Is Seattle considered family friendly? (Shoreline, Kirkland: rent, hotels, house)

[asdfTT123]

Hey all,

My family and I are considering looking into Seattle as a potential location for our next move. I work in health care, and would be looking to start fellowship at University of Washington and would need to be fairly close proximity the various hospitals. My wife works in finance and we will have to kids around age of 6 months and 4 years by the time we consider moving. Our biggest priorities are safety, good child care/preschools (would consider private school), affordable housing (Would ideally like to buy but we understand Seattle is not known for affordable housing), and general ease of living for a young family while also ideally having some city life amenities. I have never been to Seattle, but am wondering if it would be worth checking out the area and considering it for our next move. For those with families in the city, would you recommend looking into it or staying away altogether?

Thanks!

[asdfTT123]

Whoops...could we move this to the Seattle subforum? Thanks!

[Hemlock140]

My suggestion is look into Shoreline, just north of Seattle, or Kirkland, just across the bridge. Both should be close enough for your employer, have good schools, and are very much family oriented. You can find that in parts of Seattle but at a far higher cost.

[Ruth4Truth]

I'd recommend Lake Forest Park, just past Seattle's NE border, on Lake Washington. It's a great family area, has a bike path all the way to the UW, as well as commute buses, has lower rent and RE costs than Seattle with a tendency toward larger lots with tall cedars. I wouldn't recommend setting yourself up for bridge commuting. There are also commute buses to downtown, if your wife ends up with a downtown job.

[leastprime]

Spend the fare for the flight. Get a hotel room (excess hotels, over built), after Sept 30 (beginning of wet season). Or get an Airbnb for a long weekend. Visit schools and hoods. Sept ~20 is the Greenlake, Fall celebration Solstice walk. Dress up like a lightning bug and bring lightning bug tubes.

[Seacove]

It really depends on where in Seattle and it depends on where one is comparing it to.

[Tall Traveler]

Originally Posted by asdfTT123

Hey all,

My family and I are considering looking into Seattle as a potential location for our next move. I work in health care, and would be looking to start fellowship at University of Washington and would need to be fairly close proximity the various hospitals. My wife works in finance and we will have to kids around age of 6 months and 4 years by the time we consider moving. Our biggest priorities are safety, good child care/preschools (would consider private school), affordable housing (Would ideally like to buy but we understand Seattle is not known for affordable housing), and general ease of living for a young family while also ideally having some city life amenities. I have never been to Seattle, but am wondering if it would be worth checking out the area and considering it for our next move. For those with families in the city, would you recommend looking into it or staying away altogether?

Thanks!

I would say mostly no because of the high cost to buy a nice family home and yard. There are good schools and safe neighborhoods available if your budget is very high.

[Ruth4Truth]

Lake Forest Park, 3 br/2 ba. 10,000 Sq. ft lot:
https://www.redfin.com/WA/Lake-Fores...155/home/93918

https://www.redfin.com/WA/Seattle/36...25/home/110695

3/2 Shoreline:
https://www.redfin.com/WA/Shoreline/...133/home/78321

[asdfTT123]

Thanks all for the feedback! If we were moving to Seattle, I would be training between the UW affiliated hospitals - UW Medical Center, Harborview, VA Puget Sound, and Seattle Children's. Seems like all these places are fairly spread out. Is there anywhere that's located strategically as to not create a communting headache, while also allowing us to afford a 3 br/2 ba with a parking spot ideally under 750k? Thank you!

[thatguy950]

Yes but only if:

-you want cross dressers reading to your kids in first grade (cuz tolerance, progress!)
-you don’t mind having things stolen regularly
-bad schools not an issue
-letting your kids share playgrounds with homeless junkies and dodging used needles next to the swing-set
-you don’t want them to know what neighborliness is, that’s off the table in Seattle
-you want to expose them to lots of marijuana everywhere
-free speech and differing views? Don’t even think about it in Seattle
-encouraging them to sit inside most of the year due to awful weather
-don’t mind being house poor
-not seeing them much due to worn expectations in Seattle, aka in at 6 and out at 7 to get into a terrible commute, but don’t worry you can probably work from home one Sunday a month
-and when the weather is good, expect smoke half the summer