Laura Warden

According to U.S. News and World Report, Albuquerque, NM is officially one of the ten best places to live in the entire country!

The criteria? U.S. News was looking for "affordable communities that have strong economies and plenty of fun things to do."

Albuquerque, NM topped the list (alphabetically), due to our multi-cultural lifestyle, wonderful climate, tremendous natural beauties, and a vibrant economy anchored by such entities as Kirtland Air Force Base, Sandia National Labs, and Intel, in neighboring Rio Rancho, NM.

Researchers also cited our abundant days of sunshine, the annual International Hot Air Balloon Fiesta, and fourteen area golf courses as big pluses for the Albuquerque area.

Come see what all the hoopla is about! If you've never visited Albuquerque, take a Virtual Tour of Albuquerque right here, but watch out--- you might find yourself immediately searching for quick flights to come visit in person!

The May home sales statistics released by the Greater Albuquerque Association of Realtors show some positive movement in our Albuquerque real estate market.

The number of closing of single family detached homes has been steadily inching upward over the past few months, reaching 566 closed sales in May, after hitting a record low of 324 sales last January.

The number of closings is now back in the ballpark of the figures for last few months of 2007, although still nowhere near the peak sales numbers we saw during the summer months of 2005, 2006, and 2007.

Still, these Albuquerque area real estate statistics indicate reason for cautious optimism...

New Mexico thoroughbred Mine That Bird had a Cinderella victory in the Kentucky Derby, and jockey Calvin Borel thought he'd have another win in Saturday's Belmont Stakes, but it was the turn of another "Bird" to shine, instead. Summer Bird, another offspring of Birdstone, swept past his front-runner half-brother to win the final leg of horse racing's Triple Crown.

While it was a disappointment for the New Mexico owners and trainers of Mine That Bird, their horse did at least finish in the money, coming in third behind Dunkirk.

Each day lately, I enjoy watching a great example of self-sacrificing parenthood--- in my garden!

A couple of weeks ago, I discovered a pair of little birds who got very agitated whenever I headed over to my beans and pumpkin patch. One or the other of them would fly at me, land nearby and twitter away at me, then run off and start pretending to be a poor, broken-winged bird.

I'd never seen this before, but had read of it, and realized that some birds do this to try to lure dangerous predators away from their nests.

I looked around, and sure enough, right there on the ground in a yet-unplanted section of garden was a little nest with four cute, mottled little eggs in it. In researching, I find that my brave little bird couple are apparently killdeer, so-called for their agitated sounds as they try to persuade me to come attack them instead of their eggs.

I've been gardening around it, yet still, whenever I get within ten yards or so of the nest (a necessity to weed and water my growing vegetables), the parent birds fly or run up at me, then race away, calling to me to follow, as the flutter into their "broken wing" dance, trying to persuade me what great prey they are!

These little birds are ready and willing to sacrifice all for their little nest of eggs. Not a bad reminder for all of us who are parents about how much self-sacrifice is part of the job description...

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By the way, these killdeer have the right idea about one thing-- Bosque Farms, NM is a great place to call home! For more information about homes in Bosque Farms, or Albuquerque area real estate in general, call or email me any time: (505)239-4796 or laura@laurawarden.com.

My previous post on Albuquerque real estate market for the Far South Valley area looked at high, low and average sales prices over the past 10 calendar quarters.

But there is more information that is significant for understanding the real estate market in the area.

Average sales prices may not have changed dramatically in the past couple of years, but there are some other figures that have.

Time on the market and number of sales in an area are also significant, and, unfortunately for those of us with an interest in Albuquerque in general and the South Valley in particular, these numbers are less encouraging:

As you'll not above, the number of days on the market for single family detached homes in Valley Farms has gone up rather dramatically over the past couple of years. Average time on the market was only a month or two in late 2006 and early 2007. By late 2008 and early 2009, the average days on market had increased to well over 4 months.

And, looking at the chart below, one can see at a glance that the total number of sales of single family detached homes has decreased markedly over the sam period. In late 2006 and early 2007, we were seeing 20-30 sales per quarter; during the past two quarters, we had only around a dozen.