- Pregnancy
- Baby & Toddler
- Parents
- Getting Pregnant
- Baby Names
- Product Reviews
-
Registry
- Community
-
More
Want a personalized experience?
Download the free app
Washington Babies
WashingtonQueen
member
Recommend your city!!!!
WashingtonQueen
member
Alright ladies! My SO and I are trying to figure out were we want to settle down with our family. We have no choice but to stay in Washington or Oregon.
Where do you live?
Do you like it? If so, what is your favorite thing about it?
Is it family friendly?
Is it affordable?
In your eyes, how much crime is there?
What do you not like about it?
Thank you sooo much for your time and helping me out!! 
This discussion has been closed.
Re: Recommend your city!!!!
Seattle and Portland are of course, awesome. From their lively urban centers, you sort of radiate out into very different flavors of local neighborhoods (which you sort of need to experience to appreciate). And further out from there...suburban cities (which are kind of a mix or big city and rural life, imo. With the tradeoff of more house/land for your money and more families, but a further commute for events or jobs). Further out from there, and across the mountains, you start to get into more rural living...farms, small towns, mountain towns, coastal fishing stretches, etc.
There are a few cities I probably wouldn't appreciate as much (Yakima, Tacoma) that tend to be lower income, higher crime (or it seems)...but then again I know lots of friends who live there very happily, and at lower cost.
Do you not need to locate somewhere specific (ie for jobs?).
Where do you live? Everett
Do you like it? If so, what is your favorite thing about it? Dislike it mucho. If you're into hookers, pawn shops and tattoos, this might be the city for you. But since I'm not...
Is it family friendly? Parts of it - but not very many parts (we live by a great park)
Is it affordable? We moved it because of it's affordability (we could afford to buy a house here)
In your eyes, how much crime is there? You want a breakdown by week or by day. We've been ripped off repeatedly and live in a decent neighborhood.
What do you not like about it? It is, in my eyes, a low class city in most aspects.
We live here and have met people from Everett that we like/respect but - in general terms - I hate it here and want to move. My teenagers do not - and will never - go to the Everett schools. We live here because we can afford the house/garage/land but hope to move in the next 3-5 years. There are, like most cities, good neighborhoods and bad neighborhoods. We live in a decent neighborhood but we're bordered by low-income (which in itself isn't bad but in our case it's bad).
Good luck in your decision!
I used to live in a not-so-nice area of Everett and agree with everything above...especially the hookers. lol!
However, we just moved to the other (nicer) side of town and it's MUCH better. We are pretty much in Mukilteo now. Quiet, quaint and clean. Downtown it just down the hill, though.
If I could pick I would live in Seattle - Maple Leaf to be exact.
Good luck!
I live where Mountlake Terrace, Lynnwood, and Edmonds all meet. If I had to pick one of those cities to live in, I'd pick Edmonds, It's just nice, friendly, family-friendly, beautiful downtown and lots of nice neighborhoods, has as much of a smaller-town feel as you can have living near Seattle :P I feel like the crime is low in general, I am not constantly watching my back and I'm sensitive to such things, but I also don't go for walks alone in the dark (I don't know that I really would anywhere...). When I worked retail and closed our store in downtown Edmonds in the evenings I was never nervous. It is just a relaxing place to be!
As far as I'm concerned, nothing anywhere near Seattle is affordable. The cost of living around here kills me. Especially since salaries are not correspondingly higher. However, we live right over the border in Snohomish county instead of King county, which helps. Lower property taxes and such. Typically the farther from the city you get, the less-un-affordable things become :P
Where do you live?
A suburb of Bellevue.
Do you like it? If so, what is your favorite thing about it?
LOVE it. Our most favorite thing is the outdoors. The views from the neighborhood are either forest or downtown Bellevue, Lake Washington and downtown Seattle. It's stunning. There are endless walks and hikes with streams and waterfalls minutes away in every direction. Even our yard is pretty - built into the hill so we have a huge deck, rock wall and tons of greenery.
I also love the location - we wanted Eastside schools very much but my husband works in South Lake Union so it had to be commutable. We're moments from the junction of the I-5 and 405. It's as easy to get to downtown Bellevue as it is to get into the middle of Issaquah, and Seattle takes 15 minutes in good traffic, 25 total for my husband's commute.
Is it family friendly?
Very. We picked the area (coming from out of state and starting from scratch) by looking at schools. The schools in the district are all very good, and we LOVE ours. So, there are tons of families in the area, a very active parent population in the elementary school, lots of little parks int eh area, Factoria children's museum, tons of outdoor stuff, etc.
Is it affordable?
Some areas. The majority of our neighborhood itself ranges from 600k - millions. It's a little worrisome as we are already paying exorbitant rent, and if we decide to buy, we're going to be limited.
But there are peripheral areas of the neighborhood - around Factoria, SE Newport Way, etc.
In your eyes, how much crime is there?Very, very little. Knock on wood.
What do you not like about it?This sounds weird but it has had an impact in several ways - the hills. We're on Cougar Mountain and it's incredibly steep. Our bus route is the first to go if there's any snow or ice, and the last to come back up even when schools are open. And we can't get down for work and such which is a huge pain.
It also impacts walking around. Pushing the stroller and walking the dog is pretty much impossible. She's huge and one tug and I'd be on my face - I mean, you have to brace yourself to walk down the hill. With the stroller, I'm terrified I'll lose my grip and I'd never catch him! I can barely keep my balance going downhill with the weight of it.
It was so not something we considered when viewing houses, but it's really annoying. However, it's the hills that make the views in credible and the landscape just amazing, so it's pretty minor on the list of cons!
We must live very close to each other.
I have grew up in Portland and have lived in Downtown Seattle, North Seattle, and Lynnwood. I loved growing up in Portland. It was very family friendly and a great city. Of course, some parts of it are safer than others. I grew up in SE and felt very safe. I wouldn't live in downtown or north Seattle with a family. I was on Capital Hill which is definitely not the safest place. I really like where I live in Lynnwood. I feel safe and there are a lot of families in my neighborhood with a lot of parks around. It is expensive, but obviously cheaper than Seattle proper.
TTC #2 since 1/14
Miscarriage d/t blighted ovum 8/14
Where do you live? I'm out of state now, but I'm from Mercer Island.
Do you like it? If so, what is your favorite thing about it? Loved it. It's a great island with a small town feel, but has easy access to Seattle or Bellevue
Is it family friendly? Very
Is it affordable? Depends on what you consider affordable. It's one of the more pricey areas in Washington.
In your eyes, how much crime is there? Basically none.
What do you not like about it? I loved everything
It was great to grow up there and also moving back later and having little ones.
Where do you live? We live in Bothell
Do you like it? We love it. We relocated to WA 2 years ago from the east coast and love almost everything about living in the Seattle-area. We chose our particular neighborhood in our first couple of days here, but have been so happy with our choice. It is mostly young families, and the homes were built in the 1980s, so we actually have a backyard unlike most of the newer homes we looked at. Bothell is also more affordable than some of the other areas around the eastside, but it is perfect for us. Our #1 favorite thing about our location is that it is equi-distance from both Redmond (where DH works) and Seattle, and we can easily get to Seattle without going over one of the bridges (which is a huge plus now that one is tolled). We really feel like we are close to everything, but without having to deal with the higher prices and traffic of Redmond/Bellevue. If I chould choose to live anywhere in the metro-area, I would pick Woodinville as it is super cute and a little closer to DH's work, but honestly, the difference in home price between Woodinville and Bothell was too much to justify the extra 4 miles.
Is it family friendly? Very. We live on a cul-de-sac in a neighborhood with a lot of young families. The whole eastside has tons of activities for young kids.
Is it affordable? More affordable than some other areas on the eastside, but more expensive than some of the other areas listed (Edmonds, Lynnwood, etc.). It depends on where you are coming from really...we moved from NC and knew we were in for a sticker shock on everything.
In your eyes, how much crime is there? It is hard to tell...I have never felt unsafe in our neighborhood or around town, but the metro-area in general seems to have some issues, at least from what I can tell by following the local news.
What do you not like about it? For WA in general, the only thing I hate is the traffic. It is terrible everywhere! But I like being a little further out (our first month we lived in Redmond and the traffic just around town in the middle of the day/weekends was crazy.
Good luck choosing!
Looks like so far I'm the only one on the south end..
Where do you live?
Currenly Tacoma, but I've lived in West Seattle (LOVED it), Renton (only good if you're up on the hill east of the 405), Kent (did not like at all), Federal Way (some parts are nice) and Puyallup (I really love Puyallup).
Do you like it? If so, what is your favorite thing about it?
I actually love where I live in Tacoma (near 6th ave) and we are planning to buy a house in North Tacoma. I think Tacoma has come a long way
Is it family friendly?
I would say so..
Is it affordable?
Most parts.
In your eyes, how much crime is there?
We have never had a problem (knock on wood). I lived further south when I first moved here from California because I had no idea about the neighborhoods and I wouldn't recommend South or East Tacoma.
What do you not like about it?
The bad reputation.. But we're happy here so oh well haha