Monte Vista in Albuquerque, NM

Monte Vista is the part of Nob Hill most people picture when they picture old Albuquerque. One-story stucco houses. Big trees. A grid of quiet streets a few blocks north of Central Avenue, just east of the university. Anyone shopping Monte Vista homes for sale is looking at a neighborhood that finished building out before most of us were born, so what comes up is whatever a current owner decides to sell.

Where it starts and stops

Girard on the west, Lomas on the north, Carlisle on the east, Central and Campus along the south. That's the working answer most of us give. Addresses here are 87106, with a few blocks at the eastern edge falling into 87108 instead.

Most of the street grid runs square, and then Monte Vista Boulevard and Campus Boulevard cut across it on the diagonal and meet at the elementary school. The whole neighborhood reads off that intersection. You're a little over 5,000 feet up here, on the first bench of ground east of the valley, so the higher streets and the corner lots get the Sandias.

The houses

The Monte Vista addition was platted in 1926, and roughly ninety percent of its lots were built on between 1927 and 1941, most of that after 1935 once the worst of the Depression had passed. Building carried on at the margins into the 1950s. Nearly all of it is one story: adobe in places, more often wood frame or hollow clay tile, and stuccoed either way.

Style-wise, Spanish-Pueblo Revival and Pueblo Revival do most of the work, with bungalows, Territorial trim and the occasional Mediterranean roofline mixed in. Flat roofs, parapets, vigas, deep-set windows. Lots are city lots, not acreage, usually with a detached garage and a short drive. Two and three bedrooms are the norm and square footage stays modest, though plenty of owners have added on out the back over eighty years and the quality of those additions varies enormously. Have your inspector look hard at the seams.

Be realistic about the age, too. Galvanized supply lines, original panels, swamp coolers on the roof, closets sized for a 1938 wardrobe. None of that kills a deal. All of it is a budget line.

The historic district, and what it actually means

Monte Vista and College View went onto the New Mexico Register in 1998 and the National Register in 2001, and a large majority of the houses count as contributing properties. The practical upside is New Mexico's 50 percent historic preservation tax credit, which a good number of owners on these blocks have used on roofs, windows and stucco work. The common misunderstanding is the downside. National Register listing by itself doesn't police what you do to your own house. City historic overlay zoning is a separate thing and does carry review, so call the city's planning department about your specific block before you draw up anything for the front elevation.

Walking to Central

This is the real argument for living here. Central through Nob Hill has been the commercial spine since Route 66 was realigned onto it in 1937, and it's still where you end up on a Friday night: restaurants, bars, the old theater, coffee, a bookstore. The Monte Vista Fire Station at Central and Monte Vista is worth knowing. Built with WPA money in 1936, it worked as a firehouse until 1972 and has been a restaurant for years since. Good Spanish-Pueblo Revival building, and a landmark people give directions by.

Schools and green space

Monte Vista Elementary sits at the center of the plat, on ground the 1926 layout set aside for it. The building went up in 1931 to a design by T. Charles Gaastra and made the National Register on its own in 1981. Middle school is Jefferson, high school is Albuquerque High. Bataan Memorial Park holds down the northeast corner at Lomas and Carlisle, with a third-mile loop, old shade trees and the memorial to the New Mexico Guardsmen of the 200th Coast Artillery. UNM's campus and its north golf course are a few minutes west.

Who this fits

People who want to walk somewhere. UNM and the hospital complex are minutes off, downtown is a straight shot on Lomas or Central, and the freeways are close, I-25 at Lomas or Central and I-40 at Carlisle. There's no HOA and no dues. What you get instead is a voluntary neighborhood association and neighbors with strong opinions about street trees.

It isn't the right buy for everyone. If the list runs to a three-car garage, a big flat backyard, a primary suite and modern wiring, the Northeast Heights or Rio Rancho will get you there with far less effort. Street parking tightens up toward Central and toward campus. The perimeter streets are busy and you hear them. Buyers who love it here are trading square footage for location, and for a kind of house nobody builds anymore.

Everything on the market in Monte Vista is listed below and updates as new homes come available. Take a look, and get in touch when you want to walk through one.