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I have lived in the Edgewood area since 1994 and I really like it. The views are great and the climate gives you all 4 seasons beautifully. My place is just about the same distance from Albuquerque as it is to Santa Fe, 40 miles. I am now buying a property a few miles from my home there and selling my place. I will attempt to attach a picture in case your're interested.
Good Luck in checking out New Mexico!
Srdexter
My wife and I are looking to move to NM from Baltimore Maryland. I grew up around El paso and Las Cruces and Lived In Arizona for 13 years. The West calls me back and I find that I am just not an east coast person. My Wife, Bless her is all for it! I cannot get the beauty of NM out of my mind. Ah but where In NM should we Live? We definitley need to be outside and close to ALB or Sante Fe. As we look at sites of property for sale on the internet we keep coming back the area of edgewood and that surrounding it. We would appreciate any input about edgewood or suggestion of sites on-line to visit for more information, etc.
Were interested in areas with at least an acre+ of land.
The Cedar Crest/Sandia Park is growing steadily (not tooo fast, IMO). We have a nice, small-town style grocery (finally!). The schools have a great reputation (San Antonito Elementary and East Mountain Charter HS), which can be hard to find in the ABQ area. As the area grows I believe the schools will improve even further since the development in the area tends toward the upscale (good tax base!), though the overall environment is a great mix of incomes, etc... It is about a 30 min drive to the airport (less if you are in Cedar Crest) and a truely GORGEOUS drive the back way up the Turqoise Trail to Santa Fe through the interesting town of Madrid (about 40 min from my house in Sandia Park).
I really like parts of Edgewood, but find that the North 14 area has thus far been more concious of development and kept it "mom and pop" (no Walmart) and it has, in general, a scenic mountain feeling to it. There is a small ski area nearby when we get enough snow, which we have plenty so far this year, and lots of hiking trails a few miles from my house. I really think this area is going to grow (in a very nice way) over the next five to ten years. Some neighborhoods have community water, which is very convenient.
Jloteo -- I spent 10 years in the DC/Baltimore area and if your wife is an East Coast person that likes lots of liberals and lots of city amenities, not even Albuquerque offers that IMNSHO. Santa Fe might be more amenable to an East Coaster. Placitas is very nice with gorgeous natural beauty, but pricey, but much closer than Edgewood to both Albuquerque and Santa Fe.
I miss the big city amenities tremendously. I would never build out in the East Mountains or far away like Edgewood -- but that is my personal preference, even though it is very beautiful in places. Just too isolated for me. People that thrive on quiet and natural beauty and not a lot of other people around enjoy that. That just isn't me.
Now all that said, we have tons of East Coasters in Rio Rancho and they seem to love it -- lots of New Yorkers and people from Jersey too. Rio Rancho is a bedroom community to Albuquerque. There are some great prices here and still several places you can get an acre or more home site. I have a quarter acre lot and it's plenty -- hell it cost $8K to landscape just the back yard! I also have a gorgeous view of the Sandias and some of the other surrounding mountains north toward Santa Fe -- the Sangre de Cristos I believe they are called. I'm up on a ridge.
Srdexter
I like the pics you attached to your post. Is this the property that you are selling or buying? If selling, how much property? How much $ ? My wife wants me to move out to your great state from hurricane prone, hot humid west florida.
Verpro
If you want to live near the airport, have SF bay area money available, and like the SF bay area lifestyle, then Mesa Del Sol is probably what you want.
This huge development (100K people) is going in south of the airport and is supposed to be livable, sustainable, and all the hibbityblabla that the trendies like to have (walkable, clean, well-planned). Residential's still a few years away but if the developer's past is a guide to the future, it will be the IN part of town after people realize it's not the south valley or airport neighborhoods.
(I personally like my house near Uptown and I'm staying here).
Zoidberg- Thanks for the information. Mesa Del Sol looks interesting and timing of the development might work well. Think about flying out to Albuq. this month. Thumper
Would really love to hear from the locals about their life in Edgewood. We recently purchased a home there and will be moving VERY soon. We are so excited to be in horse country and believe it or not, the road we are moving to is the same name as my first horse. The seller's nickname is the same as our last name and our mortgage company is the same name as our home town. Too many signs to ignore. Anyways, please either p.m. or just post what you love or dislike about your community. Thanks!
I'm really not doing this to bump the thread back up, but its amazing there's 20 some views and no one replies. Maybe Edgewood people are more outside and not on their computers as I am here in Cabezon. I bet that's the reason.
Well Edgewood is beautiful, but it can get very snowy and icy in the winter so I would advise a vehicle with 4WD. Other than that, Welcome to the Land of Enchantment!
Edgewood has had a bit of a reputation problem to live down. In the past, it was one of the places where you pulled your single-wide to when you could no longer afford to live in Albuquerque. It's made a lot of progress since then, has some relatively new schools, lots of "real houses" instead of a sea of trailers.
On the positive side, you do get a more rural experience in Edgewood, there's no denying that. While winter conditions can be harsh for livestock (better build a decent horse barn if you're gonna keep 'em) at least you CAN have a horse there if you have the acreage. Most areas are also still cheaper than you can buy in town as well. Edgewood has a more open feel to it as well, there's not that sense that the Sandia are "looming" over you like in some parts of ABQ.
On the negative side, a lot of the roads there are still dirt and can get very muddy at times, especially in the spring if there's been heavy snow. Since most of it is in Santa Fe county instead of Bernalillo county, don't expect the first priority when it comes to snow removal either. Many folks in Edgeworld think that the areas nearer to the city of Santa Fe get the lions share of the county road crews attention when the white stuff falls in quantity. Whether it's true or not, the general feeling is that Edgeweird is sort of the "red-headed stepchild" when it comes to spending road money and such.
If you live in Edgewood and work in ABQ, you'd better have a backup plan for the inevitable day when you're trying to get home and snowfall closes the freeway. Just about every year theres a couple of storms that surpass the states feeble efforts to keep the roads through Tijeras pass open, and the state police respond by just stopping ALL traffic. Sometimes it goes on for quite a while, there's been times in the past where they've kept I-40 and Rt. 66 closed for two or three days at a time. If you're stuck in ABQ and the kids are getting out of school in Edgewood, you've gotta have some friends or neighbors who you trust and are willing to step in, and they've gotta be there on the E. side as well. If one parent usually stays at home anyway, you've just gotta be proactive about second-guessing the weather. Be prudent about when you go shopping and such in ABQ, you don't want both parents caught at the same time.
And then theres the biggie....water. Edgewood has a patchwork of private and community wells and several commercial water systems. The aquifer there was inadequate to the needs of the community years ago, and the population has exploded since then. It's not unknown for a "good" well to suddenly run dry because a neighbor drilled his well deeper, or somebody somewhere nearby started pumping more, or for no apparent reason at all. The water situation there is highly variable, but can get pretty bad in the dryer years since so many people have relatively shallow wells and there is no unified, underlying aquifer to recharge the local strata. If you see a lot of folks in the area with big, domed plastic tanks in the back of their trucks it's usually a bad sign as per the well situation. If you end up hauling water yourself or paying a commercial firm to do so for you, you'll find that the land out there is suddenly a lot less attractive regardless of the low price.
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Thoughts on Edgewood from locals, please!
