Edmonds or elsewhere for commute & school?

[Ira500]

Edmonds is a perfectly nice place. Nice town, good schools. But if I were working in Bellevue? I'd look for a house in a lot of places before I'd look in Edmonds. Because of the commute. You might get lucky some days and have it take 45 minutes. But more typically it'll be double that during the "rush hour" commute. Pretty much all the options are bad. 405 can be horrible, I-5 can be horrible. And 522? Jammed, jammed, jammed, a lot. Try google mapping it Monday at 7:30-8 AM Seattle time. it won't be pretty. I think the traffic here was rated either 4th or 6th in the nation recently. So we're getting noted for high house prices and bad traffic. They don't put that in the brochures.
To get that "more space between houses" thing, you'll either need to buy something that's not new construction, or further out. Much of the new construction in the last 10 years or so is on tiny lots. People don't all want the same thing. Is a nicer house on a larger lot in a good school district worth three hours a day commuting? It wouldn't be for me, but it would for some people.

[CrazyDonkey]

I suspect that you're not hearing from those doing this commute because relatively few are. It could take you 45 minutes, depending on traffic conditions, just to get to I-405 going east, or SR-520 going south, and then...

It isn't just a matter of an average time, but of unpredictability. Unless you have a boss that will tolerate you frequently arriving 15-20 minutes late, you'll need to plan for worse-case, if not necessarily worst-case, scenarios. Google Maps will give you an average for the current or specified trip - I'd pad it by at least another 25% to be safe. Also realize that the morning commute might be doable, while it is the return afternoon commute that is the killer.

Because of our geography (high hills and large bodies of water), you'll often have only one or two route choices. You can't "hop freeways" like in L.A., for instance, simply because there are few or no freeways to hop - we don't refer to I-5 as "the Freeway" for nothing. On average, I think the "crosslake" route (I-5/SR-520) will be relatively more predictable than the "around the lake" route (SR-524 or SR-522/I-405), unless you're willing to pay $10 tolls, both ways. The latter route is also a "crosstown" route, which around here can be very problematic.

Until you actually dry run a route at the time you'll be driving it, you can't know if it will drive you completely insane or not. Having the illusion of getting somewhere faster, by being able to hop routes or take backroads, is one thing; being stuck like a "rat in a trap", on a regular basis, feeling you're going nowhere, fast, is entirely something else.

Don't lock yourself into only one neighborhood, no matter how nice it seems, but consider all your options, looking at all factors, not just a couple. Having more rooms, square footage, and yard for your money is scant compensation if you can't enjoy it, because you're stuck in your car pulling your hair out by its roots (figuratively or otherwise).

[perigee]

Like everyone said, that would be a terrible commute, depending on where you live in Edmonds you could be facing a multiple choke points on your commute. Your housing dollar probably goes further in Pittsburgh so you might want to point out the positives you will be getting in return for maybe a step down in the housing market. The schools on the east side are outstanding, the mountains and lakes offer views and hiking, there is plenty of Asian restaurants and grocery stores and you'll be that much closer to the passes if you want to try skiing or if you already ski, plus you can just continue over and experience a completely different environment in eastern Washington.

[redrum]

As mentioned by a previous poster, Edmonds to Bellevue will depend on the exact location you're commuting between. Both Bellevue and Edmonds stretch pretty far north-to-south.

8 years ago I used to commute daily from south Edmonds (approx 236th and 99) to south Bellevue (Factoria area). It was 23 miles taking I-5 south and I-90 east, or 27 miles if I looped around the lake by taking I-5 north and 405 south. Either way it was pretty bad. In the mornings it took anywhere between 40 minutes and 1 hour 15 minutes depending on traffic to get to Bellevue (never knowing how long it'd take was one of the biggest aggravations). In the evenings driving home to Edmonds, it'd be another 15 minutes or so on top of that estimate. I wouldn't recommend it to anyone. Fortunately my job relocated to Bothell which cut the commute time in half, otherwise I'm quite sure I would have quit.