Looking for advice - relocating for jobs, but we can't figure out where to live

[JOinGA]

My daughter lives in the Broadview neighborhood. There is a brand new replacement elementary school opening this fall called Viewlands. A new school is always a plus. They were able to buy a house with a very nice sized yard in that area.

[04kL4nD]

Originally Posted by CrazyDonkey

What's true for where they are coming from isn't necessarily true for here.

I wouldn't necessarily recommend living with kids in Seattle's core neighborhoods (due to density, traffic, etc.), but there are many other safe neighborhoods with good schools, lower densities, less traffic, easy access to parks and beaches, and easier commutes (to Downtown Seattle via Sound Transit/Metro Transit):

Central Seattle: Queen Anne Hill, Magnolia, Madison Park/Madrona/Leschi

NW Seattle:Ballard/Sunset Hill, Crown Hill/Loyal Heights, Phinney Ridge, Green Lake/Tangletown, Wallingford/Northlake; Broadview/Bitter Lake

NE Seattle: Sand Point/View Ridge, Bryant/Wedgewood/Maple Leaf, Matthews Beach/Cedar Park, Victory Heights/Olympic Hills

SW Seattle: North Admiral/Alki, Fauntleroy/Arbor Heights

SE Seattle: Seward Park

See; https://www.reddit.com/r/Seattle/com...p_is_this_map/

Adjacent areas with still decent, but longer commutes:

North: Edmonds, Forest Park, Bothell, Woodinville

East: Finn Hill/Juanita, Kirkland/Norkirk, Lake Hills, Newport/Newcastle, East Renton Highlands, Issaquah/Sammamish Highlands

South: Normandy Park, East Hill/Meridian

Great list.

We don't have kids, so schools didn't matter but we wound up in an unincorporated King Co. neighborhood with a decent sized yard, views of the Cascades/Rainier, and great access to retail, local parks/trails/lakes and close proximity to future light rail stations. I think the bolded is probably what the OP is looking for most since Seattle is still a pretty big city with big city problems.

[Indy1982]

OP, like others have said, your best bet would be to keep your home/work/school locations all within easy commuting distance. However many people in the Seattle area tend to measure commute by time rather than distance, and depending on the area, you can live quite far away if you are on the road when others aren't. For example, I commuted from Marysville to Tukwila for six months, however my job allowed me to show up at 5am and leave by 1:30pm. Even though it was 45 miles each way through one of the worst areas in the PNW, my commute time was a little less than an hour each way. For me, that was the best of a bad situation, and I was glad when I was no longer required to drive down there.


This is one of the reasons why people say to avoid certain areas, or avoid commuting by ferry for example. The distance may be short, but the time is always long. Some places are only 10-15 miles apart, but the commute times can be as long as an hour to make that distance. Other places are 20 miles apart, but commute times may only be 25-30 minutes.


Generally speaking, any location along the I-5, I-405 corridor between Everett and Olympia is going to be very crowded from about 6am to 11am and then again from about 2pm to 7pm. A lot of people make it work by commuting east/west instead of north/south. Issaquah to Bellevue/Seattle for example, or Bonney Lake to Tacoma. Still bad, but not quite to nightmare levels.