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Good afternoon to all you helpful CityData Forum folks!!! My husband and I received some super amazing news this weekend which is that I have been selected for a position at the VA hospital in ABQ! I applied in hopes of being able to relocate to NM (we live in NJ) and am feeling very grateful and excited for this opportunity! So here's where all you wonderful people come in! We need HELP! Help in learning about the beautiful ABQ area specifically places close-ish to the VA where we can settle into and rental and within a years time hopefully find a place to buy. We would love and appreciate any tips on good neighborhoods, areas, regions around the VA (again close-ish; I'm willing to commute a half hour) that offer some good rental opportunities and that will help in making our transition to ABQ enjoyable. I have been reading this forum for months now all the time hoping that this job opportunity would come through to allow us to move there. We are a young couple 29 and 35 who can certainly be homebodies but also love to go out for a nice beer or dinner. We love all the culture ABQ has to offer and would love to be somewhat in the mix location wise. We would ultimately like a 3 bedroom rental to start as my husband needs one bedroom for an office and a small yard space for our 'chiweenie' and hopefully a 2nd future small dog. We also fantasize about being somewhere where we can just go for a walk either through a main street or on sidewalks in a pretty neighborhood with our dog. Being from NJ we are no stranger to gnarly traffic and sketchy people (we have street smarts) but also don't want to deal with too much of either of those things. Moving cross county is also something to discuss......Long distance movers? Should we sell our cars here and buy new ones there? We both have 2 older cars which we are not necessarily committed to keeping.
Lastly, what can we expect in this huge culture difference and new environment? What are some changes we can prepare for in advance? We are both pretty liberal people both in our lifestyle and politics.
We appreciate so much your input!!! Have a great day!!!
I don't know much about the VA area specifically, but there are several discussions about it on the board here. I will say, though, that unless you live way up in Rio Rancho or the far NW part of town (say around Cottonwood), you shouldn't have more than a 30-45 minute drive, one way, max (shorter if east of the river, longer if west of the river). Traffic just isn't that bad here, especially if you're coming from a larger city (not sure where in NJ you're coming from).
I think the closest 'walkable' area with entertainment, etc. would probably be the Nob Hill/UNM area. A second good area, not quite as much to walk to but still walkable with grocery store and some restaurants would be the Lomas/San Mateo area. I'd try to look west of San Mateo and north of Lomas, although there are some OK rentals south of Lomas there too. You'd be able to go straight down San Mateo to get to the VA. Farther west on Lomas, from about 5th St to Old Town, is another neat area with good walking and restaurants and rentals.
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