Woodinville pros and cons? (Seattle, Redmond: rental, new home, neighborhoods)

[blue_jewel143]

We're looking at some houses in Woodinville and I was hoping you guys could fill me in on the pros and cons if the area? Also the houses we are looking at in this area are older, any advise or precautions for when looking at older neighborhoods? Thanks!!!!

[Seacove]

We live in Woodinville and really love it. The homes are typically older since Woodinville experienced a lot of growth in the 80s and early 90s. At that time, the homes tended to be built acre-sized lots, with many larger than that. There are sections of Woodinville, such as the winery area, Hollywood Hill, Cottage Lake, Wellington, Crystal Lake, Huntington, Leota, the Wedge (west of 522), downtown, and in unincorporated Woodinville there is Reinwood, Paradise Lake, Serena, all north of Cottage Lake, and Bear Creek, Saybrook and Ring Hill east of Cottage Lake.

Because the home lots tend to be large and the area tends to slant toward rural, most homes are on septic with city water.
The school district is Northshore which includes Woodinville, Kirkland, north Redmond and Bothell. Woodinville schools are rated 9s and 10s on Great Schools.
Woodinville is generally known for "horse country", winery tours such as Chateau St. Michelle, breweries such as Red Hook, little cottage businesses like lavender, honey, a farmers market, Molbaks (well known local plant nursery and garden center), DeYoungs Farm and Garden, the Hollywood Schoolhouse, etc. Chateau St. Michelle has a concert series every summer with well known musician playing at the winery and the audience can buy seats or lay blankets out on the grass. Winery Concerts | Seattle Area Winery Concert Series
Woodinville Wine Country | 30 Minutes from Downtown Seattle
Bucks & Beers: Estimates Show Economic Contributions of Breweries - Business - Woodinville, WA Patch

While Woodinville's growth was big in the 80s and early 90s, locals really try to curb growth now, some areas going to greath lengths to prevent large developments from moving here.

It can be thought that Woodinville only has homes in the 700s to a million or more but I see a few homes in the high 400s or 500s that just need updating and who knows, maybe some plumbing and electrical. To me, that would be a much greater investment with longer term value than a brand new home on a tiny lot for $600K+ in other areas nearby. But that is a matter of personal taste - some would prefer the brand new home with no short term maintenance issues and minimal yard work. I'll happily take the acre in a beautiful wooded area where you are just as likely to see deer in someone's yard as you would squirrels or rabbits.

Home updates are personal taste, a lot of the 80s homes had oak cabinets, oak floors with some carpet, wood trim windows and door frames, etc. which is perfectly fine and functional. But you will want to make sure the trees are maintained and not growing too close to the house. Everything grows in Woodinville, you have to control it. Tall fir trees close to the house risk falling on it during wind storms so it's just a matter of removing them before they get too big.

The only rental I've seen in the past few months was for a perfectly nice typical Woodinville home for $3500. a month (they had flyers out). I thought that was a little high but it rented within the same week.

[shaylahc]

We live in Woodinville and love it. Schools are great, and it feels like a little rural "bubble" in Seattle. Rent is high. We pay more to rent than it would cost to buy, but we are not in a position to buy right now so we suck it up.

When it comes time for us to buy, we will be looking here. My dream house is an older fixer upper on 1-2 acres.