Living in Bellevue (Seattle, Renton, Redmond: to rent, insurance, condo)

[Winnie1123]

I haved applied for employment in Bellevue and have started to research housing either renting or owning. Can someone tell me what towns either near by or in Bellevue that would have affordable housing. I thought someone indicated the housing around Microsoft would be not only affordable, but also safe. Thanks

[CarlB328]

There is no affordable housing anywhere near Bellevue.

[VeronikaW]

Housing around Microsoft is actually at a prime, and is more expensive than further out from Bellevue.

What is your idea of affordable? That will help us steer you in the right direction. Offhand, I'd say Renton is more affordable than Bellevue or Redmond.

V. =)

[just4ivaylo]

The Eastside in general is very safe. Please state what "affordable" means to you though.

[shelly11]

Bellevue is a great place to live, but the house price is pretty high. A lot of Microsoft new employees, like at their 30ish, buy house in Issaquah or Sammamish, the house over there is newer, the price is pretty
affordable. At around $450K, you can get a pretty newer house at 2000sqft+. Also these two cities have
very excellent school that is the reason for attracting new comers.

Renton is not a good city to live if you have children want to go to school. Rent first for a short period time and then buying is a better choice as you need understand the area first.

Redmond is also good but the traffic is terrible at high way 520. The best high way is I-90, then I-405. Try avoid I-520 and I-5.

Hope this help. mod cut:

[wsugrad03]

I would second the Issaquah/Sammamish strategy. Great schools, excellent place to live and raise a family, good amenities, and I-90 corridor is a good commute. Don't be suckered into Renton. Schools are really bad and the locations just isn't all that great. Bellevue is very overpriced. For what you can get in Sammamish/Issaquah, you're dropping 500K on a small 50+ year old home that's going to be a maintenance nightmare in Bellevue. It all depends on your investment strategy. If you want a home/condo that you can rent out as an option, Bellevue is an excellent place for this because of the location.

[MaikeerinWA]

I know it's easier to use a broad brush for entire towns on forums like these, but actually some of the nicer parts of Renton are in the Issaquah school district. We're in the East Renton Highlands and like it quite a bit (in terms of safety, cost and convenience), although we're looking at our next possible move ourselves. Maybe Newcastle...

[Ira500]

Since the OP was asking about areas near Bellevue that were affordable, I think that only leaves Renton.
And for those of you who have said negative things about Renton, are you suggesting that every single school in Renton is bad? What makes a school bad?
First off, some Renton addresses, as MichaeinWA said, are in the very good Issaquah school district.
Second, some Renton addresses are in the Tahoma ( Maple Valley) school district, which has excellent schools .
Third, the parts of Renton closest to Bellevue actually have pretty good schools, such as Hazelwood Elementary, Kennydale Elementary, McKnight Middle School and Hazen High School. Those are good schools with good test scores and lots of involved parents. Yes, Renton does have some bad schools. Just not all of them.
The reality of Renton schools is that they're not as bad as people say, and some of that is based on old information.
Still, some schools in Renton are pretty bad, and that's the big difference between a Renton school district and a Bellevue school district. Most of Bellevue's schools are really good, with very few exceptions. Most of Renton's schools are pretty bad, with a few that are really good.

[MattFromGA]

Back in 1997 I lived in an Atlanta suburb and paid $325k for a brand new 3300 sq.ft. home with 3 car garage. It was very nice. The 30 year mortgage on that house, with property tax, was almost 3k a month. If you buy a house for 500k, isnt the mortgage and property tax going to cost about $5k a month? This is assuming a low down payment. From what I've seen of Bellevue on google street view maps, I dont see homes worth anywhere near that amount. When I bought that house, I was a contract software developer and my hourly rate was actually about 50% higher than the hourly contract rate I see in Seattle today.

Let me do some basic math to understand things. If you work at Microsoft and earn around 90k a year, your gross would be 7500 a month. Thanks to income taxes, SS and Medicare, you can kiss 30% or so of that away to get to net (not counting 401k contributions and whatnot). That means you'll take home about 5250 a month. Thats not anywhere near enough to be buying a half million dollar home.

With that kind of salary, you'd need to keep your mortgage payment at no more than 2200 or so (IMHO). Sounds like I'd need to live in a 5th wheel mobile home to survive.

Please, Tell me where I am getting that math wrong on this!

Now I understand why I see sooooo many room mate situations in Seattle craigslist.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by MattFromGA

Back in 1997 I lived in an Atlanta suburb and paid $325k for a brand new 3300 sq.ft. home with 3 car garage. It was very nice. The 30 year mortgage on that house, with property tax, was almost 3k a month. If you buy a house for 500k, isnt the mortgage and property tax going to cost about $5k a month? This is assuming a low down payment. From what I've seen of Bellevue on google street view maps, I dont see homes worth anywhere near that amount. When I bought that house, I was a contract software developer and my hourly rate was actually about 50% higher than the hourly contract rate I see in Seattle today.

Let me do some basic math to understand things. If you work at Microsoft and earn around 90k a year, your gross would be 7500 a month. Thanks to income taxes, SS and Medicare, you can kiss 30% or so of that away to get to net (not counting 401k contributions and whatnot). That means you'll take home about 5250 a month. Thats not anywhere near enough to be buying a half million dollar home.

With that kind of salary, you'd need to keep your mortgage payment at no more than 2200 or so (IMHO). Sounds like I'd need to live in a 5th wheel mobile home to survive.

Please, Tell me where I am getting that math wrong on this!

Now I understand why I see sooooo many room mate situations in Seattle craigslist.

You're getting the math wrong on this, because interest rates are much lower than they were in 1997. A 500,000 dollar home in Bellevue, purchased with a low down payment, would have monthly payments in the neighborhood of 2850 per month at today's interest rates, including taxes, insurance, and PMI. It's still a lot, but it's not 5000. 30 year mortgage rates are around 4.5% right now, and they were around double that in 1997.