Overall Best Neighborhoods

Overall Best Neighborhood
No doubt, you’ve heard of these places. Sure—not everyone wants to have these addresses (they may be a little too perfect for some). But they’re the neighborhoods that seem to have it all: homes that appreciate nicely, great schools, parks and nearby amenities.

Queen Anne
Winding streets lined with gorgeous restored vintage houses, some of the city’s best restaurants and shops, great views, all of Seattle Center’s offerings at your feet—it’s no wonder Queen Anne is at the top of the list. “It is such a neighborhood in every sense,” says Queen Anne resident and Windermere agent Rene Stern. “You couldn’t pay me to leave…I shop here, meet neighbors in the park. Queen Anne is so incredibly vibrant. It’s always changing.” That vibrancy is most evident on Queen Anne’s main drag, where new shops like the cool but natural Urban Kids Play and boutique/gallery Bouncing Wall join longtime favorites like Queen Anne Books and Hilltop Yarn. Trendy restaurants such as Betty and How to Cook a Wolf attract residents and visitors alike. Pop into El Diablo for some fine Cuban coffee, then take a stroll by Kinnear Park for some startling vistas. Hop on a bus and be downtown in minutes. And drink in the city and Sound vistas, all around.

Kirkland
Call it our Sausalito. That’s what Patti Smith, an agent with Windermere, likens Kirkland to. Spread out along the shores of Lake Washington, this Eastside city offers great schools, terrific parks with lake access, many homes with views and reasonable commutes both to the east and west. Yes, the 520 bridge is gnarly, but hey, it’s bound to get fixed some day. “The city is built on the water, and there is night life in Kirkland. Or you can go to ice cream shops and you can go to the art galleries,” says Smith. New condos and mixed-use buildings—many with lake views—continue to pop up. And a walkable and compact downtown features numerous shops, boutiques, galleries and restaurants as well as recreational amenities, including Peter Kirk Pool—one of the Eastside’s only outdoor public pools. On a sunny day, a sidewalk that runs along Lake Washington rivals Green Lake in attracting runners and walkers.


Best Value Neighborhoods
It’s true that the real estate market has cooled in our region—though not as much as elsewhere in the country. These neighborhoods—priced in the more affordable range and also with good quality-of-life scores—promise some nice appreciation in the coming years.


Delridge/Highland Park
The West Seattle neighborhood of Delridge, on the rise for a number of years, promises to morph even further and faster in the next five to 10. Just a short time ago, small, well-kept homes nestled alongside more decrepit dwellings. But that unevenness has been changing. Multitudes of new townhouses have moved in, along with a new police station and a Home Depot, and buyers are responding, says Linda Kastner, a John L. Scott Real Estate agent and veteran of the West Seattle market. Many are buyers who appreciate the new construction that’s available, as well as the easy access to downtown and shopping in West Seattle—from boutiques at The Junction to shops in the Westwood Village mall, where retailers include Target, Barnes & Noble and Bed, Bath and Beyond.
“There are real good values in town homes [which are] good for people who work a lot,” Kastner says. Another excellent value is nearby Highland Park—a long-established neighborhood with nice starter homes at around $300,000. There’s a lot of pride in ownership here, says Kastner. “There are wonderful grade schools. People really want to buy there.”

Beacon Hill
An easy commute to downtown is attracting buyers to Beacon Hill, says Windermere agent Eric Uyeji, who recently moved to the neighborhood from Renton. It also boasts a diverse mix of residents, charming brick houses and some great elementary schools, including Beacon Hill Elementary, which is becoming a foreign-language-immersion school beginning next fall, he says. At the highly regarded Maple Elementary, an economically mixed school, a whopping 93 percent of its fourth-graders met state standards in reading.
“We also have the Chief Sealth [recreation] trail, which runs along the whole hill and ends up down by S Henderson Street,” Uyeji notes. Houses appreciated 6 percent in the past year [statistics include Rainier Valley]. The housing stock includes midcentury ramblers and smaller post–World War II cottages.

Mountlake Terrace
A commute to downtown Seattle that’s in the half-hour range, coupled with affordable homes, puts this suburban town in the value category. “We’ve got trees, mountain views in some cases and a lot of parks,” says Kathleen Funk of Windermere, who has raised five kids in the community. “We’ve got a lake kids can wade in [Lake Ballinger], a great [community] pool…and good starter homes,” says Funk. Homes with 700 to 800 square feet have sold for around $250,000. “We go up to $700,000 or $800,000,” she adds. Mountlake Terrace is a part of the well-regard Edmonds School District. At Mountlake High School, students scored in the 83rd and 89th percentiles in reading and writing in 2007.

Shoreline
Shoreline turns up again—just as it has in the last few years—as a top-value neighborhood. A lauded school system, lots of parks and decent commute times to the city add up to a good family community. “Shoreline is remarkably stable,” says Windermere agent Chris Haynes. “It has a lot of great amenities for the size of population it supports. And it has excellent police and fire services for the size of the area.” Housing ranges from small, post-WWII cottages to some nice view homes, to ’60s tract-style houses. Even a few farmhouses can be found here and there.


Best Up-and-Coming Neighborhoods
Want to find the next hot thing? These areas have great prices—but also carry some risk in regard to quality-of-life factors, something that goes with not yet being discovered by the crowd. You may not find the latest and hippest shops, restaurants, bars and coffee shops. But, balanced against price, these neighborhoods might be just what you’re looking for.

Lake City
This mixed-bag northeast Seattle neighborhood has been hampered by down-at-the-heels commercial strips, and small, boxy houses juxtaposed against upscale homes with views. But that’s changing, says Haynes. “It’s also another neighborhood coming into its own,” he says. “It’s filling in, [with developers] replacing some of the smaller post–World War II houses with larger family-sized homes. It’s also very ethnically diverse, which is wonderful to see. The restaurants, the cultures—it’s a really cool mix, and my clients like that.” A median house is a reasonable $297,000. To add to its bargain allure, homes lost 4 percent in appreciation in the last year.

Burien
Local residents like to call SR 509, which connects Burien to downtown Seattle, the “Secret Highway.” With much less traffic congestion than I-5, it’s an attractive amenity for this town that lies south of Seattle. Another attraction: The City of Burien, along with a developer and the King County Library System, is investing $200 million in a dramatic downtown revitalization effort, Burien Town Square. The first stage of the complex—consisting of a performance center, a new city hall, a library, shops, a park and residential space—comes online this year. Elsewhere, the older business area of Burien offers some charming small shops, ethnic eateries such as Mick Kelly’s Irish Pub, Pho Five Star and Taste of Fiji Indian and the definite sense of a bygone era before malls ruled the earth. Houses range from larger places with saltwater views to midcentury classics and plain vanilla tract-style abodes. But with its excellent access downtown and growing amenities, Burien is likely to become more dear in the coming years.

Bremerton/Manette
The renaissance of this formerly gritty town—a one-hour ferry commute from Seattle—has been anticipated for years, and now, it appears to be closer to reality. Views, affordable houses, good schools and a developing downtown make it increasingly attractive, real estate agents say.
“It’s still the great bargain of the Puget Sound,” says Rod Blackburn, a Windermere agent, who points to the redeveloped waterfront. The trendiest neighborhood is Manette, just across a picturesque bridge from downtown Bremerton. Blackburn says of this neighborhood, stocked with 1940–50 era houses: “The lots are bigger [than elsewhere in Bremerton], a higher percentage is owner occupied, and there are more views because it’s on a hill. …It has a really good neighborhood center with great restaurants, fun little cocktail bars, antique stores, natural food stores, consignment shops and a great wine shop.”

The softening real estate market has hit Harborside condos, a city project located downtown, he says, noting that condos are among the properties experiencing the most impact from the changing real estate market. “There is downward pressure on prices,” he says. But that pressure—bad for sellers—might make this the hottest ticket in town for buyers willing to take a risk.