Los Lunas

Los Lunas is a village and the seat of Valencia County, about 25 minutes south of Albuquerque on I-25, set in the Rio Grande valley with the Manzano Mountains to the east. It grew out of farming country and still shows it at the edges, but the housing story now is newer subdivisions on flat, buildable land, and Huning Ranch is the clearest example, with a 12-acre community park, dog park, tennis and basketball courts. Square footage per dollar is the draw: buyers priced out of the Northeast Heights routinely find more house here.

Two things anchor the local economy. The Rail Runner station at NM-314 and Courthouse Road puts downtown Albuquerque within a rail commute rather than a drive up I-25. And Los Morros Business Park hosts Meta's data center campus alongside Walmart and Amazon operations: more than $2.5 billion invested since 2016, a few hundred permanent jobs, and a further expansion underway. Daniel Fernandez Memorial Park, Heritage Park and the Badlands Drive-In cover the weekends, and El Cerro de Los Lunas Preserve has trails straight off the neighbourhoods.