Estates at La Cuentista in Albuquerque, NM

Estates at La Cuentista is a gated Pulte Homes subdivision on Albuquerque's Northwest Mesa, part of the larger La Cuentista development in the Volcano Cliffs area. It sits above Boca Negra Canyon, a couple of minutes from Paseo del Norte and within reach of the Unser Boulevard corridor, with the Sandia Mountains standing east across the valley and Petroglyph National Monument next door. Streets are still filling in with single-family houses, and a community park with a basketball court, lawn and seating anchors the neighborhood. Views run east to the mountains and down over the Rio Grande valley.

The mesa underneath it was platted back in the 1960s and annexed by the city in 1981, then sat mostly empty for decades. In 2011 the City Council adopted the Volcano Cliffs Sector Development Plan, which rezoned roughly 2,327 acres on the Northwest Mesa and set the terms for the subdivisions built there since.

Association dues are billed monthly and cover the common areas and road maintenance inside the gates, along with the park and court.

Getting out is straightforward. Paseo del Norte is minutes away and runs east toward the river, and Interstate 40 is about six miles off.