After reading all these posts I am wondering if any people are actually following the current market in Temecula and Murrieta. I live in coastal SD and I am spending plenty of time in Tem/Mur, you may ask why. I spent some adolescent years in the area and then moved down to SD for college eventually getting involved in larger scale ag development.
Tem/Mur currently have a lot of opportunity, but the places I worry about are areas such as French Valley and beyond (I am also a bit concerned of the areas north of Clinton Keith on both the 215 and 15 freeways). These areas are extremely overbuilt with what seems to be a far fetched idea of larger commercial development. That said I don’t see it impossible for these areas to sustain.
I spent time in Murrieta during the late 80’s and early 90’s when the real estate market really struggled. Yes, at that point Tem/Mur was not overbuilt (relatively speaking), but homes priced right always seemed to have a buyer. I am seeing a similar situation right now. Sure you can buy a home at $60-$70 sqft for homes over 3,000 sqft, but investors are everywhere and I am one of them. My guess is the mass amounts of foreclosures will be picked up very soon due to money being quite cheap. I think the rates will start moving north shortly and if investors can buy a home at a fair rate and cash flow, why wouldn’t the average investor want 9-10% (on the safe side, I believe you can do better than that) on their money.
I believe as in any other city there will be good and bad areas and Tem/Mur may have more defined ghettos as you say, but the truth is with such a large population it would be almost impossible for this city not to sustain even in this horrible market.
And the poster who compared Valencia to Temecula, you are right on. They are very similar, both about 1 hour to a downtown and both largely family oriented communities. I have always used both these cities as a comparison because they are almost mirror images of each other. Both are approximately 35-40 minutes to the beach as well, although San Diego beaches are much more appealing to me.
These cities will struggle a bit here in the next couple of years, but they will prevail. With the size of Tem/Mur I assume it will be a matter of a few years before Southwest starts flying into French Valley. You all may want to keep your eyes on the commercial market as well!!
