Surrounding areas around Albuquerque (Rio Rancho, North Valley: short sale, renting, condo)

[songinthewind7]

What is a good area to live around Albq?

What I mean is affordable for a couple on fixed incomes, maybe get a part time job? We like the mountain scenery.
My sig. other lived in Albq. when he was younger but things have changed alot since then and there are areas such as Rio Rancho, Los Lunas, etc. that we don't know anything about.

We just want a nice and affordable area.

(Most of you know that we live in Timberon already. Love it but it's too isolated and I'm getting antsy and cranky)

[karmathecat]

What is affordable? What kind of fixed income? Are you buying or renting?

[songinthewind7]

We would be buying.

We are far from rich and well off money wise but we're not dirt poor either.
Okay, we're closer to dirt poor but we don't want to live in a nasty or slummy area.

[karmathecat]

And you are looking in what price range for a house?

[lalahartma]

Did you nix the Colorado Springs area?

[songinthewind7]

Originally Posted by karmathecat

And you are looking in what price range for a house?

Under 100K

[songinthewind7]

Originally Posted by lalahartma

Did you nix the Colorado Springs area?

We looked in Woodland Park and Divide. WP is over our price range and Divide is possible but we'd like to stay in NM.

[karmathecat]

That's going to be tough....perhaps a condo or townhome in RR. Perhaps a fixer upper/repo/short sale...perhaps older property in Bernalillo. Perhaps a trailer? There are a handful of decent mobile home parks in the city itself, especially if you are a senior (?)

I think most starter homes in LL will be in the low 100's....125k or so....as far as new construction.

I'd get a buyer's agent.

[songinthewind7]

We don't mind a fixer upper. They're okay or some of them would be okay.

We're not seniors. We're both in our 50's and have military retirements. A little background on us, we decided a couple of years ago to leave our jobs and come to Timberon and live on our incomes. That's what we've done so far but it's too isolated with nothing to do so we need to live closer to a city or in an area where we have choices to do what we want to do, as in get some kind of a job to supplement our incomes, something to do and somewhere to go.

A condo would be nice but out of the question as we have 3 large dogs.

We may need to take a drive up and look the area over too.
I'm just trying to get some ideas on where to look and what is a waste of time looking at.

[karmathecat]

Worth looking at: North Valley ( potential fixer upper ), Bernalillo, Rio Rancho, older developments in the West Side, parts of Placitas, Edgewood, Belen, LL.

Forget: Los Ranchos, Corrales.

If one/both of you could add part time work that could bring you up to about 130k, you could be looking at newer and much much nicer.