The most recent CNN story referenced a list of housing areas that would be on the decline in the next year - well Albuquerque was NOT one of them! You can see, we are forecast to be on top for yet another year!

Published: 08.06.2006 Orbitz: Albuquerque will be a hot spot soon By Erik Siemers SCRIPPS HOWARD NEWS SERVICE World travelers, take note: Albuquerque should be on your list of must-see places. And don't forget Iceland. That's the advice offered by travel experts from the online travel agency Orbitz, who predict that Albuquerque will become a top destination in the next five years, along with Reykjavik, Iceland; New Orleans; Shanghai, China; and Cape Town, South Africa. Happy mayor It's another list that's got Albuquerque Mayor Martin Chavez cooing. "The old days of people coming to Albuquerque only as a means of getting to Santa Fe really will be done over the next five years," Chavez said. "It doesn't mean people won't still go to Santa Fe, but it will be a day trip away from their stay in Albuquerque." A marketing dream Albuquerque's standing on prominent national lists has become a marketing dream come true for the city. Albuquerque...

New Mexico Business Weekly - 5:25 PM MDT Wednesday Online travel site Orbitz has named Albuquerque as one of the top five future tourist destination hot spots. Albuquerque made the list along with Reykjavik, Iceland; New Orleans; Cape Town, South Africa; and Shanghai, China. However, it did miss Orbitz's list of top five domestic and international destinations during the past five years. Topping that list was Chicago, London, Las Vegas and Cancun, Mexico. Albuquerque was cited for its "hot climate and variety of world class resorts rising in the area," according to an Orbitz release. The International Balloon Fiesta was also cited as a must-see attraction, as well as the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and Old Town's San Felipe de Neri Church. Orbitz is the third largest online travel company that offers a wide variety of travel products, including airline tickets, lodging, rental cars, cruises and vacation packages. It launched its Web site, www.orbitz.com , in Ju...

The Albuquerque Tribune By Erik Siemers Tribune ReporterJuly 24, 2006 A Hollywood studio unveiled plans this morning to build a 50-acre film production campus at Mesa del Sol that could employ up to 2,000 people. Culver Studios of Culver City, Calif., began work last week on what they're calling Albuquerque Studios: a full-service site for film, TV, music videos, commercials and digital media processing. (Pacifica Ventures via U.S. Newswire) "Most of the movies that are not made in Hollywood are made in Canada," Nick Smerigan, executive director of Albuquerque Studios and a managing director with Pacifica Ventures, owners of Culver Studios, said in a news release. "This facility will bring a significant number of these productions, and the jobs that go with them, back to the U.S. where they belong." The studio's owner, Pacifica Ventures, plans an initial $75 million investment in the south Albuquerque development. The company will first have 75 permanent j...

PMBy: Todd Dukart In a city where the average home sells for about $190,000, the cheapest loft in Albuquerque’s oldest skyscraper will cost more than $500,000. Crews are finishing the Banque Lofts inside the old First National Bank building, which was built in 1922. The 27 luxury lofts come with a doorman, valet parking and concierge service, along with a plush interior. “It’s a product that you cannot get anywhere else,” said real-estate agent Alicia Feil with Coldwell Banker Legacy. “It’s time for Albuquerque to have a product like this.” Board of Realtors Director Nancy Kennedy says Albuquerque can support high-end real estate like these luxury lofts. A $1 million loft covers two stories with 2,000 square feet of real estate. That works out to $500 a square foot. Owners say four lofts have been sold, and it should take about a year to sell the rest.

By Associated PressJuly 21, 2006 Posted 1:10 p.m. The Westland Development Corp. board of directors has accepted a California development company's offer to buy 55,000 acres of Westland property on the West Side for more than $250 million. The deal, which is subject to approval by Westland shareholders, involves land given to Spanish settlers in the early 1700s as the Atrisco Land Grant. The land grant was incorporated in 1967 into Westland Development, which manages the land holdings for thousands of heirs. Westland announced the agreement with SunCal Companies of Irvine, Calif., on Thursday. Steve Greyshock, a spokesman for SunCal, said the company is interested in developing housing on the Westland property. A special shareholders' meeting to vote on the sale is expected before September. Westland has 794,927 shares, each of which counts toward a vote. Two-thirds of the votes must favor a sale for it to go through. James Aranda of Concerned Heirs of Atrisco said his group ...

Wednesday, July 19, 2006 Clara Garcia News-Bulletin Staff Writer; cgarcia@news-bulletin.com Looking for a home in Valencia County? You'll probably be paying more than $100,000. According to the Southwest Multiple Listing Service (MLS), there were 748 homes sold in Valencia County in 2005 at an average sale price of $154,880. In 2004, 655 homes sold at an average of $133,504. These figures do not include new houses being sold by builders or homes sold directly by homeowners. There are still bargains available, especially if you're willing to live a little farther from the freeways heading to Albuquerque. Valencia County's housing market remains steady as home sales and average sale prices increased during June compared to a year ago, according to figures released this week by the Valencia County Board of Realtors. Some 142 previously owned homes sold in the county during June compared to 108 for the same period last year, according to Phyllis Laureta, president of the Val...

Eminent Domain Limited in Rio Rancho The Rio Rancho City Council recently voted to pass restrictions against seizing residential homes or commercial businesses for redevelopment. The city has used eminent domain to seize property at least twice in the last two years and attempted a third time in February 2006, but failed after meeting strong resistance from property owners. Opponents call the process a political tool to coerce property owners and reward developers. Read the full story about the council’s unanimous vote in New Mexico Business Weekly. ****************************

Good News for New Mexico Schools New Mexico has received more than $12 million from the US Education Department to increase the number of charter schools in the state, the Associated Press reports. The funds will be made available over the next three years to plan, design, and create the new charter schools. State Public Education Secretary Veronica Garcia says 90 percent of the federal money will go to charter schools in the form of planning and implementation grants. The state agency also will work to improve the approval process for charter schools and make sure that parents and students are informed about charter school options. Read NAR’s look at the effect of charter schools on neighborhood quality of life.

By Amy Wolff Sorter WWW.GLOBEST.COM Tonjes ALBUQERQUE- With its state motto being "the Land of Enchantment," New Mexico conjures up images of sprawling vistas and colorful buttes with a river thrown in here and there. What it might not conjure up, however, is a growing population with a booming residential and commercial development in its wake. New Mexico in general and Albuquerque in particular have entered the business and real estate consciousness as a strong location for growth and development. Sandia National Laboratories, under its Microsystems and Engineering Sciences Application project, is developing a 400,000-sf spread in three buildings, valued at approximately $500 million. Intel Corp. is undergoing a $750-million upgrade of its campus. And just south of the city, the 12,900-acre Mesa del Sol, under the development of the Forest City Covington NM LLC, is taking shape as one of the largest master-planned developments in the US. Vacant land on the west side is ...

Rail Runner to begin abbreviated route Last Update: 06/28/2006 10:13:00 AMBy: Reed Upton The Middle Rio Grande’s commuter rail line is within weeks of beginning service, but it will have fewer stops than it will when full service begins. On July 14th the Rail Runner will begin offering service from downtown Albuquerque to Bernalillo with stops at Alvarado Station, Paseo del Norte and US 550 in Bernalillo. Missing will be stops in downtown Bernalillo, Los Lunas and Belen. “I would have preferred to have the whole corridor in place,” said executive director Lawrence Rael, “but construction schedules being what they are, negotiations with the Burlington Northern (railway) did not occur as quickly as we would have liked.” Officials estimate the train will make the run from downtown Albuquerque to northern Bernalillo in 18 minutes. When the trains initially begin running there will be no charge. Come October, a one-way trip aboard the Rail Runner will cost $2.

Report says Albuquerque hotels a bargain this summer New Mexico Business Weekly - 2:18 PM MDT Wednesday Albuquerque will have some of the lowest hotel rates in the nation this summer, according to a report by PKF Hospitality Research . The average room rate in Albuquerque will be about $67.95, according to the summer edition of Hotel Outlook by PKF and Torto Wheaton Research . This puts the Duke City behind markets such as Tucson, Ariz. and Columbus and Dayton, Ohio. New York will have the highest average room rate at $200.28, followed by Honolulu and San Francisco. Overall across the country, hotel rooms will be harder to find compared to last year and travelers will pay more for these rooms, according to the report. "Given the increasingly sophisticated yield management practices within the hotel industry, the high occupancy rates are enabling managers to more aggressively quote the highest room rates," said Mark Woodworth, president of PKF, based in Atlanta. That's...

Cashing in on the last of the hot spots. Spotlight: Albuquerque Keep your head during a boom and you'll keep more of your gains over the long run. By Amanda Gengler, MONEY Magazine reporter May 17, 2006: 4:27 PM EDT NEW YORK (MONEY Magazine) - In early spring a TV news report on KASA Channel 2 in Albuquerque noted that the housing market nationwide was slowing down, with mortgage rates and inventory rising and demand slackening. "Now with all that said, by all accounts here in New Mexico things are still red hot," quipped Greg Zanetti, a local financial adviser. "But we are usually a little behind national trends." The Archibeck family economized when renovating their 1961 Albuquerque home, maximizing their return on investment. Indeed, Albuquerque missed much of the great bull market in houses. Between 2000 and 2004, median prices appreciated no more than 5% a year. But as other sunbelt cities are cooling, Albuquerque has started sizzling. Call it the rollin...

Thu Jun 22 10:12:25 2006 Pacific Time Jacksonville, Albuquerque Have Largest City Park Systems; New Facts on City Parks Released WASHINGTON, June 22 (AScribe Newswire) -- The 56 largest cities in the United States have a total of 745,000 acres of parks, with Jacksonville, Fla., and Albuquerque, N.M., each leading the list of largest city park systems, according to a new study of urban parks released today by The Trust for Public Land (TPL), a nationwide nonprofit which works to protect parks and open space. For total size, Jacksonville is number one, with almost 98,000 acres of parks and preserves, including water preserves. In addition, when measured on an acres-per-capita basis, Jacksonville also ranks first with 126 acres of parkland for every 1,000 residents. However, when parkland is measured as a portion of the total size of the city, the leader is Albuquerque, with more than one-quarter of its land protected as public open space. The TPL study...

Real estate prices won't decline substantiallyFriday, June 23, 2006 By Glenn Roberts Jr. Inman News Delores Conway, USC's Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast SAN FRANCISCO -- Unless there are substantial job losses, the real estate market appears on track for a soft landing, said economists for University of Southern California's Lusk Center for Real Estate. "We don't believe the housing market is going to fall off a cliff. We don't really subscribe to the hard-landing story," said Stuart Gabriel, Lusk Center director, during a presentation Thursday at the annual PCBC event, a conference for home builders held at San Francisco's Moscone Center. This is, however, a time of "stagflation," or economic stagnation coupled with inflation, Gabriel said, and the real estate market is losing steam -- with a general slowing in price-appreciation and sales. Higher interest rates and energy costs, and reduced refinancing activity are also taking a to...

Have you ever wished a real estate agent would write a book telling you how to sell your home? Well, I'm doing it - and it will be available later this year. If you would like to reserve your free copy (to the first 50 people who request it!) please email me at Linda@RealEstateInABQ.com or call me at 505-271-6328 and leave your name and phone number - I will get back to you right away. It has lots of helpful hints about what helps, what doesn't, and little "secrets of the trade". I look forward to hearing from you!

Last Update: 06/21/2006 3:51:24 PMBy: Associated Press ALBUQUERQUE (AP) - Regents of the University of New Mexico have inked a deal selling more than 3,000 acres for Mesa del Sol. That’s a long-planned development of nearly 13,000 acres in southeast Albuquerque. The university sold its acreage for $9 million to Forest City Covington, which is developing Mesa del Sol, which could be home to up to 80,000 people in 50 years. In the next few years, Mesa del Sol is forecast to have 500 to 800 houses by 2008. About $7.5 million of the sale signed Tuesday will go to a scholarship fund. UNM also kept 280 acres in Mesa del Sol for its own uses. (Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Forest City to co-develop N. Mexico project Linked articles » Retail growth in store for Forest City » Forest City unit buys out N.Y. project partner » Forest City to develop Virginia 'lifestyle' center Related Links Forest City Enterprises Inc. By LESLIE STROOPE 2:09 pm, June 21, 2006 A joint venture between Cleveland-based real estate developer Forest City Enterprises Inc. (NYSE: FCEA) (NYSE: FCEB) and Covington NM LLC has spent $9 million to purchase 3,000 acres in Albuquerque, N.M., from the University of New Mexico.Forest City Covington NM LLC’s land buy comes as part of a mixed-use development agreement the entity signed with government and university officials in 2005 to develop 9,000 acres at the Mesa del Sol site over “several decades,” according to a Forest City Enterprises statement. Forest City Covington has the option to buy the remaining 6,000 acres of land from the New Mexico State Land office, according to the statement."Mesa del Sol demonstrates our c...

America's Smartest Cities 10 Albuquerque Here is the biggest surprise in the top 10. Albuquerque doesn't get the credit it deserves for brainpower. It's the home of the University of New Mexico, and it's less than 100 miles from Los Alamos National Laboratory, a center for nuclear, biomedical and energy research. Percentage of city adults who stopped at each level: Earned a graduate and/or professional degree: 13.4% Earned a bachelor's degree: 18.4% Earned an associate degree: 5.9% Went to college, but didn't earn a degree: 24.2% Graduated from high school: 24.1% Dropped out of high school: 14.1% Summary of results Rankings for 53 biggest cities Bottom cities Previous

New Mexico Business Weekly - 2:43 PM MDT Monday NTS Technical Systems , a wholly-owned subsidiary of National Technical Systems Inc. , has acquired B & B Technologies Inc. in Albuquerque. B & B designs and integrates test, measurement, automation, data acquisition and control systems. Over the past 14 years, it has developed relationships with defense, aerospace and commercial companies such as Sandia National Laboratories , Honeywell (NYSE: HON) and General Dynamics (NYSE: GD). National Technical Systems (Nasdaq: NTSC) is an engineering firm based in Calabasas, Calif. Lance Butler, CEO of B & B, says his firm's services are complementary to those of NTS. The two companies work for many of the same customers, Butler says, doing adjacent services but not overlapping. "We build test systems and they do testing," he says. B & B, which has been in business for 14 years and has 13 employees, will stay in Albuquerque, Butler adds. The acquisition by NTS was ...

Green-built homes come into their own By NANCY SALEMScripps Howard News Service 31-MAY-06 ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. -- In home building, green is the new black. No more weird architecture, clunky solar panels and wacky materials. Green building has been ushered into the mainstream by a construction industry and public concerned about energy conservation and health. "It's the right thing to do," says Jim Folkman, executive vice president of the Home Builders Association of Central New Mexico. "We're responding to the marketplace, which is demanding more green products and a healthier environment." Albuquerque raised its profile in the national green scene last week when the board of the Home Builders of Central New Mexico voted into place a green building certification program that follows new guidelines set by The 230,000-member National Association of Home Builders unveiled new guidelines for its green building certification program at the association's Nati...

Exclusive: Apple Retail Store planned for Albuquerque, New Mexico Thursday, May 25, 2006 - 11:56 AM EDT Several job listings have appeared on Monster.com this morning for positions in an Apple Retail Store slated for the ABQ Uptown "shopping destination" that's under development in Albuquerque, New Mexico. (Note: "ABQ" is the code for the city's airport and also a colloquialism for the city.) Albuquerque straddles the Rio Grande and is the largest city in the state of New Mexico. The city proper had a total population of 448,607 (as of the 2000 census) and metropolitan area has a population of approximately 715,000 and includes the city of Rio Rancho, the third-largest and fastest-growing city in New Mexico and one of the fastest growing cities in the United States.Apple currently does not have any retail stores in the state of New Mexico. Monster.com lists "ABQ Uptown" in the Apple Retail Store job descriptions here .ABQ Uptown includes resident...

Last week Fortune® Magazine voted Albuquerque as #1 for BEST CITY TO DO BUSINESS AND START A CAREER! #1 Albuquerque, N.M. Population: 793,000Job Growth: 1.1%Income Growth: 3.0% Big Employers: University of New Mexico, Sandia National Labs, Kirtland Air Force Base, Presbyterian Healthcare Services, Intel. Median household income has shot up 19% over the past two years to $49,000, helping Albuquerque claim the No. 1 spot, up from fifth place last year. Even with a highly educated workforce, business costs are still the lowest in the country, 24% below the national average. Our top-ranked metro, Albuquerque, N.M., has the lowest business costs in the country, 24% below the national average. New Mexico's capital also benefited from an educated population and rising household incomes. To calculate living expenses, Economy.com considered housing, transportation, food and other household expenses. In the rankings, we also examined job and income growth, as well as migration trends over ...

By Susie Gran Tribune ReporterMay 2, 2006 Posted 1:45 p.m. Albuquerque home builders are going to help build schools, too. A memorandum of understanding proposed to Albuquerque Public Schools calls for developers to pay the school district $2,000 for each new home, said Brad Winter, the district's administrator in charge of school construction. The district will use the fee revenue to build schools and renovate others in the neighborhoods where the homes are built. Winter praised the Homebuilders Association of Central New Mexico for the deal, which will help keep a proposed property-tax hike at a minimum. "They are the guys who stepped up to the plate on this," Winter said. Revenue from the development fees are projected to hit between $40 million and $50 million over three years. The school district will collect the fees. All new subdivision plats submitted to the city Planning Department will have to be signed off by the district, Winter said. The district previously a...

Albuquerque featured on cable network New Mexico Business Weekly - 1:12 PM MDT Monday The city of Albuquerque will be featured on the cable television network Home & Garden Television , better known as HGTV. On April 26 and 27, the Duke City will be among six markets around the country to be included in the weekly show "What You Get for the Money." The episode will compare what kind of house buyers can purchase for $200,000 in areas including Belleville, Ill.; Chelsea, Mass.; Birmingham, Ala.; Gainesville, Fla.; and Baltimore, Md. "HGTV continues the 2006 trend for spotlighting the historic lofts, a unique urban residential development in the heart of EDo [east Downtown]," says a news release issued by EDo Spaces , referring to the Lofts at Albuquerque High project, which is listed by the brokerage firm. Rob Dickson, the qualifying broker of EDo Spaces and the developer of the residential project where the original Albuquerque High was located, will be one of s...

Just had a wonderful chat with Margaret Rome of Baltimore - on her radio program All About Real Estate a radio program channel 680am www.wcbm.com I love talking to her as a fellow Cyberstar® and fellow real estate broker - she always has the greatest ideas and a zest for the business. You can find her site at www.HomeRome.com Great talking to you today Margaret!

Wanted: Retailers for Rio Rancho residents By Abby Roedel New Mexico Business Weekly Updated: 8:00 p.m. ET April 9, 2006 It's hard to believe that a town with a population of more than 70,000 people still does not have a Starbucks -- but you only have to look to Rio Rancho to find such a place. What's more, there is no furniture store, no men's or women's clothing store, not even an electronics store. To put it mildly, the community northwest of Albuquerque needs retail to support all of those new residential rooftops. Because of the dearth of shops doing business there, Rio Rancho has the lowest per-capita gross receipts tax base of any city in New Mexico with a population of 5,000 or more, says Jim Palenick, Rio Rancho's city manager. That statistic is particularly striking, considering that Rio Rancho's average household income of about $66,000 per year is one of the highest in the state. "Rio Rancho is bringing great wealth to other communities in the s...

In the last few days, a new Web site launched with great fanfare but spotty performance. When CNN included a story about it on their evening news, the site couldn’t keep up with the hits. Why all the fuss? Zillow promises to give homebuyers and sellers up to date and complete information about the value of their home and comparables in their area. Some have suggested this will make real estate agents obsolete because people will be able to price their own homes to be competitive. The early returns are that the site’s information is incomplete and sometimes wrong, which makes the suggested price ranges they give hard to justify. In some cases, the range is optimistically high, and for others, I’ve negotiated sales higher than their top amount. The site depends on public records for its data. But public records will not show factors, like recent additions and improvements or the condition of the interior, that affect price. Public records can also be wrong; a friend of mine checked her h...

Real Estate: Is the party over? Exclusive forecasts for the 100 largest markets. December 16, 2005 By Ellen Florian Kratz, FORTUNE NEW YORK (FORTUNE) -- Everybody from Los Angeles to Boston -- your mom, your doctor, your dry cleaner -- is puzzling over which way the nation's real estate market is headed. Up or down? Bubble or not? It's a debate that's been raging for years, and recently that there have been clear signs of a slowdown. It's unlikely, however, that the housing market will come to a screeching halt. To get a clearer picture of how things may play out, FORTUNE turned to Moody's Economy.com and home property-valuation service Fiserv CSW. The researchers crunched numbers on the 100 largest metropolitan regions in the country, and the results of their analysis appear in the table below. Nationally, the overall outlook seems reasonable: 7 percent appreciation for 2006 and flat for 2007. But markets that have seen the greatest appreciation over the past five...

Albuquerque Commercial Real Estate Boom · Albuquerque is numero uno among the fastest-appreciating markets, according to a column in the Dec. 12 issue of the weekly California Real Estate Journal. The column, written by Craig Thomas of Torto Wheaton Research, ranked Detroit second and Jacksonville, Fla., third. Tucson was sixth. · Albuquerque is the sixth best investment market for commercial property, according to a Dec. 11 article in The New York Times. The article, which credited Moody's Investor Service for the rankings, said the Duke City trailed behind Los Angeles, New York City, Orange County (Calif.), Honolulu and Washington, D.C. Copies of the articles were provided by Aaron Hazelrigg, president of Centurion Properties and a self-described "newspaper junkie." Albuquerque Journal, Business Outlook, February 20, 2006

Inman News - Real Estate News and Advice for Buyers, Sellers & Investors

Just listened to a CNN report about how the housing market is dying. Not here. Just some anecdotal things - today I'm talking to my buyer's agent...telling her that it is supposed to slow down. She says "I hope so, I can't believe this is supposed to be the slow season, when does it really start?" We laughed. If this is slow, I will need another ME in order to cover things this spring. My office manager said the same thing - "still just as many packages coming across my desk, if this is the SLOW season, I will have to hire someone this spring." You see, Albuquerque is a new destination for the individual wanting to live in the beautiful Southwest. Our weather is unbeatable, our amenities many. Our prices are still reasonable, and lifestyles are fun and carefree. Did you know that many of the marathon runners who run the Boston Marathon and Olympic Marathon come to live here to train? It's because you can literally run 24/7, 365 days a year, in hi...

Inman News - Real Estate News and Advice for Buyers, Sellers & Investors

Thursday, January 12, 2006 Retail Center Comes to West Side By Rory McClannahan Journal Staff Writer The West Side will be getting a new retail and office center in the next couple of months. Construction on the Shoppes at West Park, located on the northwest corner of Paradise and Eagle Ranch, will begin construction the first week in February, said Mike Novak, one of the center's developers. The center will have about 12,000 square feet of space. Novak said about half of the space has been leased, although he could not reveal what businesses would be moving in. Novak did say, however, that the offices will be occupied by professional types of businesses, such as doctors, accountant and insurance agents. The 8,400 square feet of retail space will be occupied by mostly service businesses. Novak said he expects the construction to take about four months. NOT TOO LATE: If you didn't get into the real estate market in 2005, it's still not too late ...