Temecula and Murrieta Real Estate: What’s the Difference?

Are you asking yourself what the difference is between Temecula and Murrieta real estate? Temecula and Murrieta are both in the southwestern corner of Riverside County. Veterans and non-Veterans are drawn to the area because it is a remarkably affordable place to live and very family-friendly. Both cities share a number of attractive, positive similarities, and they each ranked very well in a recent Wallethub survey. Wallethub compared 254 cities across California in 2018, applying twenty-one key metrics to determine the best places for families to live. Temecula came in at twenty-one, and Murrieta ranked fifty-nine. Looking closely, however, Temecula and Murrieta real estate have a number of meaningful differences, some pros, and cons for each city.

Schools and Safety

If you have a young family, then you can send your children to any one of Murrieta’s distinguished schools, all the way from pre-K to high school. Temecula Valley Unified School District also provides excellent education, maintaining high ratings on GreatSchools.org. When you send your kids to school, you will know they are also safe.

Murrieta and Temecula both have very low crime rates compared to other cities in California. However, Murrieta earned a much higher score than Temecula for overall education, health, and safety. Murrieta ranked seventy-seven in the state, and Temecula was only at one-hundred ten. Here’s another impressive fact about Murrieta: for the lowest violent crime rate per capita, Murrieta ranked three in the entire state. By other standards, Murrieta ranked second safest city in the state. That’s pretty incredible!

Recreation and Fun

Both cities are primarily residential, geared toward families while also offering incredible amenities and recreation. Temecula ranked much, much higher than Murrieta for overall “family life and fun,” landing in sixteenth place whereas Murrieta fell at one-hundred nineteen in the state. It’s very possible that Temecula earned a higher score because the city has almost forty parks, beautiful wineries, several casinos, and endless opportunities for outdoor recreation.

Temecula

Temecula has over forty famous wineries and tasting rooms and hosts a number of annual festivals. The Temecula Wine and Music Festival has been held annually in the Temecula Valley since 2004. The festival features live music and showcases Temecula’s premier wine vendors. The Temecula Wine and Balloon Festival is another incredible attraction, a multi-day event that draws as many as 38,000 attendees from all over Southern California. Held at Lake Skinner Recreation Area, the festival features wine and beer tasting, live entertainment, fair food, vendors, and balloon rides.

The Callaway Vineyard & Winery opened in the early 1970s and remains one of the most popular of all the wineries in the Temecula Valley. The same Ely Callaway Jr. who founded the winery also founded the Callaway Golf company, and the golf game continues to thrive in Temecula. In addition to wineries, highly rated golf courses are spread across the valley.

The Pechanga Resort Casino and Pala Casino Spa and Resort are very popular among Temecula locals and visitors. In fact, Pechanga was recently renovated and now offers even more space for nighttime fun, concerts, and events.

Temecula residents eat local, buy local, and enjoy really great food. Old Town Temecula features a number of highly acclaimed restaurants. But if you enjoy cooking at home, farmers and vendors sell locally grown fruits and vegetables and locally made wares every Saturday morning at an open-air market.

Murrieta

That said, Murrieta isn’t exactly lacking on recreation. If you have kids, there are numerous youth sports programs and leagues. If you like to golf, Murrieta has three golf courses for you to choose from. There are also numerous shopping centers to choose from right in Murrieta if you enjoy shopping. The Murrieta Town Center, Murrieta Springs Plaza, and California Oaks Center are right in the city.

Economic Development

The scenic landscape and reasonably priced homes for sale in Murrieta, by California standards, not only attracts new residents but also businesses to the area. This is why Murrieta adopted the motto “The Future of Southern California.” Murrieta continues to drive employment opportunities.

Things are really looking great in Temecula; tourism is booming, and this is wonderful for the local economy! Pechanga Resort Casino, Old Town Temecula, and more than forty wineries draw visitors to the valley every year. In fact, the Temecula Valley received 3.1 million visitors to its wine country in 2018 alone. In the same year, visitors spent $409 million on arts, entertainment, and recreation. Wine Enthusiast magazine named Temecula Valley a “10 Best Wine Travel Destinations of 2019.”  Overall, visitors to Temecula spent $1.1 billion dollars, 26-percent more than in 2017.

As you can see, these communities are booming. If you're active military or if you are a Veteran looking to buy a home, you're in the right place. You can start right here:

• Call (949) 268-7742
• Apply Online Now

 

Housing and Community

Murrieta has affordable homes as are the Temecula homes for sale, compared to other cities in Southern California. In terms of overall affordability, Temecula ranked eighteen in the state, a full twenty-four places higher than Murrieta.

The two cities are organized in slightly different ways. Murrieta has more single-family homes and larger lots. The square footage of houses tends to be somewhat higher than comparably-priced homes in Temecula. Temecula neighborhoods are more organized, planned around HOAs and community landscaping. As a more established town, another pro for Temecula is that it has more city-hosted events.

SoCal VA Homes Has a Suite Incredible VA Home Buyer Programs

But before we talk about our programs which are solutions, let's face the market head on and address the challenges you'll need to overcome to successfully buy your ideal home.

Buying a home using your VA in these communities will take persistence! You'll have to overcome these issues:

• High buyer demand due to desirable location to Camp Pendlenton, and San Diego bases.
• High buyer demand due to attractive property price points.
• Very low property inventory.
• Aggressive cash buyers in the market not requiring appraisals.
• Sellers demanding short escrows & no contingencies.

Our list of challenges could be much longer, but the bottom line is, you'll need to COMPETE hard to get the home you want. We're better equipped & better prepared than any team in Southern California to help you achieve your goals. If you invest the time on our website and speak with us, we're certain you'll agree with that bold claim.

We are a team of military Veteran real estate agents and Sr. VA loan pros who are “VA Savvy.” We can help you decide between Temecula and Murrieta real estate and talk with you about the details of your VA benefits. Again, SoCal VA Homes recognizes the unique hurdles Veterans frequently face when trying to use their hard-earned VA benefits to purchase a house, especially in today's tight housing market.

It’s not unusual for Veterans to face “sellers bias,” the preference for cash offers coming from those using conventional loans instead of VA loans. This can be very frustrating! It certainly frustrates us because we don’t think Veterans should have to go through that, and that's why we've created our suite of unique & powerful VA home buyer programs. You gave so much to your country, and your family probably made sacrifices, too. So, we are passionate about making sure Veterans achieve the dream of homeownership. You deserve it.

If you are interested in Temecula and Murrieta real estate, a good place to start would be to make sure you meet the VA loan requirements, if you're using your VA to buy. Also, be sure to look at our listing of homes for each city.

Our flagship program is the Dreamweaver Home Purchase Process. For this program, we work alongside you to locate just the right house for you and your family. Once we find the right house, SoCal VA Homes makes a cash offer on your behalf. Then we renovate the home according to your needs and preferences. Finally, SoCal VA Homes transfers (i.e., sells) the home to you.

Our second program is the 100% VA Construction Loan, which is appealing to homebuyers because they get to build a new house from the ground up. If you choose this program, we will help you locate a piece of land and then oversee the construction of your new home. Finally, there is the Veteran’s Angels Program. This is our most popular program with SoCal VA Homes’ clients! This program offers an advantage for VA homebuyers by utilizing a set of tested and very effective techniques to improve the likelihood of getting your offer accepted.

If you are interested in using your VA home loan benefits, call us today to learn more about our three home buying programs described above. Our blog has really helpful information, just in case you want to learn more about VA home loans and how to move forward to getting just the right home for you. Call our phone number (949) 268-7742 to schedule a time to talk! We look forward to hearing from you!