White Sands is a small community located just over the hills from Las Cruces. It’s is primarily the White Sands Missle Range but still part of the Las Cruces Metro area. It’s home to about 1500 residents but the range itself is close to 3,200 square miles covering 5 counties in southern New Mexico. Their primary mission is to provide the Army, Navy, Air Force, and Department of Defense with high quality services and to provide experimentation, testing, research, assessment, development and training in support of the Nation at war. [Source]
On-site there is a White Sands Missle Range Museum, with a missle park, which displays a variety of missles and rockets tested at White Sands. The museum is open year round and admission is free.
The US Army Garrison at White Sands is located 20 miles east of Las Cruces and 45 miles north of El Paso. There are about 600 active duty participants living on site and about 1500 family members with about 3,600 civilians. Residents attend schools on site such as the Thomas JP Jones Child Development Center offering care for children ages 6 weeks through kindergarten. They offer youth activities and there is one elementary and one middle school on site. These are both part of the Las Cruces school district. The public school system is the 3rd largest employer in the Dona Ana County area. Residents can choose on-site housing or off-site housing in nearby Las Cruces.
The base offers several conveniences including a commissary, Troop Store, and teh MWR Facilities, which provides several services including art, bowling, library, rec center, golfing at the White Sands Golf Course, fitness facilities, tennis, swimming and camping.
White Sands has a variety of temporary and permanent government housing on-site. For single soldiers, temporary lodging facilities are available in the form of a barracks room. For families and civilians temporary lodging may be available at the I HG hotel on post and there are also campsites available perfect for RVs. There’s also privatize housing available for enlisted and officers. Military members assigned to White Sands can expect to wait up to five days for on post housing. There are several hundred properties available from 2 to 4 bedroom units and three and four bedroom units for officer housing. There is no on-site properties for private ownership.
The closest off-site housing would be down along Interstate 70 just east of downtown Las Cruces. These homes start at about $110,000-$300,000 on average. The average size is about 1500 ft.² to 1800 ft.² and there are lots available for building although most people at White Sands don’t have the time for custom building unless it’s a permanent position at the base.
For more information about off-site private housing close to White Sands please contact my office today. I’d be happy to send you a list of the homes closest to the base in your price range and with your search criteria.