD’s Fair Market Rent of $973 a month for a two-bedroom, keeping rent to 30% of income takes a household income of about $38,900 a year, about 70% of the median household income here of $55,952.
The typical renter household here spends 30% of its income on rent, at the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $902 a month.
A median home at $172,900 costs 2.4 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $72,974, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.
The figures above are measured against Alamogordo’s median household income of $55,952, which describes the place rather than you. Enter your own and the ratio is recomputed against it. It stays in this browser.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Home price change (1 year)the non-metropolitan parts of New Mexico’s figure2026 Q2 | +1.3% | 26th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (5 years)the non-metropolitan parts of New Mexico’s figure2026 Q2 | +36.8% | 35th percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price change (10 years)the non-metropolitan parts of New Mexico’s figure2026 Q2 | +75.6% | 21st percentileof 4,154 | 2026 Q2 |
| Home price to income ±0.22024 ACS 5-Year | 2.4 | Top 46%of 26,815 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Homeownership rate ±4%2024 ACS 5-Year | 61.6% | 23rd percentileof 31,717 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Housing units ±3602024 ACS 5-Year | 15,478 | 96th percentileof 32,177 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Market rent, one bedroomFY2026 | $792 | Top 7%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, three bedroomFY2026 | $1,353 | Top 10%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Market rent, two bedroomFY2026 | $973 | Top 5%of 4,072 | FY2026 |
| Median gross rent ±$662024 ACS 5-Year | $902 | Top 42%of 23,120 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median home value ±$8,3122024 ACS 5-Year | $172,900 | 46th percentileof 29,111 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Median property taxes ±$932024 ACS 5-Year | $1,133 | 28th percentileof 26,440 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Owner household income ±$6,3412024 ACS 5-Year | $72,974 | Bottom 42%of 27,548 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Property tax rate ±0.06%2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.66% | 25th percentileof 20,543 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Rent as a share of income ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year | 29.8% | Bottom 42%of 22,950 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Seasonal and second homes ±1122024 ACS 5-Year | 124 | 91st percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Second homes2024 ACS 5-Year | 0.8% | 60th percentileof 31,895 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacancy rate2024 ACS 5-Year | 13.9% | 76th percentileof 31,769 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Vacant housing units ±3722024 ACS 5-Year | 2,278 | 98th percentileof 32,330 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures.
Growth & development
How it’s calculated — growth →Development Momentum
An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.
Population has grown 2% since 2020, reaching 31,667 in 2024.
Population is still rising but the pace is easing: 31,667 residents in 2024, up 0.4% over the year, a smaller gain than the year before.
New construction is predominantly single-family: of 6 units permitted over the past twelve months, none were in buildings of five or more homes. The multifamily share is published for Otero County, NM, which contains Alamogordo, rather than for Alamogordo alone.
Federal tax returns show Otero County, which contains Alamogordo, gained about 0.3% of its residents through moves within the US in the most recent year, counting those who arrived against those who left. Households that moved in reported an average income of $47,670, below the $54,946 of households that moved out.
At 0.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities. The permit rate is published for Otero County, NM, which contains Alamogordo, rather than for Alamogordo alone.
Population, annual estimates
People moving in and out
Where newcomers came from
- El Paso County, TX 570 people · 13% of arrivals
- Doña Ana County, NM 393 people · 8.8% of arrivals
- Lincoln County, NM 156 people · 3.5% of arrivals
- Clark County, NV 142 people · 3.2% of arrivals
- Maricopa County, AZ 113 people · 2.5% of arrivals
Where people who left went
- Doña Ana County, NM 394 people · 9.1% of departures
- El Paso County, TX 390 people · 9.0% of departures
- Clark County, NV 175 people · 4.0% of departures
- Bernalillo County, NM 108 people · 2.5% of departures
- Maricopa County, AZ 102 people · 2.4% of departures
Based on the address on federal tax returns, compared with the same filers a year earlier. It counts people who file, and sees a move only when the address on a return changes. Domestic moves only: people arriving from abroad are left out. This is the figure for Otero County, NM. IRS Statistics of Income, filing years 2022–2023.
The Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey lists only jurisdictions that issue their own permits, and Alamogordo, NM is not one. This is the figure for Otero County, NM, which contains this city.
Weather & climate
6 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 93°F and January a low of 33°F.
Normal annual precipitation is 10.6 inches, including 2.4 inches of snow.
Precipitation
| Metric | Value | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Annual precipitation1991-2020 Normals | 10.6" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Annual snowfall1991-2020 Normals | 2.4" | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average January low1991-2020 Normals | 33°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Average July high1991-2020 Normals | 93°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Comfortable months1991-2020 Normals | 6 | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Seasonal temperature swing1991-2020 Normals | 38°F | 1991-2020 Normals |
Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. How to read climate and air quality.
Physical risk
The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, wildfire and lightning, with inland flooding alone responsible for 62% of it. Lightning is independently rated low or minimal nationally, so this describes how the loss is composed, not how large that hazard is.
Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, lightning, landslide, earthquake, volcanic activity, strong wind, cold wave, hurricane, tornado, coastal flooding, tsunami.
Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.
Below these are deaths rather than offenses, published for the county. The two measure different things and are not comparable with each other.
Alamogordo's police department reported 433 violent offenses per 100,000 residents, higher than most places with a department reporting. Property crime runs at 1,815.
Otero County has a modeled homicide rate of about 6.5 per 100,000 residents a year, because the CDC suppresses counts this small, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.
Firearm deaths of all intents run at 27.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, since the figure counts suicides and accidents as well as homicides.
Drug overdose deaths run at 37.8 per 100,000 residents in Otero County.
Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.
Offenses are reported to the FBI by Alamogordo’s own police department and shown only where it reported every month of the year; a partial year is withheld rather than scaled up. Reported crime is what police recorded, which is not the same as what happened. Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe the county around Alamogordo (Otero County) rather than Alamogordo itself. Neither is part of the Area Score. How to read crime rates and death rates.
What this profile does not cover
Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.
- Cost of living
- Price parities are published for metropolitan areas, and this place lies outside one.
- Air quality
- The EPA publishes an air-quality index only where a monitor sits. There is none in this county, and a modeled value would be a different kind of number from the measured ones everywhere else on this page.
- Taxes
- Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. Cost of living is published where the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures it, though not for this place. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
- Anything about a specific address
- Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.
Access
4 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Alamogordo-White Sands Rgnl at 3 miles.
| Metric | Value | Compared nationally | Source period |
|---|---|---|---|
| Broadband access ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 91.2% | Top 44%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Distance to major airportNASR current cycle | 3 mi | Top 4%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| Major airports within 100 milesNASR current cycle | 4 | Bottom 38%of 4,226 | NASR current cycle |
| No internet access ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year | 6.5% | Top 45%of 31,588 | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Airport | Code | Distance | Longest runway |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alamogordo-White Sands Rgnl | ALM | 3 mi | 9,207 ft |
| Sierra Blanca Rgnl | SRR | 47 mi | 8,120 ft |
| Dona Ana County Intl Jetport | DNA | 82 mi | 9,550 ft |
Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.
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Other cities in Alamogordo, NM
Same metropolitan area, measured the same way| City | County | Population | Area Score | Compare |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chaparral | Otero County | 18,186 | 42 | Chaparral vs Alamogordo |
Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.
Similar places
Matched on AreaProfile signals, not geographyCompare
Put Alamogordo side by side with a similar place.
Moving to Alamogordo from somewhere else?
You get the difference in prices, rent and weather, and the income that would keep pace.
Data & methodology
| Used for | Source | Source period |
|---|---|---|
| Access | Federal Aviation Administration Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service | NASR current cycle |
| Safety | Federal Bureau of Investigation, Crime Data Explorer Summarized offense counts by law enforcement agency | 2025 calendar year |
| Physical risk | Federal Emergency Management Agency National Risk Index | National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0) |
| Demographics, Income | Internal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division U.S. Population Migration Data (county to county) | filing years 2022–2023 |
| Climate | NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly) | 1991-2020 Normals |
| Jobs | U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Local Area Unemployment Statistics | July 2026 |
| Development | U.S. Census Bureau Building Permits Survey | 12 months ending July 2026 |
| Access, Demographics, Housing, Income, Jobs | U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File) | 2024 ACS 5-Year |
| Demographics | U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program | July 1, 2024 estimate |
| Safety | U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics Provisional county-level mortality by intent | March 2025 to February 2026; May 2025 to April 2026 |
| Schools | U.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments | 2018-19 school year; 2024-25 school year |
| Housing | U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research Fair Market Rents | FY2026 |
| Housing | U.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency House Price Index (traditional, all-transactions) | 2026 Q2 |
| Current conditions | NOAA National Weather Service National Weather Service current conditions | Live observation, read when the page opens |
Profile recalculated October 8, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology, or every source with how often each updates.
ZIP codes in Alamogordo
1 ZIP areaEvery ZIP area in Alamogordo with census figures of its own, largest first. The ones linked below diverge enough from the city as a whole to carry a full profile; the rest track Alamogordo closely, so their figures are here rather than on a page that would repeat this one. An Area Score is calculated for published profiles only, which is why it is blank on those rows.
| ZIP | Population | Median household income | Median home value | Area Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 88310 | 36,983 | $57,214 | $173,000 | — |