All right, so this video is all about the pros and cons of making a move here to the city of Murrieta, California. So I've lived here in the Valley for over 20 years. I'm going to give you some perspective on what it's like to actually live here in the city. We're going to go over the good stuff. We're going to go over the bad stuff, so let's go ahead and get into it.

Hey guys. Hey again, my name is Justin Short. I'm a realtor and team leader with the short real estate team here at Keller Williams here in the City of Temecula, in Murrieta, California. And like I mentioned, this video was all about the city of Murrieta. We're going to go all about the pros and cons of making a move here to the city of Murrieta. Like I mentioned, I lived here in the Valley for quite a long time. I can give you some perspective on what it's like to actually live here. We'll go over the pros, we're going to go over the cons, and hopefully it'll be some good information for you if you're thinking about making a move here to the city. But before I get into that, do me a favor. If you are liking real estate videos like this, please hit like please hit, subscribe.

So obviously it helps me, it helps my channel. We're obviously trying to continue to grow it, so I'd be grateful for that. And then if you guys have any real estate questions, you can reach out anytime. You can feel free, you can call, you can text, you can email me. You're going to see my information either at the end of the video or you're going to see it down below. So you can feel free to reach out anytime. I have people that reach out all the time and I’m happy to answer any questions you may have. And of course, if we can help you out with your home search and we'd love to do that, or at least if I can just point you in the right direction or give you some good advice, you'd be happy to do that or give you some perspective on what it's like or me answer any questions you have about the area.

But we'll go ahead and we'll get into the video here. So we're going to start with the good stuff. So we're going to start with the pros and what the good parts about the city, And then we'll go over some of what the negative parts are about the city, And I guess before we get going, I'll give you my disclaimer. I've lived here in the city of Murrieta and Temecula, like I mentioned, over 20 years. So a long time. Most of that time has been in the city of Murrieta. So I think probably about nine years in Murrieta. A couple years, five or six years in the city of Winchester, and then a handful of years in the city of Temecula. So I recently moved like a mile down the street. We moved from Murrieta, moved to Temecula. People ask me a lot which city is better.

Honestly, I think they're really exactly the same. We'll talk about Murrieta is a little bit less expensive, but they run together. They're really similar. They both have good school districts. Murrieta has a little bit more, sorry, Temecula has a little bit more business, but we'll kind of talk about some of that in the pros and the cons. But they're very, very, very similar. But having said all that, I live here with my family. I have two young kids, we're raising them. They're going to school here, they go to the public school. This is where I plan to live for a very, very long time. I love living here. I think it's a great area. I think it's a great place to raise a family, and this is where we plan to stay long-term, so myself and my wife and my family. So I'm going to go over some cons, but again, I think it's a great area, but we're just trying to give some different perspectives here.

So I'll talk about the good stuff. So number one, the biggest pro and the reason that most people make a move here to the city, Murrieta, is it is affordable compared to most parts of Southern California. So right now, the average sales price for a home in the city of Murrieta is right about $750,000. So I mean, it's three quarters of a million dollars. I mean, it's not a cheap home by any means, but compared to other parts of Southern California like San Diego, la, orange County, it's really a steal for what you can get out here. Most of those areas you can't really find anything for under a million bucks. If you do, you probably live in a crummy area, probably not a super safe area, probably something super old and probably something super small. So with that, as opposed to here when you're living, it's definitely the suburbia where it's in the suburbs here in Murrieta.

But you can buy something that's probably 2,500, 3000 square feet. It's this big old home. It's relatively new. It's probably built 2000 and newer, a nice community. It's pretty squeaky clean. You can just get so much more for your money. And compared to other parts of Southern California, that is really the biggest draw here, and that's why so many people live here. That's why the area's grown so much. And there's probably now 500,000 people between Murrieta and the surrounding cities. And what's the valley here? That's definitely going to be number one. Number two, and the second biggest pro about living here in the city of Murrieta is the school district. People love living here because the school district is so highly rated, whether that's elementary school, middle schools, or high schools, there's really, really good schools. All throughout the valley, you could see all the scores that are posted online.

But in general, pretty much every school has a really good rating. Lots of eights and nines and tens out of tens. So they're all rated really well. They have really good programs, they have really good special ed programs, they have really good extracurricular activities, and that is definitely a big draw for people. And not only that for resale, if you ever decide to move out of the area or upsize or downsize or you just want to sell your home, when you live in an area that has a really good school district, that's definitely a huge plus. That's a really good indicator that your home's going to hold really good value over time and probably go up in value over time since a good school district is going to continue to be a desirable area for people to live. Number three is just how safe the city is.

So city Murrieta is constantly one of the voted rated, rated is probably the right word. So constantly rated as one of the safest cities in America and one of the safest cities in the state of California. So they've been anywhere from in the top 10 in the nation to top 20, top 50. I think right now they're somewhere in the top 100, but to be anywhere near the top as far as one of the safest cities throughout the nation is a huge deal. It is a very, very safe area. As you're driving through, there is a big police presence. The city of Murrieta has their own city police department. There's Riverside County Sheriffs. There's definitely a presence in town. As you drive around, you're going to see their cars and their SUVs cruising around all their different cruisers. It's definitely a safe area. It's definitely squeaky clean.

There isn't a lot of crime, very, very minimal crime and all these other types of things. It's a good safe area, which is one of the reasons that we like living here. Alright, so number four on my list is again about price point and purchasing a home and affordability. But like I mentioned, a lot of people when they move here to the area, they ask me about the city Murrieta, and they also ask me about the city of Temecula. A lot of my clients do end up buying homes in Murrieta just for the simple fact that it is significantly less expensive. So on average it's anywhere from 75,000 to a hundred thousand dollars less to buy the same home in the city. Murrieta versus Temecula, like I mentioned, pretty much they run together. They're very, very similar cities, both at that suburb feel. They're both newer, they're both really squeaky clean.

They both have good school districts. So a lot of people do look at both, but there's pros and cons to each, right? There's a reason to make the cost a little bit more, there's a little bit more business there and we'll talk a little bit about that as we talk about some of the cons of Murrieta. But in general, I recommend to most people to look at both, unless you're a major commuter and that's a big thing for you and we're trying to go south, most people saving some money to live in Murrieta, Murrieta is going to be a big benefit. Alright, so number five on my list is just about how close we are to enjoying all the cool stuff that Southern California has to offer. So like I mentioned, it's significantly less expensive to live here in Murrieta compared to other parts of Southern California, but you can live here and still get a chance to experience all the other cool stuff that Southern California has.

So the weather is still awesome here in the area, but you're going to be only about 45 minutes to an hour to most of the other parts of Southern California. So that means you're here in Murrieta, you're 45 minutes to an hour to get to downtown San Diego. You're 45 minutes to an hour to get out to the beach. You're 45 minutes to an hour to get out to most parts of Orange County. You're 45 minutes an hour, maybe a little bit more to get out to the desert. You're about an hour, hour and a half to get to most parts of la. You're a little bit farther for a mountain trip, probably about two and a half, three hours to get up to the mountains. But all those cool things are super, super accessible. They're not too far away and they're definitely something you could take advantage of when you're living here in the area.

You can take those day trips and get a chance to do that, but you can live in an area that's much more affordable than San Diego, la, orange County. Alright, so number six is the fact that this is a newer community, again, compared to other parts outside California, which are older, a lot of those areas were built in the fifties and the sixties or the seventies if you're lucky. This area, it's really more new construction and it's a newer suburb area. Most of these, the houses started being built probably in the mid nineties, 95, 96 is the majority of communities, and then that's when most of 'em started. And then really about 2001, 2002 and newer is probably when about 70, 80% of the town has been constructed. So because of that, they're all really new construction materials. So they have newer building codes, they have tile roofs, they're on slab foundations, they have newer plumbing, new electrical, et cetera.

So you don't have a lot of those maintenance concerns that you're going to have in most parts of LA and San Diego and Orange County. So that's a big plus for people when they move out here as well. And then the seventh point on my list is just all about the new construction because most of Southern California is really so built out, like I mentioned, a lot of older homes. This is one of the few areas where you can actually buy a new construction home in a nice area and have it be relatively affordable. There's a lot of new construction that is still going on here in Murrieta. There's more tracks and more areas that are still being built out. And even if you don't end up buying a brand new home, there's plenty of homes that have been built within the last 10, 12 years, which are pretty much the same designs or very, very similar designs and layouts.

And they're newer, they're well taken care of, they got all these cool finishes, they're open concepts, which is what everyone wants, et cetera. So I think that that's going to be a big plus for people too, is just all the new construction. Alright, so we talked about the good stuff. We're going to talk about all the cons now. So again, we just want to give you guys some perspective on what it's like to actually live here, point out. Not any area is going to be perfect, right? So there's going to be good pros and cons, everything. There's going to be good and bad, but I want to go over the negatives with you guys to make sure you want to know what they are so at least you know what you get into. So number one, and without a doubt, the biggest complaint that people have about living here, and probably I would say the worst part about living here without a about is the heat.

I mean it's a hot area. So most of the year we have really nice temperatures. We will be anywhere from mid sixties to mid seventies, probably eight, nine months out of the year. But on average in the months of October and September, the averages show the average temperature, right about 90 degrees or so. But we're going to get heat waves that'll take you north of a hundred for sure. And personally, when I was looking up all these stats about average temperatures, honestly it seems low to me for someone that lives here. It feels like we have more days over 95 than what they show online maybe because you just kind of remember the heat, right? But without a doubt it's a hot area, it gets warm and you got to be prepared for those heat waves that are going to come and definitely plenty of days each year and might be 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12 days a year that are going to be over a hundred degrees.

So we'll tap out probably by a hundred, two, a hundred three, a hundred four is super miserable, super, super hot. So it definitely can get warm. One caveat to that, I will say what is nice here, even on a heat wave, if we get up to a hundred degrees, what is nice is as we get later in the day, we do get a really nice breeze. So by four o'clock breeze starts coming in. So that means by that evening, by 5 36, 6 30, the heat really gets taken off and it starts feeling really nice outside. So it might be a hundred in the middle of the day, but by the time six o'clock rolls around, it might get down to 72, 73, 74 degrees. So it's super comfortable. And keep in mind when we live here, everyone has air conditioning. I do not know any house I've never sold a house with. Without air conditioning here locally, every house is going to have air conditioning, so you just stay inside when it's miserable, miserable out, you just stay inside, you blast the ac, you stay comfortable.

But just something to know when you are thinking about living here, it's going to get hot for sure. So that's definitely the worst, the con number two. So I would say the second worst part about living here for most people is going to be the commute. So in this area, most people do not work locally. So most people that live here in Murrieta make a commute out to San Diego, LA, or Orange County for work. And so if you're going to have to make the commute, if you're going to have to do it five days a week, it's going to be a grind. There's a lot of traffic on the freeway. You might look at something on a map and it's only 30 miles or so, but it might take you an hour to make that trip. So especially at rush hour, if you're going to commute, that typical morning and evening commute, it's going to back up.

It's going to be a lot of cars on the freeway. It gets worse every year for sure. And that's something that clients of mine are always complaining about, just how bad the commute is. So if you have to make that commute, it's going to be tough. People do it all the time. My parents did it as I was growing up, I have plenty of friends that do it. So it's definitely doable, it's just not super enjoyable. But sometimes you got to do what you got to do. And now keep in mind too, as we're in this post covid world, so many more people are working from home. And if that is the case, if you are able to work from home, that takes away one of the biggest pain points of living here. So if you no longer have to make the commute, that makes living in Murrieta much more palatable, much more desirable.

Or even if you do a hybrid schedule where you only have to commute one, two, or three days a week, that's way better than having to do it five days a week. So just something to keep in mind where there are not a ton of big businesses locally. So because of that, most people make that commute. Alright, so number three that's on my list is about our location. And although I talked before, how we are close to all the cool stuff that Southern California offers and that is true, but we are near a lot, but we're really not next to anything.That is for people, especially for me, I got young kids, we have busy lives, we're doing sports and we're pretty tied up all the time. So I have a full schedule, but especially if I have a lot of clients that are maybe older or younger, so maybe don't have the same time constraints that I have with such a full schedule and they have a little more flexibility, sometimes it can really irritate them that, hey, yes, we're in Southern California, but anytime I want to make a trip out to the city or go to some high rated restaurant or go to the beach, it's going to cost me an hour to sit in the car each way.

So that definitely can be seen as a con for people. The trade-off of course is the affordability. That's why we are more affordable than San Diego. But you got to know we are near a lot, but not right next to anything. So you got to keep in mind where that location is and make sure you're okay. If you're going to take trips out to the beach three, four times a week, that might start to wear on you. So number four on my list is the fact that there are only a handful of restaurants within the city of Murrieta to choose from. So there's a ton of houses. I think the overall population now is over, I don't know, over a hundred thousand, over 115,000 or so. I think the last time I ran all the numbers. So there's a ton of houses and a ton of people live in the city of Murrieta, but there's only a handful of restaurants and a lot of them are your typical chain restaurants that are throughout the nation.

So you have your Chili's and Applebee's and all the Panera Breads and all these different chain restaurants that are out there. But Murrieta doesn't have a ton of privately owned restaurant businesses. There's probably less than 10, so just not very many. And as far as sit down restaurants, only a handful of 'em are really true sit down restaurants. So because of that, a lot of people, when you live in Murrieta, you end up making the trip to the city of Temecula for a lot of your day-to-Day stuff. So Myriad is big. Like I said, a hundred thousand people live there. There's plenty. There's shopping and grocery stores and all that type of stuff. But to go to a little bit nicer date night restaurants, most of the time you're going to make the trip to Temecula. It's not terribly far. It's probably 10, 15 minutes down the road depending where you live.

It's not that big of a deal. It's not a major inconvenience, but that is one of the reasons that Temecula is more expensive because it has more business, it has more shopping. The city of Temecula has a big mall. City of Temecula has a downtown old town area with tons of different restaurants and trendy and gastro pubs and all that type of stuff. City Temecula has the wineries. There's over 50 wineries out there, right? Murrieta doesn't really have any of that. They just kind of have a handful of chain restaurants. So that's one of the reasons that Temecula is going to be a little bit more expensive. Alright, so number five on my list of cons is all about shopping. So like I mentioned, Murrieta has a ton of shopping, they have a ton of grocery stores, they have a ton of big box stores and Walmarts and Costco and Lowe's and Home Depot and all the big box stores are going to be there.

However, there are not very many small little mom and pop shops. So again, most people end up making the trip to Temecula for a lot of that stuff. A lot of that's down like the old town area, more of the trendy areas, people are kind of walking around and be able to shop at some of those or for even more, they end up making the trip down to San Diego or Orange County to have a little bit more exposure to that stuff. So that can be for people, there's not a ton of shopping besides the typical big box stuff. And then number six is about home prices. So although this area is less expensive than many parts of Southern California, still your average home price is right about $750,000. So if you compare that to the rest of the United States and the average home in the US, that's right about $350,000.

So the average home in Murrieta is still about double the price point compared to the nationwide average. So that becomes a big thing when you guys are relocating from other states. So you got to think about, hey, if you're living at a home now that is you bought for 300,000 and you're going to buy a home now for 700,000, that's a big price point. So you got to be prepared for what that mortgage payment is going to be, what that quality of life is going to be after you buy. You got to make sure it's going to be affordable for you. So obviously it's all relative. I have a lot of clients that when they move here, they're moving from other more expensive areas. So they're coming down from the Bay Area in San Francisco, so 700 grand seems like a steal, right? Or they're coming down from Seattle or some other tech hub or high price point or New York or wherever, and they're coming out here and for under million dollars, they feel like they can live like a king.

That is one of the reasons why so many people move here from San Diego, la, orange County because they're already used to those high prices. You can't get anything for under a million bucks down there. You can come out here for a million bucks and have your choice of the litter really. You can have a beautiful new home that's very nice and modern and lots of space, et cetera. So number seven on my list is tract homes. So one complaint that people do give me a lot when they come to visit the area, especially when they're from other parts of the country, especially from the east coast, it's a big one. But when they come out here, really most of the area is your typical cookie cutter tract homes. So I would say probably 80, 85% of the city of Murrieta, it was bought up by different big builders where they went in, they bought up 20 acres, they subdivided, built a thousand, 2000 houses and made 'em all kind of similar.

So a lot of stucco boxes, a lot of tract homes were VA cul-de-sacs. A lot of homes where you're driving down the street, most homes look similar, some might be bigger and smaller and different shades of brown, that type of stuff. But a lot of similar looks. So for me, again, I've lived in the area a long time, not something that typically bothers me personally, but it is a complaint that I hear from clients when they might wish that their home maybe had a little bit more character or their neighborhood had a little bit more character and different traits and things like that, but just not something we see a ton of here in the area. With that said, there are definitely 15% of the houses are going to be more of your custom builds and owner builder situations. And so you might have some different flavors and some different aesthetics and different designs.

So it's not to say that all homes are exactly the same, but just the majority are going to be pretty similar. Alright, so number eight on my list of cons. And my last con for the city Murrieta is just all about first time home buyers. So this is a really hard market for a first time home buyer to buy a home in. And really that is just because of the price point, right? So like I mentioned, the average price home in Murrieta is about $750,000. So if you're buying your first home, the hardest thing to do is save up your down payment. So most people have to save up some type of a chunk of down for down payment. So whether that's 10,000, 15,000, 20,000, $25,000, that's a lot of money for someone to save up, to use it as a down payment. That takes a long time for most people it's going to take years to happen.

It takes a lot of effort and time and saving and cut back and all that type of stuff. That's a really hard goal for most people to accomplish. And so because of that, when you're a first time buyer and you've taken all that time to save up your down, when you use that as a down payment to go, sometimes it's not even enough to buy that 700,000 home. And if it is, you're left over with this big old mortgage payment. So as a first time buyer, it can be really difficult to break into this market because of the price point. A lot of people do tend to be kind of your trade up buyers or your second or third home buyers where they bought a home, a small home, and then they sold and bought a little bit bigger one and sold and bought a little bit bigger one, and now they're buying in the Temecula, Murrieta area.

So that's probably the most common thing that we've seen. But when you're a first time home buyer, and really the most inexpensive homes that we're going to see today, I mean it's 2024, to find a home under $550,000 is pretty much impossible, at least a single family home. You'll see some condos and town homes that fit that or a little bit lower price point, but anything less is going to be really, really slim picking. So there's really not much out there. It can be tough to break into. So as a first time home buyer, it can be a really tough market to get into. So anyways, I hope that's good information for you guys. Try to give you some good, try to give you some bad, those are all real things on what it's like to actually live here. Like I said, I've lived here in a long time. Hopefully it's a good perspective. If you have any questions, you can feel free to reach out. Do me a favor, please sit like please sit, subscribe, feel free, you can call, you can text, you can email me, and hopefully talk to you soon. Thanks.