It’s my understanding that Temecula is a planned community and was planned by the same company that planned Irvine. Temeku/Murietta has a sizable portion of of area devoted to industrial and business park uses, which is where a lot of economic activity occurs. It is a much more mature area now than it was during the last cycle.
With all that said, though, I would recommend some caution in terms of judging its current degree of economic independence. If you drive through the business park areas one thing you’ll notice very quickly is how dependent most of those businesses are on the fortunes of the real estate industry. The most common business type in all those industrial areas are businesses either directly or indirectly related to development and real estate. There are the home furnishings, flooring, landscaping, mortgage and other RE operations. The second most common businesses are related to discretionary income, such as the motorsports and other lifestyle businesses. Many of these businesses rely on discretionary income that will decline as the current RE cycle unwinds, and are doomed to fail.
I think the area will still end up being dependent on some commuting before this is all over. I think the prices will suffer in proportion to its outlying location relative to the more diverse employment centers. In other words, if San Diego ultimately bites the 40% bullet, this area will probably be in excess of that.