Kachina Hills in Albuquerque, NM

Where it actually sits

Kachina Hills is a small pocket of the far Northeast Heights, in the last few blocks before Tramway Boulevard and the open foothills behind it. Anyone shopping Kachina Hills homes for sale should know up front how small it is. Census-based counts put the neighborhood near 330 households. That's the whole thing. It sits in 87112, north of Indian School Road and south of Menaul, with Tramway forming the eastern edge.

You'll know you're in it from the street signs. Bluecorn Maiden Trail, Father Sky, White Cloud, Kachina Place. Somebody in the seventies committed hard to a theme and it stuck. The city's neighborhood map puts Cibola Addition, Crestview Heights, Oñate and Embudo Canyon right up against it.

The houses

Late 1970s, mostly, with some spillover into the early '80s. Single family, stucco, three and four bedrooms, generally somewhere in the 1,600 to 2,600 square foot range. Two-car garages are standard. The era shows: pitched-and-flat roof combinations, clerestory windows, brick or saltillo entries, a kitchen that opens to the den through a pass-through.

Lots are decent. Not enormous, but bigger than the same money buys in newer construction, and the trees have had close to fifty years to fill in. The ground tilts up toward the mountain here, so plenty of these are split-level or sit on a yard that steps. That's where the views come from. West-facing lots look straight out over the city, and the sunsets are the reason people put money into patios out here.

There's no HOA. Nobody is going to talk to you about your paint color or your gravel. The flip side is that the street doesn't look uniform, and if uniform is what you want, this isn't it.

Trails out the back door

This is the real argument for living here. The Embudo Canyon Trailhead sits at the far east end of Indian School Road, 15000 Indian School NE, and puts you on Embudo Trail 193 and the Foothills Trail 365. The Menaul trailhead is the other one, east of Tramway on Menaul, with shaded picnic areas and access to 365 and 401. Both are City of Albuquerque Open Space, part of the Sandia Foothills. From most of Kachina Hills you're at either in five minutes.

The paved path along Tramway runs the length of the boulevard and is the spine of the ride most cyclists out here do. Embudo Hills Park on Monte Verde has a playground, a basketball half court and exercise stations, if you want something less ambitious than a canyon.

Schools, errands, and the drive

Houses here have fed Oñate Elementary on Brentwood Hills, Jackson Middle on Indian School, and Eldorado High on Montgomery, all Albuquerque Public Schools. APS redraws boundaries, so confirm your specific address with the district rather than taking a listing's word for it.

Errands mean driving down Juan Tabo. Albertsons Market at Candelaria and Juan Tabo handles groceries. The Flying Star on Juan Tabo has been there since the mid-90s, and that same stretch holds one of the better clusters of Indian restaurants in the city. Nothing is walkable, and the walk score for this corner of town is honest about that. Tramway drops onto I-40 at the south end for a straight run downtown or to the airport. Montgomery heads west toward Uptown.

Who it suits

People who want the foothills without the foothills price. Cross Tramway and climb, and you're into Glenwood Hills money. Here you're buying a solid late-'70s house on a real lot, five minutes from a trailhead, and accepting that it's more than forty years old. Budget for the roof. Ask what's been done about cooling, because a west-facing slope in July is a different house depending on whether someone converted from swamp to refrigerated air. Homes closest to Tramway pick up road noise. A few streets in, you don't hear it.

What it isn't: walkable, new, or gated. What it is: quiet, established, and about as close to the mountain as this part of town gets without paying for a designated view lot. Turnover is low, which is the polite way of saying you may have to wait for the right one. The listings on this page are the current picture.

Kachina Hills doesn't turn over often, so it's worth watching. Browse the current listings below to see what's available in this pocket of the Northeast Heights, and get in touch if you'd like to walk one.