Pros and Cons of Living in Albuquerque Mexico 2024
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Yo, I can’t believe that I’m doing this article a year later talking about the pros and cons of living in Albuquerque. I’ve done the pros and cons of moving here, but I haven’t done an updated one on living here. So in today’s article, guys, we’re out in Peralta, showing some houses, and we’re going to be taking you for a ride, talking about the pros and cons of living here in Albuquerque. So let’s go!
Pros of Living in Albuquerque
Culture and Heritage
Albuquerque within itself, and New Mexico as a whole, is very rich in its **culture, heritage, and history**. My brother-in-law does so much history and research here that he’s even dated back all the way to how the first people came here, and he’s actually related to them. It’s freaking crazy! It’s awesome to see that there are still a lot of those old-school values instilled here, especially in areas like Peralta, which is kind of like a suburb a little ways out of Albuquerque. It’s very much that **old-school kind of living**. You know, there are tons of farms and ranches out here, and actually, there are a lot of them tucked within Albuquerque, and you’d miss them if you didn’t know where they were.
To be honest with you guys, that **old-school, chilled, slowed-down, work-hard-during-the-day, and then just enjoy-yourself-in-the-evening kind of lifestyle** is normal here. I don’t know how else to explain it to you guys. I had a gentleman comment on YouTube and say that I need to stop talking about that so much. To be honest with you guys, that’s the whole reason why a lot of people are moving here. I don’t think I should ever stop talking about that. I think I should talk about that even more because a lot of people are missing that. I’m sure you can relate if you are living in a bigger city. That **energy from the big city vibes** feels like a big heavy weight. I was actually talking to the client that I’m showing houses to today on this subject, and they let me know that the cultural history and heritage of some of these bigger cities is just no longer present. It just feels very robotic, kind of go, go, go, go. Nobody’s really in tune with one another.
Down here, we have that big aspect of **community, family gathering events, farmers markets**—all that stuff. Very in tune with one another. I always have trouble with just talking about this conversation because I live it every day; it’s a part of our lives. It’s so abnormal to me when I see anything different. When I moved to New York, it was crazy to me how everybody was just all about themselves, centered and focused on what they were doing. That’s life, and you can’t get really upset about that. But if that’s not your vibe anymore and you want to live somewhere where you can make friends pretty much anywhere you go, this is going to be the perfect place for you to move to.
Thriving Food Scene
Touching on that subject about heritage and culture, what adds to it is our next pro, and that’s going to be the **thriving food scene** that we have here. With so many different flavors and influences from all across the world coming here to call this place home, we still have our staples. You’re talking like Monrose and Melo, Garcia’s Kitchen, Sadie’s—all these different places that have been here for years and have made traditional New Mexican food. Yes, we have our own style of food here. It’s not just because we have green or red chili; it’s the downright style and flavor of this food. It’s great, it’s amazing. Everybody that I talk to who comes down to try this food is just always taken back by how good it is and how flavorful. If you enjoy spice, that is going to be the cherry on top to all of this. Traditional homestyle cooking is what we really cater to.
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All these other different restaurants keep popping up and serving the community in very unique ways. We have food trucks here; we have a very large food truck scene. If you’re coming down here to start a food truck, you might find some good success in that, and you might make a ton of friends doing it as well. Again, that’s part of our culture—the essence of family and vibe—because food does bring people together and creates a great community around it. I almost forgot to mention that with the thriving food scene here, we also have a growing **coffee scene** with small boutique shops popping up everywhere like Little Bear, Swayzos, and Cutbow. These places are staples now within our community, and anytime you think coffee, you probably think of either one of these places if you are local. When you come down here, let’s get together and try one of these spots because you will thoroughly enjoy not only the atmosphere and environment but their coffee as well. I don’t drink coffee anymore, so I’ll enjoy a chai tea latte with you guys.
Big Town Amenities, Small Town Vibes
Getting into the conversation of how all of this is growing and how our city is just getting so much better at growth and innovating, we still have all the big town amenities with all the **small town vibes**. Some places you go to here in Albuquerque will feel super rural, but you’re only going to be about 15 to 20 minutes away from all these big shopping centers and stuff like that. Wind Rock is getting a whole new facelift, adding this outdoor mall style to the east side where they already have two other shopping centers. You can only imagine how much more we’re growing. The west side is a whole different conversation. They keep growing, especially because they’re at the butt end of Rio Rancho. Over here, closer to I-40, they’re doing some more development. Newer builds, newer residential areas are going up in these areas just because the only place that we can go is west.
On average, you’ll pay around $400,000 to $500,000 for a brand new build. If you go down to the south, you’ll pay around the mid $300,000 for a brand new house. The main developers we have here are DR Horton, Pulte, Richmond, Westway Homes, and a couple of other local guys like Hicks Brothers who do an awesome job at building these communities. So, all the chill vibes, some areas are still rural, but you’re going to be 15 to 20 minutes away from anything that you need.
Affordable Housing
With all that great information being said, the last pro on this list is going to be that **buying a house in the city is still very practical**. You can pay anywhere from $300,000 to $350,000 for just your typical three-bedroom, two-bath house about 1,500 square feet anywhere here in the city. This is something to consider, especially if you are looking at an average of $450,000 and over half a million, or even close to a million dollars in whatever city you’re living in. Is that a big problem? Heck yeah, it is! You’re going to be saving a ton of money not only on your mortgage every month but you’ll be able to utilize that money to save for a trip, do some renovations on the house, or basically do whatever you want with that money.
In some other cities, from what I hear and the experiences people share with me, they’re basically working to live paycheck to paycheck. Here, you see it all the time; people get to enjoy all the free stuff we have like going out to the mountains, traveling to Jemez, and just enjoying the natural beauty that we have here. There is so much to do here, and it doesn’t require a lot of money.
Cons of Living in Albuquerque
Lack of Greenery
Now heading into the cons, one of the biggest complaints I hear from everybody, even locals, is that there’s **not enough green**. There aren’t enough trees or grass to give you that essence of being in the outdoors. The city has done a great job planting more trees that can sustain the high desert living we have here. A majority of the time, all you are going to see is shrubs and smaller trees, not super tall pines or anything like that. The more north you go, up into the Rocky Mountains and such, you will see tall pines, massive forests, and even aspen trees. But down here in Albuquerque, you’re not going to get a whole lot of that. You will get a diverse range of mountainous, high desert living. The Middle Rio Grande area is super green because
of the river, so it does give a slight balance. But still, people have that need for more greenery.
Crime
Another big con that you hear a lot about is **crime**. In certain areas, crime can be a little crazy. Most of the time, it’s really dumb and petty crimes, but other times, it can get very severe. What you see on the news is an exaggeration, though. For the most part, the city is doing a better job at handling crime. They actually just upped the police force by a significant number of officers, and they’re being more present throughout the city, which is very good. So, you can see how they are stepping up to the plate to make our communities safer. Some areas that are worse than others have very cheap houses. If you can handle that, you might get a great deal on a house. For the most part, all these areas are up and coming, so it might be a good place to invest. But you have to be okay with certain things and understand that change takes time. We all have to be patient with that. Crime is always going to be around; it’s just something we have to live with. But, at the end of the day, it’s a great place to live, and the police force is making a big effort to improve safety in the city.
Conclusion
So, there you have it, guys—the pros and cons of living in Albuquerque, New Mexico. If you have any more questions or need more information, feel free to reach out. . Thanks for reading, and we’ll catch you in the next article!
