Moving to ABQ, looking at Alegria vs Mirehaven (Rio Rancho, Bernalillo: for sale, real estate)

[TVQ]

We are two (very young at heart!) seniors currently living in Boise Idaho. We are ready for a change, and are very serious about moving to the ABQ area, specifically interested in Alegria and Mirehaven communities. Our target move date is September.

I've not seen recent posts comparing the two, any current residents willing to give us an opinion?

We are most interested in Alegria, in part due to the property tax difference. Property tax seems to be about half in Alegria as compared to Mirehaven. This would not be the deciding factor, though. We also like Alegria's proximity to the Bosque, as we are avid bike riders. We are interested in a friendly community where we can meet new people, make friends and have an active social life.

Some areas that need additional info:

1. Availability and quality of health care for seniors. I've looked on line and found that healthcare is rated as poor in the ABQ area. This would be a concern for us, but then health care is rated poor in our area--and we have excellent care here through our Medicare Advantage plan. My husband is a veteran and can get care thru the VA, although he would like a personal PCP also.

2. Crime rate?? I'm guessing this is all location & activity dependent. We are pretty run of the mill seniors: rarely out after dark--LOL! Is there a concern about property crime in these two gated communities?

3. We haven't been able to look at HOA rules/CCR's for these two areas, as the community websites require a log in to view. Any feedback on this? IE: if we are preparing for a trip in our RV--can we park it in our driveway overnight to load it up? I know some communities are VERY strict about this. Is there a restriction on under 55 visitors? We have a young friend that house sits/dog sits for us while we travel, and we are typically gone for about 30 days if we travel internationally. Would this be allowed?

4. Quality of cell/internet coverage in these two communities? We are pretty tech dependent for a couple of seniors. ;}

Anyway, hoping to get some feedback from current residents.
We plan to be in ABQ mid June for a couple of weeks. We'll be meeting with a real estate agent, a health insurance agent and also an independent insurance agent to discuss home/auto insurance (recommendations welcome!)

I know--LOTS of questions! Any advice or help is greatly appreciated,

Thanks!

[rwjoyak]

Welcome to the forum and to City-Data in general!
I'm admittedly biased since I live in Alegria, but I think ours is the better of the two for multiple reasons.

1. Location. Mirehaven is located in a more isolated place with very few services in the immediate vicinity. Alegria has more things closer to it, although still set a bit away from development (which I like).

2. Mini-climate. Mirehaven sits fairly exposed to a lot of wind and dust with no natural green around it, just what the developer has planted. IMO the green of the bosque and the water in the Rio (what of it there is), against which Alegria sits, is a huge differentiator between the two communities. We live in a desert climate, but to me it doesn't seem all that extreme with our location. We're also closer to the Sandias, which provide great views from here.

3. Social Vibe. Most of our residents are retired while I believe Mirehaven has a significantly higher percentage of still working residents. I can't tell you what the vibe in Mirehaven feels like exactly, but in Alegria I know we have lots of residents who enjoy socializing with others, making new friends and doing things together. We're definitely a friendly community.

I'm HOA board president here, and we have made a strong effort to reopen everything as quickly as reasonable from covid. We have restarted our full lifestyle programs and have a lot going on. If you send me a PM with your private email address, I can share a copy of our current monthly newsletter with you. I believe Mirehaven is lacking a lifestyle director right now and don't know how much they are doing there these days.

We have an active bike group here. Not sure about Mirehaven.

4. Crime. We've had 1 or 2 break-ins in Alegria in the 10+ years my wife and I have lived here. The one I'm most aware of is when a resident's car got broken into when parked at the airport. The Alegria gate opener, etc., were taken, and the criminals then used that to come into the community and steal a bunch of stuff out of the house. Pretty sophisticated, huh? And not the normal thing, obviously. We feel very safe here and generally in the ABQ area. You'll see posts from me on other threads, if you want to search, about my views on local crime. Location and activity dependent hits the nail on the head, and Alegria is a safe location. We also have a great relationship with the local town of Bernalillo police department and the town mayor, who are very responsive to any concerns we approach them about. One of the benefits of being located in a small town, unlike Mirehaven.

5. Fiscal Future. Being fully resident controlled, we have complete control over our future HOA costs and fees. HOA fees are $160/month now and are very stable. Yes, they will go up as needed for future inflation but increases should be small and gradual. Reserves (for future repairs/replacement of capital items) are well funded and I don't think we'll have any nasty surprises in the future.

Mirehaven is less certain. They are still very much developer controlled, which means residents don't fully pay for everything, I believe Pulte currently subsidizes some of their annual HOA costs. So there will be a bump up in HOA fees when the developer finally leaves, which happened with us and I suspect just about every HOA developer-based community. Also don't know how their reserves look. Don't know how much about this you can find out through a real estate agent, and a question about how much the developer is subsidizing the annual HOA budget is something very few agents have ever thought about or dealt with. But it's definitely something I would ask about Mirehaven, in addition to asking what their current fees are and how well their reserves are funded.

6. Healthcare. We have Presbyterian and have been very happy with it. Can take time to get into see new doctors, but both our PCP and the specialists we have seen have been good. I know some residents here who use the VA and like that very much as well.

Wherever you go for healthcare, sign up as soon as possible. You don't want to wait until you need to see a PCP to ask for one to be assigned to you. If you arrive in September, I suspect it may be at least January before you get in to see someone. Openings often occur after the first of the year when folks have insurance changes.

7. HOA rules. Yes, you can load up your RV here - they be parked in your driveway for up to 24 hours once per month. Regarding guests, we just reopened all our common area facilities to them after not allowing them in the clubhouse during covid restrictions. There is a guest policy that limits the number of guests you can bring with you at one time to the clubhouse, but there are no restrictions on guests in your own home. Your specific question is one that I don't believe we have run across before, but I believe there would be no problem with what you want to do. You can PM me more about this if you want or I'm happy to chat with you when you're in town. I've done that with other folks who have thought about moving here. I can also share a copy of our CC&Rs and other governing documents with you - there's no restriction on doing this.

8. Cell/internet coverage. Don't know about Mirehaven. Coverage is good in Alegria. For cell we had Verizon in the past, which generally has the best reputation for coverage in ABQ and NM. Now we have Consumer Cellular since its less costly. Both have had great coverage here. We currently have Xfinity (Comcast) for internet, used to have CenturyLink. Both have been good, with just a few sporadic outages. I spend a lot of time on the web and used to be very dependent on my internet connection when I was working from here remotely for a company in KY. Have no complaints about this.

Hope the above is helpful.

[rwjoyak]

If you haven't already done so, I suggest you do a search in this forum for Alegria and Mirehaven. I've done a bunch of lengthy posts in the past about these. While somewhat dated, I think there's a bunch of good information in those previous threads.

[TVQ]

Wow--thanks for the great reply and helpful info! I think we are leaning even more toward Alegria, for many of the reasons you mentioned. I had planned on asking about HOA funding, etc, so your information is very helpful.

I have searched this forum and several others for info on Mirehaven and Alegria, but with limited success. Or, as you mentioned, the posts are dated. But still good information and opinions.

We will be in the ABQ area (staying in Bernalillo) from June 13-23. We plan on meeting with a real estate agent, insurance agents etc. while we are there. We also hope to "tour" the Alegria and Mirehaven communities.

I'll PM you my email, so you can send any other information you feel would be helpful to us.

We would definitely like to meet up with you while we are there!

Thanks again!

[TVQ]

AND----in reading some of your other posts, I noticed you grew up in Alaska--so did I! My parents moved there in the late 40's, before I was born. I was raised in Anchorage--East High class of 68. Anchorage was a much different place then.

[jiminnm]

You should check the Alegria info here.
Alegria - Welcome

We knew some folks who lived there, and they liked the community. It is walkable, with a lot of varied community activities. If you search real estate sites for Bernalillo real estate, you will find the listings of homes there for sale.

There's a Walmart and Albertson's just north on 528 for groceries. There's a Home Depot and other shopping nearby. The 528 and 550 intersection is currently a mess due to construction, but that is supposed to end sometime this year. Rio Rancho is south on 528 with more shopping than anyone needs, as well as the traffic that comes along with it.