Taos (Ski Valley), New Mexico, USA
What Taos is made of: the communities whose institutions are here, the sectors its 1,845 businesses sit in, the franchises already on the ground, and the services a newcomer could start.
1,845 businesses on file · 121 trades · 33 sectors · · built from geonet.santafe on 2026-10-07
Visiting rather than moving? The free guidebook for Taos → — the free guidebook for this region: why go, what to see, what is open when it rains.
The local economy
What the business base is made of, what it is specialised in against the national pattern, and what that mix implies. This is the part a development office would read first.
Composition, not health. geonet records what trades exist and where; it does not record formation, closure, employment or revenue, so none of those appear here. What makes this economics rather than a directory is the NAICS coding: it lets the local mix be read against the BLS survival curves and against the 323 industry groups this research has screened.
Every industry group on this page links through to its NAICS page, and to the screened market report where this research has one — that is what the trait-to-NAICS coding buys.
What this city is specialised in
Location quotient is this city's share of a trade divided by the same share across 10 US metro tables. Above 1.25 is the conventional threshold for a local specialisation.
Thin against the national pattern
Common trades that are under-represented here. For someone deciding what to open, this is the more useful half of the table — though a gap can mean unmet demand or a market that does not work here, and this does not tell you which.
The base against the entry screen
Businesses by the entry signal of the industry group they sit in, from the /markets screen. A large "structure decides" share means most local trades are ones where being better than the incumbent does not by itself win. A trade is matched to the screened record at whatever level the research wrote it — the same code, a broader one, or a narrower one. Where a group holds several screened sub-markets the count is shown, because no single one of them speaks for the whole group.
How to read the survival figure
Each sector's five-year establishment survival rate, weighted by how many of this city's businesses sit in that sector. It is a property of the MIX, not of these businesses — it says what survival this composition would imply at US private-sector rates, because no Canadian equivalent series exists.
Weighted over 92.8% of the coded base — public administration carries no curve. Source: Business Employment Dynamics — Table 7, Survival of private sector establishments by opening year, US Bureau of Labor Statistics.
And what it does not measure
A "mixed" trait is one that genuinely spans codes — "computers" covers systems design, repair and supply. The clear share is how much of this reading rests on unambiguous coding. Business density also reflects how completely the directory covers a place, not only how many businesses are in it — so it compares poorly between a city the register knows well and one it does not.
Who lives here, and who the city is for
The census: the only figures on this page that count people rather than businesses, and the three cohort readings they make possible.
No census place is mapped for us-taos in local/census-map-us.json, so this page carries no demographics. The mapping is explicit because the United States has dozens of Springfields and Troys, and attaching the wrong one would put another city's figures on this page.
The communities the register shows
A community appears in the business register before it appears in prose — a national church, a society, a credit union, a newspaper. Those are counted as institutions, and they are what suggests residents. A restaurant serving a cuisine is counted separately as trade, because every city has those and they say nothing about who lives nearby. The ranking is by institutions.
| Community | Institutions | Worship | Trade | Where it shows |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spanish-speaking | 1 | 1 | 6 | trade on Paseo Del Pueblo Sur (2)
Spanish Taos Baptist Church |
| Italian | — | — | 2 | |
| Chinese | — | — | 1 | |
| Japanese | — | — | 1 | |
| Thai | — | — | 1 | |
| French | — | — | 1 | |
| Jewish | — | — | 1 |
Where the communities are
Streets, not neighbourhood names. The data knows that Greek institutions sit on one street and Greek restaurants on another; it does not know the word "Greektown", so it does not use it.
Spanish-speaking
What the city is made of
Every business on file, grouped by the sector it trades in. This is the economic-development view: where the 1,845 businesses actually are, and the specific trades inside each sector.
| Sector | Businesses | Share | What is in it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Construction | 138 | 7.5% | general contractor (42) · plumbing (20) · home builder (18) · electrician (14) · excavating (9) · concrete (7) · painting (7) · carpet (7) |
| Business | 120 | 6.5% | government (67) · accounting (15) · consulting (14) · association (7) · foundation (6) · garden (1) |
| Living & Home | 100 | 5.4% | |
| Dining | 87 | 4.7% | restaurant (75) · pizza (6) · burgers (2) · pubs (2) · diner (1) · fast food (1) |
| Retail | 86 | 4.7% | gifts (29) · jeweler (22) · photography (9) · antiques (6) · flowers (5) · department store (5) · fuel (4) · pet supply (2) |
| Living | 86 | 4.7% | place of worship (26) · furniture (24) · apartment (7) · fire safety (5) · appliances (5) · veterinary (4) · cleaning (3) · camping (3) |
| Travel | 71 | 3.8% | motel (36) · bnb (23) · airline (2) · travel agent (2) · truck rental (2) · real estate (1) · hotel (1) |
| Health | 61 | 3.3% | physician (10) · chiro (6) · medical clinic (6) · home healthcare (4) · fitness club (3) · optical (2) · pharmacy (2) |
| Finance | 58 | 3.1% | real estate (16) · insurance (14) · bank (14) · loans (4) · credit union (2) · mortgage (2) · bankruptcy (1) · stock broker (1) |
| Law | 50 | 2.7% | lawyer (13) · mediator (7) |
| Automotive | 50 | 2.7% | autos (24) · auto repair (7) · tires (4) · motorcycle (1) · scooter (1) |
| Realty | 46 | 2.5% | real estate (46) |
| Beauty | 45 | 2.4% | hair stylist (30) · dentist (10) · barber (2) |
| Entertainment | 42 | 2.3% | museum (17) · video producer (8) · amusement (7) · music instruments (3) · video (3) · games (1) · nightclub (1) |
| Education | 37 | 2% | school (30) · garden (4) · library (2) · writing (1) |
| Media | 27 | 1.5% | advertising (10) · signs (8) · books (7) · printing (2) |
| Retail Goods | 23 | 1.2% | |
| Food | 22 | 1.2% | baker (9) · grocer (8) · catering (4) · ice cream (1) |
| Tech | 21 | 1.1% | computers (9) · telecom (3) · wireless (2) |
| Construction & Realty | 19 | 1% |
The franchises already here
Brands from a register of 2,024 franchise systems, matched into this city by name. A high count is a signal in both directions: the territory works, and it may be taken.
10 of these brands are a single common word — Metro, Avenue, Budget — so their counts include businesses that merely share the word. They are marked rather than dropped.
| Brand | Category | Here | Worldwide |
|---|---|---|---|
| Enterprise Rent A Car | car | 2 | 5,400 |
| Super 8 | economyhotel | 2 | — |
| ACE Hardware | hardware | 1 | 4,700 |
| Bad Boy | retail | 1 | 7 |
| Baskin Robbins | dessert | 1 | 2,800 |
| Best Western | businesshotel | 1 | 4,200 |
| Big O Tires | auto | 1 | 540 |
| Burger King | fastfood | 1 | 11,000 |
| Comfort Suites | familyhotel | 1 | — |
| Curves For Women | fitness | 1 | 10,000 |
| Days Inn | economyhotel | 1 | — |
| Holiday Inn | businesshotel | 1 | — |
| Pizza Hut | pizza | 1 | 10,000 |
| Ramada Inn | familyhotel | 1 | 740 |
| Taco Bell | tacos | 1 | 5,845 |
| U-Haul | car | 1 | 13,700 |
| Wal-Mart | retail | 1 | 6,500 |
| Michaels name only | retail | 3 | 805 |
| Raleys name only | supermarket | 2 | 138 |
| Allsups name only | convenience | 1 | 301 |
| AutoZone name only | auto | 1 | 3,800 |
| Diana name only | supermarket | 1 | 3 |
| Fossil name only | retail | 1 | — |
| Greyhound name only | travel | 1 | — |
| Khalsa name only | fuel | 1 | — |
| Sears name only | inc | 1 | 2,300 |
| TCBY name only | fastfood | 1 | — |
Real estate as a local trade
Four unrelated jobs share the name: selling existing homes, owning and letting them, managing them for someone else, and building new ones. For anyone weighing a move or a licence these are the counts — and the ownership question goes to /property, which answers it building by building.
Real estate is a local job market in its own right, and four unrelated trades get the same name. Counts are businesses filed under each trade in the register, which lists a brokerage once however many agents work there — so this measures firms, not licensees.
Selling homes
5312Offices of agents and brokers — the resale market, and the biggest single trade in most Canadian cities.
Named in the register
- Access Home Mortgage — 1039 Lower Ranchitos Rd
- Barker Group — 5460 Ndcbu
- Century 21 — 5528 Ndcdu
- Coldwell Banker — 102 N Peublo Rd # B
- Delaney and Co Land and Homes — 130 Bent St
- Enchanted Realty — 1200 Camino DE LA Cruz
- Exit Enchanted Realty — 1523 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur
- Harvey and Association Realty — 824 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte
- King Mortgage — 304 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur
- Mc Cann Mortgage — 1505 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur
- Melby Ranch — 402s Paseo Del Pueblo Nor
- Milagro Home Lending — 216 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte
- Questa Real Estate and Mortgage — 429 Theodora St # B
- Whitney Appraisal Association — PO Box 2226
Owning and letting
5311Lessors of real estate: the buildings themselves, filed under the building rather than the owner.
Named in the register
- Bella Vista Apartments — 110 Otono Rd
- Bent Gallery and Museum — P.O. BOX 153
- Cielo Azul — 400 Weimer Rd
- Loma Parda Apartments — 1200 Camino DE LA Cruz
- Mariposa Apartments — 201 Mariposa Pl
- Tierra Montosa Apartment — 750 Gusdorf Rd
- Village Alegrias — 209 Los Pandos
Managing for owners
5313Property managers, who run buildings the landlord does not.
Named in the register
- Dharma Properties — 8018 Ndcbu
Building new homes
2361Residential builders and the general contractors who work for them.
Named in the register
- Alhambra — P.O. BOX 1603
- Andrews Construction — P.O. BOX 2208
- Co Op Construction — 119 Quesnel St
- Fifth Element — 631 Kit Carson Rd
- Gerald Martin General Contr — 824 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte
- Group 3 Consulting — 217 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte # C
- J C Constructors — PO Box 1886
- Ken Swengel Construction — 215 Camino DE LA Merced
- Luther Construction Co — 6442 Ndcbu
- Medical Construction Group — 1397 Weimer Rd
- Montoya Building — 211 Ranchitos Rd
- Rio Norte Construction
- Viviendas — 120 Bertha Rd
- Wayne Rutherford General Contr — 219 Cruz Alta Rd
Financing it
5222Mortgage brokers and non-bank lenders.
Named in the register
- Continental Loans — 1033 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur
- Crazy Sams Car Title Loans — 233 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur
- Gravelle Mortgage Co — 707 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur
- Southwest Payday Loans — 729 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur
- Southwestern Mortgage Co — 603 Camino DE LA Placita
- World Finance — 1008 Paseo Del Pueblo Sur # B
On "how many doors"
How many doors a landlord holds is not in any of this. The register files an apartment building under the building, not its owner, and carries no unit count; there is no open dataset of Canadian landlords by portfolio. Where this research has established ownership it is in the /property record for the city, building by building, which is a different and much slower exercise.
Work where you go to them
The Ultimate 411 half of local: everything where the customer does not have to come to you.
A shop needs the customer to walk in. These 157 services do the opposite — the mobile mechanic, the mobile groomer, the bookkeeper, the junk haul — and they are the ones a person can start without a lease. 0 of them already match a trait filed in this city's register.
The 157 Service=1 rows in search.local: work where the provider travels to the customer. "present" counts businesses already filed under that exact trait name; a blank is a coverage gap, not proof of absence, because the two vocabularies were built separately.
home services
events
pets
luxury
healthcare
sporting goods
sports
business
outdoors
construction
travel
tools
Schools and colleges
wander.schools is a post-secondary table — universities and colleges. K-12 public and private schools are not in it, and only 7 of its 1,686 rows carry coordinates, so these are listed and not mapped.
In the business register
Where schooling shows up as a business rather than an institution — which is where K-12, tutoring and childcare appear.
Health and care
What a person moving a parent here would ask first. The register files clinics and pharmacies; it has no category for a hospital at all, so hospitals are matched by name and the limit is stated rather than hidden.
Matched on the name "hospital"
- Taos Khalsa Health Center — 413 Paseo Del Pueblo Norte # A
- Holy Cross Hospital Diabetes — 1397 Weimer Rd # A
- Taos Picuris Indian Health Center — 1090 Goat Springs Rd
- Holy Cross Hospital — 1397 Weimer Rd
geonet carries no 'hospital' trait, so these are matched on the business name. A distance-to-hospital figure needs a source that states hospital locations.
What this record cannot tell you
Named in full, because the gaps are the part most likely to be misread as an answer.
- No census figures on this page: this region is not mapped to a census subdivision in local/census-map.json, so the community counts here are business-register institutions, which is a different measurement and cannot substitute for a population.
- wander.schools is now readable, but it holds universities and colleges only and 1,679 of its 1,686 rows have no coordinates. K-12 public and private schools need a separate source — in Ontario the Ministry of Education school finder, in British Columbia the provincial school list. wander.citytowns, hotels and territories remain denied to the ru user.
- No 'hospital' trait exists in geonet; distance to a hospital needs an external source such as StatCan's Open Database of Healthcare Facilities.
- 98.6% of businesses here carry no coordinates, so a map or address lookup would miss them. Postal codes reach 100%.
Built from
geonet.santafe— the local business registerwander.regions— city name, population, metrosearch.local— trait vocabulary and the come-to-you servicessearch.cozfranchises— 2,024 franchise brands