HELP!!Need to know good and bad areas to live!! (Bellevue: for rent, low crime)

[rgoldsmith16]

We currently live in New Jersey and may be moving at the end of October. My boyfriend is getting a job at the Ft. Lewis Base, and I will probably be transfering to Bellevue.

I need to know a good place to live in between. I don't want to live around trashy people!! Low crime rate and no ghettos!!
HELP!!

[CityGirl72]

Your biggest determining factor will be your budget. How much are you willing to spend on housing, whether renting or buying. Monthly?

Common sense will tell you - the nicest, low crime areas, are going to be the most expensive

[Ira500]

There are a few places that come to mind between Ft. Lewis and Bellevue that are pretty nice, but some of them are not known for having good school districts, which might be of no concern to you...But here's a small sampling:

Steilacoom: Small town, closer to Fort Lewis, historic, pretty, overlooking Puget Sound.
Renton: ( Kennydale neighborhood or East Renton Highlands): Closer to Bellevue, near Lake Washington
Maple Valley: In between, but a bit closer to Bellevue, mostly rural but growing.
Normandy Park: In between, also near Puget Sound, considered more desirable than it's neighbor Burien...
What you may hear is an entire dismissal of a place without people taking into account that there are various neighborhoods within a place, as if people were saying " New Jersey stinks. It's a cesspool that's very dangerous."
Sure, Linden stinks, and Camden's dangerous, but you can't say that about Upper Montclair or Alpine or the shore area where Springsteen and Bon Jovi live.
Yeah, there are some crime ridden areas in Western Washington, but almost all of them are much nicer than places like Camden...So, when someone tells you things like " Avoid Renton, avoid Kent, avoid Burien", etc, take it with a grain of salt. Renton has scuzzy areas and also has mansions.

[rgoldsmith16]

We have no kids(thank god!) And we woould like to spend between $1000-$1200 for a house rental. I would prefer a rural area

[Ira500]

I'm not a huge Puyallup fan, but some people enjoy living there. They built a whole lot of new houses there over the last few years, without doing much to improve the roads, so traffic can be unbearable...On the plus side, they built a lot of new houses that aren't selling, so there should be a lot of them available for rent....
As far as places to avoid...stay away from Tillicum and those areas of Lakewood closest to the base....and add Des Moines to the list of places to consider. It's a pretty town that's small and has a single screen movie theatre in an old fashioned downtown.

[rgoldsmith16]

thanks Ira, for the good info,
what is your opinion of gig harbor?

[Ira500]

Gig Harbor is fabulous.

[allforcats]

I was originally from New York City, and I might understand some of your references. Western Washington doesn't have "trashy people" or "ghettoes". It's a different world here... So don't worry.