Bothell Vs Mill Creek (Seattle, Everett: real estate, condos, how much)

[gchanel5]

Which city do you prefer? Why?

[Blondebaerde]

In 1999, I went through a real estate thought process that in retrospect could have been more-thorough. Wish I'd utilized forums like this more.

Had a budget, for a condo, a not-to-exceed based on financial realities. Could have lived in Mill Creek, Canyon Park (Bothell), Bothell-proper, or various places on the south end. Not where I wanted to live: Mercer Island, eastside, nicer parts of Seattle. First World problem, as they say, and everyone's gotta pay their dues.

Nicest bang-for-buck place I found, back then, was north end of Mill Creek. Bought it, no regrets for more than a decade, though condos sometimes (often?) don't appreciate too much. Depending on where you are in the market valuation curve, too. Back then, that park of Mill Creek was a wilderness, the North Creek watershed and not much else.

The possible mistake in my thinking was related to that big Seattle metro bugaboo: traffic.

Most of my work is eastside. I thought some could have been in Seattle, too, but fortune did not shine that way, turns out. Hard to predict, in my line of work (tech).

North side of Mill Creek to Redmond was 35 min (no traffic to speak of) to 1.5 hours (bad day). On memorable occasions, less than fingers on both hands, 4 hours or more (snow, disasters). Median time was roughly an hour, each way going and coming. Knock off 10-15 min if I used my motorcycle. About 22 miles each way to my usual place of business, door to door.

While not "awful," it took a toll on my sanity and patience. And vehicles. May wish to think on your particular career arc and needs, and use IRS write-down rates on vehicle mileage or other formulae to determine your realities.

Point being, to do it over again (hindsight), I probably would have been better-served by a mid-tier condo in Canyon Park, or Bothell proper. These are generally OK places to live. Bothell has a town, of sorts, about which you will find many opinions on these pages. I personally think it is OK though nothing to brag about. The slough trail and parks are nice. There are services. Seattle (Lake City) is ten tough miles away on Lake City Way (tough or not depending on traffic), downtown 17 miles. Eastside is a bit further away, southbound. There is a shortcut (side streets) or two southbound, or brave the freeways. I know zilch about shortcuts from Bothell to Seattle.

The extra 6-10 miles I endured, north Mill Creek down Hwy 527 and/or I-5 to I-405 south, usually just sucked and was seldom less than an extra 20 min of my time, each way, each day. And that, as they say, ain't hay. Mill Creek, nice though it is, didn't have that much extra going for it.

Too, I'd personally want to be closer to one of the major transit centers. Canyon Park TC comes to mind. Hard to predict future of mass transit here, per se, but I personally think it's often a viable alternative when the horrifying traffic mess becomes simply too much, c. November - April every damn year (school, rain, darkness).

That begs the question of property values, your specific needs, and budget. Take it from there. My $.02.

[beautifulseattlehomes]

I think Blondbaerde above gave a very thorough answer but so much also depends on if you have school aged children, how long your commute is, how much space indoor and outdoor you need and want and so on and what you are looking for in quality of life. My basic feeling is that the closer to Seattle the better in terms of real estate appreciation and length of commute but that is assuming that you have to commute to the city or the Eastside. Obviously you get much more for your real estate dollar the further out you go but for many, the trade offs aren't worth it.

[BellevueNative]

What part of Bothell? It is very spread out, and many Bothell addresses are not actually in Bothell city limits. It does matter, IMO, and it also depends on what you're looking for. We bought in Mill Creek because the part of Bothell we like (Bothell proper, which is the south part) has older housing stock, and also because the drive around the lake to Seattle from Bothell is not exactly rosy. When I used to take that route to work I wanted to pull my hair out most days. Too many traffic lights that back up the traffic.

The part of Bothell many people are buying in these days is north Bothell, which technically is unincorporated Snohomish County and not Bothell. That means you get County services, not city, and the zoning is weird. Mill Creek schools (Everett SD) north of 180th, so moot point if you're looking north of 180th where most of the new development is. There's a ton of development along 35th, which is sure to cause more traffic for those planning to drive south on 35th or Hwy 527 for commuting. We love our location in Mill Creek because we're pretty close to 164th, which means we can get in and out of Mill Creek very quickly. It's actually way easier to get to the freeway from our place in Mill Creek than it was when we lived in Kenmore for a while.