Dona Ana North

Doña Ana is the oldest settlement in the Mesilla Valley. The village was founded in the 1840s on El Camino Real, a few miles north of where Las Cruces was later laid out, and the county takes its name from it. Its old center, around the adobe church of Our Lady of Purification, is a historic district listed on the National Register.

The MLS area called Dona Ana North takes in the village and the valley and mesa land around and beyond it, north of Las Cruces. It is a wide area and a varied one. Near the village, homes stand on small lots along old streets. Farther out, properties run from an acre to ten acres or more, some among irrigated fields and pecan orchards, others on open desert with long views.

Homes here span the whole history of the valley, from adobes built before the Second World War to custom homes finished this year, and prices span as widely. Site-built and manufactured homes are both found here, and homeowner associations are uncommon.

Because the area is rural, the details differ from one property to the next. Water may come from a well or a community system, some parcels carry irrigation rights and some do not, and zoning is the county’s. Those are worth confirming on any property here.

Interstate 25 and Valley Drive both run south into Las Cruces.