Seattle suburbs (Bellevue, Renton, Redmond: for sale, condo, low crime)

[sosta76]

Good day,

Can you please advice what area of Seattle would be nice for family with young children (5 and 3.5)? We would like to live in a suburb with excellent schools and low crime rate, preferably area with new houses which cost around 350-400,000$ and well maintained public places. Ideally, it should be 30-45 minutes commute to downtown. Is there such suburb?

Thank you in advance for sharing your opinion.

[tobester]

Look at old posts - this is the most asked question on here - where can I find affordable housing in a neighborhood with the best schools, the lowest crime and a nice commute? These areas exist, but you may have to nearly double your housing budget.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by sosta76

Good day,

Can you please advice what area of Seattle would be nice for family with young children (5 and 3.5)? We would like to live in a suburb with excellent schools and low crime rate, preferably area with new houses which cost around 350-400,000$ and well maintained public places. Ideally, it should be 30-45 minutes commute to downtown. Is there such suburb?

Thank you in advance for sharing your opinion.

You can't have it all. The suburbs with excellent schools less than 45 minutes from downtown are generally going to have new homes that cost more than 400,000.
So you'll have to figure out what are the most important priorities.
Willing to do 45-50 minutes instead of 30-45? Consider Maple Valley. Great schools, low crime, lower home prices. Other places that fall into that category( a bit further out, but with good schools and lower home prices) include Duvall, Redmond Ridge, and Snoqualmie Ridge( although the "Ridges" will have tiny lots and smaller homes.
Willing to live in a place with merely good schools, rather than excellent? Think Kenmore and Bothell.
Willing to trade the new home for an older one but have everything else fit the bill? Parts of Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, and Issaquah have it all except the new homes for the price.

[Xanathos]

He can find that. Kennydale has homes in that area, and the schools are apparently quite good. Certain parts of Bellevue fit that mold. Kirkland, I'm sure, has something for him. Hell, I'm sure he could even find something in Issaquah.

All of these come with sub-30 minute commutes to downtown.

[aseattleareanative]

Maybe try Lake Forest Park, minus the new houses. Mill Creek and Mukilteo are a little further out but match what you're looking for, maybe a little more expensive. I'm not sure where you are coming from Seattle area home prices are pretty expensive. Very comparable to San Diego. Seattle is also not really like some areas where there has been a lot of new developments within the last ten years within 30-45 minutes of downtown. Most areas within that distance are at least 10 to 15 years old, most not all. Keep in mind where some areas you can build in four directions here you can really only build north and south. You can't go west because of the sound and east of Seattle is a huge lake. East of the lake there is some newer development but it's a lot more expensive. The city of Seattle is very dense, something like 85 sq miles of land. To put in comparison, Phoenix AZ is like 500+ sq miles, meaning that the city is very much set, not many houses newer than 30 or 40 years old. Because of that they have been building north and south densely for sometime now, starting in the 70's, and since everybody wants to live with 30 minutes of downtown prices are higher.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by Xanathos

He can find that. Kennydale has homes in that area, and the schools are apparently quite good. Certain parts of Bellevue fit that mold. Kirkland, I'm sure, has something for him. Hell, I'm sure he could even find something in Issaquah.

All of these come with sub-30 minute commutes to downtown.

$350-400,000 new? I'd like to see that. Maybe a condo The new home prices I am seeing are $5-600,000.

[Ira500]

There are new houses, even decent sized ones in the Seattle area for less than 400,000. I've seen them in Kenmore, Bothell, Duvall, and Fairwood(near Renton), and other places. Nice houses too. Just postage stamp sized yards for the most part.

[Hemlock140]

Originally Posted by Ira500

There are new houses, even decent sized ones in the Seattle area for less than 400,000. I've seen them in Kenmore, Bothell, Duvall, and Fairwood(near Renton), and other places. Nice houses too. Just postage stamp sized yards for the most part.

Yes, but not in Bellevue or Kirkland. They are comparable to Sammamish, where on errands I just passed
3 new developments with signs advertising new homes from the $600's.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

Yes, but not in Bellevue or Kirkland. They are comparable to Sammamish, where on errands I just passed
3 new developments with signs advertising new homes from the $600's.

It's true. Currently, there are 7 houses listed for sale in Kirkland, built 2010 or newer, for under 600,000.
The least expensive is 499. In Bellevue, there's just one under 600.

[vichartin]

Living in a safe neighborhood that is reasonably priced especially in King County is hard to find.
Try Carnation, Duvall, Fall City - basically anywhere in the Snoqualmie Valley. Its close to Redmond, Issaquah, Bellevue and only 30mins from Seattle.
In the Snoqualmie Valley its cheap, safe, quiet, never any traffic and a wonderful, scenic place to raise a family. Also, the schools are small and yet very up-to-date acedemicaly. I guarentee if you look around the this area you'll be satisfied.
★Victoria★