Need advice on Seattle neighborhood for my family (Shoreline, Sammamish: for sale, rental)

[GettingOutofTexas]

We are relocating to Seattle in a couple of months and are having a hard time figuring out which neighborhoods to concentrate our housing search in. Any advice would help.

We are in our 30's, professionals, with 5 and 1-year old boys. We will need to rent for a few years, but would like to rent somewhere we can eventually afford to buy a house. Our rental budget is around $2000/mth, and our buying budget will be somewhere around $400,000 in a few years.

My husband will be working in what I think is Lower Queen Anne, just south of the Seattle Center.

Our priorities are:

*short commute time
*decent schools
*safe neighborhood to go walking with kids
*close to parks

It would also be nice if we could get:

*walking distance to restaurants/shops

We would prefer to stay in the city if possible. We're not big suburb fans, but will go there if that's what it takes to have a safe place for the kids.

Any thoughts? Thanks.

[CityGirl72]

Queen Anne is the best bet (and maybe Ballard/Crown Hill Area?)

But I don't know how much house you are going to get for 400K.

[Ira500]

Right now there's this big disparity between rents and sale prices for the same house. Not that many years ago, the mortgage for a home would be the same or slightly higher than the rent for the same house. But right now a 2000 rent would rent you something like a 500,000 dollar home.
CityGirl is right, Queen Anne would be perfect, but there's nothing there for sale for 400,000 dollars except a rundown, small major fixer. There's a bit more in the next neighborhood over, Magnolia. Other than that, you'd have to go north or south ( to keep the commute reasonable). North has better schools, so how about the Bitter Lake or Broadview neighborhoods? Lake City has a bad reputation, but parts are really nice, safe, and quiet, especially heading north. Just north of the city are Shoreline and Lake Forest Park. Lake Forest Park has an amazing, out of the ordinary shopping mall anchored by a huge bookstore. They have a food court filled with independently owned, cheap but good eateries, and meeting space made available for free to community groups.

[jessicazi]

Queen Anne is awesome and that is where I am currently living. But a 1bd/1ba condo could cost about $280k+ in this market, so $400k won't buy you much. I pay about $1450 in rent. I think my condo is about 800 square feet (1bd/1ba) and I have a gorgeous view of downtown and a partial of Lake Union. Obviously you need more, but just giving some info to give you an idea.

[h8n]

Very interested in this one as I'm in the same boat.... working in the same area & wish to live close in.

My take: If I wanted to stay in the burbs, I would just move to Houston or Dallas... why pay Seattle prices.

We are granola parents who want to walk & bike everywhere & work in the community garden. Moved to Texas from Portland & miss the true community you loose when each family has a 3000SF house & 1/2 acre of land.

We have 3 kids (2, 4, 6) so school is important. However, if I have to choose between quality schooling vs walking everywhere & having a true community & a co-op, I'll home school. I don't like our public school system anyway (not because of what they teach but because they try to dumb all intelligent kids down to average).

Thus, I'm looking in Capitol Hill, Wallingford, Fremont, Ravenna, Columbia City,Montlake, and Queen Anne.

Any thoughts? How are the schools in these areas?

[Ira500]

Queen Anne and Montlake have schools that are considered amongst the best in the city. The Bryant School near Ravenna has a great reputation...The Columbia City area has a couple of schools with less than stellar reputations, but they also have a well regarded public alternative school, Orca....Not too far from Montlake are the Madison Valley and Madison Park neighborhoods, and the McGilvra Elementary school is also regarded as among the best in the city....
As far as neighborhood grooviness and walkability, the ability to get things like an organic whole wheat cinnamon roll,etc, Columbia City is pretty vibrant, fun, and has a great bakery ( and an independent cinema! How cool is that?),food co-ops are on Capitol Hill( the northern and eastern parts of the Hill are nicer), Fremont, not too far east of Ravenna, and not too far east of Columbia City. There's a little pocket neighborhood between Columbia City and Seward Park where the co-op is that's just this nice little retail strip with an espresso place, Italian restaurant, holistic pet food store, and a couple of other shops. It's close to everything but feels like a friendly, small town. Not far from there @ 50th and Genessee is one of Seattle's best pizza places.
You might also like the Admiral District or Alaska Junction neighborhoods in West Seattle. Walkable, pretty, has a food co-op and a great home made ice cream shop, another area with an independent cinema.

[tlmg21]

I would also be interested in hearing from parents with children in public elementary schools in the area. Which school/s would you recommend? Why? Which school/s would you not send your children to? Why?

[texastrigirl]

There is a big caveat to Seattle Public Schools and that is that you are not guaranteed a spot in your neighborhood school. Schools are assigned based on lottery ultimately and unless that has changed, you want to make sure that you are prepared to pay for private or that you are equipped for homeschooling if you don't like your assigned school. Lottery is held in February. There was even a case a year or so ago where twins got split up between different schools in the area and that parents had to fight to get one reassigned where the other was...I do not believe they were successful in that attempt but I lost track of the story. I hope SPS loses that lottery concept in the near future, but last I checked, it was still in place...which is why we headed to Sammamish and Issaquah School District even though my husband works downtown. If you want to live in the city, Queen Anne is lovely and is mixed with all age ranges. Magnolia as well...but you might find more families in Magnolia vs. Queen Anne. I like Shoreline as well for families. Consider West Seattle as well. Good luck finding your perfect spot!

[tlmg21]

Originally Posted by texastrigirl

There is a big caveat to Seattle Public Schools and that is that you are not guaranteed a spot in your neighborhood school. Schools are assigned based on lottery ultimately and unless that has changed, you want to make sure that you are prepared to pay for private or that you are equipped for homeschooling if you don't like your assigned school. Lottery is held in February. There was even a case a year or so ago where twins got split up between different schools in the area and that parents had to fight to get one reassigned where the other was...I do not believe they were successful in that attempt but I lost track of the story. I hope SPS loses that lottery concept in the near future, but last I checked, it was still in place...which is why we headed to Sammamish and Issaquah School District even though my husband works downtown. If you want to live in the city, Queen Anne is lovely and is mixed with all age ranges. Magnolia as well...but you might find more families in Magnolia vs. Queen Anne. I like Shoreline as well for families. Consider West Seattle as well. Good luck finding your perfect spot!

Wow, that doesn't sound good at all. So no matter where you live in Seattle your child's name is placed in this lottery and that decides which school they attend? What about the next year? Surely once they are in a school they stay there until they have completed all grades at that school?!

You mentioned places like Magnolia and Queen Anne...are they on the same lottery system or is it a different district and therefore done a different way?

Thanks for the tip!

[tlmg21]

One more thing...what happens if you miss the lottery? We are hoping to move to Seattle this summer which means we would miss it if it is in February.