HELP: Considering Move to Seattle (Bellevue, Kent: real estate, houses, neighborhoods)

[TickledPinkTwice]

The hubby is going on a 2nd interview for a company in Tukwila. That being said, we are now trying to consider a move to Seattle if he gets an offer. I went to high school in Oak Harbor but moved to Cincinnati for college (and stayed). We need a bit of insight to sort of weigh our options.

We would love to own a home but looking on ReMax, the prices scare me. We live in a $350K home here that is 4br 2ba with family room and office (2200sq ft). Homes in our are (Wyoming is a suburb of Cincy) are tudors, brick colonials (ours is), and victorians so we are partial to a home iwth some character. Our current home underwent major renovation mostly by my husband and father-in-law but Seattle would be a bit of a commute for the FIL. There is an obvious difference in the cost of living standards as well.

Education is VERY important to us (the hubby has a PhD) and we specifically moved to this burb (paying the higher taxes) for that reason. Our disctrict is nationally recognized and our high school is 50th out of 100 top school in the nation. It is a small district as well, which was appealing. (2 children: 1 is a first grader and the other is an infant)

I've found some great advice for neighborhoods to look at but they don't seem to be an option to choose on ReMax's website. I guess I'm a bit overwelmed with the info out there so some advice from anyone would be nice. Love to be able to know our neighbors, close to shopping/dining, have some trees/house with charm.

I have to say that some of the views that possible homes have are amazing. Also, Cincy has an AWFUL urban lifestyle or city living in general so the move would be exciting. The concept of the amazing public transportation Seattle has to offer is exciting to the hubby because we only have a bus system.

Ok...I'm done babbling!

[seattlenextyear]

Around here, the best real estate websites are: Windermere and Redfin.

[TickledPinkTwice]

Thanks. I see that Redfin can search by neighborhood. I'm going to have to check that out. It makes searching with everyone's advice MUCH easier.

[Ira500]

If the school district is going to be a big factor, you may want to look at some of the Eastside suburbs or Maple Valley. The school districts immediately surrounding Tukwila ( Renton, Highline( Burien), Kent), and Tukwila itself aren't very good, though there some individual schools within those districts that are very good...You may have to spend more than 350 thousand to get the kind of house you're describing, especially in Bellevue, which has some extremely highly rated schools. Somewhere in South Bellevue would mean an easier commute to Tukwila. Consider the city of Newcastle, south of Bellevue and north of Renton. Some of it's in the Renton school district and some is in the better Issaquah district. Newcastle has some amazing scenery, hiking trails, and less expensive houses than Bellevue, as a general rule.
Then there's Issaquah, east of Newcastle and Bellevue. Unlike most places in the Seattle area, Issaquah does have an historic downtown, with good shopping and restaurants, live theatre, and a good school district.
Other parts of the east side, like Kirkland and Redmond, might be too long of a commute to Tukwila.
Houses within the City of Seattle have charm and character, but the school district is less than wonderful, and the neighborhoods with great schools are plagued with really expensive houses.

[Jennibc]

The prices should scare you. We sold a characterless, 1600 square foot box in the city for 400K last year. I don't know if the prices have dropped much but we lived in one of the lower priced neighborhoods with good schools (Wedgwood). We moved back to Seattle in 2001 after being gone for several years because I was "homesick." We'd moved from an area with a much lower cost of living (Austin, TX) and just didn't realize what a struggle it would be to have a family there. When you are young and childless, you don't have to consider school districts, the safety of neighborhoods, etc. We lasted eight years before we said "enough" and moved back to lower cost of living land. Life is much better when you're not stressing about money all of the time.

[specificnorthwest]

Its interesting, I agree with everything Jennibc just wrote regarding cost of living, and yet that's the reason we are considering a move to Seattle. Then again we would be coming from the ridiculous high cost of living / debatable quality of life / hot or miss schools of NYC (although I do realize Seattle isn't cheap by any means). Everything is relative I suppose . . .

[Jennibc]

Originally Posted by specificnorthwest

Its interesting, I agree with everything Jennibc just wrote regarding cost of living, and yet that's the reason we are considering a move to Seattle. Then again we would be coming from the ridiculous high cost of living / debatable quality of life / hot or miss schools of NYC (although I do realize Seattle isn't cheap by any means). Everything is relative I suppose . . .

You are absolutely right. If someone is moving from the Bay area or NYC, Seattle will provide a sigh of relief (economically). However, if you are coming from the midwest (just about anyplace other other than Chicago) the difference may seem staggering. If you are coming from DC or Boston I don't think you will notice much of a difference.

[JustCallMeTC]

Here's a great site to help with schools.

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

You can compare districts, schools within districts, or schools in general.

Good luck.

[VeronikaW]

When I'm looking at houses on line, I then reference these sites to research schools in those areas School Digger, Seattle Times School Guide (http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/schoolguide - broken link) and Great Schools.

[iskray917]

Public transit in Seattle isn't that amazing. We mostly only have a bus system too for now, though it's probably more extensive than in Cincinnati. Tukwilla is one of the few places the light rail does go to however but depending on where you live it may or may not be usable.