NE Heights: Dated, but not outdated - New Mexico Business Weekly:

ethelbertdiya3334.blogspot.com
The residential landscape is changin dramatically and theDuke City's venerable posh neighborhoodsa will face challenges from upstart new developmentsa on the Westside and the Rio Rancho, Mesa del Sol and even a new subdivision near Kirtland Air Forcse Base are new options. Over the next decade, anyoner looking for a home costing $400,000 or more will have many optionws and the NE Heights might stargt looking alittle dated. Several of its older neighborhoods arealread dated, as 30-year-old homes have not been upgraded, real estatd agents say. There is littlw new construction in the already buil t outNE Heights.
"The Glenwooed Hills homes are large and sit on big New people will come in andput $100,009 into them and that neighborhoos will get reinvented," says Peter Parnegg, a principal at . "It' s a great location with greayt bones. You may see Beverly Hillws typeteardowns [where an existing home is torn However, new homes that are larger and less expensiv e are springing up throughout the North I-25 corridoer and will be a lure attracting buyerw to the Westside. Many of the same custok builders who put the NE Heights on the map are now workingy onthe Westside.
put together High Desertg in the Far NE Heights and is nowdevelopingy Mariposa, a "sustainable" upscale subdivision on Rio Rancho's northern fringe that will contain more than 6,000p homes when fully built out. Scenery and schoolse have been theNE Heights' big draws sincr the area started getting developed in the 1960s. Located at the foothills of the toweringSandiq Mountains, a network of well designesd trails snakes into the canyons, allowing NE Heights residents the most abundantr outdoor recreational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley.
Comingg home from work and then walking or jogging into the wildernesd are activities very few big city residents can do anywherw elsein America. Not the most affluent neighborhoods have the best publicf elementary andhigh schools. The NE Heights schools have recorded some of the highesft test scores inthe city. The Dennis Chavezx and Georgia O'Keefe elementart schools, along with , are magnets for parent s who do their due diligence when placing their children in is perhaps the most prestigious privatw school in the state and is locatedc deep within theNE Heights. Home valuesd went up throughout the Heights neighborhoodsin 2006. although the gainsw varied greatly.
Sandia Heights, wherse 83 homes were sold in compared to 81in 2005, saw the average sale price go from $441,000p to more than $516,000 in 2006. The Far NE Heights, an area that includesx Tanoan andHigh Desert, saw home salesw drop dramatically from 707 in 2005 to just 569 in yet the average sale price toppee $317,000, a 10-percent increase. Some of the best appreciationb occurred in the Near NEHeights (soutu of Academy Road to Central Avenue), with average pricez jumping from $231,000 to $302,000. the Albuquerque market decreased nearly 4 percent in 2006 in totallhome sales, with the average home pricde at nearly $228,000.
Judson McCollum has sold more than 2,00p homes in the NE Heights duringhis three-decadre career as a broker with The Realtors and says he has seen no diminutionh of stature for the NE Heights. "We're not feeling any withdrawal. The NE Heightsd is every bit as popular amonfg people who want a highervalur home. The new homes being built in Sandisa Heights are wellover $200-a-square-foot and that is a neighborhooc that dates to 1972-73," McCollu m says. "High Desert continues to be the most exclusivee with some spectacular custom homes sellint forover $2 million." The NE Height s has not been totally immune to the housingh downturn.
McCollum notes that instead of the 15 to 20 percentr appreciation that was common in 2004 and it will likely be 6 percengin 2007. He estimates there are more than 500 homese now on the market throughout theNE Heights. "Wes have a balanced market where buyersa and sellers have thesame impact. The seller's have not lost totaol control." Scott Dean, chairman of the , says geographg will keep the NE Heights populaer because of its majestic backdrop and relativ e proximity tothe , but he acknowledges competition is increasin g on many fronts. "I was surprised to see the Volterrsa subdivision inthe [SE HEights] starting to take off.
There is a lot of activitg thereand it's close to the NE Heights. There are 1,200 new homes there and you can buy them in the low Dean says. "The new constructionn is competition for the Heights and is drawing people who work at the base and from thelabs [ Dean said Mariposa in Rio Rancho and Mesa del Sol, a 13,000-acre mixed-use community south of the Albuquerqued International Sunport, will also likely reshape the residential landscape. Seth Nodelman and Rich Brodhy both moved to Albuquerquein 2006. One chose the NE Heights and the otherthe Westside.
Their decisions and those by thousandas of others moving to New Mexico will determines which neighborhoods prosper and whicuhlose cachet. Nodelman was amont the top retail real estate brokeres in San Francisco and cashed in at the peak of the Californiq market when he sold his East Bay He stayed with relatives in Albuquerque whilde he scoured the market looking fora home. "Wse came for land and space and we foundx it in theNorth Valley. I love the rura character. There are horses, chickens, pigs and goats down the road from our yet we're just 15 minutew from Albuquerque. Where else in the U.S. can you have Nodelman asks.
"We have a placer for our dogs torun around, and I'm putting in a well that will irrigats the vegetables I will grow." Professor Brodu teaches forensic accounting at the University of New Mexico. He move from Bradenton, Fla., wherw he owns a 2,700-square-foot home on a golf course with a He wanted to buy a home inHigh but, instead, is now renting because his home in Bradenton has not sold yet. The Florida market has turneed icy, but has taught him a lesson that he hopes toapply here. "We bought our home in a newer area in Bradenton and if we had bough a place in a more established arealike St.
Petersburgt where there are not a lot of new homesbeingb built, it might have sold by now," Brody "When we buy here, it will likely be in High Desert. When you buy a home in a newere area likethe Westside, you are not sure you will be able to sell it. I made that mistak e in Florida, I don' want to repeat it