Of course, if you were here this last year, you would have been fooled by the weather.
If you like cheap and rural, maybe towards Puyallup. Then again, good luck if the mountain blows!
Oops…wrong info. Actually closer to Tacoma. The appeal of those areas listed was the wooded environs. Tacoma or Federal Way would be very handy, and an easier commute now, but also trying to consider long term and post work. We have family in Seattle, so have visited often in all seasons, though I know daily living &commuting are different. Schools are not an issue, but I was always told to look for good school districts because property values hold better. Should any of the recent press about “the big one” factor in, or is that “old” news to locals? At least Maple Valley &Issaquah are slightly further east
The “big one,” if it happens, is going to wreak havoc everywhere. Avoid houses on the fault lines and in poyential lahar zones, if possible, get insurance, and pray that Mother Nature will delay the big one for as long as possible. To us, this is old news.
Issaquah will be a looong drag to Tacoma. Yikes. I would not purposely live there - I would go insane if I had to drive through the S-curves every day.
EK, it’s really not all gridlocked all the time in all directions. OP, Traffic in the morning is very heavy NORTHBOUND from Tacoma to Federal Way, but very good say, southbound from Seattle to FW. My D goes to school there and I drive it daily. Issaquah would be just nuts to do-you’d be on I-90 and 405, and they’re always jammed in the morning in the direction you’d need to go. Don’t even consider it!
If you’re looking for more wooded than you think you’d get in a big city, you can find it in Federal Way. D has several friends who live in quiet , wooded areas, yet right there in the city. There are also similar settings in Kent and Auburn, the Renton Highlands too. I agree that you should rent first and get a sense of what is out there. But a nice area in FW would be down along the water-lots of well-appointed homes and along the way there are some pretty little wooded streets and developments.
I haven’t been to Gig Harbor since they started tolling the Narrows Bridge. Suburbia with lots of trees.
If you’ll be working in Federal Way,a reverse commute is a possibility, like West Seattle to Federal Way. I agree with the suggestion of renting first.
People react to Seattle weather so differently. Winters are wet, gray and dark. The sunrise is well after 7 am. It’s dark by 5 pm. There was a couple in my neighborhood who moved up from Silicon Valley after being recruited by Amazon. They couldn’t take the winters (or Amazon) and moved back to California after 2 years. I also know people from SoCal who don’t miss the hot summers at all. The big payoff comes in the summertime with long sunny days.
If you’re looking for somewhere that you might retire (and of course to rent first, to decide for sure where you want to be), I don’t think school district would be at the top of my list of important items. In addition, though I am not terribly familiar with Federal Way, in no way does it come to mind when I think of beautiful, wooded areas. Now almost everywhere is going to be rather nice as you get closer to water and you have a view, however, you will generally pay more for a view, and definitely for water.
When I think of cities that would be nice to live in and wooded, I think of Kirkland, some places in Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah, Sammamish, and Gig Harbor. I’d be curious what people think of Maple Valley, Kent and Auburn. They used to be nicely wooded, but I don’t know what development has done to them. If we had to live near Tacoma, we’d definitely look at Gig Harbor. What a gorgeous place. We call it a pilot ghetto, because many pilots choose to live there. That’s a positive thing, because generally they have many options on where to live (as they don’t drive into work too often, since their trips may be long), so they choose to live in nice places. However, I don’t know how the traffic flows with the bridge, during rush hour, plus it could be inconvenient to visit your family.
It took H two hours to go 12 miles tonight, but it was unusually heavy. And his route isnt really safe, IMO on a bike, which is what the Seattle mayor wants everyone to do, which is why he allows new housing to be built without parking.
I didnt mean it was gridlocked 24/7, but the average commute of 30 minutes, took longer last year.89 hours longer.
http://www.king5.com/story/news/traffic/2015/03/31/seattle-drivers-tomtom-survey-delays/70730040/