Welcome to City-Data.com Forum!
U.S. CitiesCity-Data Forum Index
Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Washington > Seattle area
 [Register]
Seattle area Seattle and King County Suburbs
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
View detailed profile (Advanced) or search
site with Google Custom Search

Search Forums  (Advanced)
Reply Start New Thread
 
Old 09-07-2008, 01:03 PM
 
8 posts, read 29,650 times
Reputation: 11

Advertisements

I am totally lost. My family and I are originally from San Diego, CA. We were forced out by high prices. So we relocated to Cedar City, UT. Unfortunately things did not work out. So we are looking to relocate to the Seattle area. I have been doing research trying to find an area where we can live. Just like everyone else, we want a nice place to live, clean, safe, not too expensive, and good schools. Where is that? Does it exist? I keep running into contradictory information, which makes it hard to make a decision. We are going to rent before we move but I have a teenager that needs to go to school so I don't want to keep moving her around. We got burned very badly by an HOA so we want to choose our new home carefully.

How are HOA's regulated in Washington? Utah has no regulation.

As far as housing goes, we don't want to spend more than $360,000 on a home. Is it realistic?

I have a possible job offer and am planning to visit, but I need a jumping off point. Any suggestions? I heard that Kent is not good. Any suggestions?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message

 
Old 09-07-2008, 01:09 PM
 
Location: Washington State
389 posts, read 1,072,615 times
Reputation: 259
Avoid HOA's. At all costs. Anywhere. Any group that tries to tell you how to use property that you own should not be permitted, by law, to exist.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-07-2008, 03:02 PM
 
9,618 posts, read 27,273,205 times
Reputation: 5382
In most of Seattle and the Eastside you wouldn't be able to find a house for under 360,000 dollars. But in South Seattle, Renton, Tukwila, Burien, and Kent you would.
Some people paint a place with a broad brush, like saying avoid Kent or avoid Renton, but I can assure you that comments like that are from people who don't know those areas really well.Both of those places are mostly pretty nice, and Kent in particular has some very highly regarded elementary schools. Most of Kent and most of Renton are also pretty safe. Maple Valley, near both Kent and Renton has an excellent school district.
If you wanted to go north, Shoreline has a pretty good school district, though the part along Aurora Ave can be a bit sketchy.
In what part of the Seattle area is your possible job offer?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-07-2008, 03:23 PM
 
8 posts, read 29,650 times
Reputation: 11
The job offer is South Seattle.

Hearing that makes me feel better. I found some very cute homes in Covington (near Kent). I see a lot of negativity towards Kent. From what I can tell there is a commuter train and it stops in Kent. Is that correct?

We are not a fan of HOAs but I know that it is hard to avoid them. Does anyone know if there is some HOA regulation in WA?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-07-2008, 03:37 PM
 
9,618 posts, read 27,273,205 times
Reputation: 5382
Yes, the Sounder commuter train does stop in Kent, as well as Auburn, Tukwila, Puyallup, and Tacoma. They don't run all day and they don't go many places but they are a pleasant way to commute. Unlike Southern California, a lot of "regular folk" ride the buses here and like it, people actually choose to ride the bus...
As far as HOA rules in the state of Washington, how about:

http://search.leg.wa.gov/wslrcw/RCW%20%2064%20%20TITLE/RCW%20%2064%20.%2038%20%20CHAPTER/RCW%20%2064%20.%2038%20%20chapter.htm (broken link)
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-07-2008, 05:56 PM
 
9,618 posts, read 27,273,205 times
Reputation: 5382
Covington has seen a lot of growth over the last few years, and has the traffic to go along with that...It borders Maple Valley, which has better schools. Covington is mostly in the Kent school district. If you're in the Kent district the best high school there is supposedly Kentridge.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-07-2008, 08:14 PM
 
8 posts, read 29,650 times
Reputation: 11
Thank you. Ira50, I appreciate the tips.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-08-2008, 09:50 PM
 
300 posts, read 1,209,134 times
Reputation: 113
Quote:
Originally Posted by ArcticPhoenix View Post
Avoid HOA's. At all costs. Anywhere. Any group that tries to tell you how to use property that you own should not be permitted, by law, to exist.
Then who is going to enforce the law?

HOAs have their place. We moved into an area without one in Dallas years ago (which is very, very, unusual for anywhere in urban Texas) and it was alright, except...

The guy down the street who decided to take all the grass out of his yard and put in rocks. Then remove most (but not all) of the rocks and replace them with weeds. Then they removed a few of the weeds and put in shrubs that were never watered and died, but left them there for effect.

Or the guy who decided he really wanted a huge steel shed in his back yard to put old cars in. It took up his entire back yard and was quite big.

Yeah, I'm all for not having people nit pick my choice of house paint colors or write me up for petty crap, but property values are a major component to a lot of people's finances (enter Fannie Mae / Freddie Mac saga) and having something in place where you can keep people from doing things that are going to destroy your property value isn't a bad thing. They're taking money out of your pocket (eventually) by tearing up the neighborhood. Just be sure to find an HOA that is locally administered and be sure you get along with the people who run it before buying into the neighborhood. It's the corporate run HOAs that are out to turn a buck that suck bigtime.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-09-2008, 08:18 AM
 
Location: WA
4,242 posts, read 8,756,763 times
Reputation: 2375
So, why does it even matter if some guy has a shed or weeds? Big deal. Is it really worth it to have someone tell you the 15 approved trees that you're allowed to plant in your front yard (Cary, NC), what color you can paint your house or how often you have to mow your fescue monoculture yard?
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
 
Old 09-09-2008, 11:55 AM
 
1,305 posts, read 2,741,882 times
Reputation: 238
Quote:
Originally Posted by seattlenextyear View Post
So, why does it even matter if some guy has a shed or weeds? Big deal. Is it really worth it to have someone tell you the 15 approved trees that you're allowed to plant in your front yard (Cary, NC), what color you can paint your house or how often you have to mow your fescue monoculture yard?
Seattle and King County are both very strong governments and have written many typical HOA rules into the city and county codes. Instead of an HOA telling you about planting or saving trees, the city government does that. So you don't see the same kind of HOAs here in Seattle that you do in California, Arizona, or North Carolina.
Reply With Quote Quick reply to this message
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.

Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.


Reply
Please update this thread with any new information or opinions. This open thread is still read by thousands of people, so we encourage all additional points of view.

Quick Reply
Message:


Settings
X
Data:
Loading data...
Based on 2000-2020 data
Loading data...

123
Hide US histogram


Over $104,000 in prizes was already given out to active posters on our forum and additional giveaways are planned!

Go Back   City-Data Forum > U.S. Forums > Washington > Seattle area

All times are GMT -6.

© 2005-2024, Advameg, Inc. · Please obey Forum Rules · Terms of Use and Privacy Policy · Bug Bounty

City-Data.com - Contact Us - Archive 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37 - Top