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Jared Murphy
Associate Broker - Allstar Realty Cell: 505.615.2718 Fax: 1.866.213.3119 |
Getting to Know Rio Rancho - The City of VisionDespite the city’s small routes, Rio Rancho is becoming the new city to watch in New Mexico. In 1966, the 100th family moved to Rio Rancho. By 2005 there were over 58,000 residents in the Rio Rancho area. Rio Rancho was once a cheap place to live for those who worked in Albuquerque, but with the city’s focus on being a business friendly city, many large employers have decided to move their businesses or business processes to the Rio Rancho area and now Rio Rancho is able to supply good paying jobs to a large percentage of their residents. In 1980, Intel built a large plant on the southern border of Rio Rancho and has been a great partner in the community and especially with the schools. Intel has spent large sums of money in partnership with Rio Rancho’s schools to ensure that graduates of the local schools get a great education especially in Math and Engineering skills to help ensure that Intel will always have a highly-skilled employee base from which to draw from the area. Perhaps it is Intel’s involvement that has helped create a very highly rated school district which has become one of the primary factors attracting families to the area.
Though low prices are also a major factor attracting people to the area, many real estate experts expect that Rio Rancho prices will not stay affordable forever. In the past eighteen months some property values have increased as much as 35% and some land values have increased over 1,000 percent. Even with the large price gains, Rio Rancho is still a very affordable alternative to the Northeast Heights of Albuquerque and definitely affordable in comparison to sister markets such as suburbs of Phoenix and Denver which share similar characteristics. The city Rio Rancho has also been working hard to keep pace with the population growth and has done well considering the difficulty of the task. Rio Rancho moved up nearly 20 places on the best places to live list by CNN/Money. CNNMoney.com rates Rio Rancho as 56th on the Best Places to Live. Complete List with more awards and rankings http://www.cabq.gov/about Rio Rancho as an Investment - Land or Homes Rio Rancho has an interesting background and history with respect to land. Much of Rio Rancho was subdivided back in the 60's, 70's, and 80's and sold of through mail order and other means to people in the east as a great place to buy and lock in a retirement lot for the future. Roads were cut in across Rio Rancho and many were taken on tours to see this great place. The truth is, that it was far to early for Rio Rancho to be the type of investment or the retirement location the intial subdivider had made it out to be. After 40 years, Rio Rancho is now becoming that place. Growth is good, jobs continue to come to the area, and there are people coming to Rio Rancho to live and even some to retire. The highly rated school districts continue to attract people with larger incomes who put high values on their childrens education. The city is growing so fast, the city planners are having trouble keeping up with the infrastructure.
Rio Rancho attracts Many Albuquerque Commuters Now that Rio Rancho has become a very viable place to live even for those with their full-time employment in Albuquerque. Even though the drive can be upwards of 40 minutes, more and more people are choosing to live in Rio Rancho. Additionally, Rio Rancho is working hard as a city to continue to attract additional businesses and prospects look good for continued job growth.
Prices are Still Very Low Compared to Other Southwest Markets Now that you have a little of the history and a picture of where things are heading, we can look at what is happening now. Until just a few years back, land in Rio Rancho had not changed all that much from when it was originally subdivided. In the past few years, some land and some lots have increased in value to more than ten times what they were just a few years back, and yet they are still fairly cheap compared to many of the other southwest markets (Utah, Colorado, Arizona, California, Nevada). You can get a nice 1 acre lot in Rio Rancho with utilities and paved road access for $100k - $140k and undeveloped 1 acre lots just a few miles from growth for as little as $15k. Lots with similar circumstances in the Phoenix area, Salt Lake area, or in the Denver area would be double to quadruple the cost. If you have spent time watching the southwest markets, you likely know that they don't appreciate at a steady pace. They appreciate a bit like a staircase. They go through periods of abnormally high growth and then level off for a couple of years. If the growth is too high and too fast, sometimes there is even a bit of a correction. Over the long-term, the southwest has great appreciation averages which will likely increase as the babyboomers look to warm climate locations for their retirement years.
Buy and Hold for Short or Long-Terms
If you are looking for a place to buy land, and investment home, or even commercial property and hold it while it builds some
great value over the short-term (next five to eight years) or for the long-term
(next twenty years), Rio Rancho just might be the place for you. If you would
like to talk more about it, give me a call and we can see if it would make a
good fit for what you are looking to do.
Master Planned Communities Cabezon
This community sits near the southern border of Rio Rancho and is popular with those who work in Albuquerque or close by at Intel and want to live in the Rio Rancho school district for their children. There are a number of custom builders that are or will be building in the community as well as Pulte’s gated community, a nice DR Horton community, Centex’s community and a community by a local New Mexico builder Artistic Homes. Overall it is a good community Rio Rancho based on its location close to Coors which gives homeowners quick access to West Albuquerque or to Alameda Blvd or Paseo Del Norte for commutes into downtown Albuquerque. Only about 1/3 of the community is finished so there are a good amount of opportunities
for new or existing homes. Please give me a call (505-615-2718) or contact
me (link to contact page) through email so I can get in touch with you and
get you the latest on resale homes or buying new.
Loma Colorado
Being developed solely by Pulte Homes, this community is touted by the builder to be the best that Pulte has built in New Mexico so far. The Arizona division of Pulte has offered the New Mexico division access to some of their most popular floorplans and Pulte will be building those here. They are expected to have homes from 1,400 sq/ft up to 4,200 sq/ft. They will have some very large and nice single-story floorplans from 2,000 sq/ft to over 3,000 sq/ft. If you are looking for a home in a nice neighborhood and from a builder with an excellent reputation, this may be what you are looking for. Call me so we can schedule an appointment and I can show you the area and the community.
Northern Meadows
At the heart of the new master plan for Rio Rancho, this community has drawn a lot of attention over the past year due to its proximity to the new Rio Rancho city center being built. The community seems a bit of a drive for those working in Albuquerque and commuting. A new high-end development named Mariposa is being built a few miles to the north which should have a positive affect on this area once Mariposa is farther a long in development. Northern Meadows has for a long time been the value priced community, but that is changing as prices rise due to the developments going on around the area and with the new city center being so close. Builders such as KB Home, DR Horton, Centex, and Raylee have developments here and there are some good resale homes as well as brand new homes still at fair prices.
Enchanted Hills Enchanted Hill is nearing completion from a builder perspective. Centex Homes is the only builder currently selling new homes in this subdivision. There are homes available for resale in the area. Many residents in this community commute to Santa Fe or to Albuquerque for work.
Encantado Del Norte This community is one of the few that is currently building on the north side of Rio Rancho. Pulte is the sole developer in this community. Having started sales only a few months ago, the first homes are going up now. Many like this area because it is close to I-25 access near Bernalillo. As with the Enchanted Hills community, this community and location has many homeowners that commute to Albuquerque or up to Sante Fe for work.
Mariposa
The developer of one of the premier areas of the Northeast Heights is building a new master-planned community named Mariposa along the northern edge of Rio Rancho. This community is still early in its development stages and pricing is good for the upscale community that is being built. The community center is midway through construction and the community is taking shape. This community is far from being done, yet with each month that passes, it becomes more clear, just how nice this community is going to be.
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