Ebonye Zeno spent four hours a day commuting in Los Angeles traffic to get her daughter to private school.
Then the pandemic hit, and their worlds went remote. Like so many other Americans, they realized, "We could live somewhere else," Zeno, 51, said.
She said that after three decades in LA, it felt like the city's seasons — rather than being spring, fall, or winter — instead were marked by extreme weather: flooding, mudslides, wildfires, and earthquakes. She was also tired of expensive housing, traffic, and polluted skies.
"We have so much smog in LA that you hardly ever see a blue sky," Zeno said, adding that it exacerbated her daughter's allergies.
Zeno was among a wave of people who left California during the pandemic in 2020, the first year in recorded history that the state's population declined. That trend reversed in 2024, when California's population once again ticked up. But Zeno said she had no regrets about leaving.
Federal data analyzed by the American Lung Association shows LA has some of the worst air quality in the US because of pollution from busy highways and ports. Mountains surrounding the city trap the smog. Meanwhile, researchers are studying how toxic wildfire smoke affects local residents. Air pollution increases the risk of premature births, lung and heart disease, and premature death.
Zeno, a single mom, also said she wanted to buy a home and find a more affordable private education for her daughter. Despite earning six figures a year for much of her career in tech, Zeno said homeownership in LA was always out of reach.
She outlined her priorities and started researching cities in Arizona, New Mexico, and the Pacific Northwest. Albuquerque topped the list for its mild weather, climate action plan, and cheaper cost of housing and private schools.
First-time homeowner in Albuquerque
Even though Zeno's annual income in the tech industry is about $300,000, she said it still wasn't enough to buy a home in LA while also paying for her daughter's education.
In 2020, before moving to Albuquerque, Zeno was renting a home in South Pasadena, where the median home value was higher than $1.2 million that year, according to Redfin.
Zeno was also paying about $40,000 a year for her daughter's private school so she could have a smaller classroom with individual attention that she said LA public schools couldn't offer.
After moving to Albuquerque, Zeno was able to buy a three-bedroom, three-bathroom home for $360,000 and find a private school for nearly $28,000 a year.
"I can actually save money now, and my daughter is thriving," Zeno said.
A citywide climate plan
Another reason Zeno chose Albuquerque is that city officials and Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico have climate action and land conservation plans.
Albuquerque unveiled a plan in 2021 to expand solar power, public transit, and electric vehicles. Zeno owns an electric vehicle and wanted to make sure the city she moved to was investing in new charging infrastructure. New Mexico has a lot of solar power companies, as well.
"Politics played a pretty big factor in my decision," Zeno said. "What kind of humanity was in the city we'd live in?
Albuquerque is vulnerable to climate risks such as extreme heat, drought, and wildfires, but it doesn't have scorching hot temperatures like those seen in Phoenix because it sits at a higher elevation.
Albuquerque is also less likely to burn than LA, where rapid shifts between flooding and drought create ideal conditions for blazes.
"Our leaders are actively pursuing renewable energy, and New Mexico has a lot of tribes who understand the need to conserve land," Zeno said. "And I didn't realize just how affordable it'd be until I got here."
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