Moving to Seattle, best area to live with a young family? (Bellevue: low income, townhomes)

[jabogitlu]

If you're looking at West Seattle, you should look at White Center, Georgetown or Columbia City / Hillman city / Rainier Valley. Look into private schools for your kid.

[flyingsaucermom]

Originally Posted by kaday

If you could find something on Bainbridge that would be a good option except that you have to deal with the ferry schedule. It's a nice place though, cute downtown (great ice cream shop), nice parks, good schools.

Maybe my concerns are completely unfounded, but I personally wouldn't be comfortable of having both my spouse and I commuting by ferry while our children are left on the island.

We had a situation last month where there was a sudden and somewhat unexpected snow storm at 4pm on a Tuesday. I live and work as a pet sitter in Issaquah and I had two clients frantically call me to see if I could get to their homes and let their dogs out because they were stuck in Seattle for up to four hours longer than anticipated. One of them had kids and was trying to find a neighbor to pick them up from after school childcare because neither of the parents could get home earlier than 8pm.

Would the ferry have more compromises than the roads?

[flyingsaucermom]

In addition to what you're considering I don't believe I read Maple Valley or East Renton Highlands. I don't know about the commute times, but they are frequently batched with the more-affordable-with-good-school options.

[jrpaulson]

My son bought in Bonney Lake. The commute drove him crazy until he started taking the Sounder train in. It is still a long haul (an hour plus), but the train is comfortable, quiet, and has wifi so he worked part of the way to and from work. Bonney Lake does not have a quaint downtown, but it has a growing one.
He picks up the train in Sumner, which does have a quaint downtown.
$500,000 will buy a nice place there.

[leastprime]

Originally Posted by flyingsaucermom

Maybe my concerns are completely unfounded, but I personally wouldn't be comfortable of having both my spouse and I commuting by ferry while our children are left on the island.

We had a situation last month where there was a sudden and somewhat unexpected snow storm at 4pm on a Tuesday. I live and work as a pet sitter in Issaquah and I had two clients frantically call me to see if I could get to their homes and let their dogs out because they were stuck in Seattle for up to four hours longer than anticipated. One of them had kids and was trying to find a neighbor to pick them up from after school childcare because neither of the parents could get home earlier than 8pm.

Would the ferry have more compromises than the roads?

So is there much of a difference in being stucxk on a freeway or being stuck at the ferry terminal or worse being on the ferry for 40 minutes ? We will never drive to Seattle anymore preferring the Train which has clean and many toilets, bistro (taking the Starlight next week, it has a bistro and dining car ). And, you don't need to sit next to your partner

[DevanXL]

Originally Posted by Walch1007

Unless you're willing to settle for a townhome or up the budget to at least $650K, you really can't get anything in a non-sketchy area that's less than 1.5 hours commute in rush hour traffic.

Burien and Des Moines might be the best choices, but they have terrible schools, so you'll end up having to move in 4 years.

The schools aren't that bad in Burien or Des Moines.

[Suelli5]

If you'll be working standard hours, then take advantage of public transit. Driving downtown is always a headache during rush hour. I have a coworker who is very happy living in Mukilteo, which I believe still has some homes in the $500K range. I also have who just bought a 3BR in West Seattle on the edge of a semi-sketchy area for $650K, and they are very savvy bargain hunters. Due to rapid gentrification, sketchy neighborhoods are rapidly disappearing. Chances are the sketchiness near them will be gone in 2 years -that's what happened in my neighborhood. Of course, this also means a lot of working class people are being dislocated and that the number of homeless families here is exploding.

[Walch1007]

Originally Posted by DevanXL

The schools aren't that bad in Burien or Des Moines.

Burien Schools - Burien Washington School Ratings - Public and Private

4/10 is pretty bad.

I suppose I should be thankful there are many parents in Seattle who are okay with putting their kids in a 4/10 school. Otherwise, Bellevue, Queen Anne, Ballard, Issaquah, Kirkland etc would be even more expensive than it is now.

[leastprime]

^ Schools. With as many newcomers to Seattle core areas, and with high salaries and trainings, I'd guess that in about 6 years, that parents will demand better education from their publics.

[DevanXL]

Originally Posted by Walch1007

Burien Schools - Burien Washington School Ratings - Public and Private

4/10 is pretty bad.

I suppose I should be thankful there are many parents in Seattle who are okay with putting their kids in a 4/10 school. Otherwise, Bellevue, Queen Anne, Ballard, Issaquah, Kirkland etc would be even more expensive than it is now.

Those ratings are always inaccurate. Mt. Rainier in Des Moines is a decent high school with AP classes and an IB program. Not every school has the resources that Bellevue schools have so it's comparing apples to oranges. I grew up in Federal Way and have friends that currently to USC, Stanford, UCLA, Ivy league schools like UPenn, Cornell, and Brown. Have achieving parents tend to have high achieving students.