Thanks for the comments and information about Temecula. It’s gold for me to get this kind of feedback.
I’ve given up on my no-car ambitions years ago — I’ve accepted car ownership is a necessity with a family, but I can try to minimize car usage (biking, etc) to help keep ownership costs down.
Just for background information, the other cities we are considering are:
Ashland, OR
Signal Mountain, TN
Peachtree City, GA
I am sold on Temecula, but I’ve got my work cut for me to convince my wife. She is concerned about the cost of living (legitimate) and things like earthquakes and wildfires (not legitimate concerns IMO).
She wants me to research what earthquake insurance costs. Is that something you need in Temecula? If so, what does it cost?
It seems like utilities are pretty reasonable (just from reading some posts on city-data.com). Is the drought in SoCal making water prices go higher in Temecula?
We would want to minimize property taxes, so avoiding Mello Roos is a goal. It seems like there are some nice older neighborhoods like Vintage Hills without Mello Roos. Any other good neighborhoods without Mello Roos you would recommend?
We also really want a one-story home — but those seem uncommon in Temecula. It’s going to make the home buying process more difficult, but hopefully not impossible.
