“Perhaps I am residing in a microcosm. This was a more expensive area initially and the buyers may have more liquid assets, thus this community may have longer to go before it crashes.”

You are definitely in the upper percentile of the population. This is basically a better educated/smarter group, that have more security and liquid asset to ride the storm out. I don’t think there are many of this example, if you take the percentage for the whole Temecula. Per your comment on Morgan Hills, please look into what is the total houses for sale and tell me what is the percentage of those houses has very low loan (up to 25% of the selling prices).
I completely agreed on Temecula will always command a higher prices compared to neighboring cities. Temecula has a best city government compared to the other, thus a better infrastructure. So people always willing to pay more to live in Temecula, I know I would.