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Wondering about the village of Placitas and the town of Bernalillo.
Placitas sounds delightful, Bernalillio seems to get mixed reviews. I'm assuming people who live there there cross pollinate: eg. house in Placitas but always in Bernalillo for amenities? Or are they separate worlds?
Is any of the rural living experience of Placitas available in Bernalillo, or is it all more 'town'? How do house prices and value for money (houses) in each compare?
And if you've seen my other threads, you wont be surprised when I ask: is it true that both these places have no problems with (outdoor, wild) cockroaches? How about mosquitoes?
I truly think that the further you go from the Rio Grande and the acequias the less you will see of mosquitos. I've never encountered a wild roaming cockroach in NM. Where I live we have houseflies after a rain for just a few days.
I live in the Rio Rancho desert near Bernalillo and do almost all of my routine business there and most of my socializing and the two communities seem to mesh pretty well. Bernalillo is quite Hispanic in culture and somewhat so in language. Placitas is less Hispanic and is a wealthier community. I think much of what is said negatively about Bernalillo is years or maybe decades old...the town seems to go to bed at 9 PM. Placitas is largely a spread out residential development with a few commercial businesses. From what I've seen, the building lots are large but the terrain is fairly rugged which is somewhat of a determining factor on building lots ($$$). Bernalillo is sandwiched between the Sandia and Santa Ana pueblos and Rio Rancho so it is mostly a town...not much rural space, if any
Wondering about the village of Placitas and the town of Bernalillo.
Placitas sounds delightful, Bernalillio seems to get mixed reviews. I'm assuming people who live there there cross pollinate: eg. house in Placitas but always in Bernalillo for amenities? Or are they separate worlds?
Is any of the rural living experience of Placitas available in Bernalillo, or is it all more 'town'? How do house prices and value for money (houses) in each compare?
And if you've seen my other threads, you wont be surprised when I ask: is it true that both these places have no problems with (outdoor, wild) cockroaches? How about mosquitoes?
The Town of Bernalillo is much larger and is adjacent to Placitas. The Town of Bernalillo has much more shopping. Do not confuse the Town of Bernalillo with Bernalillo County. Albuquerque is in Bernalillo County.
Housing in Placitas tends to be much more expensive.
The Rio Grande passes through the Town of Bernalillo, and there are some mosquitoes at times.
I have never seen cockroaches in either place, but that does not mean they do not exist...
Placitas is a more desert area with some really spectacular scenery.
You could drive through both areas pretty quickly, one or two hours or less would give you and idea about both areas.
I've never encountered a wild roaming cockroach in NM.
Well I guess you've never lived in Nob Hill in ABQ! Here the sidewalks are teaming with them at night and they are around outside the house and trying to get in constantly. Its gross and unnerving and I'm sick of them. Would like our next move to be out of the roach zone, and since we are considering a more small town or rural experience, I do want to know if these two places, specifically, have em.
Quote:
Originally Posted by SunGrins
I live in the Rio Rancho desert near Bernalillo and do almost all of my routine business there and most of my socializing and the two communities seem to mesh pretty well. Bernalillo is quite Hispanic in culture and somewhat so in language. Placitas is less Hispanic and is a wealthier community.
That's interesting, to hear that Bernalillo has a strong Hispanic feel. In terms of Placitas, how diverse is the community? Is everyone upper middle class or are there regular middle class folks there, with a range of jobs and lifestyles? I've searched Placitas real estate online and I see a lot of expensive homes, but with a few more affordable places scattered in there. We like living around diverse folks, and we are left leaning, so just wondering. We also cant afford a super expensive home either!
Quote:
Originally Posted by SunGrins
I think much of what is said negatively about Bernalillo is years or maybe decades old...the town seems to go to bed at 9 PM. Placitas is largely a spread out residential development with a few commercial businesses. From what I've seen, the building lots are large but the terrain is fairly rugged which is somewhat of a determining factor on building lots ($$$). Bernalillo is sandwiched between the Sandia and Santa Ana pueblos and Rio Rancho so it is mostly a town...not much rural space, if any
I've read that all the houses in Placitas have septic tanks and wells because there's no water utility in that terrain. Is that true?
You could drive through both areas pretty quickly, one or two hours or less would give you and idea about both areas.
I have to agree. You might try that and drive around some of the side streets. It's really not all that far from Nob Hill.
From all I have seen, about the only thing Placitas and Bernalillo have in common is that they are both in the same area of New Mexico. Topographically they are not really even the same.
I've read that all the houses in Placitas have septic tanks and wells because there's no water utility in that terrain. Is that true?
All homes in Placitas have a septic system because there are no sewers. The general Placitas area, with Placitas mailing addresses, runs from I-25 east to the Sandia mountains. Except for the village itself, which is about 7 miles west of I-25 and has been some form of a community for 400 years, it is an unincorporated area. Some areas have homes that rely their own or shared wells. Other areas, generally those homes built within the last 25 years, are served by water co-ops that operate community wells (which is what we have). Our fire and police services are provided by Sandoval county.
The town of Bernalillo has a water and sewer department, but I suspect many older homers there may have a well and septic. Since it is a very old community, so you should check directly with the town to find out.
We have been here 18 years and never had a water or septic issue. The water may be too hard for some folks, so many have softeners. We've had our septic pumped 3 times over that time, with no issues. Some folks get them pumped more often. Septic systems are more affected by what goes into them then by age.
Over that time, we have never seen a cockroach. There appear to be problems in certain areas of ABQ, likely caused by the condition of the sewer lines in those areas. Mosquitoes here, 2-3 miles east of I-25, are very rare. I would expect more in Bernalillo, since it is closer to the river and has many irrigation canals nearby. We do have centipedes, millipedes after a rain, crickets, and a variety of beetles and flying things. We support the lizards, flycatchers, roadrunners, coyotes, bobcats and snakes in their effort to minimize the pest problem.
All homes in Placitas have a septic system because there are no sewers. The general Placitas area, with Placitas mailing addresses, runs from I-25 east to the Sandia mountains. Except for the village itself, which is about 7 miles west of I-25 and has been some form of a community for 400 years, it is an unincorporated area. Some areas have homes that rely their own or shared wells. Other areas, generally those homes built within the last 25 years, are served by water co-ops that operate community wells (which is what we have). Our fire and police services are provided by Sandoval county.
The town of Bernalillo has a water and sewer department, but I suspect many older homers there may have a well and septic. Since it is a very old community, so you should check directly with the town to find out.
We have been here 18 years and never had a water or septic issue. The water may be too hard for some folks, so many have softeners. We've had our septic pumped 3 times over that time, with no issues. Some folks get them pumped more often. Septic systems are more affected by what goes into them then by age.
Over that time, we have never seen a cockroach. There appear to be problems in certain areas of ABQ, likely caused by the condition of the sewer lines in those areas. Mosquitoes here, 2-3 miles east of I-25, are very rare. I would expect more in Bernalillo, since it is closer to the river and has many irrigation canals nearby. We do have centipedes, millipedes after a rain, crickets, and a variety of beetles and flying things. We support the lizards, flycatchers, roadrunners, coyotes, bobcats and snakes in their effort to minimize the pest problem.
I have always lived in built-up urban areas. Can you say more about what it means on a practical level to have a house with well water and a septic tank? I would welcome the education!
Well water: you say it's hard, high mineral content? Is it naturally 'clean' or must it be filtered? Is it better water, better for you etc? Is it like drinking mineral water from the store? Can it get contaminated or have microbes? Do you have to conserve it: can a well get low or dry under heavy use? Water pressure? I know how ignorant this sounds, but I am used to city life!
Septic tanks: chemicals or natural bacteria breaking things down? Environmentally 'clean' or 'dirty'? What can go wrong? What are you NOT allowed to send down it? What does 'pumping' involve? Can it overflow or stink? Maintenance? Expensive? Again, please forgive me, I've never experienced one.
So mosquitoes are RARE in Placitas, but they DO happen sometimes? How often? Can you clarify?
Love critters and crazy NM bugs. I only loathe mosquitoes and roaches and want to be done with them. No mozzies here in Nob Hill but the roaches are too much for me to want to stay here long term.
Do you have pack rats and wild mice? I've heard that's a thing. I've also heard moths are intense in more rural areas?
Can anyone speak to what that means in practical terms, as I've never lived in an unincorporated area. Does that affect things like voting, taxes and services? What are the pros and cons?
Placitas is entirely unincorporated. The historic village is partially managed by a land-grant corporation that has existed in one form or another since the mid-18th century and continues to manage a pair of irrigation ditch systems and certain communally-held lands, but Placitas does not exist as an organized, incorporated municipality under New Mexico law. This means that services, taxes, and voting are all managed at the county level, with no intervening local authority. There's nothing inherently wrong with this, but it's worth remembering that Sandoval County is HUGE and contains a large number of small communities that likewise rely on county services. I have family members who live in one of the older parts of Placitas who have felt like there's a lack of receptivity on the part of law enforcement on occasion. There is also a perception (rightly or wrongly) that Sandoval County administrators are more interested and receptive to large development interests and other businesses in and around Rio Rancho (where more than 70% of the county's population resides) than to rural residents. I can't speak to that personally, though, and suspect that similar attitudes may be common among rural residents around any large city.
As far as Bernalillo versus Placitas, as many people have pointed out they are very different. Most of Bernalillo (along Camino del Pueblo and other areas north and south of US 550) has a semi-rural small-town feel typical of semi-agricultural northern New Mexico small towns: it's a lot like some parts of the North or South Valley in Albuquerque, or parts of the Espanola area up north. Housing is still mostly laid out on old agricultural lots, and there are many older homes dating back 100 years or more. There are also a fair number of trailers - Bernalillo is not a very affluent community. In the last few decades a lot of car-centric development typical of suburban development anywhere in the US has sprung up along US 550, and on the western edges of Bernalillo next to Rio Rancho: Home Depots, Super Wal-Marts, fast food restaurants, that kind of thing. There are some more recent housing developments built as part of this new growth that fall within Bernalillo's borders as well. In my experience the older Bernalillo along the "main street" of Camino del Pueblo and the newer developments still feel pretty distinct from each other.
Placitas, on the other hand, is a very small traditional Hispanic village that was discovered by hippies in the 60s and 70s, became home to several communes and intentional communities, and then became a popular location for large-scale real estate development in the late 80s, 90s and onward. The old village and even some 60s-era geodesic domes and passive solar adobes are still there, but the area called "Placitas" on real estate maps is much, much bigger than either and mostly consists of numerous far-flung subdivisions with high-end custom homes on big (multiacre) lots, just like you see on the outskirts of Santa Fe. It's "rural", but not in the sense of an agricultural community or a place where people are making their living off the land: farms and livestock are definitely more common in Bernalillo than they are in the greater Placitas area. (The exception is once again the old village and adjacent hippy enclaves, where there are still a few people doing small-scale farming off the old irrigation ditch systems. There are few services in those areas, though, and many of the folks who live there are pretty close-knit and stand-offish...if you end up living in Placitas writ large, you'll probably only rarely find yourself going to the village. I imagine very few of the inhabitants of "greater Placitas" find themselves in the village on a regular basis).
If you want to live in a typical New Mexico small town with an agricultural history and a lot of neighbors whose families have been there for generations, there's a lot of that to be found in Bernalillo. If you are looking for a big house on a lot of land, Placitas has a lot of that to offer...you'll have to drive into Albuquerque or Rio Rancho for most of your shopping and amenities, though. There are a couple of popular restaurants and a small grocery in the older part of Bernalillo, but otherwise I don't think many folks from Rio Rancho or Placitas "spend time" there: it's not really that kind of place.
Really, you just need to hop in a car and check it out for yourself.
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