suburbs of seattle help please (Tacoma, Bellevue: apartments, rental, crime)

[LisUT]

Hello, my husband and I will be moving to the Seattle/Tacoma area within roughly 6 months and are hoping for a bit of help as to where would best suit us. He has his CDL and would like to find a local driving position. We would love to be somewhat near the mountains and yet within 1-2 hours drive of the beach. We are seeking a smaller suburban community with less than an hours drive to the city. It would be amazing if there were a nearby lake or river, as my husband is an avid fisherman. We wish to rent initially, and keep things as cost effective as possible. He will maintain his current employment initially, but we would still like to find something around or less than $1000.00 a month in rent as I will be seeking employment upon arrival and he will shortly after seek local employment. I apologize if this has been covered, but I could find nothing quite as specific with the search function. Any suggestions or assistance would be appreciated, the afore mentioned is the ideal, I do not expect to find everything mentioned, but I'm hoping with your help we can find a place to call home that will come as close as possible. Thank you so much for any help you can give.

[jenlion]

North Bend comes to mind. The Snoqualmie river is right there. I don't know what rents are exactly, but it's nearly an hour from the beach, straight down I-90 just as you get into the mountains. It's not at all convenient to Tacoma, but it is convenient to Seattle.

[eskercurve]

Everett is one potential suburb. Another is near Lake Stevens.

There's plenty south of Seattle too. I'd recommend doing a search on an apartment finding website like apartments.com to get a general idea, then call around. Don't just go off of the apartments.com recommendations, you'll ikely pay more than what you could have found.

Case in point: I tried searching and the cheapest place on Mercer Island I found was for $1750 a month, when I have a nice 1 br place now on MI for 1090 / month.

[sylvanarrow]

At the risk of being useless, pretty much anywhere you move up here is relatively close to the beach, mountains, lakes, rivers, and lots of outdoor recreation opportunities. Tacoma will have lower rents and is a little closer to the Pacific Ocean than Seattle.

[dxenopoulos]

I suppose North Bend is technically a suburb, but it's quite rural and feels a lot farther from the city than it is. The rents there are not inexpensive.

If you are looking for low rent (under $1000), that is difficult (but definitely not impossible) to come by in the area. Generally, the suburbs south of Seattle/north of Tacoma (Renton, Tukwila, Kent, Auburn, Puyallup, Federal Way) have affordable rent, though there are some neighborhoods in these places that are frankly kinda ghetto. Your husband probably wouldn't have a problem finding a driving job in this area. You also have your suburbs north of Seattle, such as Everett, Lake Stevens, Snohomish which are also affordable and not so much crime as south Seattle. More expensive would be the suburbs east of Seattle, such as Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Bothell, Woodinville, Mercer Island, Newcastle, Sammamish, Issaquah, etc - all of which are nice areas and have huge ranges in rental prices. Believe it or not you can find an apartment/home on the Eastside for $1000 but you do gotta search. Bothell definitely has some areas that are affordable and nice neighborhoods and is conveniently located.

In terms of closeness to nature, you shouldn't have the problem wherever you decide to move to. Most places on the West side of the state are within an hour of a major city, all the places I listed are in the Seattle/Tacoma metropolitan area.

[LisUT]

Thank you all for the help so far, now to increase the difficulty, I found out yesterday that I am pregnant, so a safer area would be much preferred. If any above listed areas would be better than others considering the recent news I would be most grateful to have such information. Thank you all so much as the replies have been extremely helpful.

[Jake840]

University Place or Fircrest? Both are Tacoma suburbs just outside the city limits and very safe. Both about 10-15 Minutes from Downtown Tacoma and less than an hour (without traffic) to Seattle.

[tudorjason]

Many transportation companies dot the I-5 corridor, and with ocean beachfront being two hours away and less expensive cost of living, the Tacoma area would be your best bet.

[jenlion]

One thing to note about "beach" -- Seattle sits on the Sound, which is salt water and has tides, but is clearly not like being on the ocean. It's very nice, but there's not tons of beach. (There are some parks, but they're busy when it's warm out).

So, when you go south toward Tacoma, you get easier access to the actual ocean. The fastest way there is to go through Olympia and then cut west along the southern part of the Olympic Peninsula. On a map you see Ocean Shores; it's very flat and gentle there, with wide beaches. Go north toward Kalaloch and it gets much more rugged -- the big rocks (sea stacks) sticking up from the water, cliffs, much more dramatic landscape.

If you want to be in a shorter drive to the ocean beaches, then certainly the advice about Tacoma is correct. Historically Tacoma seems to be kind of looked down on -- I've only been here a little over a year so I don't know exactly why, other than that there used to be a paper mill. It's not quite as scenic, but Rainier is RIGHT THERE and pretty dramatic.

You may want to keep school district in mind too? Will you be planning to live where you move for six years or more? Congrats!

[LisUT]

Thank you, we will be in the same area 5-6 years from now, but arent too worried about school just yet as we have a few years to plan where in the area will be best for the future. I'll keep everything mentioned in mind while continuing research, thank you all so much, and if any other thoughts come to mind feel free to let me know!