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I'm relocating soon from Los Angeles to ABQ and have been lurking on this forum and doing as much research as I can. I'm trying to find an area with the following:
- Good schools
- Low crime
- Family-friendly (read: kids in the neighborhood that my 8 & 10yo's can play with)
- Larger-sized homes (2k-2.7k sq ft)
- Decent-sized lot (at least 1/4 acre)
- As short a commute as possible to downtown ABQ (preferably under 20min)
- All of the above for less than $350k
Does such a place exist? I keep running into the last two being the hurdles
Cherry Hills would probably work for you, up by Eubank & Spain area. Might be a little over 20 minutes in rush hour though. However it does put you in the most desired school district in Albuquerque.
If you were planning private or charter schools or not necessarily require La Cueva then you could look at the Foothills North and South areas, you'll get more bang for your buck but will travel an extra 5 minutes or so to work.
- Decent-sized lot (at least 1/4 acre)
- All of the above for less than $350k
I would guess that any lot of that size reliably within
20 minutes of downtown would go for more than that price.
House would be optional.
There are some empty lots of 1/2-3/4th of an acre in the
deepest darkest reaches of N. Sandia Acres with defects
that go for the $250k range, but due to the speed humps
on the E-W roads, it would take about 10 minutes just to
get on Paseo del Norte from those lots.
Thanks for the info, I'll be sure to check out Cherry Hills.
What about Vista Del Norte? I was looking into it and it seemed like a nice place, until I did a Google street view and saw that there's a fence around the park, and that fence has barbed wire on it. Seems dicey.
Vista Del Norte is the opposite of dicey--very clean, nice area. I've been to the park that they built there--don't recollect any barbed wire. Maybe it was under construction in the photo that you viewed?
Vista Del Norte might meet all the criteria except for their postage stamp lot sizes. Why anyone would prefer to have a neighbor's bedroom five feet away but a supermarket no less than a mile away escapes me.
Recommend you look in the NE heights, say between Montgomery & Menaul, San Mateo & Wyoming (basically, northern half of 87110); not every house is >2000 sqft but many are, good schools, family friendly, and within your price range. Some lots are also quite large (>.33 ac). Lots of greenery compared to the rest of Albuquerque, too. Houses range from 1950's to 1980's era, and tend to be better built than average for that era (lots of brick, mostly 2 car garages). Disclaimer: I live in the area, and half the houses on my street are still lived in by their original owners (my house is a 1960).
Looking at about a 10-15 minute downtown commute from this general area, and rush is not near as bad from this direction as points west, northwest, or south of downtown. Prices stay pretty level if you go further north and east of 87110, but your commute time goes up.
I live in a subdivision that meets all of your criteria except lot size (we have .1 or .2 lots I think). If you are willing to forgo the lot size (which you may because there is a huge park 2 blocks away), check out the Eagle Springs subdivision. It is in the La Cueva school district (the best Alb public schools). Some people think it is far away, but it only takes me 15-20 minutes to get to work downtown via I-25. It is a safe, family-friendly area, and there are homes from 1800-2500 square feet for under $350,000. There are also plenty of other similar subdivisions around this area (north of Paseo del Norte, East of Louisiana).
Thank you all so much for your help. I'll definitely scout those areas out on my recon trip out there. I looked around at houses around the Cherry Hills area -- really nice. I especially like what I see in the Heritage East area.
Looks like there are plenty of options for us in these areas.
You could just live downtown - maybe North of Central between Lomas and Mountain. Pretty awesome neighborhoods with really neat houses for sale for around that price, and you could walk to work.
Downtown is probably out because of the school district. We'd really like to stick with La Cueva now that we've looked into it. Plus, coming from CA I've gotta be near my Trader Joe's!
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