Since my original post, I was able to get the 2009 Budget and various other documents for Ridgegate from condocerts.com. {For a fee, you can buy individual HOA docs.}
Anyway, they had it on record that the monthly HOA fee was raised to $360 and that a "special assessment" amount, in addition to the monthly fee, was going to be imposed, however at the time of the docs printing they did not have a figure. This coupled with the fact that their reserve fund had a forecasted negative amount for 2009 did not make me feel very comfortable in living there. {Special Assessments can be imposed in an amount up to 5% which by my calculation made it a cap of $15,000, and naturally because of all the financial loss in unpaid monthly fees due to many foreclosures and a low reserve fund to begin with, they described the negative reserve amount as "dangerously underfunded".
This is what I found out at the time just after my original post. I do not know if anything has changed or if they decided not to impose any further assessments. I have attached the link to Ridgegate's management company. I believe they also operate other communities in the area.
{Now, I hope we are both speaking of the same community, which is an older condo community built in the 70's and is just adjacent to the golf course off Murrieta Hot Springs Road in Murrieta.}
S&L Property Management
It is a very nice area and maybe you are better able to deal with the financials than I am. Best of luck.