Moving to McChord AFB (Tacoma, Lakewood: real estate, apartments, to rent)

[smiles00880]

My husband and I are moving to McChord and have heard differrent information regarding some of the nearby cities. If you have hany input on any of the following cities/towns, please share it......

1. Steilacoom
2. Lacey
3. Puyallup
4. Dupont
5. Spanaway
6. University place
7. Lakewood

Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone !

[DBM]

My two cents, in order:

1. Steilacoom -- some nice places right by the water, but other than that, not so great. Check out some other threads, you'll see some pretty negative comments about run-down areas, gang activity, etc.

2. Lacey -- just announced plans for its second or third project to develop a town "center," this time out at Hawks Prairie, which is the closest area to McChord. The fact that they have undergone multiple attempts to develop a town center tells you that it really doesn't have one -- Lacey is a collection of shopping areas, strip malls, and housing developments without a discernable center. There are very nice parts, though, particularly the newer developments to the west of Hawks Prairie. The schools historically have been not so great, but my gut tells me that with the newer developments there will be increased pressure (and resources) for improvement. If you want a "town," you might want to think about driving ten more minutes and look at Olympia.

3. Puyallup -- don't know all that much. Been through it a zillion times, never really stopped except for the State Fair (which is fun). My impression is that it is kind of like Lacey -- suburban sprawl without a real core.

4. DuPont -- a ready-built town by Weyerhaeuser's development subsidiary: New infrastructure, a real effort to build a town center, very convenient to McChord.

5-7. Don't know enough to answer.

[isakswings]

Having lived in WA for 10 yrs(up until last yr when we relocated due to housing prices), I will give you my opinion on the areas you are looking into.

Of the ones listed, I would consider:

University Place(nice area, good schools. My aunt and uncle live there and love it) It is expensive there tho!

Puyallup, tho avoid South Hill, Meridian Center traffic is horrible! We lived in apartments there for 2 yrs and luckily they were down low on the hill or it would have been hard to get home. Puyallup is a nice area. The schools used to be really nice, but last I had heard they were becoming over crowded.

Lacey... we looked into Lacey when we were house hunting. I am not sure how the schools are tho!

I would not move to:

Spanaway. The district is not great and IMO the area has gone down hill over the last several years. My grandparents live in Parkland(right near Mc Chord). There are some nice areas in those towns, but the school district alone would scare me off.

Steilacoom is very pretty but I agree with the other poster.

Lakewood has some nice areas(including where my aunt and uncle live), but I asked my aunt awhile back what she thought about the school system there now, and she didn't think it was all that great anymore. She works at Lake High School. PLUS there are some run down areas in Lakewood. There are nice areas too, but again the schools would keep me from moving there.

HTH!

[AOC]

I live in Oakbrook in Lakewood and it is very nice - quiet area, golf course in middle, many retired military folks but also younger ones, schools close in area. Lakewood Towne Center has great shopping.
Steilacoom is quaint, historical town. Don't know about gangs, haven't heard that, it's right up road from me!
Univ. Place has much higher taxes than Tacoma or Lakewood - good schools but have had problems at high school.
Puyallup has had some racial problems and the schools have had to do some education regarding that. Traffic there is a nightmare.
Tacoma very diverse, the west end where I used to live is great and near Pt Defiance Park. North end great but very expensive. McChord is in the area of Lakewood that isn't so good but if you want to live where there is diversity, select Lakewood or Tacoma.
Fircrest is a small town in the middle of Tacoma which you might want to consider, it is very nice. 5 min from freeway and 5 min from Tacoma or UP
Dupont has NW Landing which has lovely homes and walking trails. It's south of Ft Lewis which is south of McChord. Not much shopping near there, so you'd have to go Tacoma or Lakewood.
Lacey is a bunch of shopping, like the other poster said. I was just there last week and saw some newly built areas. Many military live there but it's not close to McChord and traffic in this area sucks.
Spanaway is icky but affordable. Then there are the towns near the mountain like Orting, Graham but I wouldn't live there.
Schools - it depends on if you have kids and if they are good students. My daughter was a good student and went to Wilson high on NW end of Tacoma and did fine.

[4 A Blue Ocean]

My husband is an E7 in the Army and we moved here 8 months ago. I did a lot of research on the various as well as feedback back from real estate agents in the area.

We ended up buying a place in DuPont 3 months after we moved here. DuPont is like a small town, but most of the homes have been built in the last 10 years. They are still building homes here actually! There are ton of walking paths all over the city and it is very family friendly. It is very safe community that is made up many Army & Airforce families. Really ideal if you have kids. I could go on and on about what we like about DuPont.

The highway to Puyallup (Pew-All-Up) is just a couple lof lanes and traffic going to and from the 5 freeway and McChord is hellish. Anything south of Ft Lewis & McCord is a much better commute, such as Lacey or Olympia.

If we did not live in DuPont, we would probably live in Lacey, in the Hawks Prairie area -- exit off 111 from the 5. There is a new Home Depot, Best Buy, Costco & Wal-Mart there. A few exits south is more shopping including Target.

If you live north of Ft Lewis & McChord, you'll sit in quite a bit of traffic. At 5PM, you can sit in traffic for 45 minutes trying to get from Ft Lewis/McChord to just the Tacoma mall.

University Place is nice as well as Steilacoom but you do have some pockets of not so good areas. Lakewood has some nice areas too but some not so good. I can e-mail you some areas to drive through to check out if you like.

If you are planning to rent an apartment when you get here, check out Clocktower Apartments here in DuPont. They run a little bit more but are worth it. They are nice inside and out, and get rave reviews from everyone who lives there. The people running it are nice to. There is also a new apartment place that just finishing being built in Lacey.

If you are not going to stay at lodging on post when you get here, stay at the Liberty Inn in DuPont. Nice and new, and clean. Farelli's down the street has great wood fired pizza and a good everday happy hour from 3-6 and after 9 PM.


Good Luck!

[4 A Blue Ocean]

P.S. Stay away from Spanaway & Tillicum. Yuk, yuk, yuk.

[sodwyer]

Hello There,

Coming from a local yocal, well pretty much 30yrs, moved around a bit, and currently work with a lot families relocating to Ft Lewis, this is what they typically have to say:

1. Steilacoom is great, lots of gorgeous views, small town feel and close to everything. The compromise is what you get for the money, older homes may need more updating but has great schools and fabulous place to live.

2. Lacey has been a real plus for families needing to be within 20 min of Ft Lewis need to find something under 250K with accomodating sq footage. There's a lot of new construction with the compromise being lot size. Close to shopping and great communities for families.

3. Puyallup is HUGE and definitely has the sprawl issue, whatever you do avoid MERIDIAN, you'll get home around midnight, jsut kidding. Again a lot of home for the money, some great communities good selection of builders a little more variety than Lacey however traffic can be horrendus! However, if you go a little further south to Graham you can avoid all the traffic access the east gate and still enjoy all the area has to offer.

4. Dupont is a very well planned community, primarily all new housing and fabulous location, close to everything and the town has all the basic ammenities, Starbucks, few restaurants, fitness club, venture bank, and is growing. Homes are start in the low 300's and up from there, lots aren't very big, but there are lot's of trails and landscaping. Awesome schools!

5. Spanaway, there's some areas that people have steered clear and then there are some areas that are affordable and more sought after. Very close to Ft Lewis.

6. U.P. Feels like a bigger Steilacoom, some of the property there have amazing views of the Narrows, you'll find a variety of well kept older homes to nice new custom homes, all well maintaned. Beautiful Community and awesome schools. Close to I-5 and lots going on in the surrounding communities too.

7. Lakewood, a lot of people like Oakbrook it's known for being a family community. Lot's to do, one nice thing is you have Steilacoom Lake right there if you like boating. It's a nice big lake. Again very close to ft Lewis and shopping and pretty diverse community.

Well hope this helps, good luck with your move and feel free to ask me any other questions.

=)
sodwyer

6.

[Laakealight]

Graduated from high school in WA.

1. Steilacoom is nice in the older areas - mostly on the hill overlooking the water. Seems to be a conservative, old money area in comparison to surrounding areas.

2. Lacey - Olympia is nicer. Nice marketplace in town, waterfront is beautiful and people are very, very nice.

3. Puyallup - wouldn't consider it.

4. Dupont - this was a huge drug dealer area at one time. But, my mother says that it's cleaned-up in the last few years and the houses are still affordable.

5. Spanaway - wouldn't even consider it.

6. University place - very nice. My son attended pre-school in this area. The people are very nice and the area is clean.

7. Lakewood - some nice areas on the lakes in the area. Stay away from Lake City area

My advice would be to check the sex offender registry and find the crime stats on the State webpage first.

[grizzly9829]

Originally Posted by smiles00880

My husband and I are moving to McChord and have heard differrent information regarding some of the nearby cities. If you have hany input on any of the following cities/towns, please share it......

1. Steilacoom
2. Lacey
3. Puyallup
4. Dupont
5. Spanaway
6. University place
7. Lakewood

Any help will be greatly appreciated! Thanks everyone !

All areas are good with the exception of Spanaway. TOO,,too many people and not enough roads to get around thru. Traffic is worse than gridlock. I have lived here in Spanaway all my life and it has gone from good to really bad.....Crime is high there too.I currently live in Lakewood,very nice area...
All the other areas are good. Good luck!

[From_the_ATL]

Hey, if you want to be close to the base, Lakewood would be your best bet (besides living on base). McChord is mostly in Lakewood... if you drive off the base, you are in Lakewood.