I want to know about West Central and Emerson-Garfield (Seattle: real estate, renters)

[KDeTate]

Hello! My family and I will be moving to the Spokane area in March-ish and I would like to know about West Central. I love the old craftsman style houses, and a "drive" through on googlemaps leaves me with a pretty tolerable opinion of the area. The same can be said of Emerson-Garfield.
But I'd like some opinions from the locals.
Thanks in advance.

[WendyK]

That depends on what you consider tolerable. These areas both tend to be "mixed" - block to block varies in how well the homes are maintained and what type of residents (owners vs renters vs squatters) are living there. Generally, the farther north and west you are, the nicer the neighborhoods. In West Central, the homes along Summit Blvd. are nicer than the ones just off Ash/Maple. The Corbin Park area homes are very nice right near the park, but others just a block or two away can be more run down. You would really need to do some driving around through the areas to see what you can live with and where you would feel comfortable bringing your family.

[Count David]

No offense, but when comparing the near north side to anything on the South Hill, I don't know why anyone would want to live on the north side (aside from the far north areas).

[KDeTate]

What about Whitman? I have read on here that the Hillyard area is not good, and Whitman seems to be right near there. Is Whitman also a bad area? I've found several 4brm houses that I really like, but they are all over the city and surrounding areas.
Here's my situation in a nutshell:
We have four children; three girls 11, 8, and 8. Our son, 5, is Autistic/ADHD. At the moment, they're all home schooled, but we'd like to get them into a good public school with good special-ed, history, science, and art programs. We have three dogs - a Basset Hound, Neapolitan Mastiff, and a little mutt. We also have 2 cats - 1 indoor and 1 outdoor. We LOVE our animals.
My husband will be working at one of the hospitals (don't know which one yet - depends who offers the best relocation package).
I LOVE several houses in Rosalia and St John. What kind of drive is that? My husband currently commutes 2 hrs each way to work. (97 miles one way) We want less of a commute. But 1/2hr or 45 minutes is perfectly acceptable.
I've also heard a lot about South Hill. Where is this specifically? It's not listed as a searchable neighborhood on any of the real estate sites I've used. Also, I've heard the hills are quite formidable. We're from the high desert in California. We don't have hills. How bad are they in the winter? If we jumped on the Subaru bandwagon, would we be able to navigate them?

Thanks in advance! You're all very helpful on these forums.

[skinem]

South Hill is pretty much what it sounds like--it's the area south of I-90 and south of Deaconess Hospital--generally. It can get pretty slick in the winter. A Subie or any 4x4 or all-wheel drive helps, just remember that while they really are a help in going, they are no better than a 2 wheel drive at stopping.

Rosalia is a do-able drive--about 45 minutes if I remember right, maybe a little less. I think it's in the Cheney school district. There are times the drive can be a bugger in the winter. That stretch of highway has problems at times with snow drifting...it can be plowed and clear and if the winds up, closed again in no time. And the wind does blow some. but it's nothing that people haven't dealt with since the area was settled.

Good luck with your choices and move.

[Count David]

Originally Posted by KDeTate

What about Whitman? I have read on here that the Hillyard area is not good, and Whitman seems to be right near there. Is Whitman also a bad area? I've found several 4brm houses that I really like, but they are all over the city and surrounding areas.
Here's my situation in a nutshell:
We have four children; three girls 11, 8, and 8. Our son, 5, is Autistic/ADHD. At the moment, they're all home schooled, but we'd like to get them into a good public school with good special-ed, history, science, and art programs. We have three dogs - a Basset Hound, Neapolitan Mastiff, and a little mutt. We also have 2 cats - 1 indoor and 1 outdoor. We LOVE our animals.
My husband will be working at one of the hospitals (don't know which one yet - depends who offers the best relocation package).
I LOVE several houses in Rosalia and St John. What kind of drive is that? My husband currently commutes 2 hrs each way to work. (97 miles one way) We want less of a commute. But 1/2hr or 45 minutes is perfectly acceptable.
I've also heard a lot about South Hill. Where is this specifically? It's not listed as a searchable neighborhood on any of the real estate sites I've used. Also, I've heard the hills are quite formidable. We're from the high desert in California. We don't have hills. How bad are they in the winter? If we jumped on the Subaru bandwagon, would we be able to navigate them?

Thanks in advance! You're all very helpful on these forums.

I never thought Hillyard was that bad, it's like an average neighborhood in Lancaster/Palmdale if that helps at all.

I'm not a huge fan of most of north Spokane, much of it is kind of blah/old IMO.

You need to visit Rosalia before thinking of moving there. It's a long/unnecessary commute IMO, and the Palouse looks nothing like Spokane if natural beauty/aesthetics are something you are looking for. Ditto for St. John, and that's simply waaay too far. Both towns have their own school districts (neither are zoned to Cheney skinem, {I checked}).

I don't know how you guys put up with your current commute. I know your listed location has one of the longest average commutes in the country, but that kind of lifestyle just isn't necessary in the Inland NW.

South Hill encompasses everything east of US-195 and south of I-90 in the city of Spokane. It's a fabulous area.

Check out Sunset Hill (aka West Hills), that's my old neighborhood, and it's zoned to some of Spokane's highest-rated public schools.

[Arquebus]

I moved to Spokane about nine months ago, & bought a home in Spokane Valley a couple of months later. I work over by the airport & have a fourteen mile commute, it takes me 20-25 minutes winter or summer. Having moved from the Seattle area, the traffic here is a non-event. As David mentioned, 'South Hill' covers a very large area & is in itself broken down into different neighborhoods with varying degrees of desirability, but anything there would be a real short commute to most of the hospitals in the area. There was a Youtube video going around a few weeks ago about the winter conditions on South Hill you may find interesting:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1ZpOORPbAo
As I mentioned, I live in Spokane Valley (south of I-90) & I have no appreciable hills on my commute with the exception of Sunset Hill, but as I am on the interstate at that point it hasn't been a problem thus far.

[Ken Wendland]

Jacque and I moved here from Seattle a year and a half ago. We live toward the top of the South hill.

Our favorite “chunk” of Spokane is bordered by Maple/ Walnut/ High Drive on the West side; 14th the North side ; Southeast Blvd on the East side; 29th Street on the South side.

Some other favorites in the “neighborhood” Gordy's Sichuan Café; Wild Sage; Manito Park; Ginger Asian Bistro; Rockwood Bakery.

MT Property Management – Maria K – has been a great property manager (we rent through them).

Welcome to Spokane!

Ken

[redhead]

one of the best real estate sits i've foudnd that breaks down neighborhoods with defined boarders is windemere real estate site. i'm not an agent but have been tracking the market for this past year and have found that company has the best site to identify all of the spokane market by neighborhood. on that sit you can select a neighorhood by name and then a map pops up to show it's boundaries on a map and then you can see everthing for sell in that neighborhood. it's the best way for someone to learn the area.
i live on the south hill are of spokane and the hills in the south hill are very very bad in the snow and ice no matter what kind of car you have. it sorta doesn't matter if you make it up the hill or down the hill but the guy driving around you might not have good tiers or be driving too fast and slid right into you: see video below. so i'm looking to move out of the south hill area before next winter myself. probably move to spokane valley or the shadle neighborhood; those are my picks. and the hillard area is bleak imo. lots better areas with same prices.........