Realities of commuting from Port Orchard/Sumner to Boeing Field? (Seattle: transplants, real estate)

[Friartub]

We may soon be transplants from Southern California due to work transfer. I posted here when everything hit us at once.

After spending a bazillion hours combing the internet, I have come to love both Port Orchard and Sumner for different reasons.

Right now, my husband has a heinous commute and is on the train through Los Angeles up to 5 hours a day round trip. It is just mean. And driving makes it worse. So, anything less than that is an improvement, and anything significantly less than that is beautiful.

Our realities: Work for him will be on Military Road off Boeing Field. We have to be prepared for the event of another layoff and need to live well within our means. We currently live in an urban area that has all the issues associated with it and the thought of a small town seems lovely to us. If a layoff does happen, we need to be able to live on my salary (special education teacher) so we want to have a very minimal mortgage.

More realities: We have twins who just finished their first year of high school. One needs a marching band because it will make for a soft landing in a new town. It is her whole world here so it will mean friends there, and a happy kid. She is also in an IB program- but AP/honors program will also work well. This might be hard- but she is taking Mandarin as her foreign language and loves it. My other daughter has special needs. She needs special education support and our hope is that a smaller community might be one she can navigate independently. She takes a mix of special education and general education classes, has high functioning autism, and (we may not be able to afford this on any level) loves horses. Plugging all of the girl factors in helped me find Sumner High School in Sumner and South Kitsap High School in Port Orchard. Honors student daughter may have to live at home when college comes because this move/potential unemployment may bite hard financially.

My reality: I am a special education teacher with California credentials. My hope is that the girls and I will all go to schools in the same community. I will need a job right away and feel overwhelmed at the thought of starting all over, or entering a small town culture.

Now that we are starting to narrow the search by commute, high schools, and home prices (under $300K), it is starting to sound very exciting.

Finally (sorry to be sooo long winded!) the job may materialize in January, which is a ridiculous time for a teacher to find work, and possibly ridiculous to uproot kids. We might divide and conquer, with most of us completing the academic year for next year here, and hubby moving north to a rented room in someone's house for six months.

Does this sound doable? The $300K is the outside of the home price we feel comfortable with due to the ongoing fear of layoff. Is there someplace else I am completely ignoring? For high schools, I'm looking at school rankings, test scores and programs.

We live in the Inland Empire region of Southern California where it is hot, smoggy and crowded. Would be thankful for insight.

[pnwguy2]

I'm sure you already know this, but Port Orchard would require either a ferry ride or a longer commute down through the Tacoma Narrows (toll) and then NB on the 5, which would be horrible most days, depending on your husbands hours.

Sumner would atleast give you two options either the 5 or the 167. (Valley Freeway). Both are no picnic. As for the small town atmosphere, both probably have it but I would lean more toward Port Orchard. Sumner is just becoming another cookie-cutter suburb, though less expensive than most in the metro.

I might consider Beacon Hill or even Renton if you don't mind a diversified population. These areas are not especially higher in crime and your husbands commute to Boeing would be 10-15 minutes on surface streets.

[CrazyDonkey]

High schools in the areas you're looking that offer three or four years of Chinese:

Franklin Pierce (Tacoma)
Kentwood (Kent)
John Rogers (Puyallup)
Chief Sealth (Seattle)

https://clta-wa.wikispaces.com/Chine...+of+Washington

[CrazyDonkey]

Kentwood HS catchment:

24856 145th Ln SE, Kent, WA 98042 | MLS #955640 | Zillow ($230k, 3bd/2.5ba, 1,650sf, 2,178sf lot)

18065 SE Wax Rd, Covington, WA 98042 | MLS #945265 | Zillow ($280k, 3bd/2ba, 1,550sf, 0.36-acre lot)

27006 164th Ave SE, Covington, WA 98042 | MLS #946441 | Zillow ($299k, 3bd/2ba, 1,480sf, 0.48-acre lot)

[Ruth4Truth]

OP, it's not a doable commute. And you need to keep in mind the bad weather in the fall and winter: the rain can be heavy, and windy crossing the Tacoma Narrows bridge. Potentially dangerous. You'd be better off being flexible on home purchase (condo, if it comes to that) so you can be closer to Boeing Field, than looking for inexpensive real estate in more rural areas much farther out.

[mhays25]

That sounds INSANE. People do it, but they have no free time, no time with the kids, tons of stress, etc.

[pnwguy2]

Originally Posted by Ruth4Truth

OP, it's not a doable commute. And you need to keep in mind the bad weather in the fall and winter: the rain can be heavy, and windy crossing the Tacoma Narrows bridge. Potentially dangerous. You'd be better off being flexible on home purchase (condo, if it comes to that) so you can be closer to Boeing Field, than looking for inexpensive real estate in more rural areas much farther out.

Well, Ruth, Tacoma Narrows is not particularly dangerous, unless you like looking at film of the 1940 collapse.

But the rest of your post certainly makes sense. It is not a doable commute unless one enjoys an hour and a half each way. The ferry to Seattle would also even out the commute at about the same time span, plus more expensive.