Temecula vs Murrieta | Which City is Best? | Twin Cities

Ahhh, the age old question. Temecula or Murrieta? They say at parties you aren’t supposed to talk about politics, religion and if it’s better to live in Temecula or Murrieta. 

But I like to talk about all of these things, so today’s video is about Temecula v Murrieta and we are starting right now. 

Hi, I’m Jessica Genung a local Realtor with Realty One Group Southwest. If you are interested in all things real estate related in the Temecula/Murrieta Valley, I hope you’ll subscribe to my channel below. I post new videos every week. 

Alrighty. Temecula v Murrieta. Full disclosure, I live in Murrieta and have for 10 years, so for me the decision was Murrieta. BUT, with that being said the market has deemed Temecula as more desirable. How do I know this? Because it’s more expensive to buy a home in Temecula. So that’s the first thing we are going to talking about: affordability. 

The pricing gap between Temecula and Murrieta seems to be growing. Year to date the median sales price of a single family home in Murrieta was $430,000. The median sales price in Temecula is was $451,000. So this year it was $21,000 or about 5% more expensive to buy a home in 

Temecula. Murrieta gets the win for affordability as you will have to pay a premium to live in Temecula. 

The next category we will look at will be “things to do”. There are now 40 plus wineries 

in Temecula wine country and tons of restaurants, events, concerts, festivals etc that are happening at the wineries. Temecula also has a quite large and bustling Old Town area with dining, bars, shops, and a theater. Murrieta has a much smaller-I call it an up and coming old town with just a few bars and restaurants, but I still really enjoy going down there and it is being developed more all the while. Check out my video on the 5 best restaurants in Old Town Murrieta right up here. Temecula also has a very nice shopping mall called the Promenade with indoor and outdoor shops, as well as many restaurants. There is no retail shopping mall in Murrieta, you have to drive to Temecula for that. Lastly, Temecula is in closer proximity to casinos and is home to the very large and nice Pechanga Resort & Casino. I use to work there when I was only doing real estate part time, shout out to my Pechanga Peeps:) Temecula takes the BIG win in the “things to do” category. 

Which city has higher ranking public schools? Both cities are known for high ranking education. 

12 public schools in Murrieta are rated 8 or higher by GreatSchools.com. While 17 schools in Temecula are rated 8 or higher including the only school with a 10/10 rating which is Great Oak High School. To get in the top rated school zones in Temecula, it’s going to cost you a little more money. You can see this grouping of highly ranked schools right down here, and homes in these areas are going to average in the $500 and $600 thousands, higher than the median price we discussed earlier which again is about $450,000. Examples of neighborhoods in these highly ranking school districts are: Wolf Creek, Morgan Hill, Redhawk and Crowne Hill. In addition to higher home prices to be able to attend these schools, some of these developments also have particularly high property tax assessments such as Morgan Hill and Wolf Creek-These neighborhoods are pretty pricey. Temecula takes the win on public school ranking. 

How about safety? Which city is safer? For 5 years in a row, Safewise, an online safety resource, has released a Safest Cities Report. This year, in 2019, Safewise analyzed the top 50 safest cities throughout the US to raise a family. Murrieta is ranked 20th, while Temecula does not appear in the top 50. Also this year, in their overall safest cities report for California only, Murrieta ranked #5 and Temecula ranked lower at #15. Last year by the way in 2018 Murrieta ranked #2. 

This is out of 228 cities on the list, so both Temecula and Murrieta are pretty great, but Murrieta takes the win on safety stats. 

Lastly, we’re going to talk about which city has less traffic. California in general is known for bad traffic, and Temecula and Murrieta are no different. They are commuter towns and a popular commute is during business hours down to San Diego. Freeway traffic is bad coming from both Temecula and Murrieta to and from SD for the 9-5 commute. But freeway traffic does normally let up when you get to Murrieta at the 15 and 215 freeways split. 

Most of the traffic issues in the areas take place getting to and from the freeways on the side streets. Let’s look at the map here. Temecula is accessed from the 15 freeway only and you have to drive inland for the most part to get to residential neighborhoods, which can take quite a long time factoring in traffic and signals. Murrieta on the other hand, has 2 freeways running through it, so many more residential neighborhoods have close 

freeway access. Also, with Temecula having so many more entertainment destinations as we discussed earlier, the wineries, the Promenade Mall, Old town, and the huge Pechanga Resort 

and Casino, there are more  easons for folks besides  residents to be travelling to Temecula. 

So my conclusion is that Murrieta takes the win on Traffic, although they both aren’t great if we are keeping it real:) 

Given all this info, which city is better overall in your opinion? Tell me in the comments below if you agree or disagree with me. I really do like them both for different reasons. 

I’m feeling in a politically correct mood to today:) Lastly, I wanted to offer you a couple of things for free. Maybe you are already a resident of the Temecula Valley. Once a month I send out a calendar of fun events going on locally. Often times, I’ll put a star by the events that I especially recommend. On the other hand, maybe you are just now considering moving to my area and will be in the market to buy a home. I’d like to offer you my Road Map for How to Buy a Home-the 8 steps. I also have a video series where I talk about each of these steps in detail so you can familiarize yourself with the process and feel better informed for when the time comes to make your move. Click on the link down below in the description if you would like to be sent the events calendar or my Buyer Road Map. I am happy to send those to you. 

As always, thank you so much for watching my channel and my video.  I hope you subscribe and I’ll see you next time, bye.