Family area close to Presbyterian Hospital? (Albuquerque: for sale, real estate, houses)

[OnTheMovein2011]

Hello--my husband is interviewing for a job at Presbyterian Hospital. We're trying to determine whether we'd be able to afford to buy a home if he took the job.

We're a family of four (two small kids), so proximity to good public schools would be our primary criteria (along with a reasonably safe neighborhood with parks and some sort of yard). My husband's commute is about 20-25 minutes now, and we'd like to stay in that range if possible (although commute times seem to be longer in ABQ). I work at home, so my commute is zero no matter what. We'd be able to spend a maximum of $200K on a house.

This looks doable when I look at real estate listings online...but I've learned from experience that what looks like a 20-minute commute on Google Maps might actually be an hour in real life.

Where should I be looking for real estate listings? If a 20-25 minute commute from Presbyterian Hospital isn't realistic in my price range, which direction should I look to get the most for my dollars? (The commute is flexible, but our budget really isn't)

[Zoidberg]

Presbyterian Hospital has a dozen different hospital campuses. You're going to need to specify which in order to get good advice.

[OnTheMovein2011]

The address is 1100 Central Avenue Southeast, Albuquerque 87106.

[Zoidberg]

Ok, that's Pres Main. Most of the better public schools will be 10+ minutes away from there.

If he is going to work standard hours (possibly being the first doctor in many years to do so) recommend avoiding looking at the westside (anything west of the river); traffic snarls, while not bad by out-of-state standards, get pretty bad around there during rush hour. If he's working odd hours, that probably won't factor. I'd imagine traffic concerns are higher for medical personnel because they're constantly sleep-deprived and driving in traffic while sleep deprived is a recipe for smashy smashy.

$200k gets you a lot of choices. The amount of square feet you want will determine where you end up. There's precious little within 10 minutes that's not 50+ years old and built out, meaning it's <1500sf for that price. To get >2000sf, you're looking at 15 min E (a few options) or 15 min W (a whole bunch of options). Newer homes have less kid-friendly yards (think pea gravel instead of a lawn), smaller lots, and less green in general.

The best advice is to visit, visit, visit. Only you know what you like and don't like. There's a wealth of searchable information on this forum as well.

[nonexpat]

The Northeast Heights has good schools and would be about a 25 minute commute. You will have a fairly small house for that price though. There is a fixer-upper for sale on our street at only 279k and it's 3500 square feet. I can't believe they are asking that little. I have seen smaller houses for a bit over 200k. These houses feed into La Cueva High School, considered one of the best in ABQ.

[naport]

Spruce Park neighborhood...great houses and Monte Vista elementary district, which has a good rep.

Some parts of UNM north campus also are in this district. Others are in Montezuma elementary district, which I attended myself a million years ago...I hear it may not be as strong as Monte Vista these days, but ask around.

Hyder Park neighborhood...also a great residential area, with some block by block variability as is often the case in ABQ, and Bandelier elementary district, which is also relatively strong.

Not sure what you could get for $200k in these areas...some places do seem to be just sitting on the market, but you might be quite limited in your selection or have to take a fixer-upper? I'd guess the Hyder Park area is likely to contain the cheapest houses of the three areas I mentioned.

[mortimer]

If I worked at Pres on Central and could use the bus to get to work - or better yet - WALK, that would be awesome! (*)

For 3/4ths of the day, there is a bus stopping right in front every 10 minutes. Walking from Nob Hill is totally doable and entertaining.

(*) For some reason or another, I really wanted to use another adjective, but it's not possible here. ( It was an anatomical reference. )