Bernalillo (Albuquerque, Las Cruces, Santa Fe: budget, job, homes)

[norm]

Could anyone tell me what they think about Bernalillo as a place for a retiree to live.

[Zoidberg]

Bernalillo is very multifaceted, and it's quite small.

If they're getting a newish home, odds are that the realtor is calling it Bernalillo but it's actually in Rio Rancho, a huge Albuquerque suburb to the west, which is all brand new in that area.

The main road through the area, US 550, is a hopeless parking lot. Maybe not in comparison to Long Island, but to the locals here, it's definitely about the worst in the state come rush hour.

If I was a retiree without much money, or with a lot of money, I'd avoid that place. But then again I'm not a retiree at all.

Coming from New York, I'd want warm weather (Bernalillo is warmer than NY but you could do far better in NM for warm winters) and cheap, wide open spaces. Bernalillo is neither cheap nor wide open. Perhaps a smaller town further from the big city that is popular with retirees. Perhaps Deming or T or C come to mind. Even Belen has that train access, is warmer, and is considerably cheaper and wider-open.

[norm]

Zoidberg,

Thanks for the input. I didn't know that Bernilillo was a part of Rio Rancho, I thought it was a separate town. I'm only interested in living in the Alb. area.

[finmqa1]

The town of Bernalillo is not part of Rio Rancho, they just border one another. In fact along US 550 it can be hard to tell which part is Bernalillo and which is Rio Rancho, but they are seprate cities.

It is an up and coming section of the ABQ metro. Very nice rural charm with some great local establishments. Yet hop on the Rail Runner Commuter Train and you're in Downtown ABQ in just 30 minutes.

[mortimer]

norm got confused:

> ... didn't know that Bernilillo was a part of Rio Rancho,
> I thought it was a separate town.

It is. It is just that you can't tell when you leave one and enter the other.

It is like many places that once were separate and had undeveloped land between them, now they are continuous.

I imagine that Brooklyn and Queens Village once were separated by farmland, but now you just drive through one long suburb all the way out to, oh, ... say Brentwood.

Zoidberg makes good points though. If you are not bound to a job commute, why not live somewhere less crowded?

[norm]

mortimer,

I wasn't confused, I did think that Rio Rancho and Bernilillo were two distinct entities.

Brooklyn & Queens Village were also separate towns, as a matter of fact all of New York's boroughs were divided up into a lot of small towns before they were melded together to forum the 5 boroughs.

Where else is there that is less crowded yet has all of the advantages of being near a big city? We went to Las Cruces and didn't care for it.

[ABQSunseeker]

Norm, it all depends on your budget. Near Albuquerque but close enough are towns like Corrales, Placitas, and the East Mountain towns (Cedar Crest, Edgewood, etc.). All pretty uncrowded. Possibly Los Lunas and Belen, but I don't know these areas.

Bernalillo is a farm town in transition and is very convenient to I25 and has Railrunner train access to downtown Albuquerque and soon to Santa Fe. You'll find places to look at in all budget ranges. It was never a very wealthy town, but it now has some very expensive neighborhoods as well. And it has some good eateries in the Range Cafe and Flying Star.

Yes, the biggest negative is traffic on Rte 550, and I keep hearing the state is in the process of refiguring it.

But consider parts of Albuquerque itself. There are many neighborhoods in the city which are not crowded including much of the far Northeast hts. As a former NYorker I like the fact that ABQ has many of the amenities of a big city but has many quiet neighborhoods close at hand to urban attractions.

[norm]

ABQ,

We were shown all of the different neighborhoods in Alb & Rio Rancho and we will be moving there but I came across something about Bernilillo and I just thought I would ask about it. We don't want to be in a small town and we like what the Alb suburbs have to offer. I am not concerned about traffic since we will both be retired and don't have to worry about rush hour traffic.

[ABQSunseeker]

Ok, Norm, good luck with your search. You may still want to consider Bernalillo since it is actually more convenient to Albuquerque than many of the remoter parts of Rio Rancho. A new downtown is going to be built in Rio Rancho and right now it's way, way out there. Bernalillo is a very accessible suburb of Albuquerque, but it all depends on what you are looking for.

[kensgirl]

Originally Posted by norm

We don't want to be in a small town and we like what the Alb suburbs have to offer. I am not concerned about traffic since we will both be retired and don't have to worry about rush hour traffic.

Bernalillo is part of the ABQ metro area - similar to Corrales. Separate but easy to get to and from. It's real appeal is the fact that it has the rail runner station and it is close to I-25, on the northern end of the metro area, so a lot of couples who split (one works in ABQ, one works in Santa Fe) look to Bernalillo to live. There are a lot of older homes, many with land for horses, etc. but there are also a lot of newer homes, more west of the downtown area. It's also seen the addition of new restaurants and now has a Home Depot and Walmart SuperCenter. It's also the county seat for Sandoval County (Rio Rancho being it's largest city)