js6866, the limited education means limited college education opportunity in the valley. Cal State San Marcos offers some courses here, but it is rather limited. So your kids either have to travel north to UCR, or south to Cal State San Marcos when they are in college age. I don’t know why that’s a big deal. They probably don’t want to live in your house anyway when they are in that age. There’re even free buses from the mall to the UCR campus for UCR students.
As for gang activity, I have not seen any myself. But in my rental days, I was told not to rent near apartments in Margarita Rd. Paramont reported some gang activities near his home in Paloma del Sol. I don’t think that’s a big deal as well, especially if your comparison is Oceanside.
And forget about TG’s advice of buying paramont’s house, unfortunately, it is not the size you are looking for. Bigger house actually are relatively cheaper now.
Ultimately, you will need to take all of our advices with some grain of salt. TG knows the valley most well and he is very optimistic about its future. But TG is a very optimistic person and he has an excellent skill of putting things in perspective in life. Most people are just blinded by their emotions and short-term visions. The only major limitation of Temecula is job, everything else is minor. But remember the days when orange county and ventura county are not desirable because they have no jobs and commute was a big problem. So life changes, we just don’t know in which direction.
As for paramont, I don’t know what happened to him. He was actually quite happy living in Temecula until a few (2-3) years ago. That’s when the housing price drops start to accelerate, I don’t know if that has anything to do with it. He lives pretty near to the hospital that has not and probably will never been built. So there is some understandable disappointment. But we do have medical facilities in tolerable driving distances to the city. It will certainly be good to have one right on 79S though.
As for me, I only lived in the city for 4 years with more than half of it as a renter. So I don’t know it inside out. But I lived both in oceanside and temecula before, and I will pick temecula in a heart beat. I can tolerate the commute time because the city is in relatively good shape. As for the future, I can always move out given that I paid less than 2x income for the house. You will be able to do so in the future as well given your family income and the price range for the house that meets your need. Buying a house is not that a big deal if you don’t pay through your nose. A lot of smaller homes can be cashflow positive from day one, if you choose to rent it out when you leave. If you sell, even with loss, it will not be material to your personal wealth.
So recent buyers are mostly optimistic. They are attracted by the price first and then pleasantly surprised by the spirit of the valley. But that’s all short-terms. You will need to learn from TG and put things in its right perspective to life.
