ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — If you’re looking to take that next step and trade in rent for a mortgage, crews are building hundreds of new homes in the metro every day.

Home construction took off during the pandemic, with so many people rethinking their living spaces while they were stuck at home, but labor and supply chain issues were a significant challenge.

Fast-forward to 2025 and Mackenzie Bishop, co-owner of local home building company Abrazo Homes, said building the house is the easy part.

“It’s kind of staggering when we run payments for our customers what a mortgage payment for a $350,000 house is today it’s significant,” Bishop said.

Abrazo builds houses from Los Lunas to Santa Fe. Bishop said those houses today are about $100,000 more than they were before the pandemic.

“When you combine that cost escalation with high interest rate environment we’ve seen for the last two to three years, it really makes affordability a challenge we have to face every single day,” he said.

Today, the current average interest rate for a 30-year fixed mortgage is 6.68%. Bishop said with new construction, they’re able to buy down that rate, saving home buyers hundreds of dollars a month on their mortgages. Others are doing the same.

Pulte Homes has its financing deals front and center on its website. Richmond American Homes and Hakes Brothers are advertising options too.

“There’s no super affordable homes anymore, but there’s no super affordable homes on the resale market either,” Bishop said.

But it’s not stopping builders from keeping at it. People who live in northern Rio Rancho know that firsthand.

Bishop said Rio Rancho has had more building permit activity in the last three to four years than the entire City of Albuquerque. He credits that to Rio Rancho’s land availability and demand for more homes in the city. He said it’s also partly because of city leadership.

“The City of Albuquerque has more of an anti-development and anti-new housing disposition where I would say in contrast the City of Rio Rancho is much more pro-growth,” he said.

Bishop said they see a significant uptick in activity and interest from new homebuyers when interest rates drop below 6%.

He said while rates are stabilizing, he doesn’t expect rates to drop that significantly this year.