Seattle suburbs - HELP!!! (Bellevue, Shoreline: fit in, for rent, condos)

[cabolissa]

My husband and I are considering moving to Seattle but we have two small children, and don't want to live in the city. I'm interested in a suburb of 50,000 people or so, but (THIS IS KEY) is not too far to commute to Seattle. I'm a paralegal and will likely be driving downtown for work. I don't want to drive more than 30 mins each way. Is this possible??? Is there mass transit (trains) connecting Seattle with any suburbs?

I don't mind the "cookie cutter" type areas. Love the Target type stores, and don't need to be in the mountains. But we'll likely start out in a 2 bedroom condo or apt and hopefully buy a property a couple years later.

Looking mostly for relatively new, low crime, good school areas.

HELP PLEASE!!!

[CityGirl72]

Most people use mass transit to commute. If you drove into downtown - most places to park could be $10 to $12 a day. You will probably take a bus.

Try Issaquah, Sammamish, or if you don't mind the length, I like Maple Valley

NorthBend is nice but a bit farther out

Remond and Bellevue are closer but more exspensive.

Stay out of Seattle for suburbs and stick to the "Eastside"

[Ira500]

There are parts of Renton within the Issaquah school district, which is an excellent school district, but being Renton it'll be a little less expensive to live, and stores like Target will be close by, as there's one in Renton and one in Issaquah...There are also parts of Renton in the Tahoma( Maple Valley)School District, also considered very good.
North of Seattle, consider Shoreline or Lake Forest Park...Good school districts and pretty area.

[woodinvilleguy]

add Woodinville to your list as well. Great schools and I found great people there.

[texastrigirl]

Having just moved here in a similar situation, we chose the south end of Sammamish which is a 45-55 min commute on the bus to the heart of downtown from our front door to Columbia Tower. Issaquah is nice as well and both have great access to the Park N Rides with Express buses because generally, you will want to ride the bus downtown. Issaquah Highlands has lots of condos for rent and is right on a major Express Bus line. But all of the places mentioned above would be fine as well. Though Snoqualmie Ridge is farther out, is has a really nice family feel to it but it would be a haul. I don't know if a 30 min commute is possible in rush hour without living in the city. We are 20-25 minutes out in non rush hour traffic. You don't mention price range because we found that to be the barrier between what we wanted and where we ended up. Don't get me wrong. Sammamish a nice place to live and I feel blessed to be here but we would have preferred Bellevue for location (Eastgate is another huge Express Bus hub) but it was just too expensive for us. So you may put your price out there and you will get more informative answers.

[SeattlitefromNC]

Originally Posted by cabolissa

My husband and I are considering moving to Seattle but we have two small children, and don't want to live in the city. I'm interested in a suburb of 50,000 people or so, but (THIS IS KEY) is not too far to commute to Seattle. I'm a paralegal and will likely be driving downtown for work. I don't want to drive more than 30 mins each way. Is this possible??? Is there mass transit (trains) connecting Seattle with any suburbs?

I don't mind the "cookie cutter" type areas. Love the Target type stores, and don't need to be in the mountains. But we'll likely start out in a 2 bedroom condo or apt and hopefully buy a property a couple years later.

Looking mostly for relatively new, low crime, good school areas.

HELP PLEASE!!!

I don't think anyone could name a place outside of the city that has a reliable commute under 30 minutes. This, unfortunately, is largely due to geography.

Seattle proper is surrounded on by two very big bodies of water on each side -- Lake Washington and the Puget Sound. When people refer to the suburbs here, they are usually speaking of Eastside neighborhoods; Eastside meaning that these communities are east of Seattle ... across Lake Washington. Because the Eastside is separated by this large lake, the communities on the other end are largely dependent on two highways.

Those highways are state highway 520 and interstate 90. Both are floating bridges, which means that traffic has nowhere to go if things go bad. Therein lies the problem with answering your question.

State highway 520 has two lanes of traffic on each side, and I-90 has four lanes of traffic on each side. That's six lanes of traffic to service a population that is well over one million.

As you can imagine, this is a logistical nightmare.

The same waterways that make Seattle gorgeous make this place a horror to navigate, and given your qualifications, I would suggest that you decide how much time you want to devote to your commute. There are days when the commute across the water takes 20 minutes, and there are days when it takes over an hour. The commute times can be a bit volatile in the Seattle area.

Another thing to consider is that the family friendly communities tend to be in places such as Bellevue, Redmond, Sammamish, Issaquah ... the Eastside communities. You will find families similar to yours in those communities, but all of those communities are at the mercy of the two aforementioned highways, should you choose to work in Downtown Seattle. A lot of people make that commute, so you won't be alone. But, it's something to think about.

Many people here make living close to work a priority, and if that is the route that you want to take, then that would limit you to living in the city. If you want to live in the suburbs, then you make peace with a longer (and unpredictable) commute. Those are more or less the choices, dictated by the unique geography and undeniably dense and volatile traffic.

[AzDreamer]

Mercer Island is only 15 minutes from downtown Seattle and there are plenty of buses heading that way from the park and ride if you decide you don't like driving.

[Ira500]

Renton is reliably 20 minutes from Seattle, and there are less traveled non freeway alternatives to do that.

[Prple]

-Bainbridge Island, nice ferry ride away. Very nice area with great schools.
-Snoqualmie Ridge might also be an option. Snoqualmie Ridge - New Home Master-Planned Community from Murray Franklyn FOC and Quadrant Homes The commute is about 30 minutes to downtown Seattle (or at least it used to be). Its a nice, new master planned community with a downtown area and elementary school. But beware that the weather is a bit more severe there with more wind and fog, etc.

[Moving2SeattleSoon]

I'm in the same boat. (or car... or bus...) Our family is moving there very soon. How does Kirkland fit in to this picture for a home up to $550K?

Thanks.