The Islands in Rio Rancho, NM

The Islands is an age-restricted townhome community in Rio Rancho, sitting against the golf ground that operated in turn as Panorama Country Club, Chamisa Hills and, last, Club Rio Rancho. Construction ran from the late 1980s into the early 1990s. The single-story attached homes were laid out around ponds the homeowners association kept filled with reclaimed water, and a gate controls the entrance while a security patrol covers the streets around the clock. Walking paths thread the interior and end at a small park with benches and a putting green.

The association is managed by HOAMCO. Dues cover the common areas, grounds maintenance, road maintenance, security and utilities, which holds the exteriors and shared landscape to one standard across an attached-home layout. There is no clubhouse.

The ponds that give the place its name have had a hard decade. Residents paid a monthly assessment to keep reclaimed water flowing into them, but after the surrounding course closed, the ponds on its east and north nines were drained, and the last of the water went in August 2023 after West Nile virus was detected. That ground is slated to become a retention basin for flood control. An earlier owner of the course property had pledged 36 acres toward a nature park; the land has changed hands since.

Albuquerque is about twenty minutes out, and the Sunport roughly thirty.