Alright, so this video is all about the pros and the cons of living here in the city of Winchester, California. We're gonna talk about the good stuff and we'll talk about the bad, and hopefully help you decide if it's the right fit for you and your family. 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 in Temecula, California. And this video is all about the city of Winchester. We're gonna go over the top five pros and the top five cons about living here in the city of Winchester, California.
Hopefully this will be good information for you guys. You know, really we don't make a ton of videos about the city of Winchester just 'cause it is a little bit smaller in size and really even just looking online, I didn't see a ton of information out there. Uh, it doesn't look to me, it feels like it gets kind of pushed to the side a little bit just 'cause it is a little bit smaller.
Um, you know, I think I'm a really good person to be able to make this. I've, I've lived here, I currently live in Temecula, but I've lived here in the valley in kind of, you know, Southwest Riverside County for over 25 years. And for about eight or nine of those years, I lived in the city of Winchester. So I think I can give you guys a really good perspective on what it's like to actually live here, um, and from someone that's been here for a long time and give you kind of some, some firsthand experience.
Um, but before we get into all the information, you know, if you are liking real estate videos like this, please do me a favor. Please hit like, please hit subscribe to the channel. Obviously it helps me, it helps my channel as we try to continue to grow it. Then we have new videos that we put out each and every week.
So we have videos about, you know, cities of, you know, Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, Winchester, kind of just kind of the whole surrounding Southwest Riverside County area and we have new ones that we put out each week. And then if you guys have any real estate questions, you can feel free to reach out anytime.
So you're gonna see my information either down below the video. Or at the end, obviously I sell real estate for a living and that's how I, how I earn a living. So I would love to help you and your family, you know, with your home search or if you wanna just reach out, if you just want some advice for as far as point you in the right direction or answer any questions you may have, I'm happy to help do that as well.
Honestly, I have people that reach out all the time and, uh, happy, at least answer some questions, point you in the right direction or of course if we can help you out with your search, I'd love to do that as well. So, cool. Alrightyy So we're gonna talk about the city of Winchester. We're gonna start, start with the good stuff.
So we're gonna start with the pros. Um, and then just kind of general lay in the land. If you're not super familiar with Winchester, California, kind of, you know where we are at so we are in Southern California. We are actually part of Riverside County. Um, so Southwest Riverside County. Um, if you go just a little bit further south down the freeway, you actually hit San Diego County.
So we're really right there on the border. Um, because of that, because of our, you know, proximity to San Diego. A lot of people that work in San Diego do live here in Southwest Riverside County, just 'cause it's so much less expensive. And we're gonna talk about that and kind of what makes this area desirable, specifically Winchester, um, it, etcetera.
But, um, really it, it's just, it's, you can get more for your money here. Right. And we'll kind of expand upon that a little bit, kind of about what, what that means. Um, but a lot of, so a lot of people do live here just 'cause it's a little bit, a little bit more affordable. Um, it's a nice newer suburb area and, um, it's, you know, it's an area that I think is a, is a great place to, great place to live.
So cool. So we're gonna talk about the pros. Um, number one, really what the, the, and really it is the price point. So, um, what makes the City of Winchester so popular and really puts it on people's radars. Is, you know, how much you can get fair money and, and that price point. So, uh, really it's just inexpensive for Southern California.
So right now the average home to buy in the city of Winchester is $638,000 and that's over the last few months here. And we're, you know, 2025. Um, and if you compare that to the rest of Southern California as opposed to, say San Diego County, LA County, Orange County, all, you know, all those kinda, those big city areas, the average home to buy there is really.
Always a million dollars plus. And really for what you can get for that million dollars, you're probably like, say take for example, something in San Diego, if you're gonna go buy a home for a million dollars down there, you're probably gonna get something that was built. So in the sixties it's probably, you know, 1200, 1300 square feet.
So it's older. So it means you have some true maintenance concerns you might have, you know, some roof concerns, some plumbing concerns, electrical concerns, stuff like that and even that million dollar home might not be located necessarily like the best of areas or the safest of areas in the world, right?
Um, where, uh, as to out here, when you're in Riverside County, you know what, when you're in Winchester, what the area that you're buying it in, it is gonna be very, very safe. Um, you know, all types of really good ratings here in the area. Um, so the house, so obviously it's much less expensive really, as far as you know, the purchase price.
And you, you can get so much more so as opposed to that older house in San Diego and Winchester For $638,000, you can easily get, you know, a house that's well over 2000 square feet, probably closer to 25, 2600 square feet. Uh, probably built sometime in the last 20 years, you know, 2004, 2005, something like that.
Uh, which means newer plumbing, newer tile roofs, uh, newer, you know, slabs newer. You know, electrical, you know, all, all those types of things, right? So you don't have some of those older, some of those older issues that you run into in older homes. They're much bigger, much newer, and um, really just get so much more for your money, right?
And really for very close to half the purchase price or maybe a little bit, little bit more than half. So that's really the biggest thing that puts Winchester on people's radar. That's what kind of gets the Google searches going right, and makes people drive up here is you. It's just so much. Less expensive, uh, than other parts of Southern California.
You can just get so much more fair money. All right, so number two on my list of pros for Winchester is gonna be the layouts. And really this ties into the year built and kind of the year these houses were constructed. But one of the things that people do really like about Winchester is because the homes are relatively new, they really like the new and open concept layouts that most of the homes are gonna have.
So, you know, in Winchester, most of the homes started being built like the oldest ones, which is actually where I lived in, like the older tract homes were built in like 1999 or 2000 that would be like an old home for Winchester. Um, as opposed to most of the city, has been built between, say, 2006 and now.
So there's still a lot of new construction still happening. There's a lot of homes that are built in 2010, 2012. 15, etcetera. Uh, but as you get to these newer, newer homes, they tend to be more and more open concept, uh, more, you know, big, great rooms and have a lot of these layouts that lot, you know, that.
That are so popular and a lot of people like, um, and not only that, a lot of the finishes too, so like when you're buying a newer home, say something that was built in say, 2020, they're gonna have a lot of like the quartz countertops or quartz waterfall countertops, or all just these different finishes that are so popular.
Um, so that because they are newer homes, they have those nicer concept, those nicer finishes that so many people like, and all these things you're gonna see on, you know, on HGTV that looks so pretty and that you're gonna, you're gonna fall in love with. Alright, so number three on my list is the school district.
Um, so the city of Winchester is, this is, I think, is a little bit interesting. If you look at it on a map, you can kind of pull up where, like this, you know, the city borders are, it's a very, very, very large city. Um, like it expands, you know, many miles. You can just see, if you pull up a map, you can just kind of see the vastness of it.
Um, but the reason I mention that, because the way it's laid out, there's really two parts to the city of Winchester. So there is the. Southern section, uh, which you will see a lot of times referred to as French Valley on a map. So if you're not too familiar with that is really what that is. That is.
The French Valley is Winchester, it's the southern part of Winchester. Um, it is located very, very close to the border of Temecula and Murrieta. So they all, all those three cities kind of triangulate very, very closely right there. Um, the, the city lines are, are kind of blurry and it's can be kind of hard to really understand, you know, if one side of the street is one city, one side of the street is a different, but they're all very, very close together, I guess is what is what's important, right?
And that southern portion of the city of Winchester, so that French Valley area. One of the things that makes it so desirable is it is part of a really, really good school district. So, um, because that area is so close to Temecula and Murrieta, the city of Winchester does not have its own school district.
So there's no, Winchester school district does, does not exist. So, uh, when the city of Winchester, if your home is located in the city of Winchester, you'll be a part of a surrounding school district. So if you're part of the wind of that southern section, that French Valley area, you, you are gonna be zoned for either.
Temecula School District, which is very, very highly rated. I mean, you can give it a Google search, you, that's one. One of the things that makes this area so popular is the Strong Temecula School District, or you'll be zoned for the Murrieta School District, which again, is also very, very highly rated. Um, so ju just as strong as Temecula or very, very close.
So. That southern section here in Winchester, you will be zoned for the Temecula or Murrieta school district. And that is a big pro because the homes are less expensive in Winchester, uh, compared to, you know, those other cities. So, um, if you live on the northern portion of Winchester, so kind of, that's where a lot of the new construction is on the map.
And, um, just the northern section area. That is part of a different school district. Those are really mostly, I think they're all part of the Paris Valley Unified School District or the Menifee School District. Um, so those are not rated necessarily quite as highly. So just something to pay attention to if the school district is important to you, um, you could pull up some of the different ratings online and kind of see, you know, see what that looks like out there.
Uh, but uh, it is a big pro to buy a home in that lower French Valley area because you are part of a higher rated school district. All right, so number four on my list of pros is because we are still here in Southern California and you do have a really nice central location. When you live in Winchester, you're only about an hour away from all the other cool stuff that Southern California has to offer.
So what that means is when you live in Winchester, you're only about an hour away from the beach. You know, taking a trip out to the coast of, you're only about an hour away from city life. So going down to downtown San Diego. Or seeing a concert down there, seeing a baseball game, or you know, having a night out down there, whatever it may be.
Um, if you're only about an hour or so away from most parts of Orange County or like say to Disneyland, uh, you're about an hour away out to the desert out to say the Palm Springs area or any of the desert areas out there and then you're about an hour and a half or so away from the mountains and probably about an hour and a half to two hours away for most parts of LA.
Um, but really what that means is you are still in Southern California. We have a really nice. Great central location and you're, you can easily take these day trips to check out all the other cool things that Southern California has to offer. Um, what, because you are still here local, you are still in Southern California, you can still check all things, all those things out and still spend time doing all those things.
Um, and I think that's a big pro about living here in Winchester. All right. And then number five on my list of pros for Winchester is really, it is a great market for first time home buyers. So, um, here locally, I, I, obviously I'm a real estate agent, right? So I work with people looking at all these different surrounding types of cities, right?
Um, it is. Almost impossible and so, so difficult for a first time home buyer. Someone that's never bought a home before to come to buy a home in one of these little bit larger cities here, even like, you know, down in San Diego County is gonna be, you know, so, so difficult, right? These million dollar homes.
But even here in Riverside County, when we're looking in, like say Temecula and Murrieta. The average price point there has gotten so high. It is so difficult for someone. It's a first time buyer to go and buy a home like that for themselves. So as opposed to buying a home in Winchester is just so much more obtainable, especially for a first time buyer.
I think it's such a great thing for people. Um, for example, in Temecula right now, the average home to purchase is about $850, almost $900,000, as opposed to buying a home in Winchester. We just talked about the average home's about $638,000. So that's, you know, it's $200 to $250,000 different price, price tag.
Right? Um, and that's just so much more obtainable. I think, you know, when I, when I'm working with first time home buyers, you know, the hardest thing for people to do is to save up their money and their down payment. For them, you know, to buy their first home. Right? And if you're, usually, most people are coming in, you know, three and a half percent or 5% down, and it takes years and years for most people to be able to, you know, set aside their income and save up that type of money.
Right. And it is so much easier to do that, it's called a $650,000 house than an $850,000 home. So, um, what I see a lot is I have a lot of clients that buy homes in Winchester because it is so much more affordable. They lived there for a few years, two years, three years, five years, seven years. And then as the home appreciates, they eventually sell it.
And maybe they, they, they at that point move to a different area. Maybe it's Temecula, maybe it's Murrieta, or maybe it's just a different area altogether. But then they built up a lot of equity and they're in a much stronger position, um, as opposed to, you know, again, trying to buy your first home, that's, that's almost $900,000.
That just seems so, so difficult and so unattainable for so many people. All right, so we talked about the good stuff, and now we're gonna talk about the bad stuff. So we're gonna talk about the cons of living here in the city of Winchester. Um, and again, you know, I mentioned this in many of my other videos, but when I do these pros and cons lists, like I want to give the general disclaimer that, hey, you know, I live here locally.
I've lived in Winchester. I used to live there for a very long time. I still live here locally, you know, just a couple miles away, right? I really think that this part of Southern California is a great area. I think it's a really good value and I think it's a really good area for me to live. I think it's a really good area for me to raise my family.
Right. Obviously everyone's gonna have different goals and priorities, so depending on what's important to you. Um, but like with anything, there's always gonna be pros and there's gonna be cons. There's good parts and, and there's bad parts, and there's always gonna be, you know, some give and take in life.
Right. So I do want to point out the cons that I, you know, that, that I think are there. Um, no area is perfect. There's gonna be, like I said, there's good and bad to everything. And I wanna make sure, sure. I highlight 'em. So, um, so number one for me, I, I, well, I think most everyone would agree with this, but the worst part about living in Winchester is gonna be the heat.
So, um, it is a hot area to live in. You know, again, I've lived here locally for a really long time, um, as opposed to. Say down in San Diego where the average temperature is gonna be somewhere in like the seventies, mid seventies, right? Um, in Winchester you're gonna have average temperatures in the summer and about the mid nineties, about 94, 95, 96 degrees.
Um, you're gonna have plenty of heat waves that'll take you over a hundred, up to 104, 105 a few days a year. Um, it. It's warm, you know, it's hot. I mean, it's summertime right now as I'm recording this. Today's a hot day. You know, it's just, just the reality of living here. Um, but even more so than that, the city of Winchester is definitely significantly hotter than the.
Cities of Temecula and Murrieta, and that's not even that far. I mean, they're just, it's just a couple miles away. Right. But just the way, you know, just, just the way the weather goes. You know, I don't, I guess I don't know the explanation, but it is definitely hotter in Winchester than the surrounding areas.
On average, it's about four degrees hotter, sometimes some degrees. Some days it's three degrees, and some days it's six degrees hotter, but on average it's four degrees hotter in Winchester than Temecula. So it's definitely significant. And not only that, you tend to get a little bit less of a coastal breeze in Winchester.
Um, so in Temecula, because we are, it's a little bit further south. Southwest. Um, you definitely are closer to, you know, the mountains that separate us from the coast. Um, so you do tend to get more of a breeze. That coastal breeze comes over the mountains, cools down Temecula a little bit more. And Winchester, you don't see as much of that.
All right, so con number two is gonna be the commute. Uh, so most people that live in Winchester do not work locally in Winchester, right? I mean, it's kind of a smaller city. Uh, there's. There's a good amount of homes there now, but there's really not like a bunch of businesses and whatnot. I mean, there's schools and there's, um, you know, some medical buildings and, you know, shopping centers and things like that.
But overall, most people do commute out for work. So, um, people that live in Winchester, most people commute to San Diego, commute to Orange County, or some do make the trip out to, out to LA for work. I guess some, some go to Riverside as well. But I'd say San Diego is probably the most, most common commute that people make.
Um, and, and that is pretty common, you know, throughout the area. So from Temecula and Murrieta, most people do end up commuting and most people do end up commuting south. Um, however, when you are, when you live in Winchester. Your commute is significantly longer than someone that lives in Temecula. So, um, you, you pull up on a map and I'm sure you can kind of, you know, look at the distances and the miles and it's really not that much of a difference.
It's probably an extra, I don't know, eight miles, nine miles, 10 miles, that type of thing. But when you're looking at rush hour traffic and your daily commute, even though it's just a. Fur, you know, a few miles further. Um, your commute time from Temecula to San Diego as opposed to Winchester to San Diego is gonna be about 20, 25, even 30 minutes longer each way.
So, uh, let's say if it's 30 minutes longer each way, that's an extra hour a day in a car, uh, you know, make that commute. So if you are gonna be commuting, just make sure you take, keep that in mind. There's a ton of people that do that each, each and every day. I mean, my, my dad did that for years, you know, each, each and every day.
Um, I have a lot of clients that do that, and I think a lot of people will just kind of feel like they will, do you know what they need to do for their family? Right. Um, but is, uh, everyone's gotta make that decision themselves. It's just something I want to give the information. So hopefully you can help make a good decision to make sure that's something that you're gonna be okay with.
Because some people, some people can't handle it, some people aren't okay with the commute. Um, you know, if you are working remotely, um, you know that, that. Makes that, that, that makes the living in Winchester a lot more palatable. For sure. 'cause you are a little bit further on the freeway. So if you don't have to commute or if you only have to drive in once or twice a week or even less, then it's not such a big deal.
Right. But if you are making the commute, um, your commute time is gonna be significantly longer if you live in Winchester as opposed to Temecula or Murrieta. Uh, number three on my list is gonna be the higher property taxes. So this isn't necessarily a blanket statement for the entire city of Winchester, uh, but many of the neighborhoods in Winchester tend to have higher property taxes than some of the older homes that are in, you know, some, some other areas.
So what that means is basically. The newer homes in Winchester tend to have higher special assessments, higher, higher taxes overall for property tax, uh, compared to some of the older homes. So basically when a builder goes in, they're building a subdivision, right? They're gonna buy up, say, a hundred acres of land or however much space it is they're buying, they're gonna subdivide it and they're gonna build a thousand tract homes.
Right? Um, well the newer homes. The, the newer developments, the builders found a way to pass off some of the infrastructure costs. So the costs they pay for sewers and parks and curbs and gutters and all those different types of things. And they found a way to pass those off to the homeowners in the form of special assessment taxes.
So, um, that's gonna be true of the newer homes. So the newer the home is, they tend to have higher taxes. The older homes tend to have lower taxes. Because of when Winchester started being constructed, which is in about 2000 and newer, a lot of the homes tend to be newer and tend to have those higher taxes.
So, uh, it's just something to know if you are gonna buy a home in Winchester, pay attention to the tax rate. Make sure you understand how much that's gonna cost you and make sure it's gonna be affordable and make sure it still makes sense for you to live there. So, pay attention to the property taxes and the, and the special assessment.
All right, so con number three on my list for Winchester is gonna be the tax rate. So, we're talking about the property tax rate. Um, and this is kind of a general rule of thumb, but. In general, and this is true for all the surrounding cities, but any home that is newer, so especially say 2003 and newer and especially say 2010 and newer, is gonna have higher property taxes.
So they're, they're called special assessments. Um, and we, I have other videos kinda talking more, more details about this and you guys can reach out. I can give you a little more, you know, specific information. But basically the general rule of thumb is the newer the home is, the higher the property taxes are.
And because the city of Winchester started being built at about the year 2000 or so, um, almost all the homes fall within, you know, that higher property tax area. And even right now there's still new construction homes that are still happening in Winchester. There's a lot of new construction that's still happening in Winchester.
And so each year the taxes get higher and higher and higher, and you tend to see, you know, higher and higher property taxes. So it's just something to know if you are gonna buy a home in Winchester, the taxes are gonna be a little bit higher. You wanna make sure that you factor those in when you are looking at homes.
Make sure it's still gonna be affordable. So talk with your realtor, talk with your lender about that, and make sure it's something that's gonna be doable for you and your family. All right, so con number four is gonna be the school district. So I mentioned earlier about the pro of living in that kinda that French Valley area, that southern part of Winchester.
It has that higher rated school district. On the flip side of that, if you live in the more northern section of the city, uh, you're gonna be zoned for that Paris. Unified school district or Menifee Unified school district. And the school district just isn't rated quite as highly. Um, I would say that it's kind of a compromise for people when they are moving out here.
If you're gonna live in that northern port portion of Winchester. Um, you know, the school districts a lot of times really aren't rated quite as highly. Uh, it's gonna be, you know, there's gonna be pros and cons to everything and, you know, sometimes you can get a newer construction home, but you're gonna maybe sacrifice the school district a little bit.
It's just something to pay attention to and, uh, make sure you know that you're looking at the ratings and you know what you get into. Make sure it's a good fit for you and your family. All right, so con number five about living here in the city of Winchester. And the last one that I'm gonna mention is the cookie cutter track homes.
So if you've never been to the area, if you've never driven through, uh, what you should know is that this area. Has had a bunch of big, massive tract home builders come to the area and they buy up big plots of land. So let's, so they, they buy, you know, I don't know how much land it is, 50 acres or whatever it is, and they buy up a plot of land, they subdivide, right?
And they, they cut up all these different lots and they, they lay out their tracks and their plat maps and all that different type of stuff. And they come in and they build. 800 homes. 1200 homes, 1500 homes, 2000 homes for their development. And they turn around that, you know, they sell those, you know, as new, new construction homes.
Right. Which is great. Super common all across the country. But that is pretty much the only way that homes are sold out here in this area, uh, or that homes are built, I guess is a better way to put it. It's the only way. Homes are built here in Winchester. Um, it'd be very, very rare to find someone that, um, went and did their own like owner build option, right?
So I would say 95% of the homes out here are tract homes where a big builder came in and they bought up a plot of land and they, and they built, um, because of that, you know, the builders, they just, they tend to just kind of make homes that, that are look very, very similar. Uh, they're pretty much all. The stucco boxes are what people call 'em, right?
So you're driving down the neighborhood. Um, you'll see, you know, one house that is, you know, kind of square, right? It's brown, one shade of brown. The next house is the next shade of brown. The next one, maybe it's a shade of gray, right? They're all just very, very similar. So that is a complaint that I get from people.
Especially if they lived in other areas, especially if they lived, say in the East coast where you had like some older homes that had more charm and whatnot. You know, when you're dealing with newer construction tract homes, they don't tend to have that same charm. You know, they tend to be, you know, they are kind of stucco boxes, different shades of gray, different shades of brown.
Um, and that is a complaint that I get from people is they feel like, hey, everything kind of looks the same. You know, there's not much character there. Um, I've lived here for a long time. It does not bother me. It's kind of, it's what I'm used to. It feels like a neighborhood to me, but, um, that is a complaint that I do get from clients when they come from outta town.
So just know it is a, uh, it's a big cookie cutter tract home area. And, uh, not that that's a, not that that's necessarily a bad thing to me, but something that you gotta know why you're coming in and I think you can check out some Google Street map views and whatnot. Um, you can look at some of that as well.
So. Cool. Um, anyways, that's my video. I went over the, you know, five pros and five cons of living in Winchester. Hopefully it's good information for you guys. If you have questions, feel free to reach out. You can call, you can text, you can email me and hopefully talk to you soon. Thanks.
