This video is all about the best cities to live in near Temecula, California. We're going to talk about the best cities that are surrounding Temecula and the areas that I recommend my clients to look at if they decide Temecula is not going to be the right fit for them, or maybe just a little bit too expensive and they want to look at other options that are here close by. Let's go ahead and get into it.
Hey guys. Hey again, my name is Justin Short. I'm a realtor and team leader with the short real estate team here in Temecula, California, in Murrieta, California here at Keller Williams. In this video, it's all about the best cities that are surrounding the city of Temecula, California. I'm going to go over some great alternatives for people if you decide that maybe Temecula isn't going to be the right fit, maybe it's too expensive, or maybe just decide that you want to live in an area that's a little bit further away from some of the hustle and bustle that a larger city like Temecula is going to have. So I'll get into the list and give you what I think are some really good alternatives. But before I do, if you are liking videos like this, do me a favor, please hit like please hit subscribe. Obviously it helps me, it helps my channel as we're trying to continue to grow it.
And then I have new videos that we put out each and every week. So we have videos about the best neighborhoods and worst neighborhoods in school districts and comparing different cities that are here locally, giving you different recommendations and different neighborhood tours, all types of stuff. And we put 'em out each week including a market update video that we do every month as well. And then if you guys have any real estate questions, you can feel free to reach out anytime. So you're going to see my information either at the end of the video or down below. You can feel free, you can call, you can text, you can email me. I have people that reach out all the time. Happy to answer any questions that you may have or point you in the right direction. Or of course if myself or my team, if we can help you with your search.
Of course, we would love to be able to help you do that as well. But feel free to reach out happy, at least give you some information and we can go from there. But I'm going to get into my list. So I'm going to go over the five best cities surrounding Temecula that I think are really good alternatives for people. And really the number one reason that we end up having this conversation, or I have this conversation with clients is because Temecula ends up being too expensive. So now the average priced home in the city of Temecula is now up to about $850,000. And bottom line, I mean you're scratching almost a million dollars for a home. That's becoming a very expensive area. So it is no longer this real cheap, affordable area that it used to be a decade or so ago. And honestly, a lot of people, they just get priced out, especially if you're a first time home buyer or just other people are going to be on a budget.
And at a certain point you got to draw a limit and you're going to have a certain amount of resources and a certain budget and you got to draw a line. So if you decide that Temecula is maybe too expensive or alternatively people, they may not care to pay a premium for some of the features that Temecula has. So Temecula has a really good school district, so price tends to be a little more expensive. It's a little bit more of a developed city with some more shopping and restaurants and downtown area and tourism options. So because that tends to be a little bit more expensive. So if you don't necessarily care about those things, then you can push out to some of these surrounding areas and surrounding suburbs that are going to be a little bit more affordable and might be a better value to you in your mind if you don't care about paying for some of that premium stuff.
So, alright, so I'm going to go over my list. Option number one is the city of Murrieta. Murrieta is very, very, very comparable to Temecula. They are right next to each other. When most people come to town, especially if you don't know the area very well, I recommend that most people compare and look at homes in both cities. Temecula and Murrieta, very, very, very similar. I have lived in both for long periods of time. I think they're both great areas and I don't think you can really tell a difference from one city to the other. Both have very good school districts. The difference is that Temecula has a little bit more business. So they have the mall, so they have some more shopping, they have more restaurant options, they have an old town, a much larger old town downtown area, which has a little bit more of a nightlife or fancy restaurant scene.
They have the casino which is Pechanga Casino and then they have wine country. So there's over 50 wineries out there. Definitely more tourism there. Comparing that to Murrieta, yes, you do have shopping centers and restaurants and things like that. It just tends to me more of the chains and things like that. But it is very easy when you live in Murrieta to drive to Temecula. Its like five to 10 minutes away and be able to use all those cool things that you might like to enjoy every once in a while. So I tell most people to compare both that the pro to Murrieta, it is less expensive. So on average it's about a hundred thousand dollars less to buy a home in Murrieta versus Temecula. And that's a pretty good savings. So very, very comparable. They look the same. Houses are built, very, very similar space and size and all that.
So I do recommend most people take a look at both. Alright, so the next city on my list. So number two is the city of Menifee. Menifee is a little bit more northeast on a map compared to where Murrieta and Temecula are. So Temecula is the furthest south. The next city north is Murrieta, and then Menifee is going to be a little bit more northeast. So it is the next town northeast from Murrieta. Again, it's going to be less expensive. So compared to Temecula, the average pricing is about $250,000 less to buy a home in Murrieta versus Temecula. So it's pretty significant. That's a lot of money. Some of the differences as far as living there, the school district is not quite rated quite as high. They do have good and decent schools in Menifee. It's just not rated quite as high as Temecula and Murrieta.
So that's going to be the big drop off. It is a little bit farther northeast like I mentioned. So if you are commuting south, it can be quite a bit longer on your commute if you're going to San Diego. So that could definitely be a con. But Menifee, it really is a growing area. So there's a ton of new construction that's going on. There's a ton of new construction that's going to continue to happen over the next decade or so. It's one of the fastest growing cities in the state of California and it has been for the last 10 years. So it's really grown quite a bit. There's a lot of shopping centers that they've developed and a lot more that are coming in, but it's a growing city that is starting to fill out and have some of that different infrastructure, but quite a bit less expensive when you compare it to Temecula City.
Number three. The next one on my list is a city of Winchester. So Winchester is a little bit further east on a map from Menifee and a little bit further east from Murrieta as well. So you might notice Winchester is actually a road. It runs through Temecula and Murrieta, which can make it really confusing for people sometimes on a map it's referred to as Highway 79, which can be a little confusing, but it is its own city. So city of Winchester and it's kind of an interesting place. So I lived in Winchester for quite a while actually when I lived with my parents, when I was younger, when I went to high school, my parents bought a house there and so I lived there for quite a while. It is an area where there's still a lot of new construction going on. It is very large.
So it's really kind of two towns that are put together that are kind of a south end and a north end. The price point is very, very similar to Menifee. So on average it's about $250,000 less to buy a home in Winchester compared to the city of Temecula. So it is a pretty good savings. Again, what is really unique about that area is the southern portion. The southern portion of Winchester can be a part of the Temecula or Murrieta school district. So you can be in Winchester and go to the Temecula or Murrieta school district as opposed to the northern portion of Winchester is going to be a part of that Menifee school district. So that's kind of unique. There's actually three different school districts depending where you're at and where your house is. So that's something to pay attention to. Real estate agent can help you out with that or you can look at the school district websites and whatnot to make sure you're looking in the right area because the southern section tends to be a little bit more expensive than the northern section.
But again, quite a big savings compared to buying something that's in Temecula. Your kids can still get in the school district if that's important to you. And there's a lot of new construction options. It is so vast that I talked about. There's a southern section and a northern section. That middle area is starting to fill up. So that's where a lot of the construction is going, but it can be a really good option for people. And so just something to really pay attention to and consider depending if you are commuting, where you'd be driving to, et cetera. Alright, so the fourth city on my list is the city of Wildomar. So Wildomar is the next town north from Murrieta. So you have that 15 freeway Temecula's further south, then you have Murrieta and then Wildomar is the next town north. So Wildomar is actually, it's a pretty small town or city size wise, it's the smallest out of all the ones we're going to talk about.
The pro to it that people like about it is the fact that you are off the 15 freeway. So it's really easy, especially if you're going to commute north, people that commute north towards the Corona area or parts of LA or even parts of Orange County really like the idea of being on that 15 freeway. So the location is really good there. Price-wise, again, it's about $250,000 less expensive when we compare it to Temecula. So those last three cities that I just mentioned. So Menifee, Winchester, Wildomar, their price points are all about the same. So they're very similar, just kind of the locations tend to be a little different on a map, but very, very similar across the board. They are the smallest. There are some new construction homes that are going on, so it is an area that is continuing to build, but just because size-wise, it's so restricted.
Not a ton of options out there, school district. So it's kind of interesting. So Willmar has its own school district for the elementary schools. I think it's all the elementary schools. I know at least some of the elementary schools are in their own school district, but other than that, they actually rope into the Lake Elsinore school district, which is not rated quite as high as Temecula Murrieta. So that could be a little bit of a con, but again, it's going to be less expensive, definitely get more for your money and depending on price point and what you're looking for could be a really good option for you to consider. Alright, so the last one on my list, number five is the city of Lake Elsinore. So Lake Elsinore on a map, it is just a little bit further north from Wildomar. So you go Temecula, you go Murrieta, you go Wildomar, and then you go Lake Elsinore.
So it's the next city north. So Lake Elsinore is huge size-wise, the biggest by far of all these cities. You may have seen some of my other videos where I talked a little bit about it, but they have a ton of new construction that's going on today and they have a ton more than anybody, a ton of new construction that's scheduled over the next decade or so. So it's an area that is massive size wise that's continuing to grow. They're continuing to build. It's a little different compared to these other cities because Lake Elsinore has an older section and then they have a newer section. So they have a lake in Elsinore. So the name of the city is Lake Elsinore and then there is the lake. The lake that's called Lake Elsinore. And around the lake there was an old city that was built.
Most of the homes were built probably anywhere from the mid sixties to the mid eighties. I would say that's kind of the older section of town. They have that older section where that is not really the case for these other surrounding cities where they all tend to be newer. So you have that older section of lake. And then in addition to that, you also have the newer stuff. So you have homes that were built starting probably about 2000. So 2000 to 2010 to 2020. And then even a lot of new construction that's going on now and will continue to go on over the next decade or so. So still an area that's continuing to grow. You just kind of have a mix. The old area compared to the new area, the old area tends to be not as nice as the new area. So the areas around the lake tend not to be the nicest of neighborhoods compared to where the new construction stuff is.
Price wise, it is very similar to the other cities. We talked about averages about $250,000 less expensive than the city of Temecula, but again, you kind of have that gap. So the older stuff tends to be even more less expensive. The newer stuff tends to be a little more than the prices that we just talked about. So you kind of get a little bit of a hodgepodge there. The school district, it can be decent to good, not quite rated quite as high as Temecula and Murrieta, but can still be a really good area. It can be kind of neighborhood’s specific. So that is an area that I recommend people to drive through, get a feel for different neighborhoods. There are going to be some neighborhoods that are nicer than others. There's going to be some good areas and some not so good areas. So that's not necessarily true for the other cities we talked about for Lake Elsinore, a little bit more of a hodgepodge and just something to pay attention to, especially when we're looking at that year built.
So hopefully those are some really good alternatives for you guys to take a look at. But those are the five that I recommend. Those are the five that I think are the best. And that's the order. So Murrieta, Menifee, Winchester, Wildomar, and Lake Elsinore. If you decide that maybe Temecula is not the right fit or that you want to save a little bit on the budget or just you have to save a little bit on the budget to make sure it's affordable for you, those can be really good options to check out and hopefully that's some good perspective for you guys to listen to. So feel free to reach out if you have any questions. You can call, you can text, you can email, and hopefully talk to you soon. Thanks.
