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Old 05-13-2010, 02:04 PM
 
2 posts, read 4,077 times
Reputation: 10

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Hi All,

So Ive read and read but most of the discussions seem to widely vary depending on poster, and the Original posts don't seem to offer much in terms of what they are looking for so I would like to get some info based on my needs:

1) Affordable. Looking for a 3bedroom apartment that ranges between 850-950 a month. I have lived in San Diego, LA, and Upstate NY. We love the outdoors of Upstate NY, the Community in SD and well, nothing about LA.

2) Safe. I am interested as many with kids staying out of area's with high burglary and violent crimes. Vehicle Crime or petty theft isn't a big issue for us as we understand for our money we aren't going to get to live in nice ritzy area's. My son will be taking the bus to school, so it needs to be a place where I won't be afraid to stand outside waiting for it to arrive. I have lived in places where drug dealers are on the corners, or working out of

3) Good schools with minimal "bullying". My son is pretty sensitive for an 11 year old and has minor social problems when making friends. We need a school district that isn't filled with predators looking to fill their ranks, I went to a high school like this and wouldn't want my son to have to.

4) "Acceptable" distance from Auburn, my wife will be working at the Hospital there and will be commuting via car.

5) Drugs. I want to not live in a Meth infested area. I am friendly to smokers of Cannabis, although I do not smoke I would rather have if I had to, live around pot smokers then alcoholics, or druggies. So if the area is "hippy" by white-collar standards, that would be fine as long as it isn't a meth/coke/whatever-hard-drug infested area.

6) Access to FIOS or comparable "high speed" internet. Cable is about as far down the "speed" tree I want to go. I work via telecommute on contract and sometimes I am sending or receiving large files so I need an internet connection to handle it.


About us: White couple early 30's with 2 kids 11 and 4. I stay at home with the kids because I can work remotely, my wife will be working at the local hospital in Auburn. We do not go out much at night, and are pretty secluded people. We do enjoy farmers markets, and the outdoors but we do not "club" or do real "trendy" things. We don't eat out so the local "foodie" scene isn't really important since I love to cook and make most of my dishes at home.

Couple of places we have looked:

Maple Valley Apartments in Maple Valley
Cascade Apartments in Federal Way
Forest Cove apartments in Federal Way
Riverside Park in Puyallup

Thank you for all your help. I understand a lot of this will be subjective, but I think with the information I provided I hope to have a base understanding of the better parts for us to look.

Also, if anyone has an apartment broker/finder service that you trust to actually find you what you are looking for instead of just sticking you in a place where they get the best kick back I would appreciate the contact info.

Best Wishes
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Old 05-13-2010, 02:33 PM
 
Location: Duvall, WA
1,677 posts, read 6,829,786 times
Reputation: 644
Given the info/requirements you have given, I'd go with Maple Valley. The schools there are supposed to be excellent, and it's very family friendly and safe there.

There's a part of Auburn called Lea Hill that has good elementary schools, but the middle and high schools are not great. My husband and I (we have 2 kids ages 1 and 2) looked at houses (to buy) in that area.

Parts of Federal Way are kind of sketchy. There's a section called Lakeland North that has a decent elementary, middle and high school, if I'm remembering my research correctly.

I don't know anything about Puyallup except that the big fair happens there every September, and there's 2 of the only 3 Del Tacos in the Seattle area there. It was too far for my husband to commute to Seattle, so I never researched schools there.

With your price range, I think it may be difficult to find what you're looking for in other areas around Auburn.

Oh you might want to check out Kent. The schools are touch and go, but I believe there are some decent ones.

I always use GreatSchools - Public and Private School Ratings, Reviews and Parent Community and SchoolDigger.com - School Rankings, Reviews and More - Public and Private Elementary, Middle, High Schools to check out schools.

Good luck!

V. =)
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Old 05-13-2010, 02:37 PM
 
2 posts, read 4,077 times
Reputation: 10
thank you! ill start my school research there.
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