Paradise HillsNM
A town of 4,591.
Is Paradise Hills a good place to live?
Paradise Hills is a solid, middle-of-the-road choice. It grades B− overall, 12th among New Mexico's 72 graded towns, with no subject far below average. Its best mark is incomes: the median household earns $73K. Its lowest everyday mark is in schools: its public schools trail 60% of New Mexico towns on state tests and graduation. A typical home there costs about $255K, 3.6 years of the Albuquerque metro’s $71K median household income. Only 15 of New Mexico’s 161 towns score higher on hazard risk.
What makes Paradise Hills stand out
Where Paradise Hills beats most towns.
99% of working residents leave Paradise Hills for work
Where Paradise Hills’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Paradise Hills grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Mexico), ordered by how far Paradise Hills is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
University Stadium and 24 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Paradise Hills. Close and well known come first.
10 mi Stadium & arenaUniversity Stadium
in town National MonumentPetroglyph National Monument311K visitors a year
40 mi National MonumentBandelier National Monument248K visitors a year
8 mi TheatreKiMo Theater
8 mi Stadium & arenaRio Rancho Events Center
11 mi Stadium & arenaTingley ColiseumPhoto credits
University Stadium: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY 4.0 · Petroglyph National Monument: Unknown, Public domain · Bandelier National Monument: Andrew Dunn (talk · contribs), CC BY-SA 2.0 · KiMo Theater: Daniel Schwen, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Rio Rancho Events Center: Maryabm2009, CC BY-SA 4.0 · Tingley Coliseum: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0
Moving to Paradise Hills: who provides what
Paradise Hills is unincorporated, so Bernalillo County and regional agencies provide most services.
EPA SDWIS (Oct 9, 2026) · HIFLD + EIA-861 2025 · Census 2020 ZCTAs · NCES 2024–25 · registration: vote.gov, updated Aug 27, 2026.
The data
Ordered by what stands out in Paradise Hills.
Paradise Hills carries less natural-hazard risk than nearly all of New Mexico (mostly inland flooding), looks healthier within New Mexico than nationally and has an unusually large share working from home.
The FEMA risk score in Paradise Hills is lower than in most of New Mexico or the rest of the country
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 99% of New Mexico towns, with expected losses of about $102 per resident a year; that rating is what its A− for hazard risk is built on.
Of the losses FEMA expects in Paradise Hills, 54% come from inland flooding and 22% from earthquakes.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
For schools, Paradise Hills earns a C+
Its two schools are below. Paradise Hills’ only public school teaches 402 students.
| School | Level | Students | Letter |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sierra Vista ElementaryLargest public elementary schoolGrades PK–5 | Grades PK–5 | 402 | – |
| Paradise Christian School PrivateLargest high schoolGrades K–12 | Grades K–12 | 99 | – |
NCES · EDFacts · graded within NM on state tests and graduation
A smaller share of working residents in Paradise Hills work locally than in the typical New Mexico or U.S. town
22.4% of workers work from home, against 12.2% across New Mexico.
Paradise Hills: just over one in ten residents live below the poverty line. In Paradise Hills, the mean commuting time is 27 minutes, above both New Mexico’s towns (23 minutes) and U.S. towns (25 minutes). Half of commuters travel less than 8 miles. The top destinations are Albuquerque (67%), Rio Rancho (8%) and Kirtland AFB (3%).
| Paradise Hills | New Mexico towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Working residents who work in town | 0.6% | 15% | 8% |
| Below the poverty line | 11% | 21% | 9.6% |
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 23 minutes | 25 minutes |
| Median household income | $73,000 | $55,000 | $80,000 |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Paradise Hills is older than the New Mexico average
A bachelor’s degree or higher: 28% of adults 25 and older, vs 31% across New Mexico. People 65 and older are 28% of residents (19% statewide); children under 18 are 17% of residents (22% statewide). Paradise Hills’ age of the median resident is 44.9 years.
| Paradise Hills | New Mexico towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aged 65 or older | 28% | 17% | 18% |
| Median age | 44.9 years | 37.2 years | 40.5 years |
| Bachelor’s degree or more, 25+ | 28% | 23% | 29% |
Ages · share of residents
Education · adults 25 and older
Women and men · all residents
55% women, 45% men
That’s an even split within the survey’s margin of ±9.4 points. Across New Mexico, 50.3% of residents are women.
| Paradise Hills | NM | U.S. | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Under 10 | 6.7% | 11% | 11.6% |
| 10 to 17 | 10.7% | 10.7% | 10.3% |
| 18 to 24 | 10.5% | 9.3% | 9.1% |
| 25 to 34 | 10.7% | 13.2% | 13.7% |
| 35 to 44 | 11.5% | 12.8% | 13.2% |
| 45 to 54 | 11.3% | 11.2% | 12.2% |
| 55 to 64 | 10.4% | 12.5% | 12.7% |
| 65 to 74 | 15.4% | 11.5% | 10.2% |
| 75 and older | 12.8% | 7.8% | 7% |
| No diploma | 3.4% | 12% | 10.4% |
| High school | 26.2% | 25.7% | 26% |
| Some college | 29.8% | 22.2% | 19.1% |
| Associate’s | 12.7% | 9.2% | 8.8% |
| Bachelor’s | 13.9% | 17.1% | 21.6% |
| Graduate | 14% | 13.9% | 14.1% |
U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 2020-2024 5-year estimates · in a town of 4,600, single groups can be off by several points
Four seasons and hot summers in Paradise Hills
The typical July afternoon high in Paradise Hills is 93°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
Residents of Paradise Hills are healthier than 55% of U.S. towns
Within New Mexico it is healthier than 76% of the 73 graded towns: much of New Mexico scores lower on these measures.
The share of adults in Paradise Hills who report frequent physical distress: 15%. On the CDC’s 32 measures, Paradise Hills is ahead of New Mexico on 6 and behind on 1. 70% of adults locally had a checkup this year; 13% binge drink. Among 73 New Mexico towns, just 6 have a lower share of adults who sleep under 7 hours than Paradise Hills.
| Paradise Hills | New Mexico towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 29% | 34% | 36% |
| Yearly checkup (CDC PLACES) | 70% | 69% | 79% |
| No health insurance, 18–64 (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 16% | 8.1% |
| Binge drink (CDC PLACES) | 13% | 13% | 16% |
| What stands out | Paradise Hills | NM |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer older adults who have lost all their teeth | 10.8% | 14.2% |
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 17.4% | 20.9% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 8.5% | 7.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Conserved land covers 2.4% of Paradise Hills
3 parks and preserves cover 9 acres in Paradise Hills.
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Paradise Hills Park | — | 7 |
| 2. Petroglyph National Monument | — | 1 |
| 3. Globus Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Everything we know about Paradise Hills
Colleges nearby
4 within 15 miles of the center of Paradise Hills
About 5 of every 100 Paradise Hills residents are enrolled in college, about the same as New Mexico.
About Paradise Hills
Census-designated place in New Mexico, United States
Paradise Hills is a census-designated place (CDP) in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2020 census, Paradise Hills had a population of 4,329. It is part of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area. Paradise Hills was developed by the Horizon Corporation, who sold undeveloped land to buyers. The Federal Trade Commission eventually ordered Horizon to pay money to the buyers due to false and misleading ads.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 1.0 sq mi
- Elevation
- 5,315 ft
Questions about Paradise Hills
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Paradise Hills, NM a good place to live?
Paradise Hills grades B− overall, better than 45% of U.S. towns and #12 of 72 in New Mexico. It grades B for health and C+ for schools.
Is Paradise Hills, NM expensive?
Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades C+.