Murrieta questions

[Ren]

Good morning,

My apologies if this is the wrong forum. I was browsing homes for sale in Murrieta, and was pretty shocked at how low the prices are. I’m seeing newer (’05) 3/2 houses for $200-$230k, 4/3’s for $240-260k, and 5/3’s starting at $275k. These are typical prices, not exceptions.

According to wiki, Murrieta has (or recently had) the lowest crime rate of any city in Riverside.

My business is portable – I can open a warehouse pretty much anywhere. My wife telecommutes 3-4 days a week, works in UTC but is okay with looking for a new job. My questions are:

1. Would Murrieta be a good place to invest in rental property, or is the market saturated there? We can put 20-40% down. Would a condo or detached home be better for a rental there, and how many bedrooms? We would probably be there for 3-4 years, then buy in Carlsbad, renting out the Murrieta house.

2. What are the main reasons we would NOT want to live there? We don’t care about nightlife, and schools won’t matter for at least 5 years.

3. What newer developments would you recommend? We’re thinking 3 or 4 bedrooms, 1,800-2,500 sq ft.

4. Could this be close to the bottom for Murrieta?

Thanks in advance!

[Nor-LA-SD-guy]

Murrieta/Temecula

It’s really the same city to me, even French Valley, is a whole three miles from the Temecula mall (I Guess it would be a rather long walk for your kids).

Beware of these low prices; a lot of these are a bait and switch type of thing these days (personally I think we are within 10% of the bottom for this area, it’s really been wacked good).

I have lived in the TV for 5 years now, it’s a nice place to live, and there are good restaurants and shopping at the TV mall area.

The beach is about 40 minutes to an hour away on the weekends depending on where you want to go.

It gets hot in the summer (but that’s what god made air conditioning for and in these newer homes it will probably cost you a lot less than most think to keep cool), winter is nice but sometimes your more tropical plants may suffer when there is the occasional freeze .

[Nor-LA-SD-guy]

Murrieta/Temecula

It’s really the same city to me, even French Valley, is a whole three miles from the Temecula mall (I Guess it would be a rather long walk for your kids).

Beware of these low prices; a lot of these are a bait and switch type of thing these days (personally I think we are within 10% of the bottom for this area, it’s really been wacked good).

I have lived in the TV for 5 years now, it’s a nice place to live, and there are good restaurants and shopping at the TV mall area.

The beach is about 40 minutes to an hour away on the weekends depending on where you want to go.

It gets hot in the summer (but that’s what god made air conditioning for and in these newer homes it will probably cost you a lot less than most think to keep cool), winter is nice but sometimes your more tropical plants may suffer when there is the occasional freeze .

[Nor-LA-SD-guy]

Murrieta/Temecula

It’s really the same city to me, even French Valley, is a whole three miles from the Temecula mall (I Guess it would be a rather long walk for your kids).

Beware of these low prices; a lot of these are a bait and switch type of thing these days (personally I think we are within 10% of the bottom for this area, it’s really been wacked good).

I have lived in the TV for 5 years now, it’s a nice place to live, and there are good restaurants and shopping at the TV mall area.

The beach is about 40 minutes to an hour away on the weekends depending on where you want to go.

It gets hot in the summer (but that’s what god made air conditioning for and in these newer homes it will probably cost you a lot less than most think to keep cool), winter is nice but sometimes your more tropical plants may suffer when there is the occasional freeze .

[Nor-LA-SD-guy]

Murrieta/Temecula

It’s really the same city to me, even French Valley, is a whole three miles from the Temecula mall (I Guess it would be a rather long walk for your kids).

Beware of these low prices; a lot of these are a bait and switch type of thing these days (personally I think we are within 10% of the bottom for this area, it’s really been wacked good).

I have lived in the TV for 5 years now, it’s a nice place to live, and there are good restaurants and shopping at the TV mall area.

The beach is about 40 minutes to an hour away on the weekends depending on where you want to go.

It gets hot in the summer (but that’s what god made air conditioning for and in these newer homes it will probably cost you a lot less than most think to keep cool), winter is nice but sometimes your more tropical plants may suffer when there is the occasional freeze .

[Nor-LA-SD-guy]

Murrieta/Temecula

It’s really the same city to me, even French Valley, is a whole three miles from the Temecula mall (I Guess it would be a rather long walk for your kids).

Beware of these low prices; a lot of these are a bait and switch type of thing these days (personally I think we are within 10% of the bottom for this area, it’s really been wacked good).

I have lived in the TV for 5 years now, it’s a nice place to live, and there are good restaurants and shopping at the TV mall area.

The beach is about 40 minutes to an hour away on the weekends depending on where you want to go.

It gets hot in the summer (but that’s what god made air conditioning for and in these newer homes it will probably cost you a lot less than most think to keep cool), winter is nice but sometimes your more tropical plants may suffer when there is the occasional freeze .

[sc_alum]

I agree with Nor-LA-SD-guy to a large degree. We technically live in Murrieta, but about a block up from Harveston (which is Temecula), so we’ve always considered ourselves “Temecula”. I would say that the folks in French Valley are quite a hike from the central area of Temecula (Promenade/Mall/Restaurants), and along an unfriendly road (Winchester) if you’re looking to bike or walk. Our community is called Vintage Reserve, and I like that we can walk to the Harveston lake and parks, and can easily walk or ride bikes to the Promenade area. That and we are freeway-close, which if anybody tells you than an extra mile/or half-mile east doesn’t matter – they haven’t tried to get in or out of the city during “rush hour”.

No clue if we’re close to the bottom – we bought at about 100$/sq foot in 2003, and are seeing most REO’s down at about that level or a hair lower.

I wouldn’t try to invest in a rental here right now, just because of the glut of housing available. I’m not an expert and don’t claim to be, but I can’t see that with this quantity of housing you’re going to get a great ROI with all the folks that will be trying the same thing (in our case, once SD comes down in the next 2-3 years, we’ll probably buy an additional house there and rent the one here for a few years… can’t imagine we’re the only ones with that plan).

[sc_alum]

I agree with Nor-LA-SD-guy to a large degree. We technically live in Murrieta, but about a block up from Harveston (which is Temecula), so we’ve always considered ourselves “Temecula”. I would say that the folks in French Valley are quite a hike from the central area of Temecula (Promenade/Mall/Restaurants), and along an unfriendly road (Winchester) if you’re looking to bike or walk. Our community is called Vintage Reserve, and I like that we can walk to the Harveston lake and parks, and can easily walk or ride bikes to the Promenade area. That and we are freeway-close, which if anybody tells you than an extra mile/or half-mile east doesn’t matter – they haven’t tried to get in or out of the city during “rush hour”.

No clue if we’re close to the bottom – we bought at about 100$/sq foot in 2003, and are seeing most REO’s down at about that level or a hair lower.

I wouldn’t try to invest in a rental here right now, just because of the glut of housing available. I’m not an expert and don’t claim to be, but I can’t see that with this quantity of housing you’re going to get a great ROI with all the folks that will be trying the same thing (in our case, once SD comes down in the next 2-3 years, we’ll probably buy an additional house there and rent the one here for a few years… can’t imagine we’re the only ones with that plan).

[sc_alum]

I agree with Nor-LA-SD-guy to a large degree. We technically live in Murrieta, but about a block up from Harveston (which is Temecula), so we’ve always considered ourselves “Temecula”. I would say that the folks in French Valley are quite a hike from the central area of Temecula (Promenade/Mall/Restaurants), and along an unfriendly road (Winchester) if you’re looking to bike or walk. Our community is called Vintage Reserve, and I like that we can walk to the Harveston lake and parks, and can easily walk or ride bikes to the Promenade area. That and we are freeway-close, which if anybody tells you than an extra mile/or half-mile east doesn’t matter – they haven’t tried to get in or out of the city during “rush hour”.

No clue if we’re close to the bottom – we bought at about 100$/sq foot in 2003, and are seeing most REO’s down at about that level or a hair lower.

I wouldn’t try to invest in a rental here right now, just because of the glut of housing available. I’m not an expert and don’t claim to be, but I can’t see that with this quantity of housing you’re going to get a great ROI with all the folks that will be trying the same thing (in our case, once SD comes down in the next 2-3 years, we’ll probably buy an additional house there and rent the one here for a few years… can’t imagine we’re the only ones with that plan).

[sc_alum]

I agree with Nor-LA-SD-guy to a large degree. We technically live in Murrieta, but about a block up from Harveston (which is Temecula), so we’ve always considered ourselves “Temecula”. I would say that the folks in French Valley are quite a hike from the central area of Temecula (Promenade/Mall/Restaurants), and along an unfriendly road (Winchester) if you’re looking to bike or walk. Our community is called Vintage Reserve, and I like that we can walk to the Harveston lake and parks, and can easily walk or ride bikes to the Promenade area. That and we are freeway-close, which if anybody tells you than an extra mile/or half-mile east doesn’t matter – they haven’t tried to get in or out of the city during “rush hour”.

No clue if we’re close to the bottom – we bought at about 100$/sq foot in 2003, and are seeing most REO’s down at about that level or a hair lower.

I wouldn’t try to invest in a rental here right now, just because of the glut of housing available. I’m not an expert and don’t claim to be, but I can’t see that with this quantity of housing you’re going to get a great ROI with all the folks that will be trying the same thing (in our case, once SD comes down in the next 2-3 years, we’ll probably buy an additional house there and rent the one here for a few years… can’t imagine we’re the only ones with that plan).

[sc_alum]

I agree with Nor-LA-SD-guy to a large degree. We technically live in Murrieta, but about a block up from Harveston (which is Temecula), so we’ve always considered ourselves “Temecula”. I would say that the folks in French Valley are quite a hike from the central area of Temecula (Promenade/Mall/Restaurants), and along an unfriendly road (Winchester) if you’re looking to bike or walk. Our community is called Vintage Reserve, and I like that we can walk to the Harveston lake and parks, and can easily walk or ride bikes to the Promenade area. That and we are freeway-close, which if anybody tells you than an extra mile/or half-mile east doesn’t matter – they haven’t tried to get in or out of the city during “rush hour”.

No clue if we’re close to the bottom – we bought at about 100$/sq foot in 2003, and are seeing most REO’s down at about that level or a hair lower.

I wouldn’t try to invest in a rental here right now, just because of the glut of housing available. I’m not an expert and don’t claim to be, but I can’t see that with this quantity of housing you’re going to get a great ROI with all the folks that will be trying the same thing (in our case, once SD comes down in the next 2-3 years, we’ll probably buy an additional house there and rent the one here for a few years… can’t imagine we’re the only ones with that plan).

[kewp]

I think the keyword here is ‘glut’. There may very well be more housing than there are jobs to put people in them, as owners or renters. Especially once the recession is in full swing.

I’ve suggested before that some of the worst areas (condo conversions and the IE) may end up having properties demolished or purchased by HUD.

I would personally stay out of RE as an investment vehicle until it is *clear* we’ve hit the bottom. Pick a zip code and make it a habit to check it once a month or so. When there the number of foreclosed properties goes down for at least a few months strait, then we’ve hit bottom.

[kewp]

I think the keyword here is ‘glut’. There may very well be more housing than there are jobs to put people in them, as owners or renters. Especially once the recession is in full swing.

I’ve suggested before that some of the worst areas (condo conversions and the IE) may end up having properties demolished or purchased by HUD.

I would personally stay out of RE as an investment vehicle until it is *clear* we’ve hit the bottom. Pick a zip code and make it a habit to check it once a month or so. When there the number of foreclosed properties goes down for at least a few months strait, then we’ve hit bottom.

[kewp]

I think the keyword here is ‘glut’. There may very well be more housing than there are jobs to put people in them, as owners or renters. Especially once the recession is in full swing.

I’ve suggested before that some of the worst areas (condo conversions and the IE) may end up having properties demolished or purchased by HUD.

I would personally stay out of RE as an investment vehicle until it is *clear* we’ve hit the bottom. Pick a zip code and make it a habit to check it once a month or so. When there the number of foreclosed properties goes down for at least a few months strait, then we’ve hit bottom.

[kewp]

I think the keyword here is ‘glut’. There may very well be more housing than there are jobs to put people in them, as owners or renters. Especially once the recession is in full swing.

I’ve suggested before that some of the worst areas (condo conversions and the IE) may end up having properties demolished or purchased by HUD.

I would personally stay out of RE as an investment vehicle until it is *clear* we’ve hit the bottom. Pick a zip code and make it a habit to check it once a month or so. When there the number of foreclosed properties goes down for at least a few months strait, then we’ve hit bottom.

[Author]

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