I am moving to Seattle and based on my work location and School district analysis I find that Mercer Island will be a good choice. If anyone who lives there tell me cons of choosing that locality. in the past I have made lots of bad choices in picking up a housing district ... things look good on the surface till you move in. Is there anything which I should know off... which is not obvious from internet research.
Where will you be working ? If I’m Seattle, it’s best to find a house there rather than deal with the traffic. Similarly if in Bellevue, redmond it’s better to live on the Eastside. I did a thorough analysis and found Mercer as a bad choice.
It's great only if you can find something affordable. There isn't any downside honestly, one of the best locations halfway between Seattle and Eastside, and freeway.
Mercer island seems great. Especially the schools the seem to be amazing (from a friend). One thing I would caution is where on the island you live. If you love far from the highway, it's actually a fair not of a commute to either side (Seattle / eastside). It's easy to think that being lodged in between the two is great commute wise, but the commute to the highway can mean you're not actually close to either.
It’s great, exclusive and snobbish. Living near the highway is important though
I went to an open house there a year ago, just for fun (I was new to the area). Such a strange experience, from the agents to the interested buyers. The other browsers would not look at you, one obnoxious and fake west coast type of woman (you know what I mean) was loudly talking to someone and looking past me as if I wasn’t there. People in NY aren’t even that rude or clueless, they’d at lead validate your presence in some way. I was the last person left and talked to the agent a bit. It was listed for 925K and she said there are already offers hitting 1.1m (it listed that day). She asked me what I was thinking and I said I couldn’t go a dollar over the listing price. She said something weird to suggest that I could. Anyway, she was right. I saw the closing a month later and it actually sold for 1.125m. Redfin now shows the estimate as 1.25m just one year later. It was a rehab and rather compact 1900 sq ft place with a nice yet smallish yard, but by no means special. I had just moved from NY, and I could get a similar place in the Hamptons for that price. Granted you can’t commute to NYC from the Hamptons, but you could rent it out every summer for at least $30K per season. You sure can’t do that on a dreary nothing place like Mercer (which only seems to have a grungy QFC with a Starbucks inside). I did find their downtown area, which looks like a small version of the same style as all the others (Redmond, Issaquah, etc). It’s not a resort island, but people are willing to pay for the price of one. Seems typical of people in this area: small houseboats staring into a closed lake sell for over a million here, yet around NY you’d never pay more than $200K cash for a nice one and you might even get to see a skyline (or at least a bigger body of bay water). God people are weird, out of touch, and non-worldly here.
Agreed with all of this ^... I dislike the people on Mercer island and Bellevue. You will not make any friends, if that’s important to you. These people keep to themselves and their weird entitled groups. Commute is the best you’ll have outside of Seattle.
Schools and Commute is the most important for me. I can live without friends because I leetcode most of the time :)
It’s good but very expensive place.
Cons :- you would have much less money in the bank
Im just paying rent. not paying property tax.
Everything costs more on the island.