Towns in the Fort Lewis area (Seattle, Tacoma: how much, house, neighborhoods)

[armywife99]

There is a possibility of my husband being stationed at Fort Lewis. What are some towns close to the base that are good places for families to live? We have two daughters and we want somewhere safe with good schools.

[MaikeerinWA]

I'm not that familiar with them, having only driven through really, but Dupont and Steilacoom seem pretty nice. You might want to do some research on these two places, along with Lakewood. Hopefully someone else can share their direct experiences.

[pw72]

Puyallup is a good location, nice mix of suburb and semi-urban feel, Lakewood, and the University Place south of Tacoma are all nice areas. Tacoma, itself, offers some very nice older neighborhoods, but may be closer to some dangerous areas. Check with local realtors.

[Ira500]

Olympia's not that far from Ft. Lewis, and has great schools. I think you can be outside of Olympia proper, closer to the base, and still be in the Oly school district.
Steilacoom is a charming town with a good school district also close to the base.

[cobolt]

I live in and love Steilacoom.

[Sandy Nelson]

For safe communities with good schools and an easy commute to Fort Lewis, I would recommend Olympia, Dupont, Steilacoom and Lacey. Depending on what is most important to you, each town has its pluses and minuses. For example, if good schools is your number one priority, Olympia is the place for you. If a short commute is most important, Dupont is the best place. None of the towns I've listed really have "wrong side of the tracks" neighborhoods. For easy access to major shopping such as Walmart. Home Depot, mall etc. Olympia would be most convenient. Dupont has a wonderful small town feel and Steilacoom offers great views and historic homes. The best thing to do is to have your Realtor give you a tour of these communities so you can get a good feel for yourself. To research schools visit this website: Washington State Report Card It lets you compare up to three different schools against each other.
Good luck!

[Seattleite61]

Depends on how from post you want to be and how much your BAH is. DuPont is very nice and the closest spot to post but a little more expensive. We are 2 miles from the DuPont gate and hubby does not have to get on the freeway at all. The only drawback here is there is no shopping (except the PX/commissary on post) unless you go down the freeway either direction 10-15 minutes.

Steilacoom is nice, and very convenient to N Ft Lewis.

A lot of folks choose Lacey as it's only about a 15 minute drive to post and housing is less expensive.

Puyallup has great schools, but can be a little bit of a commute, especially in the afternoon/evenings...

Good luck!

[Lou Gehrig]

We're Army and live in University Place. All of the other mentioned cities have good places to live as well. Seattleite61 is right though about shopping in their area. Lots of housing but the only grocery store convenient is the Commissary and a Safeway in the Lakewood area. It can be a major hassle getting there at certain times of the day. I-5 is a pain in the afternoon and any accident can make it a parking lot.

A few weeks ago, I was coming home from Olympia at around 2:00 p.m. A semi had jack knifed in the the south bound lanes and even though it did not affect the northbound lanes at all, traffice was backed up for almost 5 miles because people were slowing down to look. There are precious few ways around the Fort that don't involve major detours and time. Consider that when looking.

[Seattleite61]

Originally Posted by Macanudo

I-5 is a pain in the afternoon and any accident can make it a parking lot.

A few weeks ago, I was coming home from Olympia at around 2:00 p.m. A semi had jack knifed in the the south bound lanes and even though it did not affect the northbound lanes at all, traffice was backed up for almost 5 miles because people were slowing down to look. There are precious few ways around the Fort that don't involve major detours and time. Consider that when looking.

Exactly why we chose DuPont! No worries about the freeway. If we do go somewhere other than on post, we make sure we take traffic into account! It's not so bad (I-5) during the day, outside of rush hour commute hours, unless there is an accident or incliment weather.

We were living in Federal Way when we first got married, but I sold my house so that hubby didn't have to deal with the commute. It wasn't so bad in the mornings, but in the afternoon it would take him anywhere from an hour to 2+ hours to get home, depending on traffic.