Good schools suburb move - commute to Kent (Seattle, Tacoma: for sale, real estate market)

[RPS13]

Hello all, I have a question I'm sure you haven't heard - where to live in the suburbs that has good schools and a reasonable commute to Kent?


But in all seriousness, I'm strongly considering the move from Katy, TX (suburb of Houston) to the 'burbs of Seattle. Relatively young family, 2 kids (2.5 and 1 yr old roughly). The real estate market was a bit of a shocker when I toured the area, but that was to be expected. It sure would be easier to stomach things if I made the move in '14 where my Katy house was worth 20% more than now and Seattle homes were probably 30+% cheaper, but here we are...


Wants: ~2600-3000 sq ft 4 bedroom, great school district (this is super easy in TX surburbs, but seems more difficult to decipher in Seattle suburbs), and a reasonable (~30-35 min or less would be nice) commute to central Kent (work would be around 212st and hwy 167). Budget is somewhat determinant on what sort of job the wife gets, but I think $~500-550k would be doable, maybe more if it got us a substantial improvement.





Maple Valley struck me as the closest to Katy as far as schools/newer neighborhoods/more family oriented vibe, and the commute looks doable from some parts of it. But I do worry about future growth crowding all the surface streets I'd be taking, and that 30 mins becomes 40, then 50, then 60 mins etc. The same thing happened to me when building my house in Katy with a pretty easy 25-30 min commute in the mornings now growing to an easy hour+ after 5 years of growth, so I'm a bit wary of the commute situation turning sour over time.


I really liked some of the areas around the Maple Heights-Lake Desire area (that's what it's called on Google maps), but I have a strong feeling the "oh this is really nice, look you can see Mt. Rainer!" areas I was attract to are a wee bit out of my budget. Nice to dream tho'...


Any helpful advice is appreciated, and I'll allow up to 3 free comments about the lamentation of my moving to the Seattle area adding to the traffic/sprawl/*insert random problem*.

[Neerwhal]

It's hard to decipher schools because Seattle is far less segregated than Houston. So we have poor kids more mixed in.

If you want top scores, no risk of up and down, private is your answer.

If you want excellent instruction and great schools, Issaquah, Lake Washington, Bellevue, and Northshore are all great school districts. However none of them are going to have perfect 5 stars across the board, and even those 5 star schools often house gifted programs, obscuring the fact that the gen ed population there is basically the same as the gen ed population anywhere.

The only places that really struggle are in poorer areas, such as Kent, but even that's on the up and up.

If you want to avoid traffic, go where the trains will be. Look up the planning for light rail and new bus expansions, and plan around that, then take the train. That's my advice. Nothing else seems to work.

[Ira500]

That area around Lake Desire is nice. it's in the Tahoma(Maple Valley) school district, and there are back roads to Kent to avoid standstill traffic.

[homesinseattle]

Hi RPS, Welcome (almost) to town! Maple Valley is a really nice place, underrated in my opinion. As mentioned, there are decent back roads to Kent that you will learn. maple Valley has a small town quality that is really missing in a lot of the world these days. People seem to move at a slower pace, take the time to say hello to each other. If you are a skier/hiker, it's not too tough to head down to Enumclaw and to Crystal Mtn (skiing) and Mt Rainier. Beautiful country.

[Unicorn hunter]

I agree Maple Valley is a nice area and good school district , HOWEVER, I live close by here and would worry about the OP's concern about development and worsening traffic. The commute traffic here is HORRENDOUS already, those "secret" back routes have all been discovered and development continues at a frantic rate in this area. Even though I am putting my house on the market this coming spring, I would NOT recommend this area to anyone who does not appreciate traffic, crowding and increased development. Sorry!

[RPS13]

Originally Posted by Neerwhal

It's hard to decipher schools because Seattle is far less segregated than Houston. So we have poor kids more mixed in.

If you want top scores, no risk of up and down, private is your answer.

If you want excellent instruction and great schools, Issaquah, Lake Washington, Bellevue, and Northshore are all great school districts. However none of them are going to have perfect 5 stars across the board, and even those 5 star schools often house gifted programs, obscuring the fact that the gen ed population there is basically the same as the gen ed population anywhere.

The only places that really struggle are in poorer areas, such as Kent, but even that's on the up and up.

If you want to avoid traffic, go where the trains will be. Look up the planning for light rail and new bus expansions, and plan around that, then take the train. That's my advice. Nothing else seems to work.

Private is out of the question for budget, and even though I went private for K-12 education, I don't think the higher end tracks are that different in good school districts.

Are there really trains that far in the suburbs that go to other suburbs? This is a very new concept to someone that's spent 13 years in TX.

Originally Posted by Ira500

That area around Lake Desire is nice. it's in the Tahoma(Maple Valley) school district, and there are back roads to Kent to avoid standstill traffic.

It is really nice, but I haven't seen many homes for sale around there. I imagine I won't be touching anything "nice" for my budget there, no?

Originally Posted by homesinseattle

Hi RPS, Welcome (almost) to town! Maple Valley is a really nice place, underrated in my opinion. As mentioned, there are decent back roads to Kent that you will learn. maple Valley has a small town quality that is really missing in a lot of the world these days. People seem to move at a slower pace, take the time to say hello to each other. If you are a skier/hiker, it's not too tough to head down to Enumclaw and to Crystal Mtn (skiing) and Mt Rainier. Beautiful country.

Skiing is probably too much of an ask on the knees, but hiking sounds great.

Maple Valley seemed nice, but the crazy development does have me worried, as I've personally been a part of two communities that were nice, then completely changed over the years as development came in and made them something entirely different.

Yes, I realize that's slightly hypocritical as someone also looking to move into the area, but it's hard to make buying decisions for a rapidly changing community versus a place like Kent that's pretty well developed and already has a very "blue collar" flavor that is consistent in the area.

Originally Posted by Unicorn hunter

I agree Maple Valley is a nice area and good school district , HOWEVER, I live close by here and would worry about the OP's concern about development and worsening traffic. The commute traffic here is HORRENDOUS already, those "secret" back routes have all been discovered and development continues at a frantic rate in this area. Even though I am putting my house on the market this coming spring, I would NOT recommend this area to anyone who does not appreciate traffic, crowding and increased development. Sorry!

Yea, all roads seemed pretty packed when I was briefly touring the area. I do feel like all those back roads will get pretty clogged up over the next few years, which makes the buying decision that much harder. That said, traffic in the Seattle area is still pretty tame compared to west Houston. I'm hoping that traumatic "trial by fire" will serve me through the rest of my commuting life.


World's widest freeway! (that's frequently at a near standstill):

[Ira500]

You might want to consider that part of Renton within the Kent school district. As a whole, the Kent school district is meh, but Lake Youngs Elementary, Carriage Crest Elementary, Glenridge, Meeker Middle, and Kentridge High School are all comparable in quality to Maple Valley schools, and are schools that have been very good for a long time. There are lots of newer neighborhoods/family oriented there, and the commute would be easy to 212th/167. Some people get stuck on school districts, that every school in the district has to be a 9/10 on great schools, which is a fine thing to do. But it makes one's options very narrow, and excludes some fine neighborhoods with great schools just because they are in the same school district with schools in an entirely different part of town that aren't as good.

[RPS13]

Originally Posted by Ira500

You might want to consider that part of Renton within the Kent school district. As a whole, the Kent school district is meh, but Lake Youngs Elementary, Carriage Crest Elementary, Glenridge, Meeker Middle, and Kentridge High School are all comparable in quality to Maple Valley schools, and are schools that have been very good for a long time. There are lots of newer neighborhoods/family oriented there, and the commute would be easy to 212th/167. Some people get stuck on school districts, that every school in the district has to be a 9/10 on great schools, which is a fine thing to do. But it makes one's options very narrow, and excludes some fine neighborhoods with great schools just because they are in the same school district with schools in an entirely different part of town that aren't as good.

Very true, Great Schools doesn't offer a very good look at some schools. Thanks for the school recommendations.

[CrazyDonkey]

Why not look at east Kent (east of 167), which has higher scoring elementary schools:

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...?fullpage=true (Martin Sortun ES "9")

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...?fullpage=true (Horizon ES "7")

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/1...?fullpage=true (Horizon ES "7")

https://www.zillow.com/homedetails/2...?fullpage=true (Meridian ES "6")

Note that school scores are going up in these areas, so could be "10", "8", and "7" by the time your kids are ready. The wife can commute from the Kent Station on Sounder commuter rail (30 minutes) to Downtown Seattle.

[Neerwhal]

We have piecemeal transit:

The Sounder takes you from the far cities of the Seattle "metro" area (actually Everett, Tacoma, Seattle, and Bellevue, each separate communities):

https://www.soundtransit.org/sounder

We're going to get Eastlink... someday...

https://www.soundtransit.org/eastlink

I voted for this as a teen and my grandkids will be the primary beneficiaries. You're welcome, future generations.

We also have light rail from Sea Tac through the University of Washington:

https://www.soundtransit.org/Schedules/Link-light-rail

In 20 years we'll have a full system. I'm super excited. A lot of this is underwater so it's expensive and takes a long time to build but I believe in our city.