Grand opening held for Rio Rancho housing development

RIO RANCHO, N.M. — There are many reasons people choose to move to the metro area. For Lani Nash, it was personal.

“I moved out here when Holly Dunn got sick,” the singer/songwriter explained to KOB 4. “She was a good friend of mine from Nashville.”

Dunn, a popular country singer in the ’80s and ’90s and a good friend of Nash, passed away from ovarian cancer at the end of 2016. Nash said she decided to stick around for love and get married, and New Mexico has been her home ever since.

This weekend, Mariposa reps asked her to perform at the Rio Rancho community’s Sol Fest, celebrating the grand opening of a brand-new housing development and another place for people like Nash to put down roots.

“They don’t just build a development, you know, housing projects, and then leave you to find your way around, but they offer community centers and parks and that kind of thing,” she said. “So it’s really, you know, kid-friendly, family-friendly.”

David Newell — the division president for Richmond American Homes of New Mexico — said the Albuquerque metro, including Rio Rancho, is under-built with housing. But that is something his team hopes to change.

“Seasons at Monarch is the latest community at Mariposa, and it’s made up of 174 home sites,” he said. “We have eight-floor plans, single stories and two stories.”

The homes range from $300,000 to $400,000, but Newell said other developments that Richmond American Homes has in the works, cater to a wider variety of homebuyers: “From first-time homebuyers, to move up buyers, empty nesters, people that want the active lifestyle, big families, retirees, you name it, we have product for it,” he explained.

Regarding the metro’s resale market, Newell said it follows a nationwide trend and is the lowest it’s ever been, with just over a one-month supply of housing on the market. He added that our market would need close to 10,000 more homes to meet the demand. His company’s solution is to keep building until everyone who needs a home has one.

If you want to look at the new homes on the market in Mariposa or listen to Nash sing live along with The DCN Project and Mariachi Tierra Del Sol, Sol Fest starts at 3 p.m. Saturday at East Commons Park. Click here for more information about the event.