Rio Rancho Questions (Albuquerque: real estate, homeowners insurance, condo)

[kmksga]

Okay...we have almost completely decided on moving to Rio Rancho but have (almost) the last few questions: (Quick FYI: I have kids, two of therm are 7 and 9 to consider in the answers)

1. In Rio Rancho are there good areas and bad or you can't go wrong ???

2. Going thru the Real Estate listings...Don't laugh but what are the pros and cons to septic & well ???

3. I noticed that in Rio Rancho it has areas that the houses are really close together then more spaced out then completely out in the open....Pros / Cons to that.

4. Again, don't laugh why aren't there alot of swimming pools ??? (That's the California girl in me asking).

Thank you in advance for the info !!!

[Zoidberg]

Originally Posted by kmksga

Okay...we have almost completely decided on moving to Rio Rancho but have (almost) the last few questions: (Quick FYI: I have kids, two of therm are 7 and 9 to consider in the answers)

1. In Rio Rancho are there good areas and bad or you can't go wrong ???

Uhhh.. you can go wrong in any city.

2. Going thru the Real Estate listings...Don't laugh but what are the pros and cons to septic & well ???

Pros.. no regular bill.
Cons.. more to maintain, risk of losing water, risk of getting foul water, big bills down the road when things go wrong.

3. I noticed that in Rio Rancho it has areas that the houses are really close together then more spaced out then completely out in the open....Pros / Cons to that.

So, like any city.. dense, then not as dense, then sparse.. pick your poison.

4. Again, don't laugh why aren't there alot of swimming pools ??? (That's the California girl in me asking).

Thank you in advance for the info !!!

Swimming pools cost a lot up front.
Swimming pools cost a lot to maintain.
Swimming pools (outdoor) are useless in RR for about 6-8 months out of the year.

Most Californians don't quite understand that no place in the U.S. has California's weather. It gets cold and snowy everywhere in NM at times, and the cold doesn't let up for months. It's better than, say, Buffalo, or even Denver, but it's still plenty too cold for some people.

[bradly]

Swimming pools in New Mexico = paying more for water.

Depending where you live. Both my neighbors and I have a pool.

[Zoidberg]

Water ranks about fourth on the list of expenses associated with a pool.

Ahead of it are chemicals, electricity (to run the pump), and parts replacement (with occasional labor). That's if you don't run a gas heater (I don't), which runs over $10/hr.

A pool will use less water than an equivalently sized lawn, so unless you xeriscape, gravel, brick over, or leave fallow your lot, you're saving water vs. grass. Water's not a strong argument for or against a pool when you bear these other arguments in mind.

I've noticed, though, that grass really isn't a Rio Rancho thing.

[mortimer]

Originally Posted by Zoidberg

Water ranks about fourth on the list of expenses ...

-o- chemicals -- 20%
-o- electricity -- 25%
-o- parts/labor - 50%
-o- water ------ 5%

How would you apportion those? I put some percentages
as an estimate without any real knowledge of pools.

Even when I lived in Phoenix, I felt there was a 5th item
that was bigger than the above four items combined:

-o- my time screwing around with pH/picking stuff out/etc/etc/etc.

That made my decision right there.

I suppose there is also this item:

-o- increased homeowner's insurance

This would be for the non-zero possibility of possible legal issues.
In Phoenix, it's a regular, peeve-inducing new item where someone
failed to teach their sprog how to swim and the first time it fell in
the pool, it drowned in about 0.3 seconds. If not that, it was the
unlocked gate, falling-down fence, etc.

[Poncho_NM]

Originally Posted by kmksga;

4. Again, don't laugh why aren't there alot of swimming pools ??? (That's the California girl in me asking).

Public pools or private homeowner pools. You got the money and desire, you can have one. Rio Rancho has four nice pools: The Official Site of Rio Rancho, NM - Aquatics Albuquerque has quite a lot more.

Originally Posted by mortimer

-o- chemicals -- 20%
-o- electricity -- 25%
-o- parts/labor - 50%
-o- water ------ 5%

How would you apportion those? I put some percentages
as an estimate without any real knowledge of pools.

Even when I lived in Phoenix, I felt there was a 5th item
that was bigger than the above four items combined:

-o- my time screwing around with pH/picking stuff out/etc/etc/etc.

I suppose there is also this item:

-o- increased homeowner's insurance

We lived in rural PA and had a pool from 1990-1998. 28 ft, above ground, 18,000 gals of water.

-o- chemicals -- Came out to $400 per year (open, maintain, close etc)

-o- electricity -- Could not really tell, full electric home with cheap electricity from a nuclear plant.

-o- parts/labor - Less than $500 for the eight years, less than $63 per year average.

-o- water ------ $0 well.

-o- increased homeowner's insurance Our homeowners insurance actually went down. We had an easy to get to water source. Nearest fire hydrant was 3 miles...


-o- my time screwing around with pH/picking stuff out/etc/etc/etc. - We had friends who did not maintain pH and chemical levels, grew and algea farm which clogged the filter and paid about $400 for new water. That was our third pool, above ground, in-ground, above ground... Pools are nice, but we got tired of them. Then there is my Mom's Condo in Florida with a pool which someone takes care of and about 10 mile drive to the beach...

[Zoidberg]

Originally Posted by mortimer

-o- chemicals -- 20%
-o- electricity -- 25%
-o- parts/labor - 50%
-o- water ------ 5%

How would you apportion those? I put some percentages
as an estimate without any real knowledge of pools.

Those are pretty close; for me chemicals are probably 50%, electricity 20%, parts and labor 20%, water 10%. With a smaller or aboveground pool the first two become smaller percentagewise and thus the last two become larger.

I suppose there is also this item:

-o- increased homeowner's insurance

This would be for the non-zero possibility of possible legal issues.
In Phoenix, it's a regular, peeve-inducing new item where someone
failed to teach their sprog how to swim and the first time it fell in
the pool, it drowned in about 0.3 seconds. If not that, it was the
unlocked gate, falling-down fence, etc.

I haven't noticed a real "pool premium" in the homeowner's policy. Even though pools are about the worst investment in terms of home improvements, they do improve the value a bit, so that's probably the majority of their contribution to insurance premiums.

Most people would be fools (and in violation of city ordinances) not to install 8' high scale-resistant fencing around their pools, so that limits out-of-household traffic (dogs, punk kids).

[Ziasforever]

There are least two and maybe three drawbacks to wells in New Mexico in general and one specific to ABQ and RR;

They are

1. Drilling wells in NM is expensive, generally speaking. $20 per foot at a minimum. Further, there's no guarantee you'll hit water and if you do, it might and probably will go dry. Further I think the counties in which RR lies is toying with the idea of putting meters on wells to monitor use and abuse.

2. ABQ once thought it was sitting on an aquifer larger than Lake Huron. That was disproved in the 80's. The general consensus now is the remaining body of water is much much smaller than initially thought. One other issue I'm sure they're working on is that the quality of the water goes down as the city uses it up. The aquifer has a lot of salt in it. A water expert that works for the city told me that. The quest for new water sources never end in New Mexico.

3. Radium might be in the water which will give you cancer. Radium in the water might be a folklore and not even pertain to RR wells. I know a couple of people that live in the La Queva area who claim their water is radiated. I don't know about this one but those folks don't seem to be kooks.

[Poncho_NM]

4. Arsenic a naturally occurring element is present in water to various degrees at various locations. There are new Federal Standards on arsenic levels which will be costing some areas a lot of money to remove.


Rich

[bradly]

Originally Posted by Zoidberg

I've noticed, though, that grass really isn't a Rio Rancho thing.

I hate this! Sooooooo true! and then people let weeds take over their yards. So tacky.