exclipse, I may officially hand you the reigns of piggington temecula defender. I am so busy with the new pad and the chargers/lakers that I simply can’t do it like i used to, thank god you came along. You made a cogent argument but do understand that you may well be arguing with people who have never spent any time here other than to get gas, or people who have a 1995 view of your town. Still others are angry that their town hasn’t gone down 50% yet and they need to rationalize waiting it out (which they should). Another portion consider Murietta, French valley, wildomar, elsinore, hemet, etc. essentially Temecula when in fact those areas can be 5, 10, 15, or 20 more miles away, yet they think of Poway and Carlsbad as worlds apart. You can’t fight egocentric bloggers.
Temecula may not be Mission Viejo of the 1970’s but it is Valencia (aka Santa Clarita) of the 1990’s. All Temeculans do not drive to downtown San Diego or the O.C. to work, in fact very few do. In a study of I-15 southbound traffic passing through Temecula, half were going to the N. County (esco, san marcos, vista) and not all originated in temecula. That is a traffic free 30 mile drive. Temecula has 30k jobs and 100k people, kids make up about 30-40k, stay at home moms another chunk and retirees the rest. Southbound offramps in the am are clogged as workers that work in temecula get off the freeway from areas that are north and are cheaper, if given the opportunity they will relocate to Temecula to be closer to work. Good schools, master planned developments and low crime will always attract families and retirees. Golf, wineries and a casino give it just a little more to do than most exhurbs. The areas that will struggle are the suburbs of Temecula, but the actual city will be fine. As soon as the buyers stop coming, you can have your argument about gas prices but there are many people who don’t buy gas regularly that would like to live in a fairly temperate climate, seventeen miles from the ocean without having to relocate to Arizona or Texas yet pay the same prices. I bought four tanks of gas in 2007, paid for no oil changes or tires and I’m not the only one out here who lives like that, quite frankly if you happen to have a job where you are given a car and gas, there is no better place than Temecula to live, if you want to retire or semi retire and need to stay in so cal for family reasons, again it is a winner. Of those 100k residents, I am related to 10 of them (.001 of the population). The furthest commuter drives 150 miles a week, not one person lost their job or has declined in income, not one person has more than a 300k mortgage and four own outright and we are about half way through this downturn, believe me there are many more like my 10 relatives. But if it becomes a ghost town like some say, there will at least be ten of us still here and we will buy everything in sight. In fact I actually hope it happens a little, the family trust sold into the bubble and is down to only three rentals right now and would love to double that but the “ghost town” is so active that buying here is like playing the lottery, even when gas was $4 and interest rates were higher it was a struggle to buy a well priced rental in the city.
Recently there was a thread about a doctor who lives in Carlsbad, who works just about every day and every waking hour. He does not get to enjoy the beach that he lives near and he doesn’t send his kids to the school he pays for. He could have just about the same house here with the same demographics and the same income for less than half. That is exactly why every well priced home here is getting a dozen offers, people are getting off the treadmill. Don’t hate us because we are beautiful. But then again don’t listen to me, I don’t want to talk you into moving here because I don’t want you here if you are a crabby whiner, I like exclipse, carlsbadworker and my other co-defendants, they can stay.
