Rio Rancho, New Mexico

Thinking of Moving Back to New Mexico - Rio Rancho / Albuquerque

Albuquerque is awful with some good neighborhoods. Rio Rancho is a better choice. Car thefts, murders, education, vandalism, all very poor in the bigger city. You’re generally safe if you don’t spend much time in bad areas and don’t get involved in drugs or whatever other sketchy activities. New Mexico remains fantastic for outdoors activities, wilderness and camping wonderful and most likely safe.

Can buy cheap houses and land in Rio Rancho as lots of people are trying to escape the state.

Thinking of Moving Back to New Mexico - Rio Rancho / Albuquerque

Same situation as you. Moved from DFW to North RR. Absolutely no regrets. It is a bit Trumpy, but being from TX, I got used to Idiocracy. It's quiet and you get a LOT of bang for your buck housing-wise. 30 min to downtown, 45 to Santa Fe. Just triple check for High Speed (Fiber) internet at the specific house location you are looking at. It is touch and go what streets have it and which don't.

**Thinking of Moving Back to New Mexico - Rio Rancho / Albuquerque
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We lived in Rio Rancho from 2006-2016. Husband worked at Intel and I taught at Rio Rancho High School. I miss it so much!

We lived up in the Enchanted Hills area which is great, but a bit far away. We never experienced any crime. In fact, a lot of our neighbors were Santa Fe, state and county police officers that brought their cars home. Kind of a safe area when there are police vehicles parked all over.

$300k would buy you a nice place in Rio Rancho. We lost our shirt when we sold our house in 2016, but that couldn’t be helped because everything was low then. Prices are coming back up, but not like other parts of the country. We moved to Oregon (transfer with Intel) and home costs here are absolutely insane.

Again, Rio Rancho is a great place to live. Schools are fantastic, but I am a bit biased!

**What can you tell me about Rio Rancho, NM as a place to live?
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Not much, since I don’t live there. I’m now 45 minutes to the NW, but come there often to shop, which is the main purpose of Rio Rancho, as far as I can tell. I didm watch it grow, have friends there, and have been involved in some things located there. For me, its problem is that it has no inherent identity save being a bedroom community for Albuquerque. Rio Rancho has tried hard to develop a meaningful city center, and that has been a failure. What is in Rio Rancho are chain stores, mile after mile of them, all the name-brand chain stores you see driving about any US highway into most towns - that’s what Rio Rancho is about. Big box stores and generic chain stores. Without the view of the Sandias, you could be in Ohio or California or Illinois. For the 3rd largest city in the state of New Mexico now (I think), it is plain vanilla. It has no soul. Having said that, as a place to live, it seems to be well run, has a number of parks, a great library, schools, and (this is the key) affordable housing compared to some other nearby-to-Albuquerque communities. If suburbia in anywhere-USA works for you, it may be better than most.

Moving to Rio Rancho vs Albuquerque New Mexico