Advice for a move to Seattle

[drivesitfar]

Gil: where do you live now since it doesn't say in your GJ profile? nice post and so true. Oregon Coast has become one of my favorite spots to spend a few days eating and walking on the beach to relax. the last two evenings i had to drive from Seatac to Lynnwood. I left at 7:00 both nights to try and avoid traffic. Tuesday evening i arrived at 8:45 and last night at 7:45. both drives home at 10:30 pm were about 35 minutes so traffic does get better at least some time during the day on I-5.

PB: i think you meant to say Highway 18 to I-90 at Snoqualmie Ridge area and then West to Issaquah and Redmond. or maybe you are talking about the south end of 18? if i lived north of Redmond i'd have to be able to drive at times when the roads are not parking lots which isn't that often anymore. coming from the south isn't much better on both I-5 or I-405. My wife and i are also thinking of buying a condo in maybe Kirkland and then a small cabin with a shop out in the country for weekends or quiet time. total cost would be quite a bit more than $400,000 though.

KIT: i still like the idea of renting until you either find a great house and area. houses seem to be at a peak currently, but i suppose they can go higher because we do have California type weather and i've never thought i could afford a house in California.

 

[four.cycle]

Ocean Shores

gah!

Gil... you gotta check out the north beaches. way mo' betta.

this is the south end of the "north beaches". they get better the farther north you go.

south_beach_04_011012 by skimohawk, on Flickr

not too bad in the winter, either:

 

[redmondjp]

I just checked the listing on that house on 312th Ave in Duvall - that is a really nice shop. My wife has a very good friend and coworker who lives about a half mile south on that same road.

That area loses power during storms, and it can take a few days for it to be restored. Plan on a generator and an automatic transfer switch (so your pipes won't freeze while you are away on vacation during the winter).

Also, those roads can be pretty dicey in the winter. From that house you're looking at 15-20 minutes just to get to downtown Duvall on clear roads. I looked at a house a few miles SE from there.

If you have a kids or a small dog, I'd get a big dog to keep the wildlife at bay (coyotes, cougars, and so on).

 

[bobforman]

My only advice is to not live in King County. The county council never saw a tax they didn't like. (eg. my house is valued at around $600K and our annual tax is almost $8000.) This means living north of Duval. Monroe is a bit of a drive but the highway there is being improved. As others have said avoid I405 at all costs. And the rain isn't that bad. It keeps snow in the mountains and the air clean.

 

[Pluribus]

PB: i think you meant to say Highway 18 to I-90 at Snoqualmie Ridge area and then West to Issaquah and Redmond. or maybe you are talking about the south end of 18? if i lived north of Redmond i'd have to be able to drive at times when the roads are not parking lots which isn't that often anymore. coming from the south isn't much better on both I-5 or I-405. My wife and i are also thinking of buying a condo in maybe Kirkland and then a small cabin with a shop out in the country for weekends or quiet time. total cost would be quite a bit more than $400,000 though.

My goal is to dissuade OP from going SE King County, and I was referring to getting from Maple Valley to where he'll be working in Redmond, which would be dicey (if not impossible) with his desired commute time. From that area, a lot of people who have to drive to parts of the East Side go east on Hwy 18 to I-90, then double back west on I-90 to Issaquah.

As I mentioned earlier, getting through Bellevue on any road west of Lake Sammamish at rush hour is a giant suffer-fest. Trying to use Rte 169 to I-405 is horrible, as is trying to go up Issaquah Hobart to Front Street & I-90. To get to Redmond from the Maple Valley area, I'd continue east from Hwy 18/I-90 on Snoqualmie Parkway to the end at 202, then follow that to Redmond. Even doing that, there are bottlenecks and backups, and 202 is getting worse where it used to be wide open. I wouldn't do it, and I wouldn't recommend doing it unless somebody absolutely had to.

I escaped your area, Drivesitfar, to live in a cabin up here in Skagit County and haven't regretted it for a second. I also spend a bit of time over in Cle Elum, one of the areas you mentioned as a possibility for yourself. Nice place...just went there over Thanksgiving.

 

[mysta2]

8930 Lowell-Snohomish River Rd, Snohomish, WA 98290

This one is appealing to us, might go look at it on Sunday. There's a bit of a train next door which I'm sure helps keep the price down a bit. Outside of King County, near water, room to put up a nice shop. I'd have to look more into According to Google this morning the commute would have been around 50min (9-405-520), from what you've all been saying I don't know if I fully believe that. What would you say about that drive?

drivesitfar
I'm not against renting if it turns out to make sense, but I do hope that in the 6-8 months that I will have to live there that I will have developed a pretty solid understanding of what we're looking for and what compromises we might be willing to make. Also I'll have a much better understanding of what my schedule demands are.

 

[redmondjp]

8930 Lowell-Snohomish River Rd, Snohomish, WA 98290

This one is appealing to us, might go look at it on Sunday. There's a bit of a train next door which I'm sure helps keep the price down a bit. Outside of King County, near water, room to put up a nice shop. I'd have to look more into

[snip]

Yes, you would! The rail line is the least of your worries. Not to put too fine a point on it, but this house is essentially on the riverbank! It's in the 100-year floodplain. Check this map:

http://gismaps.snoco.org/fws/

Under the "Show me" tab, turn on the check box for the floodplain.

Here's the thing: when the real estate market enters a downturn, and it will, this property is essentially unsellable. Nobody wants to live in a floodplain (and be required to pay flood insurance) if they have other options.

And you'll have to check with the county and your insurance company about building a shop there as well - even if you can build it, your insurance company may not insure it (floodplain issue - flood insurance IIRC only covers your house and not outbuildings). Do your homework on this first.

My realtor advised me to run, and run far away, from any property located within the floodplain. Personally, I think that's good advice.

That commuting time is not terribly far off. With zero traffic, 35-40 minutes. With backups, you could see 1.5 hours, but probably between the two for an average of maybe just over an hour one-way.

 

[four.cycle]

do not do not do not do not do not do not buy real estate next to a river in Western Washington.
you will never get a permit from the Army Corps of Engineers (or local County or State planning authorities) to do any sort of bank armoring, which in most cases is pointless anyway - sort of like shoveling sand against the tide with a teaspoon.

for further information regarding dynamics of stream hydromorphology: see papers from UW Fisheries department written by Robert Neiman, Tim Abbe, Joshua Latterell, et al.

S20 T16 R3E Thurston County Washington by ski.mohawk, on Flickr

kind of hard to make out there, but the dark pink lines at lower left show the approximate location of the main river channel CA 1925 (just prior to the riverbottom cedar grove being clearcut.)

 

[mysta2]

Yeah, I figured that might be the case, I found this helpful:

http://fema.maps.arcgis.com/home/we...51779985,-122.09862324723565,47.9179379859768

The drive from the area doesn't sound too horrible though.

While I did think that flooding might be a concern, I hadn't considered the idea that the river could move over time, that's interesting.

 

[redmondjp]

While I did think that flooding might be a concern, I hadn't considered the idea that the river could move over time, that's interesting.

It's been happening since the beginning of time. Back in the 1800s, one of the original purposes of the Army Corps of Engineers was to keep this from happening in order to maintain barge channels - see Mississippi River.

Mark Twain's book Life on the Mississippi discusses this topic in detail. It's a fascinating read, especially about how much those riverboat pilots had to know in order to navigate the river both day and night. Also, in relation to the topic at hand, how one person's land would at one time be on one side of the river (and in one state), and post-flood, be on the other side (and in a different state)!

That's a good link for anybody looking at property potentially in a floodplain. The house I looked at earlier this year in Carnation was also in Flood Zone AE.

 

[four.cycle]

rivers whip back and forth across their flood plains like snakes in a hot skillet.
if you get into the later papers written by Joshua Latterell, UW Fisheries (cited above), you will find maps which graphically illustrate channel migration in a flood plain.
there is no way anything constructed by man can put a damper on that naturally-occurring activity.
you can lay in rip-rap, you can construct man-made log jams (effectively "invented" by Tim Abbe, btw), but sooner or later most rivers will have their way and do what they want to do.
as can be seen in the image I posted above, the main channel of the river moved approximately one-half mile north between 1925 and the mid-1930's (when the Alder and LaGrande dam projects were built.) all of the area on the south side of the river above the dark pink lines is an alluvial accretion of river silt approximately 12-18 feet deep; there are no rocks until you get down to where the original river bottom was - it is effectively pure sand.
how the guy there at the end of Castle Lane SE ever managed to get a permit to build on that site mystifies me.
the cabin, constructed by my grandfather in 1958, went down February 8, 1996. its approximate location is marked with a small yellow dot. originally it was about 200 feet south of the main channel of the river.

 

[mysta2]

I have always wanted a house on stilts

 

[redmondjp]

I have always wanted a house on stilts

Well, that's what you have to do if you want to live on the North Shore of Oahu! It's in their design code, so the tsunami wave can roll right underneath your living room.

 

[dsprint2000]

Curious... did you look at this one? If you did, you noted the train runs right behind you. Maybe not a big deal unless they have to blow their horns, which they do about a 1/4 mile from you. You will hear it and it is a busy rail corridor. That river - would not worry about the Snohomish River moving, but it can and does flood occasionally. You'd be better looking just N/NE of Snohomish. GREAT town. Used to live there and still there 2-5x a week for my kid.

Traffic-wise... As you work at MS, I would definitely look into the Connector for commuting. There is a stop in Snohomish.

Regards,
David

8930 Lowell-Snohomish River Rd, Snohomish, WA 98290

This one is appealing to us, might go look at it on Sunday. There's a bit of a train next door which I'm sure helps keep the price down a bit. Outside of King County, near water, room to put up a nice shop. I'd have to look more into According to Google this morning the commute would have been around 50min (9-405-520), from what you've all been saying I don't know if I fully believe that. What would you say about that drive?

drivesitfar
I'm not against renting if it turns out to make sense, but I do hope that in the 6-8 months that I will have to live there that I will have developed a pretty solid understanding of what we're looking for and what compromises we might be willing to make. Also I'll have a much better understanding of what my schedule demands are.

 

[drivesitfar]

Mysta: there are lots of property not on the flood zones so spend time and find something. nothing great comes easy without a lot of work. even buying something small in an area that will appreciate because of location or new zoning might be an option so you can know where you want to build or remodel your dream home. or rent until you find something.

ALL: so i have to say i actually drove through Seattle yesterday on I-5 both ways at 70 MPH. 11am on a December Sunday afternoon with the Seahawks in Minnesota. mark that down because the last time i didn't have to stop and check out all the bad drivers either way through downtown Seattle might have been almost 40 years ago.

FC: nice map and so true. those rivers move around a lot and with development up on the hills pushing water off their property they flood quicker now. even with all the underground $100,000+ storage tanks they make developers bury on site.