Maybe moving to bremerton naval base (Seattle, Silverdale: for sale, apartments, renting)

[navy wife]

We got news that we may be moving to washington to bremerton naval base. We just moved from my hometown of hawaii to new hampshire and I got lucky the first time on picking a home and neighborhood for new hampshire from hawaii without knowing the area...however I'm having trouble with washington. I can't really find any listings for the surrounding areas or know which areas to look in that won't be so far for my husband to work. I also have a 5 year that needs to get into school in the area. I work from home so my needs are not important as far as location. I have never been there and have been googling all day to find the areas around there.

We have a couple of choices this time being san diego, norfolk virginia and bremerton in washington so it's a little more difficult and time consuming for me to try to check all 3 states for housing and schools and washington seems to be the hardest one for me!

Can anyone help lead me to the areas close to that naval base and safe neighborhoods with good schools and decent housing?

mahalo!

[faulkton]

nothing near the base. Downtown bremerton and the area around the naval base is really ghetto. A lot of porn theaters and pawn shops. during the day its not real bad, but at night its all.. well w***es and speed freaks. Ive heard they are trying to clean it up, but until a couple years ago it was no place for a family...probably still isn't.

Try silverdale, Port Orchard, or Poulsbo

[brightcopperkettles]

I live in this area and work for Harrison Hospital, which is second only to the naval base as far as the number of people it employs. I know the area very well. The tricky part of living up here is finding a place you can afford. Finding anything under $250,000 where you might really like to live will be tough. Right now there is a house down the road from me for sale for $299,000, but it is brand new and quite lovely. If you need more information on it, let me know, and I will send you the link in a personal message.

The best thing I can do is to tell you to NOT to buy land with a 98312 zip code; that is West Bremerton. It does have a few nice places but they are mostly outside the city limits. East Bremerton has some nice homes (zip 98310), but you need to look carefully. Silverdale is an excellent choice; the mall and lots of neighborhoods and good schools are in that area; not sure how the prices there will be, though. Traffic is awful in Silverdale, though. Another good option would be Poulsbo and Port Orchard, and of those two I would choose Poulsbo. Poulsbo has a Norwegian heritage, and it has a lovely downtown.

Good luck, honey!

[navy wife]

Thank you for the responses. That is exactly the info I was looking for. I needed to be pointed in the right direction as to where to look, there are so many places to look at and judging from a map is not the best way to go. Big thing for me coming from a small island and little city is the status of the neighborhoods. I really want something safe as being a navy wife there are many times when I am alone with a 5 year old and I don't want to have to worry about him when he goes off to school. I have had the luxury of being in hawaii all my life until 2006 where there really isn't much worry, but it comes with being a military wife and a learning experience. We won't be buying a home as of now because the military lately has been moving us around too much to settle. So we have been renting everywhere we go.

Thank you for your great ideas and insights into the neighborhoods around the base area.

[brightcopperkettles]

If you are thinking about apartment living, Erlands Point Apartments are lovely (at least they were when I lived there a few years ago). You can walk to the Naval Hospital; the area is just lovely. It is on Austin Drive in Bremerton; it is on the West Side but is so far out of town, it is one of the "nice" areas. Also, there is a right turn off Austin Drive that takes you into military housing, but it looks nice. Anyway, you might want to think about Erlands Point. For apartment living, they were nicer than a lot of the places on the East side. Good luck, honey!

[Tony1790]

Navy Wife,

I just retired from the Coast Guard (little white Navy )

I've done the move around lottery and picked stuff on the map to move to. Depends what you want in an area.

Bremerton Naval (I don't recommend living real close to the base, good news though, most of the county is close to the base). I live in Port Orchard, Poulsbo would be nice.

Pro: small town, relatively low crime (give or take) I've never had any issues, I've been here since 1994 off and on. Naval hospital, commissary and exchange here. Ferry ride away from Seattle for baseball, football and basketball, etc

Con: traffic is getting worse, crime near the base is so so, rains alot, grey depressing, not good economy, schools are ok.

San Diego, not as bad as I thought

Pro: Sunny, vibrant

Con: Crowded, traffic, congestion

VA: Too much Navy for me

Pro: ?

Con: congested, traffic, flat terrain.

All in all there is no real bad place to go, if you get somewhere that you hate, you'll be gone soon enough, if you love the place you'll leave too soon. Either way, there's plenty of places to go.

By your choices of stations, I'm guessing DH is an airdale or carrier related? If so kind of limits your choices.

If I had to vote, with you from Hawaii, I'd say San Diego, but Kitsap isn't too bad. We were going to retire here, but the cost of housing, traffic and rain are just too much, we're leaving soon as my kid gets out of school.

Good luck, take care

Tony

[brightcopperkettles]

I agree with Tony. Kitsap County has a lot going for it, but the prices are nuts.

I am working on getting my husband to move to the South (where my family is) while the prices are still fairly doable; he could go ahead and retire, and we could travel, etc., more.

I lived in San Diego when I was 7; I personally would never live there again. Too many people, etc.

[faulkton]

i had my appendix out at Harrison hospital.

[brightcopperkettles]

Originally Posted by faulkton

i had my appendix out at Harrison hospital.

Hope you had a "nice" experience with us...

[navy wife]

thank you for responding...of course I probably jumped the gun on researching and should have known better...washington is now not a choice for us and looks like we are going to Yokosuka japan...wouldn't happen to have lived there before? He is actually a submariner but being commissioned this year to officer so they are making him go to a carrier which is completely different for us, new country and totally new job for him.