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My husband and I have two young children (2 and 4) and want to relocate to Albuquerque from Hartford, CT. Quite the dream, ah? We plan on visiting in April to look at neighborhoods, meet with real estate agents and possibly talk to career staffing agencies. We have many questions and are not sure if we can make this happen, but want to try...
- We would want to buy a house, $250K range, - location, school district, commute to bus. district, accessibility to mountains, trails, are important.
Locations, areas, suggestions?
I also want to find out who the bigger employers in the area are....I work in finance in an insurance company and my husband in project management.
Any help is very appreciated...just trying to find a way to make this happen
Thanks!!!
I will try to answer a few of your questions and hopefully some others will fill in the blanks.
Albuquerque is not cheap to live in, but should be comparable to what you have to pay in the northeast or cheaper. Your budget might actually go further here since our property taxes should be lower. That being said Albuquerque is a buyer's market right now.
Personally, I would look in Rio Rancho for that price range, the public schools are pretty decent and you will get more for your money. Otherwise you are pretty much priced out of the Northeast Albuquerque for the better neighborhoods and you are left with the Northwest quad, which is where I live and like it. The commute from the NW and Rio Rancho is pretty bad. Even knowing that, I would still start in the NW and Rio Rancho areas. Overall ABQ is pretty safe by most standards, you want the safest, the numbers don't lie and NW and Rio Rancho have very low crime numbers.
Hiking adventures in northern New Mexico is a great one by Salzman, it includes a CD with Waypoints for your GPS. It includes many hikes in the Jemez Pueblo area and the Abiquiu area (Georgia O'Keefe lived near Abiquiu)
I guess the point is no matter where you live here, there are trails pretty close by.
One last thing, when you come in the spring you might have to deal with the winds and blowing sand/dust. It lasts from a few days to a couple of weeks and can be a pain. Overall the weather here is wonderful, Mild winters (Highs today will be around 55, the average high is in the 40s though) and low humidity summers with no biting bugs to speak of (Highs in the upper 80s but can be as high as the mid to upper 90s and lows most nights in the mid 60s or lower). The heat index in the summer here is generally LOWER than the actual temp if it gets to the upper 90s due to the lack of humidity.
To the OP, this is a very active forum with a lot of wonderful information. I am planning a move within the next year and have found the search function to be very helpful (mortimer's advice usually...browse around a bit and you will understand). We visited last April and really liked it.
Donho3 has given some good advice and others will undoubtedly weigh in. If you have more specific questions you will get more responses. Everyone is really quite helpful. Here is a list of major employers:
Albuquerque Economic Development - Regional Profile (http://www.abq.org/regional/employers.html - broken link)
Last edited by Poncho_NM; 01-22-2010 at 10:54 PM..
Hi iamisano, welcome to the Albuquerque forum. You're off to a good start: checking in with locals and planning a trip out to visit and experience Albuquerque for yourselves. If there's one thing we agree on, it's that Albuquerque has a very unique blend of qualities and very few people come away with a neutral feeling about it. Hartford, huh? I was stationed at Groton/New London when I was in the Navy, so I know what a change of scenery you're in for!
Real estate is a moving target dependent on so many variables. I would suggest using some online searches to see what's available in your range. 250K is not an unrealistic number for Albuquerque, but with two children you'll be probably be giving up something for that number (square footage, location, bedrooms, etc...).
I always say Albuquerque can be a 'spotty' town. This is one of the reasons we strongly suggest visiting. A house that looks great for the price online will be nixed the moment you turn onto the block (hence the great price, right?), even though the surrounding blocks seemed quite nice. So I suggest the real estate searches so you can get a feel for what's available out here, but wait till you have your feet on the ground before you start making promises.
With the Big-I (Intersection of I-25 and I-40) in town, I don't know that I'd call anything inaccessible, but we do recommend you try to minimize your commute. Like any city, the main thoroughfares can get slow during the rush hours. One obvious issue is the Rio Grande running through the middle of town, north to south. There are only so many crossings, so if you can avoid having to use them every day during the rushes, you'll be doing yourself a big favor. As for paths/hiking trails there aren't too many places in town without them, but the Bosque (the Cottonwood forest along the Rio Grande.) and the foothills of the Sandias stand out as areas offering a lot of natural choices. The city is supposedly cris-crossed in bike paths, and there are quite a few dedicated ones, but a lot of what the city calls a bike path is a section of road blocked from auto traffic by a four inch wide stripe of reflective paint. With two toddlers in a trailer in tow? No thanks!
If you're thinking about public schools for your kids, in general people recommend the schools in the NE quadrant. Of course there are exceptions, but if you ask a local, that's probably the response you'll get.
As for the big employers, I don't have a lot of direct experience but I can say that we have plenty of corporate call centers and we just picked up a large location for HP. We have Tempurpedic's largest factory, a large GAP corporate center, and quite a few high end tech and defense firms (attracted or spun off by Sandia National Labs and Kirtland AFB). It's a relatively small pool out here, so few employers will ignore a fresh, qualified candidate.
The options for family fun seem to be growing all the time. We're talking on another thread about a new water resort nearing completion. There's been some great posts outlining things for families to do while there out. Take advantage of the search function and get the most of your visit time out here.
Oh, and if I didn't make it clear earlier, make your home choice commute-smart, but don't necessarily rule out any part of town completely. There are some real gems in unexpected places in town. Be sure to get out on foot. The river valley/Bosque has a completely different 'feel' than say, old town, four heights or the foothills.
As the parent of a 3-year old, I'll offer my experience with entertaining children. Spring/Summer/Fall is wonderful. Events aplenty, cultural, education, fun... whatever. Outdoors is accessible and pleasant, lots of cheap/free things abound. (My daughter's favorite last year was the "turtle pond" on the UNM campus. I think parking was $.75, and a box of crackers from the dollar store covered any ducks that might actually be hungry, which is very rare.) Walks in the trees (Jemez) and walks in the rocks (petroglyph, etc.) were her favorites, but the zoo/aquarium and the train ride in between the two was also a big hit. She likes the train to Santa Fe, but not Santa Fe that much. The children's museum is a little old for her, but the toddler zone entertained her for a while. Kid-friendly events abound (balloon fiesta, gathering of nations, state fair...) and she's pretty entertained by basically any event with food. (little things like the lavender festival, saint's days on the pueblos, etc...)
Winter's a bit of a different story, it's more of a "hunker down and wait it out" sort of time. There's not much to do, most days are pretty unpleasant outside from a little person perspective, it's not so much the temperature, but the wind is pretty biting, especially when stubborn kids don't want to keep gloves and hats on or hoods up. (Yours may be better behaved than mine, I don't know.) We go to the bookstore and pick up a new book, things like that during the winter, but for the most part, it's not worth it to leave the house.
Of course, you're coming from CT, so maybe you're hardier stock than my born in Nevada daughter and my born in Texas self.
Not saying it's not awesome here, just trying to support full disclosure.
Rio Rancho public schools are quite good, nationally recognized, and my experience with them has been mostly positive with regards to my step-son who was living here and going to elementary school. Preschools/Daycares unfortunately, are limited, full, and in MY OPINION ONLY, pretty questionable in quality, so realize that may end up taking more of your time/energy than you figured. Good ones can be found, but they may not be close, immediate, or convenient. On the other hand, it seems like quality home care is easier to find than I'm used to in other places, if that's a direction you'd lean.
I'll answer specific questions that are DM'd to me, if you run across any. Don't know much about ABQ proper, haven't lived there since 1982.
There is a great website you can find information about top companies. The link is below. Feel free to contact me if you have any other questions!
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That list of top employers is pretty good...some are general, yes, but I have few in mind that will definetely need to be researched...I do have MBA in finance and 6 years or experience (large insurance corporate setting)...If anyone has any leads, always welcome...I think that will be the hardest thing....
I am already sold on Rio Rancho and I am sure we'll find a house we love...just making sure we get jobs
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advice for folks interested in Albuquerque
