Hi Folks, We are new to Seattle area. I work in Bellevue and my wife is going to start working in Seattle (near stadium). We have a 4 year old as well. We want him to go to a public school. So, the option of putting him in a private school and living in some neighborhood is ruled out. We are okay with 30 to 40 min commutes.We heard that Sunset, Cougar Ridge, Eastgate and Issaquah Highlands are good. What would you all recommend? Are we missing some other good ones in our list?
Kirkland is better than Issaquah in terms of school? We are looking at only one 9 rated school in Kirkland versus a few in Issaquah.
I misunderstood that you put school score as lower priority, but again it's a balance of your budget, what's available and luck in bidding. I had a metric of school, crime rate, access to good food, future city planning with different priorities when doing my search. Probably start one with your priorities that will ease the search. The problem in the greater Seattle area is really not pick and choose, is getting the closest thing to what you want in what's available...
Yeah. Makes sense. Only problem is we are new here. Have no idea how Kirkland VS Issaquah is. I guess I will have to rent for a few months to look around :)
Sounds like you don’t live in Seattle area? If so would suggest to rent first so you will have time to look. Houses is super competitive still so it may take a while before you can win a bid for a house. Factoria has great schools (somerset for example, jingmei has a chinese bilingual program if you want dual language) Ben Franklin and Mark Twain are good as well. I heard good things about issaquah schools too. there aren’t many bad schools on the eastside near tech companies, since parents tend to be education focused and financially well off enough to afford the area.
Bellevue/Kirkland has more fun places to go out and dine at, also better gyms and better schools than Seattle! Finding a house in Seattle with parking is challenging unless you move to north seattle. Let me know if you need real estate agent referral, worked with a good one to secure my offer last year!
Bellevue or Mercer island if you could afford.
Those two are not on the same level ……
Laurelhurst neighborhood is close to the stadium and has good schools, kind of pricey though.
Factoria close to I-90.
Look in Redmond area close to Microsoft campus and grass lawn park. It gives easy access to 520 for Seattle. One should have easy commute to take care of kids at runtime.
Clyde hill
I am also looking, but as an rental property. My scope would be Kirkland and Redmond, as if the housing bubble do burst, they are less affected like the more remote cities. Avoid anything south, Renton is somewhat closer but school is not great even comparing with Kent. Some Renton houses got Issaquah schools, so that might be good. It really depends on your budget and priority
Probably add kirkland to the list. The greater Seattle area is getting insanely expensive and the bidding is fierce. Make sure you hire a good agent. Going to public school still means you need good scores for school (Unless you don't care), so I'd recommend do some thorough search on redwin/zillow with your budget and see the good fit. Won't be as many good options as you might expect and most of them will be sold in 2 weeks. Hope this helps. Btw how's Nokia doing?
Is Kirkland cheaper than the rest, for houses?
Cheaper than Seattle and Bellavue.