My wife is considering a job in ABQ so a move there might be in our future. She is an accountant and I am an IT professional and we live in central AZ now,

We are looking at Rio Rancho as a place to live as some people say it is nice and homes seem reasonable there. I have read some other threads on here saying what a POS ABQ and NM are in regards to corruption and other BS. Is it really that bad and not even worth considering? Right now we live in a town of 13K people and if either of us lost our jobs there would be no other options except min. wage places like Home Depot. Our house here is valued at 280K and 1500 sq ft. It looks like similar places there are about 100K less for the same size.

Are there ranges or places to shoot within a reasonable distance

What is CCW like - extremely prohibitive to where it isn't worth it?

What is the primary cellular provider - Verizon, AT&T?

Are there good ISP's and which one? We currently use Cable One (Sparklight) and are paying $55 for 100Mb cable service and it is reliable

Anything else we should know like political climate, pro-gun organizations, culture, hidden costs of living, taxes,

Thank you

Abq is crime ridden and getting worse.  Stay out of the bad areas and you’ll be okay - we can help you identify those areas.  RR has a better outlook and is historically much more conservative than the liberal shithole Albuquerque has become.

We have AT&T - no issues around Abq/RR.  NM does have a lot of dead zones due to the vastness and remote wildnerness.  Lots of NF and BLM land to exlpore.

We just have Comcast for Internet.  I don’t know what the speed is - fast enough though.  Roughly $80/month.

I’ve been here 12 years so folks with more time on deck can speak better about the corruption - it does run deep.  Dems and liberals abound in the central and northern parts of the state.

CCW overall is decent and a fair amount of places you can carry.  The state liquor licensing agency hands out signs “no firearms” signs, but they don’t meet the definition of size and required info that matches up to another state law regarding signage.  Good luck interpreting that.

Del Norte Gun Club is about 16 or so miles out on the west mesa from RR and hands down THE best club/range I’ve ever belonged to.  1k yard KD, tactical steel.  200 and 300 yd rifle ranges.  2 (100) yard rifle ranges.  Huge pistol area with steel and an area with individual bays.  Shotgun, rimfire, and other things.  I mainly shoot late afternoon/evening and almost always have a range to myself- weekends included.

I made the same move in december from Phoenix... ITs definitely not phoenix here, however its nice only having rush hour from 0700-0800 and 1630-1800 every day... even then traffic isnt that bad. Phoenix is terrible to get anywhere on a weekday. Climate is also much nicer with all 4 seasons, snow in the winter, and mid 90s in the summer tops. Nice thing is it gets down in the 60s at night even in the summer, which is a nice change from Phoenix staying above 100 for 5 months straight, 24 hours a day.

My house was 200K, its in a nice neighborhood, newer build, 1500 sq ft, and about the average. $300-350K buys you 3000+ sq feet on a larger lot and new build... expect to pay asking price or higher out here, and most good houses last 3-5 days on the market (at least when I bought in Jan of this year).

3 big outdoor ranges in town (all within 25 min) with the city range identical to Ben Avery and has steel at 350, 550 and 750 yards, then two private outdoor ranges you have to get a membership, but go to 1000. Also two indoor ranges which I use often for handgun stuff, cheap membership.

CCW permits are easy to get, open carry is legal.

Verizon and AT&T, although Verizon works much better for me. Not as fast as Phoenix, but I generally dont have any issues.

I have Xfinity and its $45 a month. My average download speeds are 150-200 MBPS with peak times sometimes pulling down to 100-120 mbps. There are faster packages as well, so I imagine thats throttled down from the super duper $80 packages.

The city is extremely liberal, homeless all over the place and on every corner, down town is like a mini san francisco, highest car theft in the nation, high unemployment (lots of available jobs, just no one wants to work, or they cant pass a drug test), for the most part customer service doesnt exist here, drivers are horrendous and assholes, there is ZERO traffic enforcement or law enforcement presence in town (Im a Federal LEO here), next to Georgia and other SE states, this is the laziest ive ever seen for retail and service industry where often you have to beg for service and run people down to get it.

Its a shithole, plain and simple... Liberal policies and views to the max, and for some reason, the majority here support it. That being said, I enjoy the cheap cost of living, 15 min commute to work, lots of outdoor activities and such, surprising amount of easy to get to and cheap gun ranges etc. Taxes are relatively low with vehicle registration being $79 a year, vehicle sales tax at 4%, insurance is the same here as it was in Phoenix, sales tax is 8ish% I believe. This state should have a massive surplus in funds this year due to the oil industry down south, however it all goes to social services to keep most of the town on meth and unemployment.

Been in Albq for 27 years.  The place has gone downhill, especially in the last few, and it getting worse.

Been in the far Northwest area for the last 20.  Crime will get you no matter where you live.  Had someone try to break in the neighbor's house the other night by removing the dog door, while the dog was barking and she was on the phone to 911.  Vehicle break ins are so common you don't want to leave an empty bag for them to break your windows.

We're in the process of divesting everything we have here and moving to the Show Low area.

I just moved out of Rio Rancho in March for a promotion in Baltimore (no I don't live in Baltimore.  I just work there)

Crime is spreading.  My house was in far north Rio Rancho just west of the Sandoval County offices.  We rarely had crime, but in the last year it popped its head up a few times.  A neighbor had her car stolen from inside her garage this year.  Some new houses were being built, and someone went in and stole the appliances.

Schools are crap.  If you have kids send them to a private school, or to one of the better Rio Rancho schools.

Like others have said NM has high crime, and it is spread out through the state.  Albuquerque and Espanola are definitely worse. But don't think that just because you live in the countryside it won't happen. I have never lived anywhere where so many of my co-workers were victims of crime.  One guy left for a hunting trip to OK with a friend.  These two heroin addicts burglarized the house, and found the keys to his new F-150 in the process.  They loaded up his truck with his personal items, and took off.  Then they used his truck to commit other crimes, and to run back and forth to Mexico for heroin.  When the police finally caught up with them, they were towing a contractor's trailer they had just stolen.  The police recovered the truck.  It had used heroin needles and heroin in it.  Three other people I worked with had their homes burglarized in the last 5 years.

The state is a magnet for crime because the liberal judges and politicians people keep voting for won't get tough with criminals.  They know if they go to NM, the penalties are light.

Healthcare is crap.  Long waits just to see a family doctor.

NM is a huge welfare state.  3 of every 4 births are paid for by Medicaid.

But that said, I will cry when I have to pack up my house in Nov and move everything to Elliott City MD.  I miss the dry sunny weather.  I miss the low population.  I miss the easy commute.  I miss my house with its beautiful views of the mountains.  I miss the open spaces, and low population.  I miss the gun laws, and low taxes.  But, I couldn't take the crap going on in the office I worked in.  

I love NM but as already mentioned its a high crime state, and turning communist pretty damn quickly.

That being said, its a beautiful place, and its wide open enough there is still a lot of true freedom to be experienced that is almost impossible east of the mississippi.