This video is all about where you should be living here in the city of Winchester, California and how to find the best area. I'm going to go over the pros and cons of the different parts of Winchester. Hopefully give you a really good lay of the land and hopefully help you and your family make the right decision and find the right spot. 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 with the short real estate team here at Keller Williams in Temecula, California. And this video, it's all about the city of Winchester, California. I'm going to go over the pros and cons of different areas. Hopefully help give you a pretty good lay of the land, talk about the different parts of town, compare French Valley versus where some of the new construction is, and hopefully give you guys some good information, help make the right decision for you and your family.

But before I get into all that, if you're liking real estate videos like this, please do me a favor. Please hit like please hit subscribe. Obviously it helps me, it helps my channel as we continue to grow it. And then if you guys have any real estate questions, of course I'd love to hear from you so you can feel free, you can call, you can text, you can email me, you can see my information either down below the video or at the end. I have people that reach out all the time. So happy to help answer some questions, point you in the right direction. Or of course if myself and my team, if we can help you out with your real estate search. Love to help you do that as well. So again, I don't actually make a lot of videos about Winchester. It is kind of a smaller city.

There's a lot of new construction that's going on and we will talk about that and what areas and whatnot. But it is definitely an area that is continuing to grow. I think I have some good experience too. I actually lived in the city of Winchester for about a decade, so not currently, but that is where my parents purchased homes. So when I went to high school and then out of high school, so for about 10 years or so, I guess a little before high school too, 10 years or so, we lived there. We were one of the first tracked homes out there and now there's thousands and thousands of houses. So definitely seen it change quite a bit. But hopefully I can give you guys some good information. I'm going to flip around the camera, pull up a map, hopefully help give you good lay of the land and we'll go ahead and flip it, flip it around.

Alright, so I got my camera flipped around. Hopefully you guys can see my screen pretty well. But basically I just pulled up a map of the city of Winchester. I'm going to draw on this and hopefully I'll help give you guys some information to kind of show the areas that I'm talking about. But I figured probably the best place to start is just kind of explain where is the city of Winchester, what makes it so desirable? And I guess we can kind of go from there. So city of Winchester is a close by neighbor to two of the bigger cities, which is the city of Temecula, California and the city of Murrieta of California. It's a little bit more northeast. So if you pull up a map, you can kind of see this freeway here. This is the 15 freeway. The 15 freeway runs pretty much north and south.

And if you take it south, it's going to take you down to the city of San Diego. If you take it north, it'll take you to Corona. And then eventually, I guess you're taking it going up towards la. So pretty much north and south. Then you also have the two 15 freeway here, this other big major highway that takes you towards the city of Menifee. Then you get to Paris, Moreno Valley and up towards the city of Riverside. So that tends to take you a little bit more northeast. So Temecula is a more down this way. So down a little bit more South Murrieta is a little more southeast. And then the city of Winchester is this big old area.

I guess that's probably a poor drawing, but it's this big area. All my drawings are going to be poor, but kind of over this way. So this is kind of the city of Winchester, so it's just a little bit more northeast to some of those bigger cities. And it can be a little bit confusing for people because you have the city of Winchester, it's its own city and it has its own zip code with 9 2, 5, 9, 6. And then you also have the Winchester Road. So off that 15 freeway that I showed you, one of the major off ramps is the road of Winchester, Winchester Road. So you can't quite see on the map, but a little bit further south. It's where that freeway exit is. And so that road, if you follow Winchester Road up eventually, this is Marietta. Murrieta, this is Temecula down below Murrieta over on this side.

But eventually this Winchester road will take you to the city of Winchester. So it takes you through and actually take you up through Hemet if you take it, if it all the way. So it can be a little bit confusing because Winchester Road leads you to the city of Winchester, but there are spots on that road that are not only in the city of Winchester. So it can be a little bit confusing. Hopefully that's not super confusing for you guys. But basically, so city of Winchester, it's a lot of new construction that's going on. It is an area of growth. As you can see, just looking at the map, it is a very, very large city, like the footprint, the overall square footage to the city, it's huge and there's a lot of new construction that's happening, but there's also a ton of vacant land.

So a lot of bare vacant land with no construction, nothing that's built on it and just kind of open. So what I did is I felt like the best way to explain Winchester is divided up into four different areas. So I have the French Valley, east area, French Valley, west area. Then we have where all the new construction is in the northern portion of Winchester. And then the rest we're going to call the boonies. So I'll help explain this here. So you have Winchester Road again, that kind of goes through the middle of the city. You have two main sections in Winchester. You have this southern section which is down below. And then you have this northern section which is up top here. So this southern section you will also see referred to as French Valley. You're going to see that on the maps. This is right off of Google Maps.

So you'll see French Valley. Sometimes people ask about Dutch Village, that's like a little very small little area, but often people will refer to Winchester as French Valley. And that's really the southern section of Winchester. And then the northern section of Winchester is really, really new. It's probably only been being built for maybe the last five years or so, five or six years. And that is up here off of Winchester Road and Doe Parkway. So right out this way. So doe, Winchester this also this road connects and turns into Newport Road as well. So those are the two main areas. You have the northern portion and you have the southern portion. So inside that southern French Valley area, I think the easiest way for you guys to take a look at it and what I explained to my clients is you have this French Valley area, you have the east side, so the east side of Winchester Road, and then you have the west side of Winchester Road.

So we're going to talk first about the east side of French Valley. So what this is again, Winchester over on this side, kind of this whole area. And so what makes this French Valley area so desirable is a few things. So one, the homes tend to be a little bit more expensive than what's on the northern section, but the big pros are one, you are very, very close to the larger cities. So you're very, very close to Temecula. You're very, very close to Murrieta. It's a real easy drive, maybe five minutes, 10 minutes, maybe 20 minutes depending what side of town you're going to. So you're a lot closer to all the other, the restaurants and shopping and all that type of stuff. Also, there's a lot of these homes, or actually almost all of these homes on this side are zoned for the Temecula Valley Unified School District.

So that is a huge plus. The city of Winchester does not have its own school district. So depending where you live, you will be zoned for the Temecula Valley Unified School District, the Murrieta Valley Unified School District or the Perris Valley Unified School District. So as far as all those rankings go and Murrieta School District are ranked much, much higher than Perris. So we're talking probably eight and nines and tens in Temecula and Murrieta. And then in Perris you're probably more fours and fives and sixes. So it's a pretty big swing. And because of that, the home prices tend to be a pretty drastic change as well. So the east side of the French Valley area is really desirable because you're part of the Temecula Valley School district. They have busing that'll take you to your school, et cetera. But you are totally part, I guess I have to get a disclaimer, you need to check on the district website to make sure the home that you buy is zoned where you want it to be.

But on this east side, you're going to be part of the Temecula school district and that Is a big plus. So this is the area that I lived in when I was a kid and that's my parents bought a home out here on the east side of French Valley. Now on the French Valley side you also have the west side, so the west side of French Valley, and that's not quite a perfect map, it probably goes or something like that. But this west side of French Valley, depending where you're at, what street you're on, it can get a little bit blurry. But some of this is actually will show a city of Murrieta. So that can be confusing. But we're going to talk about the stuff that shows the city of Winchester. So that's 9 2 5 9 6. City of Winchester, the good section of those homes are going to be zoned for the Murrieta Valley School District.

So if that's the case, that's going to be a big plus. That is a big plus for resale value and those homes are going to be a little bit more expensive. If you go a little bit further north, so kind of some of this northern portion of this part of French Valley, then you cross over into the Paris School District. So those elementary schools are pretty good ratings, but once you get into the middle school and the high schools, the ratings are not near as good. So if the school ratings are important to you, you really want to pay attention, you probably want to be more on the east side of the French Valley area or be very picky on what streets and what portion of the neighborhood you are going to live in. On the west side of French Valley. Also, like I mentioned, Winchester is a lot of new construction that's going on.

There is a lot of building and that's not just houses. So there's a ton of houses that are being built, but in addition to that, there's a lot of infrastructure that's going in. So there's so much barren vacant land, there's really not a ton that is out there. But over the last few years we've seen more shopping centers being built, more shopping centers being completed. So now you're getting some of these big chain restaurants going in and some of these other amenities that didn't exist just five years ago and definitely don't exist more than northern portion of town. So some of the stuff that's been built recently in the French Valley area, there's actually a really cool, really new big public library, which is really nice. It's really one of the state of the art libraries in Riverside County is how it's been described to me.

So it's actually, it's a really nice, it's one of the few true amenities that are in Winchester. So there's a really cool library. There's a handful of shopping centers that have been built. There's one here, one here, another one about right over here. And there's a couple others that are under construction or will be soon that are going to bring a lot of big national retailers. So there's a couple grocery stores that have been built, there's a couple gyms, there's just a lot more of these amenities that are going to be down in this area. And truthfully in this northern section there's really almost none. So you're going to be commuting for any of that type of stuff. Also, the French Valley area, the other big plus is not only are you close to the cities, but you are also very close to the freeway, but relatively close to the freeway and much closer than if you lived in the northern section. So your commute to the two 15 freeways, probably about 10 minutes or so, there's a couple major roads that they've built over the last handful of years to really shorten that commute. Makes it a lot more accessible, makes it to where you can get to the freeway. Like I said, maybe 10 minutes, maybe 12 minutes, maybe 15 minutes, but it's really not too far. And then the other amenity that's here in Winchester is the airport. So there is a French Valley airport, which is this big gray shadow right around there.

It's more of a private a airport, so you're going to see a lot of smaller planes and stuff like that, little commuter planes. But it is pretty cool. My kids actually really like it. They have a cool restaurant you can go to grab some breakfast, watch the planes take off. It's a pretty cool thing to check out. And it's one of the things that I like about live out here and my kids because they like watching the planes fly around on the weekends and put around up in the air. So I think it's pretty cool. But it's again, another one of the few amenities that are in Winchester. And one of the things you don't have to drive Temecula or Murrieta or even San Diego to be able to take advantage of. So those are the two main areas, kind that southern French Valley area.

And then the third area is that North Winchester. So where a lot of the new construction is. So kind of like I had mentioned, you have Winchester Road that takes you up. Your big crossroad here is do doe runs east and west. If you take it east, it'll take you out to the city of heme. So out this way. And if you take it west, it'll eventually take you to the city of Menifee. So Menifee is another area that's growing. It's a lot further along and it's build than Winchester is. So it has a lot more amenities than Winchester has. And if you keep taking that, that'll eventually take you over the two 15 freeway as well. Farther and farther. But in this Northern Winchester section, really all these homes have been built probably in the last four or five or six years. There's probably like 10 new construction communities that are being built right now from condos to detached condos to small houses to big houses.

But one of the big cons is with all this construction that is happening and all these homes that are being built right here, there's really no infrastructure that has been built yet. So there's really no gas station that's close by. The closest gas station's going to be over here somewhere in Menefee or down here in southern portion of Winchester. There's really no restaurant or retailers or grocery stores or anything like that. It is coming, I'm sure it will be built soon. I think I saw there's a McDonald's that is going to be finished very soon, but it's not quite there yet. So if you are going to live here, you just got to know that you are going to be commuting to Menifee for a lot of those amenities, a lot of the daily shopping or you're going to be commuting down the 79 down towards the southern French Valley area.

But the trade-off is the homes out there are definitely going to be less expensive. You're going to get a pretty good price savings versus what's going to be in the southern French Valley area. You could probably save a hundred to $150, even $200,000 in your average price point. Again, the quality of life and the amenities that are around are definitely going to be different. But hey, if it's going to be affordable and get you what your family wants, it's definitely something that might be worth the sacrifice. And over time, again, a lot of those amenities are going to come, things are going to be built, the area's going to continue to grow. There's more and more houses that are being built. Most of the new construction homes are up in this northern section. There's some that are kind of the north portion of Winchester up this way as well, but those are getting closer and closer to being built out.

And then the fourth area that I wanted to tell you guys about. So again, Winchester is a massive area. It's a massive city. It covers a very large territory. We talked about the northern section with all the tract homes. We talked about the southern section of French Valley, both the east side and the west side. And I'm just scribbling all over my computer. But you can look at all this other area that we haven't talked about. And if you look at the map, there's really nothing that's listed, right? There's not a lot of roads, it's kind of open and really it's just barren land. And really that's what I would call, it's called the boonies, right? So if you start driving through there, there's really not much out there. It's really very rural, it's very widespread, and there's pros and cons to that. So if you are looking for your typical suburb, tracted home community that a lot of this area is, that area has none of that, right?

It's very open. But if you're looking for privacy, if you're looking for land, if you're looking for horse property, if you're looking for to build a family compound, if you're looking for something with the guest house and all the other types of amenities, things like that that you actually want on some acreage and some space, then that can definitely be a great area for you. So we have a family friend who lives on 20 acres out there. They've lived out there for 30 plus years. They have a ton of space. They feel like they're in this super secluded rural area, but at the same time, they're only about 15 minutes away from all your normal shopping store convenience. So to go to an Albertsons or any other typical grocery store, gas station, stuff like that. So this whole area here, this big rural area has not been developed.

There's very few houses that are out there. I'm sure there's a few hundred or maybe even a few thousand homes that are in this area. But it's so spread out. A lot of people have half acre to an acre, to four acres to 10 acres to 20 acres and have all types of privacy in space. So that's what you're looking for. That can definitely be a great fit. And then I am sure over time that developers are going to continue to try and buy that land up, try and sub divide it, and try and build more tract homes there. I'm sure a lot of people that live there don't want that to happen. So it just depends what you're looking for. But I'm sure over time you're going to see more and more development happen. So those are the four parts of Winchester. Again, you got the eastern portion of French Valley, the western portion of French Valley, the north part of Winchester with all the new construction. And then really that big open space in the middle, the boonies where you get a lot of big pieces of vacant land and rural space. And that's where you're going to find your true acreage. So hopefully that's a good lay of the land. If you guys have any questions, feel free to reach out. You can call, you can text, you can email, and hopefully talk to you soon. Thanks