Move from SF Bay Area to Washington... (Seattle, Bellevue: best cities, for sale)

[MsNikkiBelieves]

Hi All-

I've read through many posts, but would like to receive some more direct feedback. My husband and I are in our mid-20's and we live in the San Francisco Bay Area. My husband works with computers and I am a current graduate student, obtaining my MA and credentials in Early Childhood Education- Special Education (there's a point to this info- really).

Hubby has the luxury of working from home right now but we need to relocate to a techy area in case he would need to ever find a new job- specifically one that may require he travel to an office. We also need to find an area in which special education jobs are available- we're paying loads for my education and it needs to be worthwhile no matter where we go.

Why do we want to leave the SF area you ask?

It's horribly expensive-we're in a small three bedroom, one bath house with three large dogs and you don't want to know how much this apartment with a lawn costs. The Bay Area, specifically, is busybusy, houses are crowded -I can see into my neighbors living room- and my commute to and from school and my internship just plain sucks.

What do we want in a new area?

Our wishes: We want to buy some land... at least 2-3 acres, but preferably 5 or more. We'd like wherever we settle to be home for the rest of our lives. We plan to have children so we want the area to be family/child friendly. We also have big dogs (three 80+ pound dogs to be exact) so we also need the area to be dog friendly, though it would not matter too much if we get our acreage.

Why do we want the acres?

Potential animal rescue sometime down the road as well as putting my parents on a far corner when my dad retires. Hence, the need, well, want for 5 or more acres- we could be on one corner and they could have the farthest from that! They also have animals and I'm sure always will.

What we'd like in an area:

* Somewhat close to city-life is okay, but we're homebodies, we don't do the party thing and don't do the need to be surrounded-by-thousands-of-people thing. A commute is fine for me to get to a job, but I'd prefer something not over 45 minutes to an hour.

* Weather- we hate HOT weather. We're both from the Central Valley in California and we wish to stay away from 110+ degree summers. Cold is good, we can handle snow, we like rain, but sunshine and springlike weather is good as well.

We're looking to relocate next year- probably summertime as I graduate in May. Starting in March, I am going to be taking some trips to different areas of Washington to get a feel for the areas, but I would love firsthand feedback.

Hmm. I feel as if I may have forgotten some key information, but we'll start with this mini-novel first. TIA!

[suslik99]

The best cities for you are Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Bothel, Issaquah - very similar suburbian cities with good schools and a LOT of computer professionals. Weather is very similar because they all are very closely located. We call the area Eastside (of Seattle). Seattle is not bad, but you really have to pick the right neighborehood for the good school, some areas are not safe in Seattle, but the cities I have listed above are all middle class suburbia. Anything south is less safe, worse schools, not bad, but just not as good. The cost of living in San Francisco is 89% higher than in Seattle, so you should do pretty well here, rent prices here are much less than in S-F.

[Xenobion]

Redmond is where Silicon Valley North (as many Washingtonians put it) is located and everything on the fringe (Issaquah, Sammamish, North Bend, Duvall, Carnation) will have larger tracts of land for sale like you request.

You may want to give a price range of housing you are looking for as well as some of these areas are pricey.

[MsNikkiBelieves]

Hmm, okay. Thank you both for your replies.

We're looking at 500k or under, so the areas you both mention are out of our price range- according to the Greater Seattle booklet I received- with the exception of Carnation, Duvall and North Bend, which happen to be listed drastically lower than the others (from 100k to 300k).

[moochdawgg]

hello, sounds like your doing the same thing as our family. We are in the east bay area and have a home on 1.5 ac. down south ward near graham or orting you could find 5 ac. for that.

[MsNikkiBelieves]

Does anyone have any feedback on the job availability for special education?

[Xenobion]

Special education is always needed as far as I know. My aunt is a paraeducator in Orting and it seems that she is always meeting new people in her job as there seems to be a high turn over in that profession.

With 500K you should easily be able to find something around Sammamish and Issaquah. Maybe not 5 acres though. You will find larger houses will less property typically in Western Washington. There are however plenty of public parks that are dog friendly (way more than San Francisco).

[MsNikkiBelieves]

Thank you for the reply! I guess I'll do some more searching as well.

When would be good times (of the year) to visit to get a good idea of each of the seasons?