Is Auburn or Kent a good place to live? (Seattle: apartments, condo)

[NiceJohn]

Housing there seems more affordable. But never been to Auburn or Kent area. Do you think it is a good area to live? low crime rate? school districts are OK? Thank you.

[Ira500]

Parts of both Kent and Auburn are okay, and both cities have areas worth avoiding.
In general, Kent is supposed to have a better school district than Auburn's, and has a few great schools.
You may find some people on here who will tell you to stay out of Kent and Auburn, but basically you're just looking for a pleasant, safe place to live. Sure, Kirkland or Queen Anne in Seattle are nicer than Kent.
But Kent is a whole lot more affordable, and has a wide variety of types of people and neighborhoods.
In Auburn, people like the Lakeland Hills neighborhood.

[secret_squirrel]

When we had to relo from the northend to the southend, we ended up in Lakeland Hills. The schools in our service area are top-notch. Kent is nearer to Seattle, but we found it to have a higher crime rate than we were comfortable with. As we overheard a passenger on the Sounder say on the way home from a Seahawks game, "Kent... I'm not getting off there, man. You get into a bar fight there and they pull out guns. You might get into a fight in Auburn, but no one pulls a gun."

The Covington area in east Kent is popular with my husband's coworkers, but it was too far from the interstate for us. There is also the Lea Hill area of Auburn - nicer, newer schools up there, too. I'd avoid valley areas, many of which have now been reclassified as flood-plain, as the Mud Mountain Dam is having issues.

There are fantastic deals in Lakeland right now.
*cries, bought home in 2007*

[MichaelinWA]

A lot of people in the area are like the guy on the Sounder - generalizing about an entire city, as if crime stops abruptly at the city limits. Kent has plenty of less desirable areas, but there are quite a few nice neighborhoods also.

I saw Lakeland Hills in Auburn last summer and liked what I saw.

[LongDawson]

Kent can be rough. They allowed a lot of apartments to be built years ago. It seems to have gone downhill. But there are certain parts of Kent such as Scenic Hill, with it's little swim club and neighborhood elementary school, they are little pockets of serenity right near everything. Check it out.

[Pyrola]

Lakeland hills in Auburn is clean , nice and boring. You hear the trains all night long. few services in and around Lakeland. Alot of forclosures , just read the Seattle Times.

[JesseJames34]

Originally Posted by NiceJohn

Housing there seems more affordable. But never been to Auburn or Kent area. Do you think it is a good area to live? low crime rate? school districts are OK? Thank you.

i think the eastern side of kent is the area to avoid. i just remember driving from the west side to the east side of kent and you could clearly see the difference. i didn't drive up and down every street there, so maybe there are some good areas on the eastern side of kent that i didn't see.

[Ira500]

Actually the eastern part of Kent is pretty nice around Clark Lake, and the east hill of Kent isn't terrible, just a little run down...and they've got some great Indian restaurants, and a Ukranian restaurant..

[karatedavid]

I used to live in Kent and can say that our family did not like it at all. We then moved to the bottom of Lea Hill in Auburn, and our thrilled at the location, houses, schools, and easy access to things. Auburn is a lot more about community then most other cities. It's very nice.

[jessicazi]

Definitely depends on the specific part of the city. If you are looking for a condo/townhome, look at The Lakes region in Kent or Lakeland in Auburn.