Military Family with young children moving to WA (Seattle, Tacoma: homes, safe area)

[awarthen07]

Hey Y'all!
My Hubby just got orders to report to Fort Lewis, WA by early May.... We dont want to live on base. I dont even thing we could (long waiting list). Anyhow, we are VERY curious to know what cities/suburbs locals would recommend.

*We do want to stay at least 20 miles from the base
*A good school district is a MUST
*A safe city and safe community (though we(hubby and myself) are quite familiar to the "rough" parts of cities, we just want better for our children than we had growing up )

* A desirable community with at few amenities, such as community parks, pool, playground, GREAT VIEWS of Mountains, deer all the wonderful things locals speak of.

If there are any cities that come to mind after reading this please respond, ANY information anout WA period is greatly appreciated......we have NEVER been to this state

**side note** our children (all boys) are into Karate..anyone know of any GREAT dojo's?

THANKS A BILLION!!!!!!!
All the way from Oz,
Amber

[Drew66879]

Congrats! Joint Base Lewis McChord is has a lot going for it.

The communities around the post is as varied as points on a compass.

JBLM is located south of Tacoma and about 30 miles south of Seattle. Commuter traffic from JBLM north north past Seattle is a zoo. 55% of the time is moves at normal speed (45mph) One accident and break out the lawn chairs and enjoy the rain.

A couple of areas to stay away from are Ponders, Tillicum and Spanaway. They are usually on COPS. From there, its what you want in a community. Yuppy? Hippy? Outdoors-ish, Sea-side.

School districts are all over the map.

If you want an uber sectarian totally PC school District - then Puyallup ( pronounced: Pugh Al UP) is the one, they do not allow the celebration of Halloween as it has satanic and has religous overtones, and christmas is just looked at as " the holiday" Season. (not MY choice, IMHO)


Here are a couple of links to check out:

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When we returned from Germany, (I grew up in the Puget Sound region), we looked for the school dristrict THEN looked for the house. We ended up in the Lake Tapps area and in the Sumner School Disrtict. We liked the programs and the fact that the teachers communicate with us often. They allow parents to help in the classroom as much or as little as you desire.

The housing market was not hit as hard as the rest of the country. Whether you buy or rent, lots of homes in that area.

Depending on the ages and desires activites, you will be able to find several districts in the area that are pretty good. One thing we asked was do they have a music program. Usually school districts that do not have a program are struggling and eliminated the activity for cost savings. Not something I want to skimp on in my childs education.


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[Hemlock140]

I'd look at Dupont and Lacey, as good safe areas. There are decent to good to great schools, you will need to research which are the best and move to their area.

[Sandy Nelson]

Do you want to be 20 miles away from post because you don't want to live in a community saturated with fellow military people? I'm asking, because 20 miles is a long commute. The most convenient place to live would be Dupont. It's just across the highway from JBLM and is a cute town, with good schools and lots of amenities. Because it's so close to the bases, it's very popular with military families and individuals. It's almost like an off-base housing area.

If you'd like to get away from Fort Lewis, I'd recommend Olympia, Lacey, Puyallup or Yelm. In Yelm home prices and rents will be more affordable than in most other places. Yelm is more rural and smaller, but it has parks, trails, shops (Walmart, Safeway etc), a good selection of restaurants and a movie theater, and great views of Mount Rainier.

I hope this info helps.
Best of luck!

Sandy