Mariposa in Rio Rancho, NM

Mariposa is a master-planned community at the north end of Rio Rancho, a 6,500-acre plan of high desert that backs onto the 2,000-acre Mariposa Preserve. High Desert Investment Corporation, the for-profit arm of Albuquerque Academy, began it in the 2000s; Harvard Investments bought the development in 2013 and has built it out with national homebuilders since. Daily life centers on a LEED Silver community center with indoor and outdoor pools, a fitness room and a movement studio. Ten miles of walking and biking paths run through the community, and a park adds sport fields, a playground, an amphitheater and a ramada. Albuquerque is roughly 25 minutes south.

Development began under High Desert Investment Corporation, the for-profit development arm of Albuquerque Academy, which took over the school's interest in the land in 2003. Infrastructure was financed with bonds issued through a public improvement district, and when the housing market turned, that debt went unpaid. The active eastern portion of the plan, Mariposa East, passed to an entity formed by the bondholders and was then sold to Harvard Investments of Scottsdale. Owners who had bought during those years settled a class-action suit against the original developer.

A community association governs the neighborhood, with Cohere handling management. Dues reported on listings here cover the pools, the clubhouse and common areas, along with road maintenance and security. The community center that anchors all of it is LEED Silver certified, part of a plan that also protects the open desert at the community's edge and the dark skies above it.

Several named enclaves sit inside the community. Seasons at Monarch belongs to Monarch, the newest section of the master plan, while The Peaks, Redondo at Mariposa and Jemez Vista at Mariposa are the other named groups. Older plat names still surface on paperwork, among them Highland Meadows, Desert Highlands, Sierra Vista and Vista de Santa Fe, all of them part of Mariposa.