Help finding a great family friendly suburb... (Seattle, Sammamish: house, living in)

[seahawksweetie]

What about if you have a job in downtown, but you need a family friendly, good school community to live in? I love Woodinville, North Bend, and such but that seems like it's going to be quite the commute.

[jwb123]

My husband commuted into downtown (Wamu tower) when we lived in Issaquah. He drove to the main park and ride, and took the bus - it wasn't too bad of a commute. Sometimes I would drive in and get him, and going into town, about 5 or 6 only took about 20 mins - in the HOV.

[5chevin5]

I have yet to be fortunate enough to afford a 800K home, but I would have to agree with scirocco22 that rental for the first year or so in a new area is wise. Trust me you can rent some pretty insanely nice homes in that area or Mercer Island...That way you are not locked in to a home before you really know about the area, schools, markets, activities or neighbors. That is a big investment for anybody...Too many variables to be rushed into ownership or buying a house off the internet?? yikes!!! All of these posters are spot on....Eastside great...for all the reasons listed. But expensive for all the reasons listed....why add a huge commute to it too???

[pwright1]

Just the other day I was in the Somerset subdivision of Bellevue. It's not new but the homes are beautiful, the neighborhood is clean and the view is breathtaking. Plus its in Bellevue and close to work. There are tons of nice areas to choose from on the Eastside. I actually took this pic in Somerset on Monday.

[5chevin5]

Great shot pwright1...I always loved that view of downtown framed by the mountains..
Truly the emerald city!!...Just like Oz in the movie...running through the poppy fields...

[cmac2992]

I'd say sammamish is the best, the schools are very good and the elementry and middle school won the blue ribon award. Also, the crime rate is extremely low for a city of 40,000. Homes cost around 700k. The commute to bellvue is 20 min with no traffic and with really bad traffic no more than 50 min.

[seahawksweetie]

Great pic pwright. I always love your pics of downtown Seattle, but it's also nice to see the surrounding cities and their neighborhoods too.

[hobo624]

Hunter_Mom-What suburb did you choose? My husband just got an offer in downtown Seattle. We are from Chicago (I've lived there my whole life) and need to choose a community. Any suggestions? We have a 6, 3, and 1 year old. We are looking to spend 900K-1.5M and want at least 4 bed/3 bath and 1/2 acre + in a fun area with lots of kids. Any suggestions?

[hunter_mom]

Originally Posted by hobo624

Hunter_Mom-What suburb did you choose? My husband just got an offer in downtown Seattle. We are from Chicago (I've lived there my whole life) and need to choose a community. Any suggestions? We have a 6, 3, and 1 year old. We are looking to spend 900K-1.5M and want at least 4 bed/3 bath and 1/2 acre + in a fun area with lots of kids. Any suggestions?

We're moving to Snoqualmie Ridge. They have a few brand new communities there - we're moving into The Heights. There are two builders, but you would want to look at Murray Franklyn - the other builder, Quadrant, does not have a great reputation, especially not on these boards, and you can really tell the difference in quality just by looking at the houses.

I am so excited about the new house and the neighborhood. There are tons of young, new families and it seems like many transplants so I'm hoping that will make it easier to meet people and make friends. Every single house we saw had kids in it. Our house is 4 bedrooms, 4 baths and a little over 4,000 square feet. We've only got 1/4 acre though, which is actually considered rather large, believe it or not.

Here's the downside though - I'm not sure it's the right place for you. While everyone warned us about the commute because Snoqualmie is so far East, it's really not nearly as bad as the locals think - I think they're just not used to big city traffic (we live outside NYC and commute an hour to Manhattan every day). But my husband is going to be working in Bellevue, getting off of 90 just before the 'real' traffic starts. If you're husband is commuting to downtown Seattle, it may be much worse. You might want to be closer to the city.

Also, our house was $834K, which was the top of our budget. Being in Snoqualmie as opposed to Issaquah or Sammamish allowed us to get a better, bigger house for the money. You have a higher budget and can probably afford something like our house, but closer in and in a more established development (if that's what you want - we kind of like that ours is a new neighborhood).

One development that we really loved was Trossachs, which is right in Issaquah/Sammamish. They have some resales, but they are also building new sections with brand new houses - big beautiful new construction (can you tell I love new construction?) I have an excellent realtor I can recommend to you. He is really trustworthy and is not a typical broker who is just looking to make a quick commission. We came into town for a quick trip to do some scouting and he cleared his whole weekend for us and has even made trips out to our house since then to help out. I think these boards have rules against soliciting and advertising, so just to be safe, email me and I'll give you his info. My email is stacella68@gmail.com

Also, Murray Franklyn has other new communities which are more expensive and closer to Seattle. You can look on their website, which I think is Murray Franklyn Family of Companies - New Homes Seattle Redmond Bellevue Issaquah Another builder, which I think our realtor said is the absolute best, is Buchan (I think that's right). They've got a bunch of houses going up in Trossachs, but were out of our price range.

Let me know if you have more questions.

[Seattleborn]

Hunter Mom:

We moved to Snoqualmie Ridge at Deer Park! I would totally agree with the builder thing. We love our Murray Franklyn home! Snoqualmie Ridge is the same distance that trossachs is. We looked there too. People try to make it sound like it's an awful commute and it isn't. It takes my hubby 30 mins to dowtown Seattle, and about 40 home.


Welcome!