Thinking of moving to Issaquah Highlands (Seattle, Bellevue: for sale, apartments, HOA fees)

[mizroxy]

We are selling our townhome in Fremont and moving to the Eastside. Want to hear from former and current Issaquah Highland residents. How is the commute to DT Seattle? How are the schools? My husband and I don't have children but we plan on starting a family in a couple of years. Looking for a house in the $650k - $700k range. Our current lot size is 1125 sqft so not having a large yard doesn't bother us. Pros? Cons?

[Hemlock140]

I live in Sammamish but take the bus to work in downtown Seattle every day and it stops at the Highlands Park & Ride. It's about 1/2 hour to Westlake on the 219, 216, or 218. Driving is about 5 minutes less in the morning if you go by 6:30am, add 10-20 minutes later. Coming home the bus is almost always faster, just getting from downtown to I90 near the stadiums is at least 15-20 minutes and will only get worse as the viaduct/tunnel/seawall projects progress. The Park & Ride does fill up, usually by about 8:30, so best if you can walk from your home or go early.

[Ira500]

The commute to DT Seattle isn't bad, and Metro's 218 bus only takes half an hour.
Pros: Everything's pretty new and clean. Easy access to hiking trails. More and more stores and restaurants are opening all the time. You get a lot more house for your money there as opposed to Fremont. It's close to Issaquah proper, for more shopping and restaurants. Convenient to DT Seattle and Bellevue. Decent transit service.
Cons: Some people don't like the uniformity, the sameness. There aren't a lot of individually owned, funky neighborhood restaurants. They are( or were) busing some Issaquah Highlands elementary age students to Clark, because Grand Ridge elementary became too crowded. But Issaquah schools are generally very good. You're not going to easily get home if there's a snowstorm.

Not all of Issaquah Highland's houses have tiny yards. For 700k, you can get a house with a larger yard.

[flyingsaucermom]

I'm a resident. I really enjoy it here and there isn't really much to complain about, mostly just "first world issues". It's safe and quiet and a wonderful community to raise a family. Schools are great. It's true that all Highlands' kinders are bussed to 3 different elementary schools. It's also true that a segment of the Highlands are now in Clark Elementary boundary, specifically West Highlands, Discovery Apartments and anything WEST of 11th Ave NE. It was quite a disturbance last year, but now that it's said and done, I'm not really hearing anything bad. Many parents are just as content with the other schools as they are with Grand Ridge. Also your future children could be accepted into private schools and special programs housed in other Issaquah schools and of course, boundaries can change, so don't let that stop you from choosing the Highlands. You'll enjoy community programming, a number of which are oriented to families with younger children, a ton of pocket parks with playgrounds, trails and Grand Ridge Plaza for entertainment.

The drawback? It's an affluent suburban neighborhood and with it brings the irritating "bubble" mentality. Lululemon and Stella and Dot wearing, crossfit-training, expensive car-driving bubble. Not everyone fits this description of course, but many do. For all I know that might be what you're into, and if so, well, then, you'll be set.

[mizroxy]

Thanks for the responses. My husband and I have been checking out homes with our realtor in Newcastle, Sammamish, and Issaquah, and the last house we viewed happened to be in the Issaquah Highlands. Once I saw the IH I knew that was the right area for us. Access to parks and walking/running trails appealed to us, and I like that it's about a 6 minute drive to the I-90 on ramp. I've heard the 'cons' on this forum with regards to the small lot sizes, congestion, the HOA fees, but for us those issues are not deal breakers. We wanted to be in a newer home (built after 2000), in a nice community, family oriented neighborhood, and access to transit. By the way, we put an offer on that house this afternoon and we just received news that the seller accepted our offer! My husband and I are so excited! I've lived in the Seattle city limits (U-District, downtown, Greenlake, Wallingford, Fremont) for 21 years and it's time to move to the suburbs!

[Inkpoe]

Congrats!

[Hemlock140]

Welcome to the Eastside!

[mkarch]

Pros - houses are a lot newer. In issaquah that price range will get you something that is both new and not on a busy street, whereas in your current neighborhood it's one or the other.

Cons - it's an edge development, and it's long term viability/desirability probably depends to a much greater degree on things that haven't been built yet. It could end up like Mill Creek, where it gets increasingly hemmed in by other bedroom communities without ever developing a nearby job center. In which case, the commute will just get longer and longer until it's not as desirable a place to live. It's nice and new now, but will it stay that way once it's no longer 'new'?

For that price, Kirkland has a lot more options. There are only 2 houses for sale in all of the highlands. Great if you like one of those 2...

[flyingsaucermom]

Originally Posted by mkarch

Pros - houses are a lot newer. In issaquah that price range will get you something that is both new and not on a busy street, whereas in your current neighborhood it's one or the other.

Cons - it's an edge development, and it's long term viability/desirability probably depends to a much greater degree on things that haven't been built yet. It could end up like Mill Creek, where it gets increasingly hemmed in by other bedroom communities without ever developing a nearby job center. In which case, the commute will just get longer and longer until it's not as desirable a place to live. It's nice and new now, but will it stay that way once it's no longer 'new'?

For that price, Kirkland has a lot more options. There are only 2 houses for sale in all of the highlands. Great if you like one of those 2...

Have you seen Issaquah's updated master plan? Issaquah will look a little more like DT Bellevue when (or if) it manifests itself. It recently approved buildings over 150 ft on around Gilman Blvd. With the light rail station and the growth plan, Issaquah could look very different than today.

In any case, Issaquah has a character unlike other areas, probably including Mill Creek (but admittedly, I've never been up there) because of it's history and the recreational benefits of the Issaquah Alps. I might be a little infatuated with it, but still I've always wondered why Issaquah isn't built up more, other than perhaps it's as you point out, an edge development. For those working on the Eastside (Microsoft) it's a better option than many Seattle neighborhoods (and yes, like every other person I meet is a MS employee). In fact maybe one should bank it's overall viability with the viability of Microsoft instead of future infrastructure development.

[EvilCookie]

we're moving to the Eastside as well and looked at both the Highlands and Sammamish, and decided to go with Sammamish even though we're not fan of sprawl and the Highlands newer, denser feel appealed to us a lot more. A few reasons: we don't personally mind a smaller yard and cookie-cutter developments (I actually prefer it), but from reading on these boards, many people do and hence it may have worse resale value in the long term than a larger house on a lot. My husband will work in Kirkland and it seems to be a worse commute than Sammamish (north end), as well as to Redmond/Bellevue area where I'd be going a lot, and the traffic in and out of the Highlands seems pretty bad during rush hours because it's so packed. The one biggest con for us though was definitely the school issue - I heard about the overcrowding and redistricting and I didn't feel comfortable at all with the idea of not knowing which school my child will end up in and getting bussed to a lower-performing school. By comparing metrics, Sammamish schools just look much better across the board than Issaquah, especially middle and high, and it has a bunch of very highly rated elementaries in the area which means we don't need to worry about boundaries.

That said, I loved how cute and walkable the streets looked, the parks, the large plaza etc.