I know this is a travel site.....but I got such good advice on my travel plannings that I thought I'd impose on my fellow travelers on relocation planning. My husband and I are finally able to consider moving out of the San Francisco Bay area. We absolutely LOVE this area but came to the realization that we can't afford to buy a house here. So, we're considering moving to seattle. Please advice on possible neighborhoods or good resources to check out. My husband can telecommmute for the current job so we are not limited by his work place. At the top of the priority list are: good school district, lots of parks or playgrounds, lots of restaurants (or at least one or two good bakeries), multicultural. We are a young family with a preschooler. Love to be outdoor. Suggestions? Thanks.

You might look at places on the Eastside... Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Issaquah for nice quality of life for a family. It's very pretty over there somewhat more suburban even rural in feel in some spots. Prices for single family homes in Seattle proper are pretty high, maybe not Bay Area high, but not cheap!

I don't know about schools, but additional places to investigate east of Seattle are Snoqualmie, North Bend, Fall City, Duvall, Monroe, Sultan, and Gold Bar. Keep in mind that the closer you get to the foothills, the wetter it will be.

If Whidbey Island has good schools, you might find it to be an ideal place for you and your young family.

What do you consider affordable? Forbes just rated Seattle the least affordable city in the US, when looking at the ratio of median income and housing costs. Houses are incredibly expensive, especially in areas as you are describing. Traffic is bad. Yes it's pretty here, but quality of life suffers between the cost of living and traffic, which is hard to get away from. Check it out before coming.

The eastern 'burbs have very good schools - Issaquah, Bellevue, Lake Washington. To be in an area that is multicultural, with restaurants nearby, you'll need to stay closer to Seattle, meaning generally, Bellevue, Redmond, or Kirkland. $$$ for W. Bellevue, Mercer Island, and Kirkland. $$ for Redmond, where traffic is worse.

You will want to stay off of the plateau, which is Sammamish and Issaquah, which are pretty homogenous and lacking of urban amenities, though certainly not lacking of beautiful, green communities with great schools and lots of kids.

Have you visited Seattle? That would be my first suggestion, spend some time here.

For affordability you might want to consider Portland as well?

Absolutely--Seattle is really the place to be. However, if we knew what areas you like in the Bay Area we may be able to make better suggestions about neighborhoods or towns here that share similarities.

I love Portland, OR and would move there if I didn't have my family here where I live.

However, I don't have children in school. My DIL is a teacher in Portland as is her niece and evidently the Portland school system has a severe economic crises from everything I have been told. So you would want to check into that. Portland sure is a beautiful city though, although of course it has it bad areas as all places do.

I agree that you should definitely give Portland a very close inspection. For one thing, it is only about 75 miles from one of the most beautiful stretches of the Pacific Coast. It also has a big restaurant scene and a vibrant cultural life that gets better each year. The downtown is lot of shady parks. You will like the place.

I'm also with Portland, also. There are lots of nice neighborhoods that are actually affordable that aren't far from downtown. Prices are better, but rising fast. (Portland was also high on the least affordable index....)
Traffic is getting worse, but you can still avoid traffic in your daily, non-commuting life (which is almost impossible in the Seattle area).
The Beaverton and L. Oswego School Districts are doing better than the Portland school district.
Oregon is just more calm and the countryside is incredibly beautiful. Washington is busy, busy, busy.

Obviously you should come and interview several neighborhoods/areas.

I am not going to join in the "if you like Seattle you'd be better off in Portland" game. You might be better off in Hawaii, but you asked about Seattle.

Going through the items you mentioned, in order:

Good schools: No one district stands out. All could use more money, better teachers, better parents. Most of the suburban districts have good scores in the statewide progress exams (controversial subject); a couple of districts under-perform, but there are no black-mark districts where it's all bad all the time. Seattle is the biggest district, of course, and it has the full range of options - from hothouse "gifted" programs to special emphasis schools to "magnets" - all that. One thing that has not caught on in Washington (so far) is the charter school movement. There are also a great many fine private schools. Big question, vague answer.

Parks and playgrounds - plenty, in Seattle and in the 'burbs. You won't go wrong regardless of where you choose. Plus the region is so close to outdoor resources that the abundance of parks is just taken as a given hereabouts.

Lots of restaurants, or at least a couple of good bakeries: Obviously many many in Seattle itself, lower density in some of the suburbs, but there's really no area that isn't within a short distance from foodie resources.

Multicultural: Does Norwegian and - er - Norwegian count? Really, the Seattle region is nowhere near as diverse as the Bay Area, but there are no monocultural places either. Pretty much the same range as you'll see in California, a few more Northern Europeans, a few less Hispanics, but lots of diversity. Things will vary neighborhood by neighborhood of course, but there's more in common with N. California than there are differences.

I would look at Seattle itself, at Issaquah (up and coming eastern suburb, with whole neighborhoods like the Issaquah Highlands that seem designed for your needs), at some areas of Snohomish County (north) like Mukilteo; or at Kirkland which has both yachty and minivan aspects, or Redmond, home of a lot of people that speak in code.

As happytrails says, let us know what your favorite areas in the Bay Area are and we can suggest some local comparables.

Thanks to everyone. Lots of good suggestions. My husband and I will be going to seattle in 3 weeks and we plan on driving around the places you've mentioned to get a feel for the places. As suggested, I'm responding with my favorite place in the Bay area. We currently live in San Mateo. We love Burlingame and spend a lot of time there. We also go in to the city almost every other weekend. We love the Marina area. We also like the Inner Richmond area alot.

You've already received some very useful and quite accurate replies.

I will mention this, though: coming to Seattle in July-September gives you one set of impressions. Coming for a couple weeks in January will give you quite another set of impressions.

If you can swing it, somehow, I'd strongly recommend you plan an extended trip here during the winter months, at least 2 weeks, maybe 3. As they say, "It's not the rain, it's the gloom." I mean that quite seriously -- some folks simply can't handle the solid overcast for days on end.

It would be a shame if you were to invest a lot of time, energy and $$$ to make a major move, only to find yourself going completely nuts by mid-February. It's in the winter when you find out why Seattle birthed Starbucks.

Fritzrl

It sounds like you'd like my neighborhood-Phinney Ridge and the west side of Greenlake-a lot. I see so many young families pushing a stroller and walking the dog to the local bakeries (there are two, soon to be three when the Argentinian Bakery on 78th and Greenwood opens), the coffeehouses, the bookstores, the parks (there's Greenlake and Woodland Park, which includes the zoo, and the beaches on the sound are just to the west) and the other kid related things, ie the dance studio and the kid's clothing store. There's a great community center with a coop preschool and playground(www.phinneycenter.org) and some good restaurants along the main street (Phinney Ave and Greenwood Ave). It's not as diverse as you might like-it's largely white and Asian-American.

There's plenty of other nice neighborhoods in Seattle for families-Magnolia, Ravenna, West Seattle, and Queen Anne Hill come to mind-but since so many of my neighbors have young kids and love the area, I thought I'd bring it up.

hello! as a Seattle resident, I would like to suggest the eastside area.
Best school district, "the lake washington and the northshore districts.
nice and safe areas to live- redmond,
kirkland, woodinville.
Sammamish nice but traffic is horrible
Snoqualmie too rural great new houses at great $ but not a good school district. Sammamish Plateau lots of traffic , Issaquah nice but overprice
and very trafficky! lol! honestly.
The millcreek and Lynnwood area are okay, lots of growth and trafic still
tolerable. The area of Tacoma a no-no!!!! Federal way -kent-Auburn not
no really great either but liveable but
not classy for anyone from CA.
West seattle, over crowded only one way to get to it-the bridge- traffic
will kill you! Everett still growing-boeing fields are there , lot's of new money, school district-Snohomish dist. pretty discent.
I don't want to scare you! Seattle or
Washington state is beautiful and safe
also people are nice and for raising kids is perfect, but as everywhere else
traffic is a becoming a problem. Not as bad as CA.
So, hope I could help you, neighbor.
LOLOLOL!!!!

While I sure enjoyed our recent trip including a few days in Seattle, I think twice before living anywhere that required a frequent use of I-5. We traveled that route in the "downtown" Seattle area about 6 times, and every time (at various times of day and various days of the week) it came to a complete standstill. Seattle seemed to have the worst traffic I've ever seen in the US. Was it that unusual for some reason? The locals we talked to seem to indicate it has become the norm.

yes, I-5 is a nightmare, that's why
everyone like the eastside-kirkland,redmond, bothell,woodinville,
sammamish, sammamish plateau etc...

Hi, nancymaat!

I'm with fritz on this one: watch out for the gloom!

I went to school in Seattle for a few years. The first month I was there, yes, the entire month, NO SUN. It drizzles and the sky is gray. The drizzling 'bout drove me nuts. I swore that I left Seattle with webbed feet like a duck!

Once you get over the mountains, it's sunshine as usual. Wenatchee is beautiful. Most of eastern Washington is quite lovely.

Or have you thought of the Sierra foothills past Sacramento right here in California?

There are still parts of California that are still affordable. It's a big state.

I don't think the Eastside has better traffic flow than Seattle-I find it worse, actually, since you almost have to use your car there, while in the city it's a lot easier to get around by public transit. Though all these complaints about traffic do lead to a good point: live close to your job or close to public transit that will get you to your job/schools/etc.

Patrick, Nope that's how it always is these days... horrible (i don't care which road I-5, 520 bridge, 405, I-90, they all stink). Traffic's one of the biggest drawbacks of living in Seattle these days.

The trick, as mentioned above, is to live near where you work. For instance, I have a >3 mile commute all on surface streets capitol hill to downtown.

GREAT THREAD!
I also live in the Bay Area and have been thinking of eventually moving to Seattle or Portland. I like cool rainy days and the fog has an energizing effect on me. I moved north from southern Cal for that purpose. I've been making two trips per year to Seattle and Portland. Seattle seems to have better economy than Portland which has suffered more economic downturn than SF Bay Area. The schools in Seattle are also better than in Portland.

One fact I need clarification/input is state tax. I've heard Washington has no state tax for INCOME whereas Oregon does and property tax is also lower in Washington than in Oregon. Is this true?

If that's true, then it's ideal to live in southern Washington such as Vancouver (Washington) where one can just cross the bridge (bumper to bumper traffic) to spend money in "sales tax free" Portland. I wish Vancouver (Washington) is better maintained, wonder if there is any grand plan to rejuvenate the area.