The Lakes

What Is It Like To Live In The Lakes?

A lot of life here happens outside. There are three lakes inside the gates, open for fishing, kayaking and boating under the association's rules, and about nine miles of paseo trails tie the neighborhoods together. Six playgrounds are spread around the community, and there's a splash pad too.

The Bay Club on Laguna Vista Drive is the hub. It has two pools, a spa, waterslides and a fitness center, plus a grill and patio with an outdoor fireplace, a coffee and reading room and an events center.

When I'm walking someone through the choice between this and Menifee Lakes, the amenities are the first thing I point to. The dues are higher here, and the Bay Club and the lakes are where that money goes.

Which Schools Serve The Lakes?

The Lakes is in Menifee Union School District for elementary and middle school and Perris Union High School District for high school. Southshore Elementary is on Southshore Drive and Callie Kirkpatrick Elementary is on Reviere Drive, each about half a mile from the middle of the community. Bell Mountain Middle, on La Piedra Road, is about a mile away.

For high school, Liberty High on Leon Road and Paloma Valley High on Bradley Road are both under three miles. The district assigns schools by address, so send me the one you're looking at and I'll confirm which schools go with that home.

What Is Close By?

Menifee Lakes Country Club is a short drive west on Menifee Lakes Drive, with 36 holes and tee times open to the public. Countryside Marketplace, where Newport Road meets the 215, covers most errands and a good share of dinners out.

The 215 runs north toward Riverside and south toward Murrieta and Temecula, where it meets the 15. Old Town Temecula is about twenty minutes south of Menifee when you want a real night out.

How The Lakes Differs From Menifee Lakes

The Lakes sits about a mile east of Menifee Lakes in the same 92584 ZIP code, and people mix the two up all the time. For a while, so did our own market figures. They're separate associations, each with its own dues and amenities, and there are roughly twenty years between them.

The Lakes is the newer one. Menifee Lakes was laid out around a golf course starting about 1990, while The Lakes was built out through the 2000s and 2010s. Drive from one into the other and you'll notice it in the street layout and the lot shapes, and most of all in how big the houses are.

What Are Homes In The Lakes Like?

It's detached single-family homes and nothing else. Every sale we checked in the MLS was a single-family residence, so if you're hoping for a condo or a townhome here, there are none in the community at all.

The median home is around 2,150 square feet on a median lot of about 6,550, and four bedrooms with three baths is the usual setup. In sales through August 2026, sizes ran from roughly 1,275 square feet to just over 4,000, which puts starter homes and really big houses inside the same gates.

As of August 2026, ninety-seven percent of what had sold here was built in 2000 or later, and most of it in the 2010s. That changes the inspection. Roofs, HVAC and windows are mostly still original, but they're nowhere near the end of their life, which is the reverse of what you're weighing in the older community next door.

What Should You Check Before Buying In The Lakes?

Start with the dues, because they're the clearest difference from Menifee Lakes. The median here is about $185 a month against roughly $70 there, and across the community they run from about $48 to $271. It changes by section, so I confirm the number on the exact address before we talk about a monthly payment.

Then Mello-Roos. Most Menifee tracts from this era carry a special tax on top of the dues, and it's assessed parcel by parcel. It's a real monthly number that never shows up in a listing's HOA figure, so we check it on the parcel before you write an offer.