Looking for family friendly areas! Suggestions? (Seattle, Bellevue: best neighborhood, 2013, apartments)

[Larei]

Hi all,

My husband just received an offer from amazon and accepted it. We'll be moving out to Seattle in about 4 weeks. We currently live in Delaware, so it's a big move and a big change!

I've been looking at a few different areas. We'll likely get a 3 bedroom apartment for 6 months to a year while we look for a house. We have a 14 month old and would like an area that has great public schools as well. My husband currently commutes 1 hour and 15 min each way, so anything from a 20 minute to 1 hour commute is fine.

So the areas I'm interested in (no particular order)
-Edmonds
-Shoreline
-Bothell
-Mill Creek
-Bellevue
-Bainbridge Island - it says that the commute is an hour, but is it really? What would the average commute be from Bainbridge Island to South Lake Union?

Ideally I would like to live an area that's near parks and has a great family atmosphere with things to do with the little ones. I'm leaning towards Bothell/Mill Creek.

Thanks in advance!

[Blondebaerde]

Very short amount of time to complete big tasks, four weeks. Good idea to rent a condo/apartment for 6 months to a year, to get the lay of the land in Seattle prior to purchase.

Your budget wasn't mentioned. Rental market here is tough, they say (other forum posts, past year or so). RE purchasing: after a significant rise in home prices, Q1 2012 to Q1 2013, "they" say there will be a more-modest increase this year. Ref: Zillow. Property market nationally is in flux, big-time, for various reasons. Seattle metro is a desirable, and expensive, area to live.

Will assume you mean Amazon's main campus, on South Lake Union. Would suggest your husband seriously consider the mass transit option, or pooling, as part of your move requirements. Seattle traffic can be notoriously difficult, I'd keep out of a SOV (car) wherever possible. There are various bus lines I can think of right off the bat that arrive to South Lake Union's general area from points north, east, and south. Ref: King County Metro.

I lived in Mill Creek eleven years and commuted to Eastside (not Seattle). I don't blame you for leaning that way, so to speak. Upsides: typically polite bedroom community. Nice park system within the city/town. Safe. Tidy. Schools, I don't know anything about. Downs: will take time to get anywhere Eastside or Seattle during commute hours. Not a ton to do culturally; I always went elsewhere for entertainment. However, recreation and nature to the north are that much closer. Other than the distance from anything interesting, I found it a great place to be.

Commute, however, was a big pain much of the time. Thus, I too took buses when I could. McCollum PR (Mill Creek) and other points nearby in Mill Creek have services southbound to the city. Ditto Canyon Park TC, and Bothell TC. I should say, there "was" a bus or two: would check on that, services are in flux due to budget issues. Check "Community Transit" (Snohomish County) for specifics.

Bellevue and Eastside are another topic entirely, please see numerous threads in this forum. I live Eastside (Kirkland). Many (most, all?) of the Bellevue schools are objectively rated very highly, AFAIK. Mass transit options into Seattle: several, the 545 Route comes to mind from Bellevue TC (or elsewhere). Though expensive, IMHO it is worth it to live there (Bellevue, Redmond, Kirkland, Issaquah, Samm) for many reasons, related to IT (industry), things to do, access to services, etc. Depends on your priorities, of course.

[Hemlock140]

Bainbridge Island is a 40 minute ferry ride to Alaskan Way, 10-15 minutes wait to get off of it, then another 10-15 minutes drive to SLU. The real time is in waiting for the next ferry at both ends that can add a lot of time, and the ferry fare is expensive to do daily. If you walk on it will cost less but you will have bus rides at both ends and it will be more like an hour and a half.

In the areas with the good schools 3 bedroom apartments are hard to find, and they will be $2,500/month or more. if you are considering Bellevue, it's only 10-20 minutes longer to Issaquah and Sammamish, also with great schools, better than Bothell and Mill Creek, so you might consider them also.

[beautifulseattlehomes]

I would look in Edmonds too. Good schools, beautiful parks, charming town on Puget Sound with plenty of restaurants and cute shops and lots of families. Many of the homes face west toward the Olympic Range and look out on the water and I know that when I first moved from the east coast that the view and the water to the west took my breath away and still do today. Edmonds reminds me of coastal towns on the east coast but with a uniquely NW vibe. The commute to the city isn't bad and can certainly be done in under and hour...plenty of public transportation and carpool options too.

[sll3454]

Originally Posted by Hemlock140

In the areas with the good schools 3 bedroom apartments are hard to find, and they will be $2,500/month or more.

They'll have moved out of the apartment by the time the little one needs school.

Larei, the closer to your husband's work, the better. The best neighborhood in the world doesn't make up for "Dad-time" and family time lost to a commute.

[tamara6206]

Larei, Did you settle on a location? Doing the preliminary work for Seattle move and finding commute issues to SLU overwhelming.

[sfkane]

My husband also works for Amazon and we are relocating this summer. We really liked Issaquah when we visited a few weeks ago. Runner ups were Edmonds, and Richmond Beach.

[Blondebaerde]

Curious how this all panned out, may have to commute eastside to Seattle myself at some point.