AANM Helps Lead the Charge for Housing Abundance in New Mexico
AANM Helps Lead the Charge for Housing Abundance in New Mexico
As a founding member of the Housing Abundance Coalition, the Apartment Association of New Mexico is working alongside industry leaders to advance meaningful solutions to our state's housing challenges.
New Mexico faces a housing challenge that affects nearly every community in our state. From Albuquerque and Santa Fe to Las Cruces, Farmington, and our rural communities, the need for more housing options continues to grow. Rising construction costs, regulatory barriers, limited housing inventory, and infrastructure challenges have made it increasingly difficult to develop and maintain housing that New Mexicans can afford.
Addressing these challenges requires more than simply recognizing the problem. It requires collaboration, practical solutions, and a commitment to policies that encourage housing production and preservation.
That is why the Apartment Association of New Mexico (AANM) is proud to be a founding member of the Housing Abundance Coalition, a statewide partnership of organizations working together to expand housing opportunities, improve affordability, and remove unnecessary barriers to housing development.
Bringing the Multifamily Industry to the Table
For decades, AANM has advocated for policies that support responsible rental housing ownership, management, and development. Representing more than 930 members and over 76,000 rental units across New Mexico, our association understands the critical role rental housing plays in our state's economy and residents' lives.
Rental housing is an essential part of the housing continuum. It provides homes for young professionals, families, seniors, students, and individuals who either cannot or choose not to purchase a home. A healthy housing market must offer a variety of options that meet the needs of residents at different income levels and life stages.
As a founding member of the Housing Abundance Coalition, AANM is helping ensure that rental housing providers, property managers, multifamily developers, and industry professionals are represented in discussions about the future of housing in New Mexico.
Our involvement also reflects an important reality: housing affordability and housing availability are closely connected. When communities lack sufficient housing supply, residents face fewer choices and greater competition for available homes. Creating an environment that encourages new construction while preserving existing rental housing is essential to addressing these challenges.
A Collaborative Approach to Housing Solutions
The Housing Abundance Coalition brings together a diverse group of stakeholders representing home builders, REALTORS®, commercial real estate, rental housing, economic development, chambers of commerce, workforce development, and other industries.
While these organizations represent different sectors, they share a common objective: creating a policy environment that makes it easier to build, preserve, and access housing throughout New Mexico.
This collaboration is particularly important because housing challenges are complex. No single organization, industry, or level of government can solve them independently.
By working together, coalition members can share expertise, identify obstacles, and advocate for legislation that supports sustainable housing growth.
For AANM, participation in the coalition is a natural extension of our longstanding government affairs efforts and commitment to improving New Mexico's rental housing environment.
Four Policy Priorities for 2027
The Housing Abundance Coalition has developed a policy framework for the 2027 legislative session focused on four areas where meaningful reforms could help address New Mexico's housing shortage.
1. Creating Housing-Ready Communities
Housing development often faces a complicated combination of zoning restrictions, permitting delays, infrastructure requirements, impact fees, and other regulatory challenges. These obstacles can increase development costs, delay construction, and sometimes prevent otherwise viable housing projects from moving forward.
The coalition supports efforts to modernize land-use policies, streamline permitting and approval processes, improve access to housing-related funding, and provide technical assistance to local governments.
2. Building a Bridge to Housing Attainability
Housing affordability is not limited to households eligible for traditional subsidized housing programs. Many working New Mexicans earn too much to qualify for assistance but still struggle to find housing within their budgets. Teachers, healthcare workers, first responders, service industry employees, and other essential members of our workforce all need access to housing near their jobs and communities.
The coalition supports strategies that improve housing attainability through infrastructure investment, sustainable financing programs, mortgage assistance, and other tools that encourage housing production and expand opportunities.
AANM believes that addressing this challenge requires a comprehensive approach that includes both rental and homeownership opportunities.
Increasing the availability of housing at different price points can help create a more balanced housing market and provide residents with greater flexibility and choice.
3. Reforming Tax Policies That Discourage Housing Development
New Mexico's tax structure can create additional challenges for housing development and investment. Two particular concerns identified in the coalition's framework are property tax reassessments affecting multifamily properties and the application of Gross Receipts Tax to construction materials and labor. These costs can significantly affect the financial feasibility of new housing projects and the preservation of existing communities. As development and operating expenses rise, the cost of providing housing rises as well.
The coalition supports examining tax reforms that improve predictability, reduce unnecessary financial barriers, and encourage the construction and preservation of attainable housing.
4. Encouraging Rural Housing Development
Although much of the housing discussion focuses on New Mexico's larger cities, rural communities face their own significant housing challenges. Limited infrastructure, high site-development costs, smaller development markets, and difficulty accessing financing can make new housing construction especially challenging in rural areas.
The coalition supports targeted solutions, including infrastructure investments, development incentives, technical assistance, site-readiness funding, rehabilitation programs, and assistance in securing available housing resources.
These efforts recognize that housing solutions must reflect the unique needs of communities throughout the state.
As a statewide organization, AANM believes housing policy must address the needs of all New Mexicans, not just those living in our largest metropolitan areas.
Why This Matters to AANM Members
The policies being discussed today will influence the future of rental housing in New Mexico for years to come.
Whether a member owns a small rental property, manages an established apartment community, provides services to the multifamily industry, or develops new housing, decisions made at the state and local levels can directly affect their operations and investments.
By helping establish the Housing Abundance Coalition, AANM is taking an active role in shaping those conversations rather than simply responding to proposed legislation after it has been introduced.
Our participation provides opportunities to work alongside other industry leaders, build relationships with policymakers, and advocate for solutions that recognize the realities of housing development, ownership, and management.
Moving New Mexico Forward
New Mexico's housing shortage did not develop overnight, and it will not be resolved through any single piece of legislation.
Meaningful progress will require thoughtful public policy, private-sector investment, responsible development, and collaboration among organizations that understand the challenges facing our communities.
We believe that increasing housing supply, reducing unnecessary regulatory barriers, encouraging investment, and supporting the preservation of existing housing are essential steps toward improving affordability and expanding housing choices.
Most importantly, we believe New Mexicans deserve access to a diverse and attainable housing market that supports economic opportunity, strong neighborhoods, and thriving communities.
AANM will continue advocating for policies that make New Mexico a better place to live, work, and call home.
To learn more about the coalition and its policy priorities, visit HousingAbundance.org.