Moving to Seattle area...Advice please

[badcar]

So my career is taking us to the Seattle marketplace. I will be working in downtown Bellevue so I would love to hear from the Seattle folks on opinions where to live etc.
Priorities for my family are good schools, at least enough yard for a swing set(16 x 16 foot area), and keeping the commute to less than 45 minutes. Also, opinions on the housing market in the area would be appreciated. As it stands today, we are looking in Snoqualmie, Sammamish, and Isaquah......

thanks all!

[air-cool-me]

I grew up in issaquah-sammamish.

good schools and very safe. Look at redmond too!

Not in the market for a house so no idea on the market.

[RWebb]

spendy area

[artplumber]

Get a UV therapy lamp

[onlycafe]

archie mcphee is the place for all your whoopie cushion, fly in the ice cube, and itching powder needs.
you can also get a decent cup of coffee in seattle.

[schamp]

buy a raincoat and a snowplow.

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by RWebb

spendy area

More than SoCal?

[Hugh R]

I'd consider living on the Olympic Peninsula and taking the ferry, about 45 minutes and a couple of bucks each way, lands in the middle of Seattle, and keep a cheap car on that side. Many parts of the peninsula get lots of rain, but due to microclimates many areas, like Sequim, are very arid, like 30 inches of rain/year.

[badcar]

Raincoat/snowplow-check

Moving from 300 days sunshine 65 day cloud to 65 days sunshine 300 days clouds.

Spendy is right. A bit of sticker shock on the home front.

[genrex]

Badcar, I agree with your choices and air-cool-me's.

I'm not sure this is a good time to purchase real-estate in this area. Prices are going down 1.5% every month. Prices are expected to decline another 25% over the next year and possibly longer, and then stabilize. If you decide to purchase, you can offer well under the asking price and the offer will probably be accepted because there are many houses for sale and few sales. For example, an offer of $500k on a $550 house will probably be accepted. You can get an accurate idea of the situation on zillow.com.

Mercer Island is worth a look, too.

[air-cool-me]

Originally Posted by schamp

buy a raincoat and a snowplow.

no one wears raincoats or uses umbrellas .. seems counter intuitive but thats western washington.

My first day out in atlanta there was a 40% chance of rain.. i didn't even flinch. I was regretting my decision 5 miles down the MTB trail when I encountered raindrops the size of my fist and water up to my shins.

ps. Almost no almost no snow!

[schamp]

It neat to go out to 3 Lakes I believe and watch huge 747's, and 777's doing touch and goes. Turns into a desert north and east going out to Spokane.

[R K T]

Originally Posted by Hugh R

I'd consider living on the Olympic Peninsula and taking the ferry, about 45 minutes and a couple of bucks each way, lands in the middle of Seattle, and keep a cheap car on that side. Many parts of the peninsula get lots of rain, but due to microclimates many areas, like Sequim, are very arid, like 30 inches of rain/year.

I just turned down a job in Poulsbo, but it looked like a really neat little town to be so close to Seattle. Just a short ferry ride across.

[LakeCleElum]

Prices are down at Lake Cle Elum. Be a 90 minutes commute, live in God's country. A lot more sun and 4 seasons. Many do the commute or vanpool. Realtors are hungry to show you around...

[Jeff Higgins]

If you want the commute to be less than 45 minutes, you need to live in downtown Bellevue. The traffic on the eastside - Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah, Kirkland, Sammamish, etc. absolutely fukking blows. I think that area's freeways finally reached the exalted position of highest traffic density in the nation, measured on a car per lane/mile basis. It's at least in the top three or better. Surface streets are near gridlock at rush hour, with some of the most poorly managed traffic flow you will ever experience anywhere in the U.S. - lights are not timed to help flow, every goddamn strip mall has its own light, as well as every cross street on every arterial, no matter how little traffic said cross street gets. It only takes one car to trip them, which they do almost immediately.

There are some really nice neighborhoods tucked in very closely with downtown Bellevue. Schools are fantastic everywhere on the Eastside - no worries there whatsoever. Housing prices tend to be a bit lower closer to downtown, as long as you stay out of the more prestigious neighborhoods. Look north and south of downtown along Bellevue Way, or East out around the Bellevue Connector, or up in the Eastgate area. Near Eastgate is Newport Hills, which is also nice. The Bridal Trails area northeast of downtown is nice as well. Due east is the Lake Hills area, which offers some of the more affordable housing in the area, but still has top-notch schools.

Crime is really not an issue in any of these areas. The neighborhoods are older and well established, with single family homes dominating most of them. Some do have a lot of condos, which means stable, long-term residents, but there are also pockets of apartments, and some can be pretty low-rent. Like anywhere, there are problems associated with their transient tenant populations. They are pretty easy to avoid, though.

Anyway, traffic is the "tent pole" issue in this area. You owe it to yourself to make any potential commute for several days before deciding on an area to live. Real estate agents are notorious around here for showing mid-day and avoiding showing homes where a prospective buyer gets stuck in our traffic. It really is that bad; pretty hard to overstate this issue anymore around here.

This really is a great place to live. I've been here my entire life. I've grown up here, went to school here, raised a family here, and built a career here. The weather is not nearly as bad as some think. We don't really get a "winter" per se, nor do we get stifling heat and humidity during the summer. The ocean or the mountains are no more than an hour to a couple hours away. Arts, entertainment, restaurants, , and all of that are top notch. The cultural and ethnic diversity here is simply stunning, probably one of the most eclectic "melting pots" in the country today. I love it here.

[Scuba Steve]

He's right... traffic is bad, and the east side is no exception. I'll parrot what someone else said about housing prices. They went up in a bubble and have been falling, but in general lagging behind the other big cities (LA, Vegas, Phoenix) in terms of going up and then back down.

Working somewhere in downtown Bellevue... I'd hope that there's a park and ride between home and work because the lights aren't timed and there are a lot of other people trying to get there too. Traffic is pretty bad. FWIW I don't think there are cameras in Bellevue (yet) but you will encounter them down in Renton (Maple Valley / 405) and here and there in Lynnwood as well. If I were you I'd try and avoid living anywhere that involved getting on 405 to get to/from work.

[badcar]

Great information. We are flying out the 9th or so to look for a few days. I will add Bellevue to list to search for homes.

[Tobra]

Originally Posted by artplumber

Get a UV therapy lamp

Seasonal Affective Disorder is real.

Buy the light and use it, particularly with you moving from Colorado.

[Soterik]

I echo Higgins response 110%.... traffic is REALLY bad. There's some great bedroom communities within Bellevue, and you can also look just west of downtown Bellevue for a few blocks as well.

Seattle gets less rain than Atlanta, we just have more cloudy days. We have great winter skiing not too far away, and water skiing, sailing just a few minutes from anywhere. I have a cabin in eastern WA, sunny over 300 days a year, great powder skiing, and good wakeboarding.

Like Higgins I'm born and raised here, and raising a family here as well. I've lived for business in the northeast (NYC), and also in the greater LA area. I'm back here to stay....

good luck!
Eric

[Arizona_928]

Originally Posted by schamp

Turns into a desert north and east going out to Spokane.

A desert... lol