Profile
by Paul Weideman
Originally Published in the
February 2004 issue of the
Santa Fe Real Estate Guide/The Santa Fe New Mexican
FRED RAZNICK
This interview series focuses on the people in Santa Fe’s real estate industry. Fred Raznick is a Realtor at the Eldorado office of French & French Fine Properties.
How long have you been at the Agora office?
Eight years. I was with Stan Evans and Bill Schwent, who co-owned Century 21 Evans Real Estate and I was asked to join French & French with the understanding that at the appropriate time they would have a freestanding office out here that I would be the managing broker for. I’ve been involved in Eldorado since 1978.
Were you part of the solar-design movement around here?
It was a glorious time. I met a lot of alternative-thinking people. I worked for Rational Alternatives, which was owned by Dr. Helen Wilson, her son Bob Gibbons and Mark Conkling. With the help of Stan Evans they bought a parcel amounting to about 200 lots to build solar adobe homes. I have one of them, which was completed in 1979. We never dreamed we’d stay there this long but there’s something special about living in an old adobe.
Eldorado was unique in the country for passive-solar design.
I’ve been told it’s still the largest solar community in the continental United States.
How did Eldorado get started?
Eldorado at Santa Fe Inc., an AMREP subsidiary, bought the Simpson Ranch and carved out 6,000 acres for Eldorado at Santa Fe, then 4,000 acres east of Highway 285 for a conservation area as an amenity for the homeowners. Other lands were then bought by “junior developers” for Alteza, The Ridges, Los Caballos, Old Road Ranch and other subdivisions.
Eldorado is a separate subdivision consisting of 2,700 lots. Of those, 2,600 are built out.
Of the 2,600 built lots, how many are on wells?
Perhaps 400 are on private wells or shared wells.
So there are 100 lots left?
I think there are 100 vacant lots but the majority are owned by builders or people hoping their children, or parents, might come in and live next door; or they’re being held for privacy.
Prices have been climbing steadily. My lot in 1978 was $14,000. In the late 1990s you could get a lot for $40,000 and now there’s not much under $100,000. Property appreciation in the Santa Fe area is 3 percent to 4 percent but in Eldorado and the 285 corridor it’s about 10 percent. There are 62 available homes and six lots on the market right now.
What about the idea of a new road north or west out of Eldorado?
The last time I looked at county plans it looked like the preferred route was up off Avenida Compadres, connecting with a hub with connections to Santa Fe and N.M. 14.
I remember even in the 1980s seeing maps at the county with potential hubs in various areas.
If a new middle school is built near Rancho Viejo, wouldn’t that make a westerly road logical?
Eldorado at Santa Fe Inc. did deed a school site at the southwest corner of Avenida Vista Grande and Compadres but now with the growth on N.M. 14 it may be more appropriate to build outside Eldorado’s western fence line. People are concerned about the impact of transient traffic on Vista Grande and if you look at the Eldorado map the widest easement actually is along Avenida Eldorado.
I expect it will be a hotly discussed issue when it comes to developing a new road at any location. You’re talking to someone who was used to no cars west of the tracks and when you’d pull up your shades on a winter morning and see a coyote sleeping on your patio, but the reality is someday we will have to deal with regional issues.
Where were you born and raised?
Both Barbara and I are from Detroit. We came here with our two kids in 1978 on vacation. On our first day here we were on the Plaza and those were the days when the Santa Fe Opera was very small and there were opera performers being pulled on oxcarts through the Plaza, singing, and we thought, “Wow! What a strange place!”
Six months later I sold my law practice and we moved here. Jimmy May showed us Eldorado. We were the first residents west of the railroad tracks. Barbara and I worked for Rational Alternatives until the federal incentives for solar design disappeared.
Barbara then had Eldorado Ice Cream & Supply in the railroad station at the community center. The first firehouse was there, too, when our one piece of equipment was a 1947 pumper truck that was given to us by an Indian reservation. I was a 20-year member of the local fire department.
There’s a big social issue I want to mention. Since 9/11 we’ve seen an explosion in Santa Fe of people migrating away from the big cities of the East Coast and what concerns me most is the difficulty younger people have staying here with prices escalating like they are.
I’m also concerned about senior citizens. The saddest thing I have to deal with is people I’ve known for 25 years calling me to help sell their home because of illness or when they’ve lost a spouse. We do have a seniors’ club and a van to help with shopping and appointments, but we have no senior facilities here.
Affordable housing and senior housing are issues the city and county need to work on.
Where do you get your day-to-day fulfillment?
My family: Barbara and our kids and grandkids. Our son Ben and his wife Maggie live in Glorieta. He’s a homemaker and Maggie is the human-resources director for Coors in Albuquerque. Our daughter Jennifer went to ASU and never came back from Phoenix. She’s vice president of Junior Achievement for Arizona.
Do you still practice law?
I have my license here on “inactive” status. I try to keep current on law, especially regarding real estate. I practice real estate full-time. I love the interaction aspect of this work.
Originally Published in the
February 2004 issue of the
Santa Fe Real Estate Guide/The Santa Fe New Mexican
FRED RAZNICK
This interview series focuses on the people in Santa Fe’s real estate industry. Fred Raznick is a Realtor at the Eldorado office of French & French Fine Properties.
How long have you been at the Agora office?
Eight years. I was with Stan Evans and Bill Schwent, who co-owned Century 21 Evans Real Estate and I was asked to join French & French with the understanding that at the appropriate time they would have a freestanding office out here that I would be the managing broker for. I’ve been involved in Eldorado since 1978.
Were you part of the solar-design movement around here?
It was a glorious time. I met a lot of alternative-thinking people. I worked for Rational Alternatives, which was owned by Dr. Helen Wilson, her son Bob Gibbons and Mark Conkling. With the help of Stan Evans they bought a parcel amounting to about 200 lots to build solar adobe homes. I have one of them, which was completed in 1979. We never dreamed we’d stay there this long but there’s something special about living in an old adobe.
Eldorado was unique in the country for passive-solar design.
I’ve been told it’s still the largest solar community in the continental United States.
How did Eldorado get started?
Eldorado at Santa Fe Inc., an AMREP subsidiary, bought the Simpson Ranch and carved out 6,000 acres for Eldorado at Santa Fe, then 4,000 acres east of Highway 285 for a conservation area as an amenity for the homeowners. Other lands were then bought by “junior developers” for Alteza, The Ridges, Los Caballos, Old Road Ranch and other subdivisions.
Eldorado is a separate subdivision consisting of 2,700 lots. Of those, 2,600 are built out.
Of the 2,600 built lots, how many are on wells?
Perhaps 400 are on private wells or shared wells.
So there are 100 lots left?
I think there are 100 vacant lots but the majority are owned by builders or people hoping their children, or parents, might come in and live next door; or they’re being held for privacy.
Prices have been climbing steadily. My lot in 1978 was $14,000. In the late 1990s you could get a lot for $40,000 and now there’s not much under $100,000. Property appreciation in the Santa Fe area is 3 percent to 4 percent but in Eldorado and the 285 corridor it’s about 10 percent. There are 62 available homes and six lots on the market right now.
What about the idea of a new road north or west out of Eldorado?
The last time I looked at county plans it looked like the preferred route was up off Avenida Compadres, connecting with a hub with connections to Santa Fe and N.M. 14.
I remember even in the 1980s seeing maps at the county with potential hubs in various areas.
If a new middle school is built near Rancho Viejo, wouldn’t that make a westerly road logical?
Eldorado at Santa Fe Inc. did deed a school site at the southwest corner of Avenida Vista Grande and Compadres but now with the growth on N.M. 14 it may be more appropriate to build outside Eldorado’s western fence line. People are concerned about the impact of transient traffic on Vista Grande and if you look at the Eldorado map the widest easement actually is along Avenida Eldorado.
I expect it will be a hotly discussed issue when it comes to developing a new road at any location. You’re talking to someone who was used to no cars west of the tracks and when you’d pull up your shades on a winter morning and see a coyote sleeping on your patio, but the reality is someday we will have to deal with regional issues.
Where were you born and raised?
Both Barbara and I are from Detroit. We came here with our two kids in 1978 on vacation. On our first day here we were on the Plaza and those were the days when the Santa Fe Opera was very small and there were opera performers being pulled on oxcarts through the Plaza, singing, and we thought, “Wow! What a strange place!”
Six months later I sold my law practice and we moved here. Jimmy May showed us Eldorado. We were the first residents west of the railroad tracks. Barbara and I worked for Rational Alternatives until the federal incentives for solar design disappeared.
Barbara then had Eldorado Ice Cream & Supply in the railroad station at the community center. The first firehouse was there, too, when our one piece of equipment was a 1947 pumper truck that was given to us by an Indian reservation. I was a 20-year member of the local fire department.
There’s a big social issue I want to mention. Since 9/11 we’ve seen an explosion in Santa Fe of people migrating away from the big cities of the East Coast and what concerns me most is the difficulty younger people have staying here with prices escalating like they are.
I’m also concerned about senior citizens. The saddest thing I have to deal with is people I’ve known for 25 years calling me to help sell their home because of illness or when they’ve lost a spouse. We do have a seniors’ club and a van to help with shopping and appointments, but we have no senior facilities here.
Affordable housing and senior housing are issues the city and county need to work on.
Where do you get your day-to-day fulfillment?
My family: Barbara and our kids and grandkids. Our son Ben and his wife Maggie live in Glorieta. He’s a homemaker and Maggie is the human-resources director for Coors in Albuquerque. Our daughter Jennifer went to ASU and never came back from Phoenix. She’s vice president of Junior Achievement for Arizona.
Do you still practice law?
I have my license here on “inactive” status. I try to keep current on law, especially regarding real estate. I practice real estate full-time. I love the interaction aspect of this work.