Spokane? South Hill? Valley or Liberty Lake? (rentals, homes)

[bigdeal]

Spokane sounds like a great area to relocate to! Need advice from locals please. I need to narrow down the area I want to look for rentals in. Ive read a lot of posts and want to know where you think the best areas are to live. We have 3 kids, high school and elementary age. Ive heard great things about the schools but hear the spokane city schools are a bit crowded? What were looking for is a safe neighborhood & good schools. Have heard good things about south hill but seems to vary greatly depending on the neighborhood. liberty lake seems nice but far from a mall/movies and restaurants which we enjoy and dont want to drive to far to. Are there bad areas of Spokane Valley? I do appreciate your thoughts. I realize no area is perfect. THANKS!

[kena]

As far as crowded south hill schools, I'm not sure that is much of an issue. District 81 (the main Spokane school district) has seen enrolement declines over the past few years due to demographic and population changes. I haven't looked at the numbers but I would imagine class size to be pretty constant in most of the areas you're looking at. For liberty lake, it depends on what you consider to be too far to drive and where you like to spend your time. If you enjoy going to downtown Spokane frequently then it is not overly convenient. If you are happy to spend more time in Post Falls or the Valley then location will be less of a concern. Finally, the Valley is a pretty large area. I'm not an expert but as you might imagine there are parts that are better than others. Again, it depends on what you consider 'bad'.

If you have any more specifics on what you're looking for or specific neighborhoods you're comparing people on the board will be able to provide more specific advice.

[Bohemian Girl]

I am an original Texas girl and have lived in Spokane for 4 years. In Texas, there are nice sides of town. Spokane is definitely not like that! It seems to be mixed and matched! We live in Liberty Lake and it is a great area. It isn't far from the Valley mall or the movie theater. Downtown is only 20-25 minutes away which isn't anything to us being that we are from a big city. The Central Valley school district seems to be a great school district as is Mead. Mead is a little further out though. District 81 is very diverse.

[JaimeMorlin]

I've lived in Spokane my whole life and have chosen the South Hill as a place to raise my family. The schools are award winning. Lewis and Clark High School has been featured in Newsweek Magazine for the past 5 years running as one of the top schools in the nation. My older daughter attends there and my younger daughter goes to Wilson Elementary. Wilson is just fantastic because of the incredible amount of parent involvement. At any given time, there are parents in the hallways to read with your children on breaks, parent volunteers in every classroom, and parents very involved with the education details. My daughter's kindergarten class had around 20 students in it last year. Ferris High School was also featured in Newsweek.

I like the Spokane South Hill because of the tree lined streets, homes with character, tons of parks to enjoy with your family, quaint coffee shops and restaurants, and a very outdoorsy, friendly community. It's such an awesome place to live! The picture is of Cannon Hill Park where I live with my family and my daughter with their cousins at Manito Park, the Japanese Gardens.

[bigdeal]

Wow! Beautiful pictures and thank you so much for the advice. I do appreciate it!

[JaimeMorlin]

You bet! It's my pleasure!

[jeffcrane]

I think Jaime covered the south hill well. The spokane valley is nice and is a little more spread out and more of a modern area with easy freeway access to downtown. The northside city property can be a lityle more congested with traffic but once you're are out a little more to the suburban neighborhoods, it opens up and doesn't seem to bad. Liberty Lake is only 5 minutes from the Spokane valley mall, movie theaters, major shopping etc and 10-15 min to downtown spokane.