Thomas Village in Albuquerque, NM

Thomas Village sits in Albuquerque's near North Valley, a pocket of quiet streets between the city grid and the Rio Grande bosque. The land started as the Charles Mann family farm, worked in part by German prisoners of war during the Second World War, and a developer later platted the subdivision that carries the name. The result reads as half rural, half urban, with downtown only minutes away and the cottonwood forest at its doorstep. A patio-home section runs under its own homeowners association; the surrounding blocks mostly do not.

The Thomas Village Patio Homes association looks after the attached, patio-style portion of the neighborhood, including the shared landscaping along those streets. Those homes were laid out for low-maintenance ownership, while most of the detached blocks carry no dues.

Open space is the other draw. The Paseo del Bosque Trail follows the river through the valley for sixteen paved miles without a street crossing, and one of its access points, at Campbell Road, opens onto the Rio Grande Nature Center. The trail runs inside Rio Grande Valley State Park, which protects that riverside corridor.