Would Burien or West Seattle be a good fit for us? (light rail, station)

[Salmonista]

If you're willing to go slightly farther south than Burien, Marvista Elementary in Normandy Park is a great school. I used to live in Burien and had friends with kids at that school.

This is a link to the school attendance area: Ratings and Reviews for Marvista Elementary School in Normandy Park WA | Zillow

[Ira500]

While I love Burien, there are only a few schools within the Highline school district that are considered good. Marvista, as Salmonista stated, has been considered very good for a long time. North Hill Elementary( not far from Marvista, but in Des Moines) is also considered very good. But outside of those, and Sylvester Middle School, most of the public schools in the Highline district just aren't very good. They have a good superintendent, and things seem to be improving. But transformation isn't instant. And because most of the schools are mediocre at best, a lot of parents do send their kids to private schools.
I'm not saying don't buy a house in Burien. And certainly visit the public schools.
West Seattle has better schools, particularly Fairmount Park, the STEM, Alki, Schmitz Park, and Lafayette. West Seattle is also more expensive than Burien( but less than Ballard).
But Burien does have the quaintest, coolest downtown area, which sort of reminds me a little of Market St. in Ballard in it's mix of fun shops and restaurants, and it's vibrancy.

[noah]

Now if only Aldi's could come to this area (Trader Joe's sister company but cheaper). Now that they are doing a major expansion to southern California there is hope.

Originally Posted by zeldaE

I'll be honest I was pretty excited about seeing a Grocery Outlet in the downtown area, that store is so weird and wonderful.

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by zeldaE

Thanks dhpeter, it's good to hear positive real estate stories these days! And thank you franklin42, it's really nice to hear from someone that actually lives in Burien! The more times we visit the better it gets, and having a Trader Joes so close is pretty exciting I'll be honest I was pretty excited about seeing a Grocery Outlet in the downtown area, that store is so weird and wonderful.

Grocery Outlet, Elliot Bay Brewing, and the Burien library are all within a half a block of each other. Grand Central bakery's another block further. Independent cinema a few blocks further. And great Mexican food. Burien's got it going on.

[zeldaE]

Thanks Ira500 for the real talk about the Highline (and surrounding) schools. Since we don't have a kiddo in school yet it's hard to grasp the exact importance of living near "good" schools (although, our oldest will enter Kinder in the fall, so we're almost there!)

The more I hear, the more Burien seems to have to much to offer, I can't figure out why it hasn't exploded in popularity yet. Maybe we can get in before the condos take over.

Noah, Aldi's would be pretty awesome. Being from the midwest that was a staple grocery store in our old neighborhood. Gotta love all those seasonal German goods!

[RustinginSeattle]

The airport and poor schools really hold Burien back. I grew up there. Sometimes it seemed like all the worst teachers were sent to my schools, because they couldn't fire them and the parents at my school were less likely to complain. As a kid, having a bad teacher really sucked. I was an A student and cared about learning.

I highly recommend looking into Normandy Park, but be warned it is more expensive than the rest of Burien. Also keep in mind that buying a home near a good school will hold and increase in value much more than a house near a poor school. You never know when you might need to sell. Also be very careful of airplane noise. Like lots of areas, the closer to the water, the better. Also put some distance between your house and White Center for better resale.

My best friend also sent her kids to St Francis and had excellent results (one of them is interviewing with Stanford for college entrance).

[Siphon9r]

RustinginSeattle is correct on the airport noise - there can be some but it really depends where you are. The central part of Burien is directly west of SeaTac and therefor doesn't get flights overhead. Living west of Ambaum we get less airport noise than I remember growing up in Federal Way. There are occasional foggy mornings where the noise seems to echo around, but most of the time it isn't something we notice.* One thing to consider is north versus south - most of the Seattle weather comes from the Southwest and that means most takeoffs are to the south as well.

As for schools, the posters above covered things pretty well. One more thing to consider as far as public/private is that St. Francis and St. Bernadette are relatively affordable private schools. Two kids at St. Francis is just over $1000/m (non-parish, in-parish is much cheaper) and I believe Bernadette is less. The one year we had a kid at Westside in West Seattle (also a good school) it was more than twice as much.

*One exception is Seafair when the Blue Angels are practicing/performing. On those days the planes taking off from SeaTac hairpin turn right over Burien but that's only a couple days each summer.

[cmswazey]

Ok, so we're mentioning Normandy Park. Nice area. What about Des Moines? That's right there, too.

[zeldaE]

We had a chance to spend a family day in Burien this weekend. We walked the downtown strip, and enjoyed some quality time in the lovely Seahurst park. I think the city has made some really great choices in revitalization of the downtown area. I especially like the outdoor parts near the library. Does anybody know what's going on with all of the large apartment/mixed use construction happening there? Living in Ballard we're used to lots of large construction projects, but it seems a bit ambitious for Burien. Will that all really sell/rent/fill??

[Ira500]

Originally Posted by zeldaE

We had a chance to spend a family day in Burien this weekend. We walked the downtown strip, and enjoyed some quality time in the lovely Seahurst park. I think the city has made some really great choices in revitalization of the downtown area. I especially like the outdoor parts near the library. Does anybody know what's going on with all of the large apartment/mixed use construction happening there? Living in Ballard we're used to lots of large construction projects, but it seems a bit ambitious for Burien. Will that all really sell/rent/fill??

When the Burien Library and City Hall were built, the plan was to build the Library/City Hall, the park, the condos, an apartment complex, and a retirement community. They built the City Hall/Library, the condos, and the park, and then the recession hit. So they're finishing up what they were planning on doing 7-8 years ago. It's ambitious, but it's really only a few hundred units of housing.
The condos went into foreclosure a few years ago, but are selling well now. I'm sure the retirement community will get full( Who wouldn't want to retire in Burien?
That leaves 150 ish apartment units. It's really quite close to downtown Seattle. They're probably get them rented. There are a bunch of newer apartment structures in downtown Renton, which is not quite as cool as downtown Burien. They have very few vacancies. They'll fill them up, provided Amazon doesn't relocate to Mississippi. It's the nature of the best right now, with a lot of people moving into the Seattle area. Not everybody's going to live on Capitol Hill or Ballard. Burien's almost as close.