Best Seattle Suburbs for Kids

The city of Normandy Park is excellent. It is a 30 minute commute to Seattle, plus in another year the light rail will be done. You are close to the water and close to the airport without any airport noise. The neighborhood is extremely nice and very safe and even has it's own community club with a beach. There is a brand new park plus two swim clubs you can join. The park has free concerts in the Summer. The elementary school (Marvista) is top five in the state and is more like a private school. It is 20 minutes south of West Seattle. We lived in West Seattle and had to move due to a bad experience with the Seattle school district. But West Seattle is great besides the schools.

Hi - Check out the Riverview Community in Kent WA. It's got children's parks and a bike path along the Green River. The neighbors are great and my commute to downtown Seattle takes about 20 - 25 minutes in the morning. I commute with my neighbor! http://www.polygonhomes.com/polygon/communities/ThisCommu...

Howdy,

I live in Seattle, so I can't say much about living in the Shoreline area. However Mountlake Terrace (which is very close by) has an EXCELLENT pool and we take our 14 month old there frequently.

http://www.ci.mountlake-terrace.wa.us/cityServices/recrea... (look at the section on the Leisure pool)

It looks like they have a lot of other activities through the community center. There are also plenty of preschool co-ops that are great for kids and getting to know people:

http://www.shoreline.edu/parentcoop.html

Personally, I would stay away from the east side. Commute from anywhere is TERRIBLE.

Good luck!

West Seattle and Ballard are great! We have lived in West Seattle for over a decade and there are tons of community centers, pools, the farmer's market, parks (large and small), shopping, eating, etc. Both are only about 15 minutes from downtown and you don't have to take I-5 (a HUGE bonus) to get to either area. The housing in WS is still more affordable than most areas. Ballard is more expensive (but if you can afford Issaquah, you could afford Ballard) but it is equally as nice. Both areas are close to downtown (West Seattle to the southwest, Ballard to the northeast) and you could never leave the area and have all the amenities you need.

Also, another great area that you can get more house for your buck is Burien. It's another 10 minutes south of West Seattle. Burien is really taking off and is a great little undiscovered city. It's the right time to buy a house there. Also, because of the access of HWY's 518 & 509, you can go north to downtown and south to Southcenter in 10-15 minutes. Southcenter is your mecca of shopping. Hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of stores in and out of the mall, furniture stores galore, large family-friendly restaurant chains, etc.

Welcome to Seattle! You'll love it here!!! :-)

Shorline is alright and it is preety safe. My favorite place is the GreenLake area lots of fun in the summertime easy acsees to bus line if you need to take a bus for any reason and it is close to downtown Seattle.

I live in Shoreline and have a 16 month old son. I know the schools in the area are good. Shorewood HS has at least 7 AP class options and every student gets a laptop issued from the district. My stepson goes to day camp every Summer for a couple of weeks through the community center and has a fabulous time (and the price is very low). The drive into Seattle is no problem, though rush hour can be sticky.) When I go out for kid activities, I go to the zoo or to the Imagine Children's Museum in Everett and, during the day, there is never any traffic either way. There is a 53,000 sq ft YMCA going in that will be done this Fall. I think this is a decent suburban area. I am accustomed to living in Seattle and miss the feeling of the neighborhoods, but Shoreline is a great alternative if cost is an issue. Someone referred to the MLT pool, which is also great. I feel like Shoreline is improving and it is convenient to get other places from here.

Just have to put in a recommendation for Woodinville/Bothell area. We live in the little nook east of where I-405 and hwy. 522 meet. Great location for kids. Perhaps a big farther from downtown than you might like but a lot of nice homes at "reasonable" (for Seattle) prices. But I know a lot of people like Shoreline too. Good Luck!

Most commutes to Seattle from the Eastside (East side of Lake Washington) are pretty miserable. Shoreline is sometimes referred to as "North Seattle" in addition to the areas of North Seattle. We have friends in Lake Forest Park and Mountlake Terrace and they both seem to enjoy their neighborhoods and schools. Not so sure about amenities in Shoreline...maybe do a google search? They also have nice big yards which I sometimes envy since I live in Ballard and have a small yard (but a great playground and wading pool right down the street).

I highly agree with the other post that warned you about Highway 99 (Aurora Ave.) and I-5. Lots of neighborhoods that butt up right against both, but not really very ideal if you have kids or want a quiet neighborhood.

As for safety, the northern suburbs and Eastside suburbs are very safe. Bellevue has its ups and downs, some areas are nice and well-located. The school system there has a good reputation. Not the most wonderful commute, and the traffic IN many parts of Bellevue is atrocious!

Issaquah is development heaven, LOTS of newer homes on the North side of I-90, big box shopping center, nasty commute into Seattle many mornings, decent school district, and a quaint, small "downtown" on the south end with some more established neighborhoods (read: not condo/townhouse heaven).

One very nice thing about the Eastside is its proximity to all the great hiking/snowshoeing trails off I-90 if you're into that kind of thing.

Good luck!

R.,
When are you looking to relocate? It just so happens we are putting our home on the market in one week. It is a perfect home and place for a family. We absolutely love the neighborhood, the location, and the house. If we didn't have to move, we wouldn't. We've just replaced the carpet, repainted the interior, amongst many other things. We have air conditioning (not common here), a special allergy filter for the whole house, a view of Lake Washington, a beautiful greenbelt/forest in the back which will never be built on, huge, fenced back yard, one block from a great elementary school and lots of parks; very up and coming area (Renton); we are 10 minutes from Bellevue, 15 minutes from downtown Seattle, 10-15 minutes from the airport (never hear any noise); in fact, we're just two minutes from the freeway, but are far enough up a hill that we never hear any freeway noise. We live in a very quiet, safe cul-de-sac (easy to give directions to find our home) with many families with young kids all under the age of 6 and a block down from another cul-de-sac full of great families!
Our home was built in 1996/1997 and we are the original owners. It's a very roomy 1870 sf with four bedrooms, 2-1/2 bathrooms. The master is quite large with a huge window overlooking the greenbelt. Two-car garage. We are a non-smoking family. Everything is clean, great lighting, bright, and a fabulous area. There is even a brand new shopping mall going in right now just five minutes down the street (about a two-mile walk).
I could go on....we really love the area and our home and will miss it greatly; we would LOVE for a wonderful family to enjoy it as much as we have (we have a 2 yr old and a 4yr old, too, boy and girl). Our neighbors would be thrilled to have another family, here, too. =0)
Please reply and let me know when you are moving and what, more specifically, you are looking for. I don't have pics, yet, but will by the end of this week. We will also know the final asking price by the end of the week, but it's under $495,000 and priced to sell.
Looking forward to hearing from you soon! (I could really go on, but......=0)....)
Have a wonderful Mother's Day,
L.

Hi R.,

We have lived in the Kenmore area for the last 30 years and have watched many healthy children grow up here. The schools are great and in our neighborhood we have all watched out for each others kids. We used upper area at the junior high to fly motorized airplanes and the kids loved the tennis courts as they got older. The grade school and junior high are with in walking distance but buses do pick up and deliver each day.

We have always felt safe living here but as with anywhere we do lock our doors.

My sons played baseball and soccer and all three took the bus up skiing. We drove to the pool for swim lessons. We loved that everything was so close. We even took the kids boating on the slew. Our daughter played on a volleyball team and belonged to campfire girls. There are several local parks in the area where my grand daughters and I still picnic. We are even close to some beachesfor picnics and swimming.

My husband enjoys the golf courses now and then and now plays golf with our adult sons.

We will be moving out of the area soon as we are going to be down sizing. We will be leaving many memories behind us.

You will not find a great commute here or anywhere unless you work off hours or live downtown. I worked in downtown Seattle for years and my husband still does. It can take 35 minutes or and hour to get home depending upon traffic.Seattles roads have suffered from growing pains and do need some work.

I enjoy going downtown to plays and there is the Seattle Center and the Science Center for kids. The Science Center has great hands on exhibits. We joined when the kids were young and loved to make a day or afternoon of it.

I hope that this helps.

I like Ballard best, we have lived there for 5 years and commuted downtown, i works well by car or bus and in the summer have even taken the bike at times.
However housing is expensive! Good Luck!

I live in Northeast Seattle, just about 10 blocks from Shoreline so we are there frequently. The commute to downtown is not bad at all, and bus service is quite good as well.

Shoreline seems like a very nice community: good parks and trails, good schools (I believe), quiet neighborhoods. I personally prefer east Shoreline (Ridgecrest and North City are 2 nice neighborhoods there) so that you're not too close to Aurora Ave. You do have to pay attention to road noise when looking at houses - Highway 99 (aka Aurora Ave) and Interstate 5 both run right through Shoreline.

The Mountlake Terrace indoor pool that was mentioned is very cool...it's on the east side of I-5 too, just about 10 minutes north of Shoreline (though only Mountlake Terrace residents get the discounted entry fees).