AFFORDABLE ALTERNATIVES
Call them up-and-comers or first-time-homebuyer havens, but these five spots are where savvy Seattle spenders go to find properties priced to move.
COLUMBIA CITY
The sales pitch Columbia City started tempting potential transplants with a buffet of boffo international cuisine along Rainier Avenue a decade ago. Then, after first-time buyers were squeezed out of North Seattle by out-of-control real estate prices in the prebubble days, they followed the good smells—and more affordable housing—to this sliver of savvy living south of the city. And what’s been good for buyers has been better for business: Eric Weakland of Columbia City Ale House estimates that these days nearly 80 percent of his customers live in the neighborhood, and the one-year-old light-rail line that stops on MLK Way is zipping more potential residents—and customers—to his neck of the wood every weekend.
By the numbers Average asking price in Columbia City was never higher than $401,000 last year … Homes sold in 2009 rarely spent more than six weeks on the market, and those sold in July and December were listed less than 20 days.
What you’ll find A lot has changed in Columbia City since the early ’90s, when longtime resident Ken Nicholas remembers hearing gunshots in the street. “This place was in bad shape,” he says. But the cleanup began after those trailblazing business owners moved in and the townhome market heated up to serve the single scenesters and young couples who came next. Columbia City’s neighbor to the north, Beacon Hill, has been equally popular with first-time buyers, but while families favor the latter, those in search of an urban ambience gravitate to the former. “It’s a walking community,” says Nicholas.
RENTON HIGHLANDS
The sales pitch Renton certainly has its urban center, but this isn’t it. The Renton Highlands—particularly east of 156th Avenue—is quintessential suburbia, where younger families are attracted to the quiet streets and good schools. (The Issaquah School District, which serves the eastern portion of the Highlands, rates 9 out of 10 on greatschools.org). “Most of these buyers are first-timers who were renting in Bellevue and Seattle,” says John L. Scott associate broker Michael Orbino. “These aren’t move-up buyers.”
By the numbers After averaging more than $525,000 for the first three quarters of 2008, the average asking price in East Renton dropped into the low $400,000s last year.
What you’ll find Aside from the schools, it’s new construction that’s drawing buyers to the Highlands. But instead of the $600,000 custom homes that weren’t moving, builders such as American Classic and CamWest are pumping out slightly smaller—but much less expensive—homes for two-thirds the price. “These are for people who like big square footage,” Orbino says. The only things they’re sacrificing are high-end amenities. “Instead of a three-car garage, you get a two-car garage,” he says. “Instead of a cobblestone driveway, you get a concrete driveway. They’re still nice homes, they just don’t have all of the options.”
MAPLE LEAF
The sales pitch When Donna Hartmann and her husband started shopping for their first home in 1997, they gave their real estate agent a map of the delivery area for Maple Leaf’s uberpopular Chinese spot, Judy Fu’s Snappy Dragon, and said, “We have to live in this area or we’re going to starve to death.” They may have come for the food, but they stayed for the won’t-you-be-my-neighbor friendliness. “In Greenlake, everyone goes down to the lake to walk,” Hartmann says. “But up here, people are walking on their streets all the time.” And before long, they’ll be walking a lot more in the park: Last fall, the city began a three-year project to bury the Maple Leaf Reservoir near 88th Street and Roosevelt Way, a project that will add 15 acres of usable land to the adjacent playground and ball fields.
By the numbers There were less than five months of real estate inventory in every month of 2009 except February and as few as 1.4 in June … Median sales price fell below $400,000 in six months last year, compared to only one month in 2008.
What you’ll find Without a showcase feature like Greenlake’s water or Sunset Hill’s view to drive up housing prices, the charming Craftsman homes and Tudors in the southern end of Maple Leaf have remained affordable by Seattle standards. But a variety of factors even within the compact community—proximity to Roosevelt or the park, road noise from I-5, traffic from Northgate Mall—can create sizable price differences from one street to the next. “I really can’t think of another neighborhood that is so diverse within such a small area,” says Windermere’s Rob Graham. “There are a million variables in Maple Leaf.”
Published: May 2010
I live on a floating home. I consider all of the other floating home residents as part of my neighborhood. They might be on Portage Bay, Westlake, Northlake or Eastlake but we all have the same fantastic place to live. Maybe they should call Lake Union a neighborhood and see how it stacks up.
I’m biased as I’ve lived there about 10 years or so, but Juanita/Kenmore area is absolutely stunning, reasonably priced, SAFE, one of the best school districts in the state and you have 300+ acres of hiking, mountain biking trails right down to Lake Washington and nobody realizes it!!
You can file BARGAINS here! My house even post-bubble is still worth 3x what I paid for it 10 years ago. It’s incredible.
For you commuters, you are going to find a better spot (unless you are rich!) for a family with someone working in Bellevue and the other person working in Seattle.
It only takes me 20 minutes to get to downtown Seattle and my girlfriend only has to drive 20 minutes tops to get to Factoria.
Kirkland is a 5 minute backroad drive. We have 5 parks right on Lake Washington within a 5 minute drive for the farthest park!
We never get any respect with these polls because nobody realizes the scoop about this area.
You can jump on the other areas “holding steady” or you can jump on an area that will appreciate in value big time in the coming years. You decide… :P
P.S. If you are a crappy neighbor, please disregard this comment. It’s terrible here, please go live in Alki or somewhere else! hahahaha!
Hi Seattle Met,
I live in Columbia City and couldn’t help but notice how incredibly incorrect your statistics are for our neighborhood! 1 % non-white? Spend 5 minutes in Columbia City and you can see that stat is wrong! Also 0 percent kids under 12? O percent of our residents have B.A. degrees? Don’t know where you are getting your stats but I do hope the other neighborhoods are more correctly portrayed!
I have lived in Columbia City for 2 years now and could not be happier with our choice…. the downtown is adorable, has lots of restaurants, a bakery, a meat shop, banks, coffee shops, the farmer’s market is great, tons of parks (Seward, Genessee, Lake Wash boulevard near by and the new Jefferson Park going on on top of Beacon), a great dog park, the light rail is awesome for us since we work downtown, and the central location makes it easy to zip north or south on I-5 or hop on I-90 to the eastside…. love this neighborhood…. 5-7 mins to Capitol Hill…. I could go on and on…. thank you for mentioning us.
Edmonds doesn’t make the list? What’s wrong with Bellevue? Oooooh, take that you old money people!
They should have given more affordable neighborhoods some credit. Parts of Burien are pretty good. Des Moines and even SeaTac, too. (McMicken Heights) Lynnwood has some choice places. (Lynndale Park, Meadowdale)
I might choose Snohomish over Woodinville.
I enjoyed both the writeups and charts, but it would be nice to know where some of the statistics come from. Also, the article might be better titled “Best Places to Buy 2010” since it entirely focused on for-sale property. That got a little strange for places like Capitol Hill, where it’s much more common to rent, especially among young families who are just beginning careers.
So a few of you want to know where they got the statistics & demographics?
It’s on the right side of the web page (silly).
http://www.seattlemet.com/real-estate/articles/neighborhoods-by-the-numbers/
Thankfully I read all the comments. This site is misleading.
Thank you for the article. My family of three is looking to relocate from Spain to the Seattle metro area prior to the 2011 – 2012 school year. Are there any residents in need of a multiple month house sitter?
looking to relocate to Seattle area next summer and need guidance on best programming available for my two autistic sons….appreciate any guidance.
Kathleen Brennan- I would love to assist your real estate needs. I am a broker in West Seattle, a resident of North Seattle and a fun of many neighborhoods!! Please feel free to check out my website www.bigsoundhomes.com. Take care!
Weird that Wallingford and Fremont aren’t mentioned since they are such great neighborhoods. But then again, this is entirely focused on housing sales, so that probably explains it.
What areas have some of the best schools for children?