Considering the greater Seattle Area for relocation from Upstate NY (Tacoma: best town, 2013)

[Boxkicker]

Take it for what it worth. Some on this board have no clue about Maple Valley and probably haven't been here in years and they love to put their negativity in their posts.

There are currently 90 properties in 98038 that are in some stage of foreclosure (default, auction or bank owned) while the number of homes listed for sale on RealtyTrac is 4.

In November, the number of properties that received a foreclosure filing in 98038 was 12% lower than the previous month and 26% lower than the same time last year.

Home sales for October 2014 were up 9% compared with the previous month, and up 182% compared with a year ago. The median sales price of a non-distressed home was $329,000. The median sales price of a foreclosure home was $273,976, or 17% lower than non-distressed home sales.

[Boxkicker]

Originally Posted by mkarch

As far as cheap good somewhat accessible areas go maple valley is pretty good. But it's hard to sell a used house there. A lot of people end up abandoning their homes, so while the prices are low it's not necessarily an inexpensive place to live if you end up needing to move at some point. Builders are always putting up more cheap houses, so when you go to sell you're competing against the new construction.

Builders building cheap houses in Maple Valley? Really?


Pulte Homes (Arbors at Rock Creek):
From $409,645

Schneider Homes (Sunridge at Elk Run III)
From Mid 300's

Polygon Northwest
From $377,990 - $419,990

[Hemlock140]

Auburn, Maple Valley, even Olympia and most other cities around here are car dependent. If you wanted to rely on walkability or public transportation you would need to be much closer in (expensive). From Olympia to Seatac is about an hour in the middle of the night, most other times 90 minutes, and Sunday afternoons it can be 2 hours.

Auburn is a place you would have to visit to decide whether it's for you. It has a fairly quaint small downtown, typical suburban tract homes, more rural homes, and tribal reservation with Casino. Also, a fairly large mall, horse racing track, a large Boeing facility, and some railroad activity.

[CrazyDonkey]

Originally Posted by eolicom

How about the Olympia area? is that feasible to get to SeaTac in less than one hour or the traffic on I-5 is too horrible.

By the statistics, Olympia seems to have many of the things I am looking for.
Isn't Maple Valley too car dependent?
What is the feel of Auburn (I live currently in Auburn NY, it would be a hoot to relocate to Auburn WA)?

Getting from Olympia to Sea-Tac in under an hour would be a stretch. Could take you two.

Anywhere outside the central urban areas (Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue, and Everett) is going to be relatively "car-dependent". The reason for Maple Valley real estate costing less is that it is a long commute to downtown Seattle, but it isn't far from Sea-Tac. The same applies to Puyallup, except it is even further (from Seattle and Sea-Tac), although it is on the Sounder commuter rail line.

Auburn is closer to Seattle than from Puyallup (although still not a short commute, by any means) and not too far from Sea-Tac. It is on the Sounder commuter rail line. According to City-Data, the median house price isn't far from what you're used to paying in New York state. Not a whole lot there, other than Emerald Downs, the Muckleshoot Casino, the Outlet Collection ("the largest fully enclosed outlet mall in the Pacific Northwest"), and the White River Amphitheatre. There is the Soos Creek Botanical Gardens (22 acres). It is otherwise very suburbanish, however. Definitely not "hippyish".

One alternative would be West Seattle. There are both good, and not so good, schools - generally, the further north the better. Pretty much a straight shot to Sea-Tac on Hwy 509. Housing is more expensive, but you'll be much less car-dependent, and you'll probably even see some hippies (or "children of nature"). There are some great parks (Lincoln, Schmitz, Camp Long, and Alki Beach).

Another alternative could be Tacoma, which is still not too far from Sea-Tac, except the houses are cheaper. Transit isn't quite as good, since you're in Pierce, not King County.

[mkarch]

Originally Posted by Boxkicker

Builders building cheap houses in Maple Valley? Really?


Pulte Homes (Arbors at Rock Creek):
From $409,645

Schneider Homes (Sunridge at Elk Run III)
From Mid 300's

Polygon Northwest
From $377,990 - $419,990

When I was out there a few months ago I saw a sign that read "New homes from the $300's" and my first thought was "why are they building tear-downs?" Then I reminded myself I wasn't in Seattle.

[Boxkicker]

If you want to call Maple Valley cheap or whatever and badmouthing it, that's fine but you can't disagree with this.....sometimes people aren't worried about selling a house when the priority might be a child's education:

Maple Valley is in the Tahoma School District.....

Best School Districts in Washington - WA District Rankings

[mkarch]

Originally Posted by Boxkicker

If you want to call Maple Valley cheap or whatever and badmouthing it, that's fine but you can't disagree with this.....sometimes people aren't worried about selling a house when the priority might be a child's education:

Maple Valley is in the Tahoma School District.....

Best School Districts in Washington - WA District Rankings

According to the site you linked, Tahoma has the following schools included in the rankings:

Elementary Schools: 4
Middle Schools: 2
High Schools: 1

So yes, if you casually ignore all of the terribly ranked schools a few blocks to the west because they're in a different district, it looks pretty good.

But that's beside the point. Each area has its plusses and minuses and Maple Valley is no different. A new $300K house with good schools is pretty unique in King County. Maple Valley is one of the few places you'll find that. But let's be honest, the reason the area is inexpensive is because it's remote. If more people were willing to put up with that just to get into a district with 7 good schools, it wouldn't be priced as it is.

[Boxkicker]

Do you know how many schools are in Maple Valley and TSD?

And where are these terribly ranked schools you mention?

It might be remote to some, but many have no problem hopping on a bus to downtown for the hour commute to downtown or the 45 min connector commute to Microsoft.

Also, many have no problem with the ride to Crystal or Snoqualmie with board or skis on top of the car since its a lot closer than Seattle proper.

Plus, a lot of people don't need the hustle and bustle of the city 24/7/365 and enjoy getting away from it all the while living a good life for themselves and their kids.

[Kalex]

I don't know of any area with houses @ 250K. Are you planning public school or private? What grade level are your kids? Do your kids need differentiation (i.e. gifted programs, IEP, etc) All that will make a difference in where you go. I live in SW Issaquah, near Renton, and it's never taken me longer than 20 minutes to get to the airport. I drive it anywhere from 2-8x per month. Standard is 15min.

If you need a high-quality gifted program, go to Bellevue. Housing here is expensive, there's no way around that. Especially compared to more rural areas. Weather is infinitely better than upstate NY! Is your job located here? Personally I'd avoid Auburn, Tacoma, SeaTac. Maple Valley is the newest and most plastic, with same-samey strip malls of the towns we've explored. With that you get cheaper housing I suppose. What type of feel are you looking for? Outdoor activities are abundant everywhere, but the only place I know of that's not full car-dependent is parts of Seattle proper.

[eolicom]

I would like to keep mortgage and tuition under $1600 combined, which basically forbids private schooling unless somebody knows of a super deal.
One of the only soft feature that would be desirable for schooling is the presence of japanese programs. Their absence would not be a deal killer but may tilt the balance in the case of 2 mostly equivalent school districts.
I am looking for non-car dependent neighborhoods mostly because i came to believe that cars are very detrimental to community and neighborhood cohesiveness, not really because it is aproblem to get to work.
My job is all over North America so the only important feature is to be within reasonable driving distance to an intercontiental airport.
Maple Valley looks like any other personality-devoided exclusively car-centric suburb. For that matter, Enumclaw, Buckley, Sumner look like more cohesive place while cheaper with just a little lower school scores. What you fellows think of those? So far only Olympia is fitting the bill... I guess i could commute to PDX as well as SEA.

Issaquah, Snoqualmie look attractive but are well beyond my price range