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My family and I will be relocating to the Land of Enchantment in the next few months. I grew up in the NE Heights, family (parents/siblings) still lives in ABQ, but I have not lived in the 505 for the past 20 years. I will be WFH so commuting is not an issue. We have three kids aged 6 and under.
One part of me says we should buy in the NE Heights - I'm familiar with the area, and if we stay in areas that feed into La Cueva, school quality will not be an issue (although we can't quite afford the type of home we need in the La Cueva district for a family of 5). We'd also be closer to family.
However, I'm intrigued by Rio Rancho - newer and more affordable housing, better schools overall than APS, and seemingly a bit safer than the ABQ Metro (while I believe most of the crime stuff is overblown in ABQ, my SO is leery of it). But Rio Rancho HS opened when I was in high school, so my perceptions of RR are stuck in the late 90's/early 00's.
Any considerations I'm missing here? Also concerned about health care access, availability of parks/trails, and other things that families with small kiddos care about. Seems like RR could be a really good fit, but I haven't spent any amount of time there when I visit family in ABQ.
Welcome back. All I can tell you about health care in Rio Rancho is that if you choose the Presbyterian network for health care the hospital (Rust) in Rio Rancho is much better than Kaseman or Downtown. Otherwise I suspect healthcare is no different in Rio Rancho than Albuquerque.
It is a lot harder to get around in Rio Rancho in my opinion, traffic is awful and the road system was designed by a lunatic. I don't know anything about the schools but would be curious to know why you think they are better in Rio Rancho. One thing I know is that you are not stuck with Xfinity for internet or cable televison, Rio Rancho has choices that people in Albuquerque don't have (or they did 15 years ago). Fast internet is a problem in Albuquerque because of Xfinity. You get fast internet but they choke every day at the same time and when you call to complain they charge you more for faster internet but it isn't faster and they still choke it.
There are a lot of parks in Rio Rancho and some nice ones on the west side that aren't too far from Rio Rancho. There is a really nice park for small kids that has handicaped play areas.
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How old and what are the needs of 'the family', you might be spending a lot of time driving back and forth to ABQ.
Pencil it all out and check each area very carefully for all the needs and services.
If older (pre retirement) I would be more prone to RR. But being a family can change that. (Every person counts and has valid reasons for where they want (and need) to live). For example... if kids have specific music, sports, alternative programs there might be good reason to be closer to ABQ. Also if HS age or older, they might want to be within easy access of a college for dual enrollment courses.
If you want to be totally dependent on your automobile live in Rio Rancho (suburbia). You could live near Sandia HS. I'm not sure where people get that Rio Rancho has better schools. The fact is that APS students have higher test scores on SATs and other college exams. It's all about the student, parent, teachers and friends. Come and take a trip to survey the area. Depending on where you and your SO works. Your commutes could become a nightmare in RR.
Your profile doesn't say where you currently live. I've lived in PHX, SFBay, PDX, SAT, DIA, HNL and here. You might think about Mesa Del Sol.
If you have kids, the ABQ public school system is spotty at best. There is a reason why Albuquerque has 73 private schools and academies. I'm sure there are good APS schools and good teachers, but many families apparently think otherwise. That is not the same situation in RR but I assume some parents there use the private schools as well. I know families where it is a generational thing...parents and then kids attend an academy. I have not heard parents complaining about RR schools.
Rio Rancho is the 3rd largest city in NM and probably heading for 2nd. It is here to stay and thriving on several levels in spite of petty comments from ABQ folks who never go there. It is a suburb of ABQ so it won't have some of the cultural amenities or infrastructure. It is not hard to get around. The bridge situation is probably the primary decision point on where to live. If you work east, you might choose to live east. Desirable housing cost seems to be a little less in RR but not significantly. Crime exists but is less of a problem. Intel spent $3.5 billion on its RR facility expansion and is hiring workers.
Since your kids are 6 and younger you'll be interested in the elementary schools. I don't know if the rankings in "GreatSchools" are accurate, but it shows that Rio Rancho has 5 elementary schools that rank 7 or higher (4 of them rank 7, one ranks an 8), while ABQ has 13 elementary schools that rank 7 or higher (including a 9 and a 10). The lowest-ranking elementary schools in ABQ are ranked 6, while Rio Rancho has some that rank 5.
The school-age population in Albuquerque is declining significantly, so some schools have had to close recently. I don't know if the same is happening in Rio Rancho.
Albuquerque recently ranked high nationwide on accessibility to city parks, and we also have a large amount of open space, the most per capita of any US city after Anchorage, Alaska. We also have an extensive bike path system which I think Rio Rancho is lagging behind on. Access to recreation in the Sandias is much closer in ABQ than Rio Rancho. The main attractions of Rio Rancho are its relative affordability and low crime, as it's more removed from the Interstates and doesn't have any old neighborhoods that have fallen on "hard times" like you find around ABQ.
Rio Rancho is interesting in that it started as a rapidly-growing suburb of Albuquerque, and now is trying to be a city. So instead of a traditional city that has an urban core and housing that spread out in different directions, it started developing at the edges and is trying to grow inward toward an artificially created "City Center" that is still very isolated. This is partly why Rio Rancho has its skeptics, and I can't think of another city that has been planned this way.
Its newer high school, Sue Cleveland HS, is very modern, with a state-of-the-art auditorium and beautiful facilities, but it is out past the county landfill and resembles an outpost on the moon, with very little development around it. Up the road are the Sandoval Regional Medical Center (which I've had to visit many times), the "City Center", and a satellite campus of CNM. Very nice, new facilities but strange to see them with so little development nearby. Even though I've been out to that area many times I still manage to get lost, or miss a turn, just because there are so few landmarks for reference. I think most Rio Rancho residents don't really care what the planning is like as long as they have a house they can afford, a suburban lifestyle, and a decent school for the kiddos.
Rio Rancho is interesting in that it started as a rapidly-growing suburb of Albuquerque, and now is trying to be a city. So instead of a traditional city that has an urban core and housing that spread out in different directions, it started developing at the edges and is trying to grow inward toward an artificially created "City Center" that is still very isolated. This is partly why Rio Rancho has its skeptics, and I can't think of another city that has been planned this way.
Rio Rancho is and will always be a suburb of Albuquerque. The city is oldest and has greatest density around the bridges and then spread out over time from there. It is not a legacy city with a precise downtown area. It established a civic hub in an attempt to lure developers to create a central residential and commercial district. That was followed by the Great Recession. Developers seem more interested in focusing on available land near high traffic roads. There is a patchwork of development apart from the main roads. I live on an acre of land in a sparsely developed area within a few minutes of everything I need. I have one adjacent neighbor and others 1/2 block away. That is perfect for me but not for some others, I imagine. I personally think that artificial downtown idea was misguided, but one can say the same thing about the ART fiasco.
Both Albuquerque and Rio Rancho have problems, but they are not the same. Rio Rancho has a huge footprint on paper but that doesn't match reality. Meanwhile, the homeless situation is destroying Downtown Albuquerque when the city already has a rival Uptown commercial area. Businesses are evacuating Downtown. The crime situation is not as bad or as widespread as is claimed in the news or social media but the reputation is there. Breaking Bad didn't help all that much. Albuquerque exploded from 30k population after WW2 and is a small town with growing pains. Rio Rancho's size is still manageable as a place to live and get around. My guess is that the high number of transplants makes it different demographically from Albuquerque. Being newer, there are no strong legacy family connections that exist in Albuquerque. It seems foreign to the more parochial vision of many in ABQ.
Some great comments here, and thanks for the insights.
Right now, what we are struggling with is ABQ's perceived perception as a bastion for homelessness and crime. When we visited a few months ago, it was striking to me that you couldn't go to a CVS or Walgreens in the NE Heights (the supposedly nice areas) without everything being locked down and behind plexiglass. We didn't feel unsafe, but that was noticeable.
And, all of my family that currently lives in ABQ complains about the homelessness/crime being an issue. Without debating the merits of the accuracy of it (it is likely overblown in my view), sometimes perception is tougher to deal with then reality. And, things like that are difficult to judge from 2,000 miles away.
What's also interesting is that friends we have who live and teach in the "nice" school districts in ABQ, and they mention that many families pull their kids from the middle and high schools to send to private schools (which is crazy to me, since homes in those areas are almost unaffordable for us anyways). I am sure the reality with the schools, like most things, is that the school is what you make of it and kids can get into trouble anywhere they go.
And that is some of the appeal of Rio Rancho - more of a blank slate and some physical distance between ABQ with still pretty decent schools.
Lots of food for thought and appreciate the posts here so far.
Some great comments here, and thanks for the insights.
Right now, what we are struggling with is ABQ's perceived perception as a bastion for homelessness and crime. When we visited a few months ago, it was striking to me that you couldn't go to a CVS or Walgreens in the NE Heights (the supposedly nice areas) without everything being locked down and behind plexiglass. We didn't feel unsafe, but that was noticeable.
And, all of my family that currently lives in ABQ complains about the homelessness/crime being an issue. Without debating the merits of the accuracy of it (it is likely overblown in my view), sometimes perception is tougher to deal with then reality. And, things like that are difficult to judge from 2,000 miles away.
What's also interesting is that friends we have who live and teach in the "nice" school districts in ABQ, and they mention that many families pull their kids from the middle and high schools to send to private schools (which is crazy to me, since homes in those areas are almost unaffordable for us anyways). I am sure the reality with the schools, like most things, is that the school is what you make of it and kids can get into trouble anywhere they go.
And that is some of the appeal of Rio Rancho - more of a blank slate and some physical distance between ABQ with still pretty decent schools.
Lots of food for thought and appreciate the posts here so far.
Well, in the NE Heights the new, "nicer" schools have some teachers with bad attitudes. Stepford wives attitudes. Both my grandsons went to elementary schools in that area. The oldest went to Hubert Humphrey and the younger one went to Georgia O'Keefe. They have no tolerance for any child who needs help in any area. Both of them were treated like sub-standard humans, but both are very bright with "learning" disabilities. The oldest has dyslexia and a conginitive issue that he can't read black letters on white paper (that has worked itself out as he got older, and we had someone in the family that helped him with the dyslexia) but because he was on an IEP, meaning, by law they had to accomodate him, they were rude and dismissive. When he got to middle school he thrived and finally had a good school environment. Georgia O'Keef my grandson was treated badly, they had no tolerance for any thing different, and he was eventually diagnosed as being on the spectrum of autism, but by the time he left that school in 2nd grade to go to a private charter school he had so much anxiety it took a long time for him to be able to be ok in school. The charter school is a international bacalauriat school specializing in language intensive teaching. So all the classes are taught in spanish, which we don't speak at home much, and he did better there being behind two years in spanish that he had at that fancy Georgia O'Keef. So, there are a lot of charter schools and more are popping up every year, some are good, some aren't and there are several Montesori schools but the thing with that is that your child has to have a certain temperment to be able to thrive in a Montessori environment.
And like someone said, your kid can do well in almost any school if you participate and make sure the teachers are on the same page as you. My daughter had to report the staff (principal, special ed, and kindergarten & 1st grade teachers) to the state to get any help for my grandson.
Last edited by DesertRat56; 07-24-2023 at 04:50 PM..
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