Brand New Homes vs Resale Communities - Neighborhoods (Seattle, Bellevue: home builders, landscaping)

[evera]

Hello,

First of all, thank you so much for wonderful posts. This forum has been really helpful.

Last weekend, we visited Seattle. Loved the overall general area. We are looking for houses in $600K - $750K price range. We are currently deciding on the exact city / neighborhood. At this point we are considering the following:

Bellevue / Issaquah - Lakemont area
North Redmond - New communities along Redmond / Woodenville road.
Education Hill area.

We have not looked at Kirkland yet.

Are there any recommendations on buying older home vs brand new from builder? Any specific inputs / things on any of the above neighborhoods (good or bad)? If you have suggestion an any specific neighborhood please feel free to post.

Commute and Schools are 2 big things for us. Would appreciate any thoughts!

Thank You.

[AzDreamer]

There have been a couple threads on this recently so a search will probably turn up something.

I remember the consensus as being that newer communities are usually farther from the main job centers and they have more young families.

Older areas typically are closer to the main job centers, are a mix of ages and have bigger lots.

If you are commuting to Seattle or Bellevue then Mercer Island has neighborhoods in your price range. That would be an easy commute and the public schools are considered to be pretty good.

There are many exceptions that hopefully the rest of the posters will point out.

[Sandy Nelson]

Evera,

The advantages of a newly built home versus an older home are that new homes are built to today's building code and energy standards and are often built green. Many home builders are currently giving generous buyer incentives, such as help with financing, bonuses or upgrade packages.
Most new homes come with warranties and will require no repairs or renovations in the near future.
Depending on what stage of construction the home is in, you can often still make design selections and customize the home to your taste.
Moving into a new community you wont be the "new kid on the block" as most of your neighbors will also just have relocated recently.

The advantages to buying a resale home is that the lots tend to be larger then in new construction and the homes tend to have charming architectural details. The neighborhood will have mature landscaping and will look grown in. You might get a good deal on a home that needs some TLC if you can fix cosmetic wear and tear.

I hope this helps.
Good luck!

Sandy

[allforcats]

Clearly, AzDreamer and Sandy Nelson have hit all the important points regarding new vs. older construction. The rest is about you -- about what's in the MUST HAVE column and in the FLEXIBLE column of your house list.

We often advise on this forum that you live as closely as possible to where you work, as commuting here can take a great deal of time out of your life daily, weekly, monthly, yearly -- and not many people think that's an enhancing way to live.

Schools on the east side of Lake Washington are considered among the best in the state, and posters on C-D usually cite specifically the Mercer Island School District, Bellevue S.D., Lake Washington S.D., and Issaquah S.D., the last of which includes geographically not only Issaquah but also part of northeastern Renton.
These are helpful references about schools:
Of Newsweek's best high schools in the nation for 2008, 4 of the top 63 are in Bellevue:
America's Top Public High Schools | Newsweek Best High Schools | Newsweek.com
Washington State Report Card, whose site I can't get into right now; they may be updating their site. Just Google that name.
Great Schools: GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Community for Parents
An informative recent thread on City-Data:
Best school districts??

[evera]

Thank you! You all have been so helpful.

What do you think about new communities in North Redmond area (Redmond-Woodinville road and NE 116th)? I really liked education hill area, there were a couple of houses we tottaly loved. However the entrance road to those houses went through some not so great communities. We were advised against those (resale could be a problem). Any specific communities in education hill that people would recommend? If you don't want to post here please PM me.

What is commute like from Lakemont area to Microsoft (Redmond)? We definetly want to minimize commute time.