Home buying near Seattle (Bellevue, Shoreline: real estate, to rent, house)

[jj20]

My family and I are considering moving to Seattle. Both my wife and I are RN's and I am interested in working at Seattle Children's Hospital, and my wife is a psych/drug and alcohol nurse. We have 2 kids ages 4 and 1. We would like to an area either in Seattle or outside to an area no further than 30 drive to Seattle Children's Hosp. A good school district would be ideal and we would go up to about $500,000 for a home. We would be moving from Philadelphia, so getting any info about a possible move would be helpful. My wife and I would like a little change and have been to Seattle before and enjoyed the area. Thanks again for any info.

[Ira500]

Hi JJ20,
The Wedgewood neighborhood in Seattle is very nice, close to Children's Hospital, and the Wedgewood Elementary school is considered very good, but in general the Seattle school district is lacking. Not real far away would be Shoreline, Lake Forest Park, Kenmore, Bothell,and Juanita, all in good school districts....Lots of people who work at Children's Hospital and the UW live on the Eastside, Bellevue and Kirkland, which could be less than a 30 minute commute and are both great school districts, but also involve crossing the bridge and dealing with State Road 520, which can be a horrible nightmare.
I just spent a week in New Jersey and flew into Philly and experienced traffic every bit as bad as Seattle's, so maybe you're used to it.

[allforcats]

These resources might help you pinpoint Ira500's excellent suggestions.
Seattle City Clerk's map of Seattle neighborhoods, with all their names; click anywhere to enlarge:
Seattle City Clerk's Neighborhood Map Atlas
This is my favorite site for listings, as it seems to be the most inclusive; you can fine-tune info almost endlessly here:
TheMLSonline.com - Seattle Real Estate, Top Seattle Real Estate Search - Call 425-467-6577

We generally advise people to rent for 6 months or more when they first get here, as every neighborhood, even every block, can have a different "feel", view, commute, available resources, and so forth.

[ink]

I have a similar question. We're considering a move to Seattle from Salt Lake. I have job prospects with Amazon. We have a 9-year-old and a 4-year-old; both in excellent public schools in Salt Lake. We live close to downtown at a 10-minute commute to work. Our house was built in 1948 -- 2,000 square feet; a cute little brick house in the old neighborhoods close to the university.

My wife wants to work at the university of Washington cancer center; or at some place further south (I forget the name, but it's in Seattle proper). We'd prefer not to spend more than $350k in Seattle -- is it even possible to live close to these locales on that much? Something with at least 3 bedrooms and a garage?

[Ira500]

You can find a 3 bdrm with a garage and within a 15-20 minute drive to UW for 350,000( barely), but not with great schools, or you can find that with great schools but more like 45 minutes away, but not likely the good schools and the close in for 350...Shoreline is one of the northern suburbs with good schools and lower housing prices. Within the City of Seattle, there are some great schools in a very mediocre school district, but those schools are likely in more expensive neighborhoods...
Maple Valley is a bit further away with lower prices and good schools, and parts of Renton are in the good Maple Valley (Tahoma) district and parts of Renton are in the good Issaquah district, but the Renton district itself is getting better but still not good.
I've seen some major fixers in Bellevue for just a little more than 350...but prices are still coming down.

[texastrigirl]

My husband works for Amazon. We live in Sammamish (as do many people who work at Amazon) and he commutes on the bus. It takes 45-55 minutes. Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center is downtown as well but I think you'd have to switch buses to get there from out here right now. Amazon is moving to SLU area in a few years which will make the commute from out here a bit more tricky assuming they change nothing about the current bus routes (we are hopeful they will). Sammamish has great schools (Issaquah School District in our part) but is priced a bit higher. We moved here from Texas a year ago. Our initial price range was under $400K and we ended up a bit over $600K. Ha! But it's working out okay. Bellevue is more expensive than Sammamish and Issaquah generally. But being by the Eastgate Park and Ride would give a ton of flexibility in schedules.

[azoria]

Slu?

[SeattlitefromNC]

Originally Posted by azoria

Slu?

South Lake Union

[jamesandveybe]

Well, aside from now being a horrid time to buy real estate (unless you ask someone in sales), you must live in the city to commute to Children's. In Seattle, live no further than 5 miles from work if you expect to be driving the normal busy times and consider 30 minutes to be your door-to-door maximum. At that distance, the bus should take about the same amount of time as driving. Children's has a free shuttle bus system running every 15-20 minutes from Children's to downtown Children's support offices.

[Ira500]

It's good to live close to public transit. For example, 125th and Lake City Way is a transit hub, meaning a lot of routes converge there, including one that is a 5 minute bus ride to Children's Hospital. That may not be a great area to live, but the 522 Sound Transit bus runs there from Lake Forest Park, a great neighborhood, a 10 minute ride, and the Metro route 330 runs from Shoreline Community College, another nice neighborhood, also about a 10 minute bus ride. Neither of these areas are in the Seattle city limits, yet are within 30 minute bus rides to Children's Hospital.
...Is it a horrid time to buy real estate?
Yes, if you're thinking of it strictly as an investment and you want to sell it in a couple of years...Prices have come down in the Seattle area by about 8% thus far and there's no reason to believe that it's reversing any time soon, but there are many reasons people have to want to buy a home, and it's not all based on financial practicality. Right now, renting costs a whole lot less than buying, but some people feel like it's not their home unless they own it,and don't feel happy and secure until they own a home, and, at any point since the depression of 1929 if you bought a house it would be worth more 5-7 years later. I'm not saying it's a good time to buy a home as I see prices continuing to drop for another year, but if you plan on owning it for at least 5-7 years and can afford to make the payments, it doesn't strike me as something akin to suicide.