Hillcrest Park in Albuquerque, NM

Hillcrest Park is a gated condominium community on Montgomery Boulevard NE, in the Hodgin neighborhood between Carlisle and San Mateo. It dates to 1972 and is laid out as three-story buildings set around shared grounds rather than individual lots, with a handful of floor plans repeating through the complex. Behind the entry gate are a pool, a spa and sauna, a fitness room, a clubhouse, a community garden and a small playground, all maintained by the homeowners association. Hodgin Elementary, McKinley Middle and Del Norte High serve the area, and the Hahn Arroyo bike trail runs east to west through the surrounding neighborhood.

Association dues absorb much of what an owner elsewhere would pay line by line: natural gas, city water, trash and pest control, landscaping and grounds, building maintenance and exterior insurance. Assigned and guest parking, extra storage and shared laundry come with them. The amount scales with the size of the unit, so the smaller plans carry less than the larger ones. Sentry Management handles the day-to-day administration.

Getting in works in two stages, a key for the perimeter gate and a second key for the building itself. Montgomery Boulevard is one of the main east-west arterials across this part of the Northeast Heights, and ABQ Ride runs it, so the rest of the quadrant is reachable without a car.