Malaga, NM

Malaga is a quiet, tiny community in southeastern New Mexico, sitting along U.S. Route 285 about 18 miles southeast of Carlsbad. Home to around a hundred residents, it offers wide-open desert skies and a very relaxed pace of life just a couple of miles west of the Pecos River. Daily routines here are simple, centered around a local post office, with nearby Carlsbad handling grocery runs, schools, healthcare, and city services.

The town was originally established in the 1890s by European settlers who came to farm irrigated land in the Pecos Valley, naming their new home after Málaga in Spain. Over the decades, the surrounding area in Eddy County developed around ranching, potash mining, and the regional energy industry. For those considering rural living in the Chihuahuan Desert, Malaga provides plenty of space and quiet, paired with a straight shot up the highway to town.