considering move to fort lewis (Seattle, Tacoma: cheap apartments, buying a home, buying)

[shannonrae14]

My family is considering fort lewis as an option for our military family, however I can't find much information or many photos of the area. What are the surrounding towns? Can anyone help me?

[mthomson]

Tacoma, Steilacoom, University Place, DuPont, and Lacey are the main towns for folks at Ft Lewis. Go to www.Flickr.com and type in any of those names in the search key and you'll find some photos. This is a new but good resource for Tacoma military families as well.

[eliette]

It's a great posting. Beautiful area, good schools if you pick the right town, lots to do. We live in Olympia, which is the state capital and is a 30 minute commute for my husband (better schools down here in our opinion). Military families also live in Puyallup and Yelm in addition to the ones that mthomson mentioned. It depends on what you like: rural vs. suburban vs. urban, commute vs. no commute, are schools important to you, etc.? Also, the people I know who live on post are happy with that, although when we moved here there was a wait list for housing...

[Sandy Nelson]

Shannonrae14,

You're very fortunate to get an assignment to Fort Lewis. It is one of the most requested installations. The most common towns military families like to live in close proximity to post are Dupont, Lakewood and Lacey. Other nice towns within a 30 minute commute are Olympia, Steilacoom, Puyallup (South Hill), Gig Harbor and Yelm.
Here is a photo site for pictures of Olympia and other nearby towns.
Good luck with your move.

[earthhorse]

We are currently stationed at Fort Lewis and live in Puyallup. We are now considering buying a home and would like to stay in the Puyallup area because we like it so much. One thing that we took into consideration when deciding where to live was the proximity to Seattle, with all of its activities (as opposed to living in Olympia or other cities east of post). Because we've got young kids, we wanted to be sure that we were within a hour's drive of Seattle - more options of things to do and see to keep busy while my spouse is deployed. Some of my Army friends also live in Graham, Roy, Spanaway, Yelm, and Lakewood. Although, my overall impression of Lakewood is that it's not as nice of an area to live in - a bit more run-down looking.

[Macanudo]

We are also military and live in University Place. I love the area, both on a local and wide range. There are good parks for the kids, decent to nice restaurants locally, plenty of things to do within 10, 20 and 50 miles. We keep plenty busy.

The major drawback is traffic. As the crow flies, we're about 8 miles from the back gate of North Ft. Lewis and about 14 road miles from the main gate on I-5. I-5 can be a disaster even at non rush hour times.

Those living north/west (Tacoma, Lakewood, University Place, Gig Harbor, etc) of post get stuck with that traffic.

Living south/east of the Fort (Olympia, Roy, Yelm, Lacey, Puyallup, etc), there are gates that leave post in those directions. But at 4:00 pretty much any gate will have a backup of traffic.

Like others have said, this is a great posting. If you do end up here, you'll find plenty to like.

[AlexJones]

There are areas downright gangster and crack hoe around Ponders Corner, Lakewood areas around cheap apartments near Bridgeport and Pacific. Lakewood is weird, filthy rich in some areas, and gangland in other areas. Practice your Second Amendment Right and bare arms!

[skinem]

Wow, the military has changed over the years...used to be there wasn't any "considering", it was mandatory! They didn't call it a "dream sheet" for nothing!

Great area...good schools, great outdoor activities, great for families, lots of choices of lifestyle...country, city, suburban.

The only complaint I've heard from families from there is the rain...can't do much about that.