Sandia HeightsNM
A town of 3,160.
What should you know before moving to Sandia Heights?
Sandia Heights's standout: it is healthier than 96% of U.S. towns. Overall it grades C+, 13th among New Mexico's 72 graded towns. The median household earns $144K. Its weakest subject is cost of living: the typical home is worth about $670K, 9.5 years of the Albuquerque metro’s $71K median household income. 46% of residents are 65 or older in Sandia Heights, where New Mexico’s towns sit at 17% and U.S. towns at 18%. Most errands need a car: it is less walkable than 92% of U.S. towns. No town among the 73 in New Mexico we compare has a higher share of adults with a bachelor’s degree than Sandia Heights.
99% of working residents leave Sandia Heights for work
Where Sandia Heights’s working residents go each day. Line width shows the share.
Census LEHD 2023
How Sandia Heights grades
Each subject compared with towns across the country (schools within New Mexico), ordered by how far Sandia Heights is from typical.
How TownRatings grades towns →
University Stadium and 26 more within 40 miles
Museums, parks, gardens and other places to visit around Sandia Heights. Close and well known come first.
11 mi Stadium & arenaUniversity Stadium
4 mi Ski areaSandia Peak Ski Area66 runs · 1,599 ft vertical
37 mi National MonumentBandelier National Monument248K visitors a year
11 mi National MonumentPetroglyph National Monument311K visitors a year
8 mi MuseumNational Museum of Nuclear Science & History
8 mi Stadium & arenaTingley ColiseumPhoto credits
University Stadium: Kenneth C. Zirkel, CC BY 4.0 · Sandia Peak Ski Area: Skoch3, CC BY-SA 3.0 · Bandelier National Monument: Andrew Dunn (talk · contribs), CC BY-SA 2.0 · Petroglyph National Monument: Unknown, Public domain · National Museum of Nuclear Science & History: AllenS, Public domain · Tingley Coliseum: John Phelan, CC BY 3.0
Moving to Sandia Heights: who provides what
Sandia Heights 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 Sandia Heights.
Sandia Heights is among the three healthiest towns in New Mexico, carries less natural-hazard risk than most of New Mexico (mostly inland flooding) and sends most of its workers to Albuquerque and beyond.
Fewer of Sandia Heights’ adults sleep under 7 hours than in the typical New Mexico or U.S. town
It ranks #3 of the 73 New Mexico towns we grade on the CDC estimates behind the Health Grade.
The share of adults 18 to 64 in Sandia Heights who have no health insurance: 4.1%. Among 73 New Mexico towns, just one has a lower share of adults who smoke cigarettes than Sandia Heights. CDC measures, 32 in all: Sandia Heights beats New Mexico on 24 and trails on 4.
| Sandia Heights | New Mexico towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frequent mental distress (CDC PLACES) | 10% | 16% | 17% |
| Sleep under 7 hours (CDC PLACES) | 23% | 34% | 36% |
| Feel lonely (CDC PLACES) | 27% | 35% | 33% |
| Get no exercise (CDC PLACES) | 14% | 28% | 25% |
| What stands out | Sandia Heights | NM |
|---|---|---|
| Fewer adults facing food insecurity | 5% | 20.9% |
| Fewer uninsured adults | 4.1% | 15.6% |
| More adults who have had cancer | 14.5% | 7.4% |
CDC PLACES 2025 · modeled estimates for adults · CMS · HRSA
Sandia Heights stands out in New Mexico and nationally: the median household income there is higher
Sandia Heights has 205 jobs for its 1,201 working residents: even if every job went to a resident, most would still commute out. 35.7% of workers work from home, against 12.2% across New Mexico.
Sandia Heights had 205 jobs in 2023, down 62 from 2013. Among residents here, 4.7% live below the poverty line. Commuting out is the norm in the town: 1% of working residents work locally. In Sandia Heights, the average commute is 27 minutes.
| Sandia Heights | New Mexico towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Median household income | $144,000 | $55,000 | $80,000 |
| Below the poverty line | 4.7% | 21% | 9.6% |
| Working residents who work in town | 1% | 15% | 8% |
| Average trip to work | 27 minutes | 23 minutes | 25 minutes |
Where working residents work
Census LEHD 2023 · ACS
Sandia Heights has four seasons and pleasant summers
Sandia Heights’ midsummer high stands at 87°F.
Typical low → high °F
NOAA U.S. Climate Normals, 1991–2020
The biggest natural risk in Sandia Heights is inland flooding, at a low overall level
FEMA rates its natural-hazard risk lower than 83% of New Mexico towns; that rating is what its B+ for hazard risk is built on.
Of the losses FEMA expects in Sandia Heights, 82% come from inland flooding and 8% from earthquakes. Sandia Heights’ risk rating from FEMA comes in at 33 of 100.
FEMA National Risk Index · OpenFEMA
Open space protected for good: 0.8% of Sandia Heights
Trails run 0.8 miles in 3 parks and preserves. For Sandia Heights, the trail network density is 0.4 miles per square mile.
| Sandia Heights | New Mexico towns | U.S. towns | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Conserved land | 0.8% | 4% | 4.3% |
| Miles of trail per square mile | 0.4 miles per square mile | 1.0 | 0.4 |
| Biggest places to walk | Trails | Acres |
|---|---|---|
| 1. Cibola National Forest | 0.1 mi | 5 |
| 2. W. L. Jackson Park | — | 4 |
| 3. Little Cloud Park | — | 1 |
Trails & parks © OpenStreetMap contributors · Conserved land: USGS PAD-US
Everything we know about Sandia Heights
Colleges nearby
4 within 15 miles of the center of Sandia Heights
About 3 of every 100 Sandia Heights residents are enrolled in college, against 6 across New Mexico.
About Sandia Heights
Census-designated place in New Mexico, United States
Sandia Heights is a census-designated place (CDP) in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, United States. As of the 2020 census, Sandia Heights had a population of 3,273. It is part of the Albuquerque Metropolitan Statistical Area.
From Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 · facts via Wikidata (CC0)
- Area
- 1.9 sq mi
- Elevation
- 6,180 ft
Sandia Heights’s neighbors
One town shares a border with Sandia Heights.
| Town | NM rank | Overall | Cost | Safety | Schools | Health |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sandia Heights | #13 | C+ | D | — | C+ | A+ |
| Albuquerque | #44 | C− | C− | D− | C+ | B |
Sandia Heights reports no FBI crime data of its own. Compare Sandia Heights with a neighbor →
Questions about Sandia Heights
Short answers, built from the data on this page.
Is Sandia Heights, NM a good place to live?
Sandia Heights grades C+ overall, better than 42% of U.S. towns and #13 of 72 in New Mexico. It grades A+ for health and C+ for schools. Walkability is its weak spot, with a D.
Is Sandia Heights, NM expensive?
Yes. Cost of living, which also weighs rents, property taxes and how many households pay 30% or more of their income for housing, grades D.