Alright, so if you're thinking about making a move here to Murrieta, California, I think this is going to be a really important video for you to watch. We're going to go over the top 10 reasons why you don't want to make a move here to Murrieta. I've lived here in the area for over 20 years. I'm going to tell you all the worst parts about living here. So hopefully help you and your family make a good decision to see if this is the right place for you to live. So let's go ahead and get into it.

Hey guys. Hey again, my name is Justin Short. I'm a realtor and team leader for the short real estate team here at Keller Williams in Temecula, California in Murrieta of California. And like I mentioned, this video is all about the top 10 reasons that you don't want to make a move here to Murrieta of California. I know I've mentioned it in my other videos, but I've lived here in the valley for over, it's actually over 25 years now. I think I can give you really good perspective on what it's like to actually live here, but this video is all about the worst parts about living here. And really the goal is just to tell you what I think are the worst parts about living here to hopefully give you guys the right information to see if it's the right place for you and your family to live.

If this is where you're thinking about making a move to. So we're going to get into all the info, but the first thing, if you like videos like this and you want to see more real estate videos, do me a favor, please hit like please hit subscribe. We have new videos that we're putting out each and every week, and so you can stay tuned for more videos coming. We have market update videos that come out each month. We have community tours, best neighborhoods, worst neighborhoods, worst parts about the city, best parts about the city, I think all types of good stuff. So you want to see more. We're going to have more videos coming each week. And then if you guys have any real estate questions, of course I would love to hear from you. So I have people that reach out all the time.

You can feel free. You're going to see my information down below or at the end of the video please. You can call, you can text, you can email me. I'm happy to answer any questions that you may have, point you in the right direction or of course myself or my team, we would love to help you out with your home search if you are thinking about making a move here. Have people that reach out all the time and that number goes personally to me. So happy to answer any questions and of course I'd love to hear from you. But let's go ahead and we'll get into the video. So I'm going to break 'em down one through 10. I'm going to tell you what I think are the worst parts about moving here and I guess we'll go from there. Oh, quick disclaimer. So just so you know, I have lived here, I mentioned it over 25 years.

I've been here a long time. I love living here in the valley. I have lived in cities of Temecula, I've lived in cities of Murrieta, I've lived in Winchester, I have lived in East for a long time. Murrieta, I've lived in I think about a total of 11 years out of the last 25. So we've kind of bounced between all three really. I just tell you that because I could tell you that. So you know that I can give you an honest feedback on what it's like to actually live here. I do think it's a great area to live in. I think it's a great area if you have a family to raise a family. I think it's a great area for kids to go to school. I think there's so much family friendly stuff going on. I think it's a great area. But this video is all about the cons and truthfully, no area is perfect.

There's some true cons about living here, just like there's cons about living in New York City or other parts of California. So there's pros and cons to everything but this, it's what I think are the worst parts about it and I think it's a good perspective to know as a potential home buyer. So you know what you're really getting into. But let's go ahead and we'll get into it. So number one, what I think is the worst part about living in Murrieta, it's the heat. It is hot out here. The months of August and September can be super, super hot. The stats show that the average is about 92 degrees or so during August and September. Honestly for me, we have heat waves that'll go over a hundred pretty regularly. So we will get up to a hundred and two, a hundred and three, a hundred and four. It doesn't last very long. I would say the over a hundred degrees days are probably, I dunno, probably less than 14 I would say over the course of a year.

So it's not super common when we get a big heat wave like that. Usually it just lasts for a couple days here and there, but it is hot and without a doubt, I think that's the worst part about living here. You got to know, you got to be prepared to be in the heat. On the flip side of that, you should know that one, every home out here or condo or dwelling, whatever you want to call it, is going to have central air. So everybody has air conditioning. When it's a hundred out, you're going to blast the ac. So just know that also it is not humid here. It's a very dry heat. So it is very different than other parts of the country. I think it's much more manageable for me. Again, we live in a hot area, but if we go out to the Florida or anywhere in the south or anywhere that's super humid, I think that's way more miserable.

So it's super dry here. It is not humid. And then the other thing that I think is really nice is even though we get hot during the day, even during heat wave in the evening, we're going to have a really nice breeze that comes. So it comes from over the mountain, over the plateau, which is from the ocean, and it really cools things off at night. So even on a hot day by six o'clock, seven o'clock, the area's really cooled down. We can go from 95 degrees all the way down to 72, 73, 70 degrees, really, really comfortable in the evening. So just know that it will cool down in the evenings. It makes it much nicer and that's a big difference compared to other hot areas like say Vegas out in or the desert in Palm Springs or something like that where it might be 105 during the day, but at nine o'clock it's still 101 and it's just miserable.

So I think that is kind of nice here where it does cool down, but it's going to get hot and if you're going to live here, you got to know that. But the other 10 months of the year are actually super comfortable. So I think the weather's really nice other than that second worst part about living here and why you might not want to live here in Murrieta is going to be really weather related. And it's the four seasons we have, again, a hot summer, our spring is summertime. Most other places our fall is summertime, most other places and winter is like a fallish kind of thing. So we don't get much rain. It rains maybe 10 to 20 days per year. Not much rain that happens. We don't get a ton of water, we don't get snow, we don't really get a changing of the leaves in the fall or any of that cool stuff.

Spring is really nice because things are starting to grow after the little bit of a cold that we have, but right now it's the middle of winter. I've been super cold the last couple days. It's been like 59 degrees outside. I've had two jackets on and it, it's colder than what we're used to, but we don't get the four seasons that other people are used to. And that is why people live here. People move here to get away from the cold and the snow and all that, but when it only rains, the average is 13 inches per year. It's not a ton of water that we get and it's just something to know if you're going to live here. The third worst part about living in Murrieta is going to be just the total number of local jobs. So there is not a ton of big business here locally.

And so because of that most people make a commute out for work. So it's not that there's not jobs there. It's a pretty large area. There's probably 500,000 people that live here close by Temecula, Murrieta, Menifee, the whole valley Wildomar, this whole area. So it's larger than what I think most people think. I tell 'em it's a bedroom community and it's larger than most people think. So there's a ton of medical jobs, there's a ton of hospitals, there's a ton of any of the medical stuff, dentists, medical offices, there's a ton of schools, there's a ton of fire departments, there's a ton of police stations and sheriff's office, all those types of things. So there's a ton of those types of jobs for sure. But we don't have a big tech employer or a Google or anything like that, anything like that here locally.

So any type of big tech job, if you're not working from home, you're making a commute. If you're working for a big manufacturing company, if you're not working from home, you're making a commute. My dad growing up was in construction, didn't work here locally. He always made the commute. He drove to San Diego, la, orange County, and that's most people here. So most people, if you're not working from home or if you don't have one of those other kind of local-ish jobs that we talked about, you're going to commute. So it's San Diego, la, orange County, and for most people, I don't have to make that commute, I'm fortunate. But that is probably for them, that is the worst part about living here and that is their biggest pain point is making the commute out of here. So that kind of ties us into point number four and really it's the traffic.

So we are in Southern California. If you don't live here now, you probably have heard a reputation for Southern California having a ton of traffic. And it's definitely true as more and more people move here and as these suburbs get bigger and bigger, the freeways get stressed and stressed more and more. They're always doing construction, they are trying to improve it. There's some really good projects they have going on right now in Temecula and Murrieta that are helping the freeway, but you can't get away from it. I mean there's a ton of traffic. So especially at rush hour, the freeways are pretty jammed, especially going to San Diego. Used to be you'd kind of hit pockets of traffic. Now it's pretty much you're jammed up all the way, all the way from downtown San Diego all the way here. It's pretty much jammed. Same thing if you're going to Orange County, the 15 freeways, like our main freeway, pretty much full of traffic at rush hour.

And the farther that you get from here, the worse it gets. So farther you get in San Diego farther, you get into Orange County farther, you get into La LA's the worst, but there's a ton of traffic here locally. So especially around commute time, it's going to be pretty bad, honestly, it's not great for sure. Alright, so that brings us to the fifth reason not to make a move here to Murrieta. And that kind of ties into the last two points, but it's really because of the traffic. It's that average commute. And so right now the average commute in Murrieta for someone that lives in Murrieta, it's actually gone up to one hour commute each way. So for the average person, if you don't live here and you commute out, you're going to commute an hour to work, to go to work, and then you're going to commute an hour home to work, that's two hours per day in the car.

Honestly, it can be super miserable. So there is a reason that people do that because it's a nice area, it's relatively affordable, it is worth it for a lot of people. It's worth it for a lot of families. Is it worth it to my parents growing up? I have a ton of friends or friends' families and that's what they do because it's the right decision for them and their family. But with all the traffic, with not having the local job, with making that commute, it can eat at you and it is not a fun thing to do. So if you are going to be making a move here, that is something to think about. If you're going to be living here and working in say LA, and you're looking at a map and it's like only that far away and it seems like not a big deal, you should get onto Google Maps.

You can do a drive timer, take your time from driving from the city of Murrieta to driving to whatever Inglewood or whatever it's driving to. And so you can calculate that, don't just look at the map it say, hey, it's a small distance. Hey that seems doable. You should really look at it and think about what that life is going to be like on a daily basis. And if you're okay with that one hour commute or maybe you're lucky and it'll be a shorter commute or you can work from home or you are able to work local. Alright, so the sixth reason not to live here in Murrieta is just how expensive it is. So if you compare the city of Murrieta to other parts of the United States, we're about double the average home sales price. So right now, the last stat I showed, the average home price was right around $360,000.

And right now in Murrieta, the last hats we pulled were right around 700,000 was the average home price. So because of that, if you are moving from other parts of the country, you really got to think about the affordability and if this is going to be the right area you to live in. I mean if you're living in maybe a smaller town in say Iowa or something like that where you're in a 300,000 home and you like the idea of moving to Southern California, well you got to be able to afford to buy a 700,000 home. We have cheaper homes, yes, but that's just saying average to average right? Now, the flip side to that is one of the reasons that so many people live here in Murrieta and decide to make that commute to other parts of Southern California is for Southern California it is actually, it's a pretty affordable area.

So compared to most of San Diego, LA, Orange County where everything is over a million dollars and that million dollars probably buys you a pretty small home in a pretty crummy area and probably not a great school district. So as opposed to here, you can buy something for that $700,000 range and you can get a great big home, you can get a 2,900 square foot home, 3,200 square foot home, maybe it has a pool, maybe it doesn't, two story updated, nice lot of space in a nice area in a great suburb that is well taken care of, well maintained, and in a great school district with a public school system that is free. So there's a lot of pluses compared to other parts of Southern California. So in that case, if you go look at it that way, it's affordable. But if you compare it to other parts of the country, I mean it can be expensive.

So you just got to know that if you're going to make the move here. Alright, and the seventh reason not to make a move here to Murrieta is it is just not a very walkable city. So for me personally, I've always lived in southern California, so this is not something that really occurs to me at all, right? My family's always had two cars, one car for each adult. I have my own car, my wife has her own car, right? Every adult pretty much in this area, every adult has their own personal vehicle that they're going to drive around, right? No one really is going to bike anywhere or walk anywhere. But if you are from other parts of the country, if you're from a big city, if you're from New York City, if you're from just any type of high density city, you may definitely not own a car or you may have one car for the family or that type of thing.

But here it is not very walkable. The odds of you buying a home in a neighborhood where you can walk to the grocery store pretty low, probably less than 10%, and for you to be able to walk to two grocery stores or a grocery store and a restaurant, it's probably slim to none. So it's going to be super uncommon. Most people are not going to have that luxury here. So pretty much everyone has a car, everyone's putting gas in the car, everyone is, or I guess charging it nowadays, but it's not a walkable city. You're going to need a vehicle to live here. Alright, reason number eight not to live here in Murrieta is actually it's about the politics. It really depends what type of aisle you're going to sit on. Are you red, are you blue, are you publican? Are you democrat? Or somewhere in the middle where you're going to fall?

But actually a conversation that comes up a lot for me when I'm talking with clients, especially if they're from other areas, sometimes a lot of times they're thinking that when they want to make a move to Southern California, that the whole state is a very, very blue and very very liberal state. And that is just typically not the case here in the Murrieta Temecula, Menifee Valley. So we're part of Riverside County. Riverside County is one of the rare counties in southern California. I think it is the only county in southern California that does not historically vote blue. So most of Southern California is super hardcore blue. I think people probably know that if you see the presidential elections within an hour of voting open, they assign the state to whoever the democratic candidate is, right? In Riverside County, that is not the case. So it's the one that it'll more often than not, pop Red, I would definitely say it's a little bit more of a red leaning county.

There's pros and cons that personally you probably shouldn't care at all what I think politically and nor should hopefully we ever be able to tell by any of these videos. But it is just something to know if you are going to live here and you expect to live in a very liberal society, that's probably not going to be the case here. Not in Riverside County, probably not what you would expect if you're going to compare to San Francisco, la, San Diego, or any of those big cities in California. Alright, and then the ninth reason not to move to here, to the city of Marietta, and this is a big complaint that I get from people that are from other parts of the country, is there are a ton of cookie cutter tract homes here in the area. So I would say probably 80% of the city, Murrieta has been built by a mass developing builder building tract homes.

So basically they come in, they buy up a plot of land, they buy up a hundred acres, they subdivided up, they plop in 2000 homes per community, and they've done this time and time and again over the last 25, 30 years now. But because of that, anytime you have these big builders come in, all the homes are going to look very similar. So you go down the street, they're all at different shades of brown, different shades of maybe a light gray, maybe slightly different stucco colors, but they're all going to be very, very, very similar. So because of that, a lot of people can feel like, Hey, we have all these cookie cutter tract homes, they all look the same, I don't like it. So really a lot of that just depends where you've lived in the past and what you were used to. There certainly are neighborhoods here that have other cosmetic looks.

They're not necessarily that cookie cutter look. Maybe some of them have, some neighborhoods might look a certain style or more of a Spanish style or more of a Mediterranean style or whatnot. So it might be a little bit different or some areas are a little bit more ranch style as well. So like I mentioned, there's only 80% of homes of the area has that Tracted home feel. There's another 20% where you have custom homes, you have horse property, you have biggest states, you have all types of different stuff that people have built up over the years. Just know if you have more land, bigger lot, that tends to be a little bit more expensive. So depending what you're looking for, it is definitely out there. There's definitely a ton of custom homes that are out there, but that is a big complaint that I hear from people when they're looking at tract homes like, hey, they all kind of feel the same.

I can't tell if I'm crossing from one street to the other. I don't really like that. So just something to know. Alright, and then the 10th reason not to make a move here to Murrieta is just the California government. So if you do not currently live in California, you got to know that there are some rules and regulations that the state of California puts on you here in California and taxes as well that you got to think about before you make a move here. So taxes are definitely a big one. There is a 13% state income tax that everyone has to pay. So when you live here in the state of California, you're going to pay that sunshine tax. So you got to know that if you're coming from a different state that has no state income tax, that's a 13% hit you're going to take to live in California.

So you just got to know that obviously many other states also have an income tax, but you just got to compare and just think about what that's going to look like for you on a daily basis. At the same time, there are a lot of jobs here that pay higher because of that than other parts of the country. So for example, I know teachers and firefighters and a lot of the government jobs like that, or police officers, they're all compensated much better here in the state of California than they are other parts of the country probably because that 13% income tax that everyone else pays helps pay their salary. So it depends what you're going to be doing for a living and how that's going to look. And there's even a lot of times where if you take a work transfer to California, some employers will actually give you a pay bump because of the higher taxes as well.

So different cost of living situations, different companies might have, but you got to take into account the higher income tax you got to take just in account some of the other taxes and rules that California has. They can be even for building codes and what not, they're a little bit more, they have some rules that other areas don't necessarily have, I think is fair to say. So you just got to know you're going to be prepared to deal with that. Again, I've lived here for a long time, I have no plans to ever leave. This is where I plan to raise my kids. I think it's a great area. So I think these are all bearable things to deal with, but if you're from a different area and these are things that you should know, pay attention to, make sure it's the right place for you and your family. So I mean, that's my list one through 10. Hopefully it's good information for you guys. Hopefully there's some good cons about actually living here and what life is actually like. If you have any questions, you can feel free to reach out. Again, you can call text, you can email me. I'd love to hear from you guys and hopefully talk to you soon. Thanks