I never understood why people working in SD would want to live in Temecula. It has nothing to do with the town but all about the commute. I know a guy who leaves home at 7:30am every workday to make it to work at 9am. He’s a senior manager making about $120K annually. He bought cheap before it got crazy and says he doesn’t mind the 3 hours daily commute. But just look at the numbers:
He spends 2 extra hours per day than average San Diegans on commute. At 120K, he makes about $57/hour. Thus it costs him $15K more per year to commute ($57 x 22 work days per month x 12 months) from Temecula.
He gas up twice a week, where the rest of us do so about every 1.5 weeks. The extra gas he pays + the extra time he spent at the gas station probably add another $3K – $5K annually.
He puts more than 30K miles on his car annually, making leasing virtually impossible and after just 3 years of ownership he car would have 100K+ miles, whereas typical used cars would be around 50K miles or less. The lost residual value + extra monies spent on maintenance and consumable parts (brake pads, tires, etc.) would cost him at least another $5K annually.
In all, I estimate that he’s losing $20K annually by living in Temecula. Worse is that because of the long commute, he has turned into a complete couch potato, and a grouchy one, after work, with very little interaction with his family on weekdays.
So for those of you working in SD but thinking about buying in Temecula to once again take advantage of the much lower home price, be sure to weigh in all the pros and cons before you commit.
