Homebuyers and builders are paying special attention to these three parts of the Albuquerque metro area
By Ron Davis – Reporter, Albuquerque Business First
Albuquerque's housing market had a banner year in 2020 with an increase in pending and closed sales, median and average sales price and a decrease in number of days on the market.
Housing inventory, however, remains a concern one month into 2021. Industry leaders think three submarkets — Mesa del Sol, Rio Rancho and Los Lunas — can best mitigate that supply concern in the coming years.
Belinda Franco of the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors and John Garcia of the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico said the Albuquerque metro's low inventory of housing makes this a seller's market. Garcia told Business First at the end of 2020 that the metro area has about a one-month supply of homes, and would need about a seven-month supply to make it a buyer's market.
While construction and buying and selling homes continued throughout the pandemic, Covid-19 disrupted the building supply chain. It's caused the cost of lumber to increase by 300% from the start of 2020, and has left windows for new homes in short supply. Combined, that's led to increased costs for the consumer, said Garcia, executive vice president for the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico.
The two attribute the growth in these submarkets to two key factors: availability of land and new jobs nearby. In the last three years, massive expansions by Facebook, Netflix and Amazon have been announced or opened in the Albuquerque metro area. The three have made substantial investments in expansion and collectively brought the promise of thousands of jobs to the area. Garcia added that business-friendly policies in Sandoval and Valencia counties have led to a year-over-year surge in housing "start" permits issued: 44% and 61% respectively, while Bernalillo County saw a 9% bump.
"Mesa del Sol, Rio Rancho and Los Lunas: those are all places that new construction can be built," said Franco, 2021 president of GAAR. "We're seeing construction going up and the new homes going in. ... You're going to see more construction and more new homes because of the [availability of land]. We have to find places for all these people moving in."
Mesa del Sol
Netflix's initial billion-dollar splash into Albuquerque in October 2018 is poised to grow bigger with its second $1 billion expansion announced in November. In addition to Netflix, the development is also home to companies in growing industries like hemp, technology and residential housing.
Home buyers have followed the heightened business activity to Mesa del Sol.
After 14 single-family homes went off the market in 2017 for an average sales price of $253,299, Mesa del Sol's housing activity ballooned to 58 homes sold in 2020 for an average price of more than $329,000, according to GAAR's 2020 market statistics.
David Campbell, new CEO of Mesa del Sol LLC, looks to add to the community amenities with a brick-and-mortar, K-12 charter school at International School at Mesa del Sol. The project was heard Feb. 3 at the Albuquerque Development Review Board. Campbell said construction would move forward once it got approval from the board.
"Beyond just this significant school building, which should be open for next school year, we anticipate more rooftops going in. There are over 400 lots in some form of development, approval or construction right now." Campbell said. "The growth of Mesa del Sol as a community demands that we have a full-time brick-and-mortar school there."
Rio Rancho
Throughout 2020, Business First reported on the ongoing activity at the 6,500-acre Mariposa master-planned community in northern Rio Rancho by both local and national homebuilders. Franco said planned communities like Mariposa that offer homes in a variety of styles from different homebuilders along with community amenities appeal to homebuyers.
"For Rio Rancho, it really is the availability of land," Franco said. "There's not a whole lot more land in Albuquerque to build on, so you kind of have to look in the periphery."
Las Cruces-based Hakes Brothers has taken notice and developed communities in Rio Rancho like Mountain Hawk Estates, Lomas Encantadas, Vista Entrada, Suez Estates and most recently, at Mariposa, the 23-home Mariposa Estates community.
In total, more than 2,400 homes were sold throughout 2020 in Rio Rancho's seven submarkets, according to GAAR.
Los Lunas
Following the opening of Facebook's data center in 2019, the village of Los Lunas has several new planned communities in the works like the Legacy@Sierra Vista, which will consist of 750 homes and 300 apartment units; and the Homes at Inspiración by Sivage Homes and Inspiración at Fiesta by Abrazo Homes, which will collectively add another 121 homes.
"Los Lunas is just 20 minutes from Albuquerque, but it feels like you're living in the country," Franco said of Los Lunas' appeal to homebuyers.
Recently retired Los Lunas Economic Development Manager Ralph Mims previously told Business First that ongoing construction on the six-building Facebook data center has led to more interest by the 1,100 construction workers building the data center to settle down in Los Lunas. Mims frequently correlated the arrival of new homes to future retail development.
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