Redmond: can my expectations be met? (Seattle, Kirkland: crime, house, luxury)

[jwb123]

No, it's not from home to work. The shuttles take you around from building to building, campus to campus.


If your price range is truly "open" yes, of course, you can find the house you want.

[allforcats]

Jenbar, thanks for the info about the shuttle busses! Now we know. I wonder why there always seem to be so many people on the bus -- stuff to do elsewhere I guess.

[badgersgirl]

[SIZE=3]You can ride the Microsoft buses to work and there are designated collection/drop of points. Currently the routes run between 5 areas [/SIZE]Capitol Hill/First Hill, Queen Anne/Belltown, Mill Creek/Bothell, Issaquah/South Sammamish and Snoqualmie/Issaquah.

[SIZE=3]http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/business/339380_msftconnector13.html[/SIZE]

[jwb123]

Interesting - must be a new thing since we left.

[scirocco22]

This article is several months old but describes the pilot program fairly well:

Microsoft bus system hits a bump in road

[LivinginSeattle]

we recently bought a house in Unionhill road (Sunset estate). the ares is very nice and family friendly. the best thing is less than to 10 minutes to the millennium campus. the area is 30 years old, there are some newer construction nearby, but the price is very high, from hight 600k to over 1 million.
We did not buy new construction, since over population and no yard.
ourhouse is over 500k, we decide go to renovation road.
Good luck for new constructions

[Prple]

Check out Snoqualmie Ridge. The neighborhood has tons of Microsoft employees, I think it is about a 20 minute commute, with minimal traffic. You can spend anywhere from $400k and up for a new house. Snoqualmie Ridge is a lot like Redmond Ridge, but less expensive and farther out. Good luck!

[Eeyorefan]

We moved to Redmond in in 1997 and had a great place up on Union Hill Road. In 1997, it took 10 minutes to drive from our house to the Microsoft buildings. (We don't work for Microsoft). By 2004, the same drive, at the same time of day, took 30 minutes...and that was if no one had an accident and/or one of the traffic lights wasn't working.

We moved to Issaquah.

I do have friends (a married couple) who work at Microsoft. One works at the Millennium buildings and one at the main campus. They live in Duvall and they come over Novelty Hill to work. It does take him less than 30 minutes to get to the Millennium campus. I also know that she often goes in at later times than the average commuter, which makes her commute to the main campus pretty close to 30 minutes as well. Several people I know at MS don't go in at what the rest of us consider rush hour and seem to have MS' blessing on that?

Anyway, Duvall has a LOT of new neighborhoods/construction and might be a possibility. There's quite a small-town feel there although it's growing quickly.

[jwb123]

20 mins commute to MS in Redmond from Snoqualmie Ridge? Not even on a good day - not even by helicopter.

[jwb123]

Duvall is cute, and I would recommend it as a cute town to live....

We looked at homes there several times. Our concern was the school, it's a smaller district, not a lot of money and still pretty rural (this was 4-5 years ago) so not as progressive as some of the other districts, and we have a special needs child, so top districts are a definite need for us. Special needs programs are always the last to be funded...

ALSO - commuting into Duvall was on a two lane road, one lane going in, one lane going out... so that was a concern to us as well.

I do think it's a town to watch, I am just not sure if it's there yet.