Need advice on moving up north - where are affordable homes - I dislike this dump town (puyallup) (Seattle: low income, condo)
Seattle areaSeattle and King County Suburbs
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I currently live down in the boonies of puyallup area. Full of rude, prejudice, redneck-like people.
I plan on moving up north some time next year during the summer time because most of my friends live either in downtown Seattle area, Factoria, Bellevue, Mercer Island, Kirkland, Shoreline or Lynnwood.
The dating scene is also way better up north, as I'm a single Asian guy, and there is no luck down here in boony-ville puyallup. I usually end up driving to places like Factoria, downtown Seattle, Kirkland or Bellevue for potential date meet-ups. NO potential dates in pierce county, including the Tacoma area.
Anyhow, my question to you peeps is which areas up north have affordable houses in good/safe neighborhoods. I'm talking about a decent-sized house for a family - perhaps a 3-4 bedroom house. I'm looking at paying $500-$850K for a house, and a probable estimated down-payment of $300-$500K.
My current girlfriend lives in Lynnwood, and I'm eye-balling places like Shoreline, Mulkiteo, Bothell or Kirkland.
I dislike the LOOONGGG commute that I have to drive from puyallup all the way up to Lynnwood.
My other question is,....are Kirkland houses really that expensive? I thought only Bellevue area had the most expensive houses/condo's in the Seattle metro area. I was keenly looking at the Kirkland housing market.
If I were to let's say, live in Shoreline or Northgate area, how bad is the commute from the Shoreline/Lynnwood area towards downtown Seattle?
First of all, if you have 300-500k cash, why the help would you be living in puyallup in the first place?
Second, you I initially say you're single then you mention a current gf. Which is it?
You can easily get a place in north Kirkland for 850k. Redmond also has quite a few options at that price.
I currently live down in the boonies of puyallup area. Full of rude, prejudice, redneck-like people.
I plan on moving up north some time next year during the summer time because most of my friends live either in downtown Seattle area, Factoria, Bellevue, Mercer Island, Kirkland, Shoreline or Lynnwood.
The dating scene is also way better up north, as I'm a single Asian guy, and there is no luck down here in boony-ville puyallup. I usually end up driving to places like Factoria, downtown Seattle, Kirkland or Bellevue for potential date meet-ups. NO potential dates in pierce county, including the Tacoma area.
Anyhow, my question to you peeps is which areas up north have affordable houses in good/safe neighborhoods. I'm talking about a decent-sized house for a family - perhaps a 3-4 bedroom house. I'm looking at paying $500-$850K for a house, and a probable estimated down-payment of $300-$500K.
My current girlfriend lives in Lynnwood, and I'm eye-balling places like Shoreline, Mulkiteo, Bothell or Kirkland.
I dislike the LOOONGGG commute that I have to drive from puyallup all the way up to Lynnwood.
My other question is,....are Kirkland houses really that expensive? I thought only Bellevue area had the most expensive houses/condo's in the Seattle metro area. I was keenly looking at the Kirkland housing market.
If I were to let's say, live in Shoreline or Northgate area, how bad is the commute from the Shoreline/Lynnwood area towards downtown Seattle?
Typically the person that chooses to move so far south is someone that has a family, wants a larger house for less money and is willing to have a long commute. Same with Maple Valley where they have a reputation for good solid schools. The costs are lower because the commute is longer and less time is more money. The reason Kirkland is almost as expensive as Bellevue is because has the 520 Evergreen floating bridge right across to Seattle, has a great downtown on the waterfront with marinas, etc and is close in to everything. Kirkland and Puyallup have nothing in common.
If you can afford Kirkland, it's a great investment but the area along the waterfront will be substantially more, even for a condo because water views. There are less expensive parts of Kirkland which then takes you to Redmond, Woodinville and Bothell which are all connecting around that area. Then there's Lynnwood at the top of 405 which is just sort of strip mallish but not bad. Lynnwood could use taking a chapter out of the book Bothell is writing and create a cohesive downtown.
Typically the person that chooses to move so far south is someone that has a family, wants a larger house for less money and is willing to have a long commute. Same with Maple Valley where they have a reputation for good solid schools. The costs are lower because the commute is longer and less time is more money. The reason Kirkland is almost as expensive as Bellevue is because has the 520 Evergreen floating bridge right across to Seattle, has a great downtown on the waterfront with marinas, etc and is close in to everything. Kirkland and Puyallup have nothing in common.
If you can afford Kirkland, it's a great investment but the area along the waterfront will be substantially more, even for a condo because water views. There are less expensive parts of Kirkland which then takes you to Redmond, Woodinville and Bothell which are all connecting around that area. Then there's Lynnwood at the top of 405 which is just sort of strip mallish but not bad. Lynnwood could use taking a chapter out of the book Bothell is writing and create a cohesive downtown.
Just curious why you think Kirkland is a great investment?
I would think both Bellevue and Redmond would be the better choices given the imminent East Link Extension.
Just curious why you think Kirkland is a great investment?
I would think both Bellevue and Redmond would be the better choices given the imminent East Link Extension.
They are but the poster asked about Kirkland and Kirkland is on Lake Washington, has a very dynamic downtown, adjacent to Bellevue while having easy access to the 520 floating bridge, even with the toll, it's a faster bridge and IMO more attractive to travel on. Kirkland has this for $5M
That's not to say that Bellevue or Redmond are less appealing and I'm not a realtor but I don't think anyone doubts that Kirkland is doing well. I just found this and was surprised to see Juanita-Woodinville so high. Juanita is Kirkland and Woodinville is relatively small with only about 11K people and fewer homes but larger lots. IMO anything between Bothell and Renton is a good investment. Townhomes in Lynnwood over $500K? That's surprising.
The appreciation in Redmond IMO is higher because there is more room to grow. Kirkland is already high. If I were to rank, it would be Bellevue>Kirkland>Redmond, but again I'm not a realtor.
They are but the poster asked about Kirkland and Kirkland is on Lake Washington, has a very dynamic downtown, adjacent to Bellevue while having easy access to the 520 floating bridge, even with the toll, it's a faster bridge and IMO more attractive to travel on. Kirkland has this for $5M
That's not to say that Bellevue or Redmond are less appealing and I'm not a realtor but I don't think anyone doubts that Kirkland is doing well. I just found this and was surprised to see Juanita-Woodinville so high. Juanita is Kirkland and Woodinville is relatively small with only about 11K people and fewer homes but larger lots. IMO anything between Bothell and Renton is a good investment. Townhomes in Lynnwood over $500K? That's surprising.
The appreciation in Redmond IMO is higher because there is more room to grow. Kirkland is already high. If I were to rank, it would be Bellevue>Kirkland>Redmond, but again I'm not a realtor.
Thanks for your insight regardless.
PS: Wish I had 5M. I wonder what the maintenance cost would be though lol.
They are but the poster asked about Kirkland and Kirkland is on Lake Washington, has a very dynamic downtown, adjacent to Bellevue while having easy access to the 520 floating bridge, even with the toll, it's a faster bridge and IMO more attractive to travel on. Kirkland has this for $5M
That's not to say that Bellevue or Redmond are less appealing and I'm not a realtor but I don't think anyone doubts that Kirkland is doing well. I just found this and was surprised to see Juanita-Woodinville so high. Juanita is Kirkland and Woodinville is relatively small with only about 11K people and fewer homes but larger lots. IMO anything between Bothell and Renton is a good investment. Townhomes in Lynnwood over $500K? That's surprising.
The appreciation in Redmond IMO is higher because there is more room to grow. Kirkland is already high. If I were to rank, it would be Bellevue>Kirkland>Redmond, but again I'm not a realtor.
Part of the answer is that particular markets sometimes appreciate in price in advance of something actually happening. So it's possible that the price appreciation in Bellevue and Redmond, which have been very robust in recent years, has already largely happened, in anticipation of the light rail coming.
The last few months, the Skyway area has been as hot as any area within a half hour of Seattle. Is it because Skyway is cool or groovy, or underrated because of it's great schools? No way. Schools have improved, but they're still not considered very good. There are still a fair amount of low income people in Skyway. Many of the streets lack sidewalks. The retail district has empty storefronts.
So why have house prices been skyrocketing? A couple of reasons. One is that there are nice views and large trees around(there's room for houses, some with big lots), and another is that Skyway saw huge price declines in the 2007-2010ish decline)and is now just making up for it. Although there's an increase in the number of people moving into Seattle with healthy incomes, it's akin to a game of musical chairs. Five years ago, there were a lot of nice houses in decent areas, within a half hour of downtown Seattle(at least non rush hour)for 500,000 or under. Now, in a lot of areas, if you find anything at all under 500,000, it will be very small or need a lot of work, or be in an area that nobody's really seeking out. Like Skyway.
PS: Wish I had 5M. I wonder what the maintenance cost would be though lol.
It may sell higher than $5M, it says they will review offers in six days. I'm curious to see what that closes at, it's really nice.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ira500
Part of the answer is that particular markets sometimes appreciate in price in advance of something actually happening. So it's possible that the price appreciation in Bellevue and Redmond, which have been very robust in recent years, has already largely happened, in anticipation of the light rail coming.
The last few months, the Skyway area has been as hot as any area within a half hour of Seattle. Is it because Skyway is cool or groovy, or underrated because of it's great schools? No way. Schools have improved, but they're still not considered very good. There are still a fair amount of low income people in Skyway. Many of the streets lack sidewalks. The retail district has empty storefronts.
So why have house prices been skyrocketing? A couple of reasons. One is that there are nice views and large trees around(there's room for houses, some with big lots), and another is that Skyway saw huge price declines in the 2007-2010ish decline)and is now just making up for it. Although there's an increase in the number of people moving into Seattle with healthy incomes, it's akin to a game of musical chairs. Five years ago, there were a lot of nice houses in decent areas, within a half hour of downtown Seattle(at least non rush hour)for 500,000 or under. Now, in a lot of areas, if you find anything at all under 500,000, it will be very small or need a lot of work, or be in an area that nobody's really seeking out. Like Skyway.
Thanks Ira and we have never lived further south than Bellevue so not an expert in those areas. We have friends that bought in Maple Valley because they have these estate sized lots and they are willing to drive for good schools and the large lot sizes.
Focus on a small home in a close in Seattle neighborhood. Ballard, Phinney Ridge, Green Lake, Maple Leaf, Bryant, Roosevelt would all be good choices. They would give you reasonable commute time, cafes, pubs and lots to do close by, also in areas that are highly desirable so a good chance of value appreciation.
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