AMREP Has Record Quarter

I guess you could say that AMREP owned most of Rio Rancho at some point. They basically started Rio Rancho, the first house I bought here was made by AMREP. Thankfully they are out of the house building market.

Their latest financial report is a good indicator that the real estate marked hasn’t slowed down that much here.

Revenues of the Company’s AMREP Southwest real estate subsidiary were $37,092,000 in the first quarter of 2007 compared to $7,689,000 in the same quarter last year. This substantial revenue increase was primarily due to increased sales of both developed and undeveloped lots in AMREP Southwest’s principal market of Rio Rancho, New Mexico, where interest in the Company’s landholdings did not appear to be impacted by the slowdown in housing that has been reported in many parts of the country.

New Mexico Space Port Moves Forward

Good news for New Mexico’s space port. Virgin Atlantic has agreed to set up shop there being known as Virgin Galactic.

The first customer has been secured for the planned $225 million spaceport in southern New Mexico and state officials plan to announce Wednesday that construction of the facility will now move forward.

State officials, including Gov. Bill Richardson, also will announce tomorrow that London-based Virgin Galactic, a subsidiary of Britain’s Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd., will be the facility’s first lease holder and plans to pay $1 million a year for the first five years of its 20-year lease.

I’m getting excited about this. I’ve always wanted to be a astronaut but I never had the “right stuff” (namely not being a Air Force pilot). This may provide me an opportunity to participate in the space race.