The Esplanade in Rio Rancho, NM

The Esplanade sits off Country Club Drive SE, in the older southeast quadrant of Rio Rancho. It's small. A loop of single-story attached homes under big trees, with grass that somebody else mows. Most people searching The Esplanade homes for sale want exactly that combination: a modest place, one level, no yard work. It's one of the few addresses in 87124 that has delivered it for forty years.

What the houses are like

Published counts put the original community at about 114 attached homes, built between 1979 and 1992. They're single-level, two or three bedrooms, most with an attached two-car garage. Square footage runs from the low 1,300s up past 2,000. Skylights show up a lot, which was that era's answer to small windows, and a good number have covered patios off the back.

Then there's Oakmount Drive. RayLee Homes has been building out a townhome section there and markets it as the final phase of Esplanade, so newer construction now sits alongside homes that went up four decades earlier. Same community name, different bones. Worth knowing which one you're standing in.

The golf course is gone. Here's what's going in instead.

You can't write about this pocket honestly without dealing with the golf course. Club Rio Rancho, originally Chamisa Hills Country Club, opened in 1970 with nine holes from Gene Sarazen and nine from Desmond Muirhead. It closed in 2016. The clubhouse burned in the fall of 2019. The land has sat empty since.

That changed on paper in September 2025, when the Rio Rancho Governing Body approved the Chamisa Hills Master Plan. It covers 281 acres at 500 Country Club Drive SE and calls for roughly 300 homes, a business park, a town center the developer named La Joya de Rio, and about 62 acres of open space with walking trails on the old North Nine. City officials said at the time that dirt wouldn't turn for one to three years, pending platting and permits.

Plenty of neighbors fought it, mostly over traffic, drainage and losing the green belt. So go stand on the ground before you write an offer. Some of these homes look out over acreage that used to be fairway and is now dirt and chamisa, and one day it will be a construction site. Whether that reads as upside or as a headache is a personal call, and I've had buyers land firmly on both sides.

What the association actually does

Dues here buy grounds care, common areas and road maintenance. The grounds care is the real product. Those lawns, the mature trees and the walking paths are why the place still shows well after forty-plus years, and they're most of the reason people choose it over a freestanding house of the same vintage nearby.

The trade-off is the usual one. An association that keeps landscaping tidy also has opinions about your exterior, so expect rules on paint, parking and what sits in the driveway. The city of Rio Rancho lists the governing body as the Esplanade Homeowners Association, run by a resident president rather than a management company, meeting the second Wednesday of each month at 10 a.m. at Esther Bone Memorial Library. The city's directory puts its boundaries at St. Andrews Drive on the north and Country Club on the west. Small, hands-on, self-run. Some owners love that. Others find it close-quartered.

Sort out two things early. The newer Oakmount townhomes appear to carry their own separate association, so ask which set of documents governs the specific unit. And you'll see The Esplanade described as a 55-plus community, which is how most of the resale marketing treats it. Age restrictions live in the recorded covenants, not in a listing remark. Read them, and read them with extra care on the newer construction, where the builder's marketing doesn't make the same claim.

Errands, parks and the drive out

Esther Bone Memorial Library at 950 Pinetree Rd SE is close enough to walk to from much of the neighborhood. Haynes Park and Community Center on Grande Boulevard SE runs about 13 acres, with tennis and basketball courts, bocce and horseshoe pits, a playground, a seasonal pool and two marked walking loops. Southern Boulevard handles most of the everyday shopping.

Commuting is a real strength here. Southern runs east to NM 528 in a few minutes, and from there Paseo del Norte takes you across the river to I-25, or you drop south on Coors. That's a shorter trip into Albuquerque than you'll get from the newer subdivisions out in the far northwest, and it matters more than buyers expect.

Listings in here typically show Rio Rancho Elementary and Lincoln Middle on Lema Road SE, feeding Rio Rancho High, all Rio Rancho Public Schools. Confirm boundaries with the district rather than relying on the listing.

Who it suits

Downsizers, mostly. People who are finished with a quarter acre and want one level, a garage and a door they can lock behind them. It also suits anyone who wants to be near the river crossings without paying for new construction.

It's a poor fit if you want a big lot, a shop, RV parking, or the finishes you'd find in Loma Colorado or Cabezon. On the older homes, spend your inspection money where it counts: the roof, the cooling system, and whether the kitchen and baths have been touched since the original build. The live listings on this page will show you what's open at the moment.

Browse every available home in The Esplanade below, updated as new listings come on. If you'd like to walk one, or want a straight answer about how the Chamisa Hills plan affects a particular unit, reach out and we'll go look at it together.