Buying a house in Shoreline?
I'm looking at some homes in Shoreline that are hitting the sweet spot for cost/commute/quality, and the schools, etc seem to be acceptable. However, some people are telling me that Shoreline is not a great place to be looking, so I was hoping to get some opinions from the Blind community. Would you consider a dream home to be acceptable in Shoreline, or is the area bad in ways that I don't currently understand? This is for an Asian couple with a small child in case that's relevant at all. If Shoreline is not acceptable, where should I be looking instead given 1-1.2M budget within 30 minutes from both downtown Seattle and downtown Bellevue? Thanks!
Look at 2 - 2.5M range. Much better homes.
Not in the cards for the near future unfortunately.
Shoreline isn't terrible. It has a "dodgy" reputation due to its proximity to the North Aurora drag but I swear, most people I encounter who start dogging King County Metro neighborhoods for crime and danger must have spent their entire lives in a gated exburban community or a fucking potato patch. You have easy access to Costco and the Asian Food Center on 145th and Aurora which is a serious bonus when it comes to food, you don't have to deal with (as) horrendous parking situations as Seattle proper, and the rapidride bus, while it may have some annoying encounters with people who need serious mental health assistance here and there during the off hours is relatively a fast ride downtown and as trouble free as you can get during commuter hours. I don't know about routes to Bellevue though, 405 is horrible.
Thanks for your thoughts, it's very helpful! I agree about people from gated communities perhaps having a skewed perspective here.
I like shoreline. I’d totally live there.
No way in hell you get downtown from shoreline in <=30 minutes at rush hour. That's pure fantasy.
I have always been able to swing arriving in-office at 10-10:30 so rush hour isn't an issue for me, and my wife works odd hours. So I suppose I should consider rush hour commutes but they're not usually a blocker.
Sweet! Then yeah you have a wider radius from DT/SLU that's manageable. Ballard and just north has some nice stuff too.
Mercer island
For less than 1.2?
Kenmore, Brier, Alderwood Manor
Northeast Seattle seems to be pretty good. Ravenna, Bryant, Roosevelt. Decent schools, close to both downtown Seattle and Bellevue. Also, eastside is pretty good if you take metro - south kirkland, redmond, eastgate all have park and ride and 30~40 mins from downtown Seattle.
West Seattle. You might get lucky and find something in Queen Anne but may need to spend a bit more.
We're actually coming from a not-so-great area and a very-not-great house in West Seattle, so I suppose I would prefer something different.