Residential areas near Microsoft? (Seattle, Bellevue: real estate market, condos, townhomes)

[marylee54]

We have a potential job offer with Microsoft so are looking at relocating.

What are some good areas within reasonable driving commute of MS? Bedroom communities, with excellent schools, parks, etc, family-oriented, maybe around 300K range? To give me an idea of where to start searching.

[allforcats]

Originally Posted by marylee54

What are some good areas within reasonable driving commute of MS? Bedroom communities, with excellent schools, parks, etc, family-oriented,

Welcome to the area!
Redmond, Bellevue, Mercer Island, Issaquah, Sammamish, Kirkland, Woodinville, Bothell, Duvall, Carnation, northeastern Renton... You'll notice from a map that these are the cities around Microsoft; it's all good around there. The "best" school districts, according to C-D posters, are usually (in no particular order) Bellevue, Mercer Island, Issaquah which also includes part of northeastern Renton, and the Lake Washington district which includes parts of Kirkland and Redmond.

Originally Posted by marylee54

maybe around 300K range?

That's not quite so easy; that price might be low, although there are many, many wonderful condos and townhomes in those cities that might suit you. Here's the site with the most inclusive listings:
TheMLSonline.com - Seattle Real Estate, Top Seattle Real Estate Search - Call 425-467-6577

Three ideas we usually suggest to people:
1 -- rent first, for 6 months or so. There's a lot of geography here, and a variety of differences between areas. If you intend to purchase before you know anything about the area, you could find yourself locked for a long time into a location you don't want to live in.
2 -- the real estate market here is currently in a fairly slow decline, but not everywhere. You might purchase too high if you don't know the area.
3 -- know first exactly where you will be working. Commuting by car or by public transportation can be and often is extremely time-consuming, so living near the work location can be critical to your family life and happiness.

Here are a lot of recent City-Data threads answering lots of questions:
http://www.city-data.com/forum/searc...archid=6673335

and recent threads about schools in King County (where MS and all those cities I mentioned above are located):
http://www.city-data.com/forum/searc...archid=6673396

You will have a relocation specialist at MS whose advice you can ask, whose job it is to help you relocate. He or she should be a helpful resource for you.

[jwb123]

What are some good areas within reasonable driving commute of MS?

What's reasonable to you?

Bedroom communities, with excellent schools, parks, etc, family-oriented, maybe around 300K range?

Not going to happen.

[marylee54]

Thanks for the great advice, give me something to start researching!

We don't know yet if he has the offer, still in the pending stage, would like something to start researching with. Thanks again!