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Hi Seattle - residents,
looking for some pointers here. We are relocting from Milwaukee - WI to Seattle fairly soon in the next couple months. We have 3 kids(12, 10 and 8). We want to move into good school districts where parents are involved, neighborhoods are friendly, community is great and good homes. I know maybe seems like we are hoping the stars would line up.
Internet reaserch can get confusing at times. Trying to get some inside help. Appreciate any feedback - Thanks,. raka
If you insist on living in Seattle proper, check out Magnolia fist. I grew up there on the hill (as we call it) and it's a great place to live! It's like living on an island, or on one huge dead end, because there are only three streets on and off the hill, and they all connect to the same road. So in other words, there's no need to go to Magnolia unless you live there or are visiting. No through traffic!
Despite this, it is still very quick and easy to access Downtown Seattle from Magnolia. It's very close and takes no time at all. Magnolia also has it's own small downtown area of sorts (called "the village") which has shops, restaurants, banks, a gas station, coffee shops, pharmacies, a nursery, a hardware store, a full grocery store (one of two full grocery stores on the hill), a pub, a bakery, a book store, a park with a playground, tennis courts, and baseball fields, soccer fields, a couple of places to get pizza, an outdoor pool, churches, a clinic / doctor office, a dentist office, a community center, and more. There is also a very nice public library just about a block outside of the village.
Magnolia also features three bus routes to and from Downtown Seattle. Of these, two run all day long, and the third one runs only to Downtown during the morning rush, and from downtown during the evening rush.
Magnolia also contains Seattle's largest park, Discovery Park. Awesome, awesome place and more park than can be seen in one day. So many trails, so many areas to visit, an Indian cultural center, a playground, sand dunes, strolls through a forest like setting, strolls by small creeks and ponds, strolls on a beach or through a large open field. Also has tennis and basket ball courts. Discovery Park has it all! There are also other parks to enjoy, and even the lock connecting Puget Sound to Lake Washington is a fascinating place to visit, with parks on both the Magnolia and Ballard side (and very nice gardens!), a fish ladder with viewing windows, and a visitor center. Also makes for a quick and easy walk between Magnolia and Ballard.
Magnolia also has two elementary schools. (one K-5, the other K-8). High school students will have to go off hill for schooling. (Ballard HS is closest).
The people on Magnolia are all friendly, have never had a problem with any of them. Also, it is generally a safer neighborhood than most (again, no through traffic).
The only downside is that it's a little pricier to live there than much of the rest of the city, but well worth it if you can find something you can afford!
Last edited by cjg5; 08-15-2010 at 01:11 AM..
Reason: added some info
Coming from Milwaukee you're in for severe sticker shock for housing. Seattle's average house is double that of Milwaukee.
CJ's suggestion of Magnolia is an excellent one. Although he may have underestimated the costs of the area a tad. It is pricey for sure. There are other pockets of great neighborhoods in Seattle. For example just a little further north of Magnolia, North Beach/Blue Ridge which like Magnolia is teeming with spectacular views of the water and mountains, is also a wonderful area with access to excellent schools like NB Elementary and Whittier ES.
Talk to an experienced real estate agent. Ira500, who posts here knows his way around the Greater Seattle Area and is dialed in on the schools as well the current housing market..
We don't live in Seattle so I can't speak to that but we do enjoy living in Sammamish/Issaquah which is east of Seattle about 15 miles. The schools are great, the nature abounds with lakes and hiking, beautiful tall pine trees and bald eagles, and it is crawling with kids and families out here who are involved in the community. Downside is the commute in rush hour can be anywhere from 30-50 minutes depending on when you leave in the morning. Home price prices start around $500K on the low end for a family that size.
Seattle area has LOTS of great neighborhoods to choose from. Lots of opportunity to do outdoor activities, social activities, places to visit. You can also look outside of Seattle (more house for the $$) and we still have great places as well.
raka,
Do you know where you or your spouse will be employed?
If you'll be working on the eastside ( Bellevue, Redmond, etc) then it's probably a good idea to live on the eastside. Schools are more uniformly good there, and the commute would be minimized. Traffic can be pretty hellacious around here. If you want to live in the city of Seattle itself, you have to be a little more careful about schools. Good ones exist, but you have to be in the right neighborhood. Magnolia is nice, though I've had people complain that it seemed too suburban and clean ( like those are bad things?)...Ravenna/Wedgwood are nice neighborhoods with decent schools. Queen Anne is very nice and has good schools. Parts of West Seattle are amazing. Outside of the city, Edmonds and Shoreline are less expensive and have decent schools. The eastside schools are almost all good. Part of Renton is in the very good Issaquah district, part of Renton is in the very good Tahoma ( Maple Valley) district, part of Renton is in the pretty good Kent district, and part of Renton is in the pretty bad Renton district, but even in Renton there are some good schools. Schooldigger.com and greatschools.net are a couple of good sites to go to. As texastrigirl stated, test scores are only one factor. People are not all of one mind about it. I don't believe that if a school has great test results it is necessarily a great school. One of those sites gives test scores and parent ratings 1-10, 10 being the highest. If your child is going to school with 10 out of 10 rating in test scores, and your child is just an average student, maybe it wouldn't be such a good fit. At the same time, a school with 1 or 2 on test schools probably should be avoided, because energy may be mostly directed to students who are below average. I have friends whose kids go to a school rated 5 out of 10 on test scores, but 5 out of 5 on parent ratings, and they just think it's the greatest place on the planet. They have bright kids and their kids are thriving.
A lot depends on what you think you can afford, whether you'll be renting or buying ( rent money goes a lot further than mortgage payments right now), and what things in a neighborhood make you happy.
08-15-2010, 05:52 PM
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To Ira500:
No offense, but there are A LOT of people that dont like suburbs/ suburban living and prefer living in bigger city settings and city life in general, and I am one example.
Raka's family might rather live in Seattle itself without even considering suburbs, even if it might be harder to find good schools in Seattle. The point is Seattle does have good schools that exist.
Some of your posts seem very pro-suburban and anti-bigger city.
I moved to Seattle area wanting to live IN Seattle and wouldnt have ever considered any of the suburban areas, even if rent was cheaper there and even if I had my driver's license by now. I live in Greenwood and love living within the city. Even living in the Magnolia, Maple Leaf, and Lake City neighborhoods in Seattle would feel too suburban for me.
I definitely can see the positives of living in a suburb and have some close friends, and ex's that live in small suburban towns, but its not a place most people would consider living in if they want more of a bigger city life/lifestyle. If I had to choose going to a good public school in a suburb vs. a good public school in a city, I would pick the city option easily.
Its better for people to support investment and time in cities/towns with identity instead of wasteful sprawly suburbs with no identity.However, the Seattle area does have some suburbs though that dont fit those negative traits: Bellevue, Redmond, Mercer Island, Issaquah, North Bend, Bainbridge Island, Bremerton, and others.
Some suburbs in the Seattle area that seem wasteful, too sprawly, and with lack of identity: Kent, Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Auburn, Renton, Shoreline, Bothell, Covington, Kingsgate.
To Raka: These are my favorite Seattle neighborhoods: Downtown, Capital Hill, Queene Anne, University District, West Seattle, Wallingford, Ballard, Fremont, and some others. These are all hip urban places in Seattle so I assume all of these neighborhoods must have nice elementary/middle/high schools. Good luck on the move.
NUB,
No offense taken. I completely understand that some people like a more urban setting. It's just that schools are much more hit or miss within the Seattle city limits. My kids went to the Seattle Public Schools and didn't turn into total misfits or killers, and I lived the much more urban lifestyle in Seattle for 22 years including several places on Capitol Hill, Fremont, Central District, Leschi, Ravenna. Yes, there are some good schools within Seattle. But I suggest you talk to people who have kids and ask them how they feel about the Seattle school district itself. The vast majority of parents of Seattle Public Schools kids think the school district sucks. If there's a fan page on Facebook for Seattle Public Schools, it's likely to be a pretty lonely place.
I like the city of Seattle and I like the vitality of many of it's neighborhoods. It's just a different kettle of fish when you have kids. I'm in Seattle a lot. I just happened to like gardening a lot, and was able to buy a house with a huge lot twelve years ago about 20 minutes from downtown Seattle. If I could have found a house with a big lot on Capitol Hill or West Seattle or Phinney Ridge for the same price I paid, I'd have done it in a New York minute.
I also dislike the artificiality and sameness in some of the suburbs, home after home all looking alike. Kind of plastic, kind of boring. But I can see why people have left Seattle because of the schools. The school district is SO screwed up. Your child might be going to go a good school, and then they go and make major changes to it or close it. These things happen too frequently. As a parent in Seattle, you have to be very involved and on your toes before they go and screw up your kid's school. Not every parent has the energy or the ability to be that involved.
In the suburbs, the tradeoff you make for all that sameness is consistently good schools. For a city of 600,000 +, there really should be more than 7 or 8 good elementary schools. It's a shame there aren't. And it's a shame that for a city that touts how world class they are, and for a city that has a lot of wealth, it has such a bad school system.
Also, I don't agree with you about some of the suburbs. Renton isn't really a suburb. Renton's a really old town, and it's downtown is from the early 1900's, it was a coal town. It has expanded a lot, but downtown Renton has soul and coolness.
Part of Burien, the part of downtown known as Old Burien, reminds me a bit of Ballard. it's full of cool businesses and has a nice diversity. Neither Renton nor Burien have good schools. Hip places, urban or otherwise, don't necessarily translate into good schools.
Some suburbs in the Seattle area that seem wasteful, too sprawly, and with lack of identity: Kent, Burien, Des Moines, Federal Way, Auburn, Renton, Shoreline, Bothell, Covington, Kingsgate.
I disagree that most of the cities you listed as having a "lack of identity". I will give credit on Auburn (simply because it's just... Auburn) and Kingsgate (as it has the unfortunate luck of having 405 running through it).
But Kent, Burien, Des Moines, Renton, Bothell have charming DT area with great water access, great family activities and a cozy atmosphere. Shoreline is lovely with Richmond Beach-- I mean Tom Douglas repeatedly talks about getting fish and crabs there. Covington and Federal Way OTOH have these shopping centers that seem to be the forefront of its identity, but if you take the time to explore around... Federal Way has Redondo Beach, Dash Point, Salt water State park. Covington has all these lakes, plus Flaming Geyser! Flaming Geyser is awesome-- Seattle can't even boast of having something like that.
Perhaps when you're older you'll come to appreciate what the suburbs has to offer. Ira was simply listing out what options the OP has, but she hasn't really given us anything to go on-- so we don't even know if she wants proper city living.
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