Where should I live for an easy (transit) commute to downtown Seattle?
October 10, 2014 7:36 PM   Subscribe

I'm hoping for a commute that's as painless and short as possible (<30min door to door). Office is near the public library (around 5th Ave and Columbia). I'll be looking for a house with a backyard and a good school district. I know traffic is a bear, and I don't love driving, so if there's any way to do this by public transit or (I wish!) walking, that would be ideal. But if I have to park, I will.
posted by CruiseSavvy to Travel & Transportation around Seattle, WA (10 answers total) 1 user marked this as a favorite
 
What's your price range? And how much backyard are you looking for?

Beacon Hill, Rainier Valley, Ballard, and Fremont can all get you a backyard and a 30-minute-ish transit commute. So can parts of Queen Anne and the Central District. Prices and backyard sizes will vary considerably.
posted by Banknote of the year at 8:16 PM on October 10, 2014


Lake City (route 312, ST 522), Northgate (route 41), the Central District (route 3 for west/north, route 4 for west/south), anywhere along Link light rail, Aurora/Greenwood (route 5, Rapid Ride E). Those should all do it. Much further north or south and you'll be out of your 30 minute request.

You'll find single-family houses with yards in all of them. The question is how much cash you want to lay out.
posted by fireoyster at 8:42 PM on October 10, 2014


Magnolia has backyard houses with 24 and 33 Metro bus lines to downtown, along 3rd, to cross with Columbia. Your commute will run from 20-30 minutes, one way, tops, including stops. Lake City and Northgate are more like 45+ minutes, one way. A narrow stripe of Ballard is served by the D line, which might be 30 minutes south of Market. Fremont would be 20-30 minutes via 40 and 28 lines, but you need to get to Fremont Ave., first. Ballard and Fremont are generally more condo and townhouse, than backyard.
posted by a lungful of dragon at 11:03 PM on October 10, 2014


Seattle schools are really hit or miss. Do you need a decent middle or high school in the present or near future? Elementaries are okay.

Also, almost everyone here takes public transit. I live in Greenwood and I think it's be 30 minutes on the 5 bus. But schools in this neighborhood are so-so.
posted by k8t at 11:09 PM on October 10, 2014


Response by poster: Thanks- I'm good with spending more to get something closer / nicer / with better schools. We are coming from San Francisco, so it all seems relatively reasonable. :-)
posted by CruiseSavvy at 8:15 AM on October 11, 2014


You should start by looking at the reasonable public transit options.

Seattle Sounder Train—from the South, from the North.

Central Link light rail—from the south.

If you want to live on the east side your only option is busses.

That said, you want to look at neighborhoods along those lines. You don't state your price range, but typically the further east, north or south you go, the cheaper the house and the easier it is to get a yard. On the east side your best bet will probably be somewhere in the North Rose Hill part of Kirkland as Bellevue and Redmond have gotten quite expensive. Maybe Issaquah, which is right on I-90. I'm not sure what prices are like down there. There is a bunch of new stuff, I imagine the schools are good.

Beacon Hill and Rainier Valley are going to be cheaper than Ballard and Fremont, but have less nightlife and "stuff to do".

In the end you're just going to have to cross-reference RedFin with the Sound Transit website. Good luck, and welcome.
posted by jeffamaphone at 1:14 PM on October 11, 2014


Seattle Frequent Transit Map.

This is an unofficial map by an area blogger, so it doesn't imply a promise by Metro (that's the transit agency), but it's generally the case that the areas near these lines have "good transit service". When looking at this map be aware that not all the lines go downtown, so you'd have to take a look at the schedules to verify it will get you to your workplace.

I personally would avoid the northeast section of town, north of the ship canal and east of I-5, if my job was downtown. However, there are good transit connections from north, northwest, southeast, and even West Seattle.
posted by five toed sloth at 2:38 PM on October 11, 2014


I grew up in the Wallingford neighborhood. They converted my grade school, Latona, to the John Stanford International School which seems well regarded.
In 1999 the University of Washington identified the John Stanford International School as one of the UW's five K-12 initiatives, which involves the university providing links between faculty, staff, and students from both institutions
You can catch a few express buses down I-5 or several which cross the University bridge.
posted by vapidave at 4:02 PM on October 11, 2014


Most bus routes don't run more than once every 10 minutes or so during peak hours, and there is some amount of lateness possible, so 30-minutes door to door by bus isn't going to be a very big radius. If you don't mind.

I wouldn't necessarily rule out north of ship canal. It's been a few years, but I could generally get from my house in Greenwood to my office at 5th and Lenora in about 40-45 minutes, including 5-10 minutes walk on each end. On the same route, it would take another 5-10 minutes to get to the part of downtown where your office is, and with the road construction now, I wouldn't be surprised if average trip times and variability went up up 5-10 minutes.
posted by Good Brain at 5:39 PM on October 11, 2014


I live in the Central District, and depending on where you are it's pretty well-served by public transit. The neighborhood is in a process of gentrification, and, while it would've been better to get in a few years ago, I expect that property values are going to continue rising, so it's also good in an investment sense. I don't have children, but the parents I know seem to be happy with the schools around here. And don't listen to the "oooh, it's Not A Good Neighborhood!" people. It maybe wasn't a few years ago, but I always feel safe here, and I'm a scrawny female with a habit of wearing dresses and heels all the time. The only thing to watch out for, at least close to 23rd, is the influx of hipsters.
posted by Because at 12:39 PM on October 14, 2014


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