Considering the greater Seattle Area for relocation from Upstate NY (Federal Way: best towns, 2014)

[eolicom]

I am the husband in a multi-racial, multi-cultural family (Hispanic/Asian) highly educated with 3 rowdy boys. We currently live in Upstate NY in a fairly inexpensive area with outstanding school districts (inexpensive being median house prices well under 250K), great outdoors activities, somewhat hippyish.
A new job is taking me back west. Seattle looms large because of the airport connections and the no-income tax in WA.
So the question is what is the best bang for the buck in this region within 1 hour drive of SEA airport? something similar to upstate NYS but with better weather (yes, believe it or not Seattle as better weather than NYS by whatever criteria you want to choose!)?

[CrazyDonkey]

The Puyallup and Tahoma (Maple Valley) School Districts are very good. House prices are pretty reasonable.

[Hemlock140]

You won't find a city with median priced homes as low as $250 within an hour of the airport, but I agree with Maple Valley (Median $330k). Puyallup is at about $250k but though only 30 miles from the airport, you'd want to fly very early or late to make it in under an hour. You might look into Auburn, I can't say whether there are any good schools but it's closer and about $270k median.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

You won't find a city with median priced homes as low as $250 within an hour of the airport, but I agree with Maple Valley (Median $330k). Puyallup is at about $250k but though only 30 miles from the airport, you'd want to fly very early or late to make it in under an hour. You might look into Auburn, I can't say whether there are any good schools but it's closer and about $270k median.

There are some good schools in Auburn. Federal Way too. But you didn't say you needed to find a house under 250,000, just that those were prices where you live in NY state. It would be hard to find something here that has good schools, is kind of hippieish, and within an hour of SeaTac airport. Maybe Steilacoom?

[mkarch]

Just bite the bullet and pay more for a house. The inexpensive areas have a bunch of serious drawbacks to negotiate, otherwise they wouldn't be inexpensive. You could luck out and find one of them has drawbacks that don't affect your quality of life a whole lot, but it would be difficult to figure that out without living here first.

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.

[cis_love]

Originally Posted by Ira500

There are some good schools in Auburn.

as a parent who lived in auburn, not sure i would categorize the schools there as "good." the highest rated schools are a 6/10 on greatschools.com. their very best schools are considered somewhat average. there are better rated schools in the kent and renton districts.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by cis_love

as a parent who lived in auburn, not sure i would categorize the schools there as "good." the highest rated schools are a 6/10 on greatschools.com. their very best schools are considered somewhat average. there are better rated schools in the kent and renton districts.

There are two Auburn schools rated 9 on greatschools, two rated eight, and three rated seven. And there are plenty of schools much worse than that. Gildo Rey Elementary gets a 9, while having a lot of poorer students and non native English speakers. They seem to be doing something right.

[kcshankd]

Originally Posted by mkarch

Just bite the bullet and pay more for a house. The inexpensive areas have a bunch of serious drawbacks to negotiate, otherwise they wouldn't be inexpensive. You could luck out and find one of them has drawbacks that don't affect your quality of life a whole lot, but it would be difficult to figure that out without living here first.

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.

This is... inaccurate in my experience. I bought a 'used' Maple Valley home [LOL] in May 2013 and homes of all types were staying on the market for hours, not days or weeks. Very competitive market to buy - two homes sold on my block over the summer, again with no problems. You are going to spend 300K plus.

New construction in MV itself is becoming rarer b/c it is about built out - but those will run 350K plus as builders now have enough confidence to load up on gadgets (outdoor fireplaces were big when we were looking) to charge more.

We love it, relocated from Kansas, hope you make it.

[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)?

[Boxkicker]

Are you worried about car dependent? Is that a factor in your decision?

Takes about 30 minutes to get to SeaTac.


Great things are happening in Maple Valley:

“One of the 10 Best Towns for Families” 2011 - Family Circle Magazine

"The Best Places to Raise Kids 2013" - Businessweek Magazine

"The Best Towns in Washington for Raising Kids" 2013 - NerdWallet

"Top 10 Hottest Suburbs in the U.S." 2013 - CBS MoneyWatch

"Top Booming Suburbs In America" 2013 - Coldwell Banker

"The 50 Safest Cities in Washington" 2014 - SafeWise

"Maple Valley is the #4 place in Washington for homeownership" 2014 - NerdWallet

Maple Valley is in the "Top 10 Safest Places in Washington" 2014 MOVOTO Blog

“Maple Valley Among Top 5 Cities for Young Families in Washington” 2014 –Nerd Wallet