Rio Rancho, New Mexico

The promise of Rio Rancho is the promise suburbia has offered Americans for 70 years. A chance to escape “the city” and buy a home where you feel safe the schools are good and there is room for the kiddos to run and play. Setting aside the occasionally misguided sense of greater safety in suburbs than in cities, we can tell you that homes are generally more affordable in Rio Rancho and the schools are excellent.

The most common complaint about Rio Rancho is how much it remains, most purely a suburb and not developed downtown enough. That's changing though as more restaurants/cafes and entertainment creeps in and improves the social scene.

So all the basics of a suburb happen here. Blocks lined with relatively affordable homes, filled with families that appreciate the sidewalks, parks, great schools, and for the most part safe streets. For commercial experiences, you have to go into Albuquerque which has a lot happening but there are no walkable social experiences so your local lifestyle is about your kids and the schools.

If you want to see what's happening in Rio Ranch check out the calendar of events.

We highly recommend visiting Rio Rancho and staying in the community in a VRBO rather than a hotel to get a feel for living among the locals. You can receive discounted fares on travel via our partnership with Expedia as well.

Rio Rancho is truly a bedroom community with little in-town industry with the exception of the Intel manufacturing facility. If you scan the boards of people talking about actually working within the city limits then 9 out of 10 will be talking about working at Intel. If you aren’t working for the chip giant and you aren’t a WFH’er then you’ll likely be doing a commute into Albuquerque. Locals claim that is a drag as traffic is brutal but that’s where the bucks are made, primarily in mining, gas and oil extraction, and quarrying.