Moving to Enchanted Hills, Rio Rancho - Is The Price Right? (city hall, land)

[kathleenssal]

Osuredcobra-

My suggestion would be to find out what housing developments are nearby, size of homes, selling price and what ameneties are offered. Some builders are including all applicances and even closing costs. I bought a home in Las Cruces in 2006 and later that year a housing development went up two blocks away and it has had some impact on the value of my home. I am finding, with the limited research I am conducting, that homes under the $200K price seem to be holding their value more than homes in the $300K range.
How old is the home you want to buy? Does it have anything "special" that other homes in the neighborhood don't have? (Corner lot, established garden with beautiful landscaping, etc)
Another thought is to pay for a phone consultation (since you are not in the area) with an appraiser just to get an idea of the market.

Good luck and I would be interested in knowing what you decide/learn.

K

[finmqa1]

NM, Idaho, and Utah are all expected to appreciate in 2008, granted at slower rates. Most real estate professionals in the ABQ area are expecting a slow recovery beginning in Q3 2008. That being said, you may want to rent for 6 months then start looking for a purchase. This would allow you to make sure Enchanted Hills is where you would want to be.

New Mexico Real Estate, Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe

[mortimer]

osuredcobra worried:

> So do you think that the bottom has NOT fallen out in the area.
> That is my biggest fear ... I do not want to buy a home and
> then have the bottom fall ...

Waiting to buy a house is like waiting to buy a computer so that the price can fall some more. If you have the money and it works for you, do it.

However, there is nothing wrong with renting and saving your money either. Even in a rising market, there is nothing wrong with that.

If you are buying a house and planning on living in it for a number of years, then worrying about if this month or next month or next year is the bottom is a waste. If you aren't planning on staying for a while, then buying a house to avoid a few years of rent is also bad home economics.

When the market was going nuts and some cities had over 40% of the new home sales going to flippers, *everyone* knew that the market was going to roll over, but *no-one* predicted the timing (random crackpots don't count). No one knows when the bottom will be in - despite how firmly they assert that something is going to happen.

[osuredcobra]

Please understand that for us it is a major decision, both of us have lived in Oklahoma 20+ years and now are stepping out of our comfort zone. It seems we are questioning ourselves on everything.

We have an option with this house, and that is Lease with an option to buy after anywhere from 6 months to a year. What do you guys think????????????

[kathleenssal]

LEASE WITH OPTION : be sure and understand everything that is in the lease/option - go online and research the pros and cons of this type of agreement.

ALSO, be sure and do your homework on this property. Check assessor records especially if the home has any kind of garage conversion or add ons. If they are not permitted and inspected, it could be a nightmare down the road. Lease to buy and owner financing are often flags for some type of building or zoning issue. You may be able to hire a land consultant to do some checking for you. It may be that everything is OK, but better to make sure.

good luck
K

[mortimer]

osuredcobra worried:

> Please understand that for us it is a major decision, ...
> are stepping out of our comfort zone.
> It seems we are questioning ourselves on everything.

Doing this long distance has to be 10x the stress as compared to doing it cross-town.

No matter how good the place looks, there will ***always*** be another house that will come along for you later. (sounds like I'm talking about women)

If you move and rent you have no commitment and little risk. If this is such a major decision, maybe you should make the decision to move first and *then* get educated on things like neighborhoods that you like/don't like later on. You can move half your stuff to storage so that a subsequent move is relatively easy.

This is exactly what I did just last year.

[osuredcobra]

Mortimer,

Thanks, we did spend (4) days in Albuquerque with the sole intent to find an area that would fit us. And we did ALOT of driving, got lost many of times, even with Microsoft Streets & Trips on our laptop. Of all the areas we liked the Enchanted Hills area the most because it is closer to Santa Fe, Sandia Ski Resort, other Ski Resorts, Durango, shopping, and work. It is hard for us because we have lived in a house that we always knew would not be a long term home, and we promised each other the next home we get will be a house we want to make "OUR HOME", so we think we found that house, but at the same time do not want to make a mistake. Thanks for your comments.

[NURSEYDUDE]

92 a square foot is a great deal. We sold our place last year in Rio Rancho for about 125 a sq foot. Shows what prices have done. Our place was in the
SE (a bit pricier/more desirable),but with the new downtown theyre planning, and little access to I-25 (Corrales will not allow it) or I-40, the north by Bernalillo will probably turn out to be the best in the end. Happy hunting and welcome to New Mexico.

[osuredcobra]

Nurseydude,

Thanks, we decided to rent a house in the same neighberhood as the house we were looking at to lease. Can you give me some insight to the "new downtown theyre planning", what's that all about.

[gs2offroad]

The new "downtown" of Rio Rancho is described here (http://www.rredc.org/rrprofile/cc.html - broken link). Look for signs saying "city center" on Unser or 528. All that is out there right now is the new city hall, Santa Ana star center, coyotes and vacant land.