OP, I live in Tierra Contenta. I can give you all kinds of info on the neighborhood, the housing construction quality, etc. There's a reason you can afford the prices there; it's an "affordable housing" development.
1. Crime: the neighbors watch out for each other. There's an informal "neighborhood watch" program, basically. No issues.
2. Plans have been approved to develop the area, so it depends on where your house is located. An area off of Jaguar Road has been approved for commercial development. And as you can see, when you approach Tierra Contenta from Airport Road, around Paseo del Sol, there are a few blocks on either side of Airport Road with large tracts of empty land, as well, that it's probably safe to assume will someday see commercial development. THIS WILL ADD TO AN ALREADY BAD TRAFFIC SITUATION on Airport Road. There are frequent accidents there during evening commute hours, and at night. The entrance to Tierra Contenta from Cerrillos Road and Jaguar Road isn't as bad, but with the planned development, it probably will be in the future.
3. There's an easy and quick route to downtown from Tierra Contenta via the Hwy 599 city bypass. 15 mins. & you're downtown!
I wouldn't count on short-term renters for that area, though.
4. Parts of TC are more prone to power outages than other parts of town. Some of this is due to the traffic problems on Airport Road; a reckless driver (DUI?) may hit a transformer, and knock out power for a few hours. But also, the summer electrical storms for some reason affect the south end of town more than mid-town or the north end. I've lived in all three regions of town over many years, and I never had a problem until I moved to TC. Still, it's not that big a deal; they usually get the power back on within a few hours, and if you're not living there full time, unless you plan this to be a summer place, you likely wouldn't encounter a problem.
5. Note that all the properties are cement slab construction. No crawl space, in case repairs are needed. I wouldn't buy a place like that, myself (I'm renting), but I haven't had any repair issues that would require a crawl space to fix (plumbing/sewer, for example). But I did make one discovery regarding electrical. In order to make the "affordable housing" affordable, the developers apparently got a waiver of certain code requirements, so that if one outlet fizzles or something goes wrong with an appliance connection, half the house dies, which is annoying, especially when the A/C or heat gets shut down in the middle of a hot summer or cold winter's day. But there's a mechanism in the house for fixing that, so once you figure it out, then it's just a temporary inconvenience, and doesn't affect electrical safety. But an electrician told me, that they're not supposed to build houses that way, which led me to the conclusion, that this was done to save money and pass the savings onto the consumer.
There's at least one cop living in the neighborhood (public servants can't afford to live in most of Santa Fe, except in the south end), so that may help you feel more secure crime-wise, but in any case, crime hasn't been an issue, and people often are out at night strolling around.
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