We're Moving to the Tacoma Area and I Need Help!

Welcome to Washington! My parents were born and raised in CA and moved to Washington when I was three. That was many moons ago! They love it here and can't think of leaving, may you experience a happy move as well. My sister-in-law lives in University Place (UP) which she just loves. She likes the community feel, the numerouse parks and kid programs available. It is also close to the water which is always a treat. UP bumps up against Fircrest which is another nice Tacoma subcity. My husband and I live in Federal Way but due to work location, we too are looking at UP or going just across the Narrows Bridge into a community called Gig Harbor. All three cities are close to the downtown Tacoma area. Good luck with research and again, Welcome to Washington.

There are a lot of great areas to live in Tacoma.....for example: there is Fircrest, the northend, the Proctor district, University Place, Gig Harbor, and Browns Point.
We live in the northend Tacoma, and we love it. It is a great place, and it is so close to the mountains, beach and Seattle.
Good luck and welcome to the neighborhood - which ever one you choose.

I live in Puyallup with my 3 kids; 10 yrs, 20 mo, and 3 mo. The school district is great, especially if you have a child who is accelerated, but all of the schools are very good. My son also plays sports through the parks department. My husband works at the port of tacoma, and it only takes him 20 minutes to get to work, 25 on a bad day. It's all back roads, so you don't have to worry so much about the traffic flows. With the crunch on the housing market you should be able to find a nice house for not too much. However, stay away from moving too far down Meridian on South Hill. The traffic on Meridian is TERRIBLE. Sumner is also pretty nice, with good schools. There are definitely some beautiful parts of Tacoma, but from my research, the schools are sub-par.

Hi S.,
I moved to Washington 8 months ago and I love it. Their is a lot of things to do here specially if you are an outdoors person. The weather is OKAY. Lots of wimpy rain all the time. I am originally from Texas but as a military wife we MOVE A LOT!! We live in the Puyallup area and it's the best. The schools are great. You are pretty much close to everything. I have noticed lots and lots of new developments. You should try looking at houses threw centex homes. One thing is that housing here is a lot more expensive then in Texas. One downsize about Puyallup is that depending were you live you will get lots of traffic. Other then that it is a good option. Good Luck!

puyallup is a pretty nice area that you don't have to worry too much about and is still close to tacoma. I have a friend that lives in spanaway and works in tacoma she likes where shes at and the housing isn't too expensive there.

Hi S. -

Smart decision, moving OUT of Texas :) I lived in Waco and Lubbock for a few years each and I have had my fill of Texas. My husband is from Lubbock, so of course, he thinks Texas is the best thing...

Anyway. I was raised in Milton, which is a couple of miles outside of Tacoma. Fife and Milton both belong to the Fife School district and I can honestly say that I received a great education in a small town nestled in a bunch of larger cities. There are two great co-op nursery schools in the area as well, which would be perfect for a WAHM. My husband and I recently bought our first home in Milton, so we are happy to say that we are living here! Edgewood and Downtown Puyallup are nice places also. Puyallup school district (which encompasses Edgewood as well) is a highly desirable district to send your kids to...

Good luck with the move! We moved up from Texas in a giant U-Haul with a big dog and 2 cats who hated life the whole way. I can't imagine doing it with kids!

Feel free to get in touch with me if you have any questions...

M.

University Place and Fircrest are nice area's as well as N. Tacoma.

Hi S.!

We moved to the Tacoma area just over two years ago and had some of the same questions as you do. We lived in the North End of Tacoma for a year and a bit near the Proctor district and loved it! It is an established neighborhood with older homes and lots of charm.

Last year we moved to University Place and have been loving this area too. It is a neighborhood slightly south and west of Tacoma. It takes about 15 minutes to drive to downtown Tacoma from here. The schools in UP have some of the best state test scores around, and it is a very young community. There are some great golf courses here, with Chambers Bay slated to hold to US Open in 2015. There is a nice combination of new and older homes, and it seems to be a place that is really growing.

Hope this helps!
A.

I live in Puyallup (outskirts of Tacoma). There are numerous places to live in this area. Our prices have not dropped but sales have slowed down. Mass transit is not that great here. I would not choose Bethel School District or Franklin Pierce School District. Bethel is having trouble passing their school bonds and Franklin Pierce has a high drop out rate.
Puyallup is a nice area. North Tacoma is nice, prices a bit high. Gig harbor is nice but you have to cross a bridge to get there. That gets expensive.
Good Luck
PS
Dupont is an up and coming area also
Stay out of the flight plan from Seatac and Mcchord.

Check in the University Place or Puyallup area, also some areas of Federal Way are pretty nice (can be pricey though). I live in East Tacoma and HATE IT!! Good luck in your search.

The areas you DONT want to live in are Lakewood, South Tacoma, Down town Tacoma (hilltop) and Tilicum. The areas near Tacoma that are all great to live in are North Tacoma, University Place, Fircrest, Puyallup, Graham, Spanaway, (but closer to Puyallup, not closer to Tacoma). My husband and my father are both police officers in this area, and I can garuntee you this is what they would say. Feel free to email me if you want specific info on a certain area.
My father lives in Bonney Lake, and we live in Spanaway, BUT, we live right outside of South Hill Puyallup, not by Pacific Ave. (none of that probably makes much sense to you, but google some maps and email me seperately if you would like) Welcome to the area!
Oh! and look up Shelley Clayton ###-###-#### She was our realtor and she is amazing!

Hi S.,
We just moved to the area about a year ago, we live on the outskirts of Puyallup. I really like Puyallup, they have all the stores you need really close together and I have heard the schools are good. The comments about Meridian Street traffic in Puyallup are true, but there are ways around it. My biggest advice: AVOID Spanaway. You can find some nice looking houses there, but the crime is high. Secondly, make sure to check the addresses you are looking at on the Pierce County Sex Offender Website (http://pso.co.pierce.wa.us/), the sex offender rate around here is outrageous. You can also check crime rates online: http://www.piercecountycrimedata.org/

Hope this helps.

A lot of Tacoma can be iffy at best! Certainly look on the outskirts: Federal Way, Puyallup, Milton, Auburn and Bonney Lake and Sumner are out in the country a bit more. Bit of a drive but I think worth it. You're close enough to everything but far enough away from it! As far as particular housing, have you tried real estate websites? Windemere, John L Scott, ERA? Good Luck with the move, that is how I ended up here, Hubby's job! O' FYI, have you seen the movie "10 Things I Hate About You" with Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles? Well that really cool High School that looks like a castle is in Federal Way! i just thought that was an irrelevant fact! LOL
S.

S., I was born and raised in puyallup. It is just about 7 miles east of Tacoma. We live in south Hill, Puyallup. My husband works in tacoma and his commute is only 25 minutes. I would suggest Puyallup, Sumner, Milton or Edgewood. All four towns are connected and have easy freeway access to tacoma. Milton is in the Fife School District. Puyallup and Edgewood is in the Puyallup School District and Sumner is of course the Sumner School District. All good School districts. You want to stay away from Bethal and Spanaway. More Crime and the School districts are not good. tacoma has some good places to live but there is alot that you should avoid. Medium Home Prices are lower because of the neigborhoods in tacoma. Milton and Edgewood will be your highest prices for home. You get a real country feel but are close to town and shopping.
Puyallup south Hill is growing quite a bit. the housing prices are good and close to Shopping. Where I live has a brand new elementary just built this last year and a new jr. high opening this fall. We are 2 minutes from our elementary, Jr. High and High school. We just moved into our house here last year and we Really love it. As a matter of fact there is a couple of homes for sale on our street. It is a gated community with about 30 homes on a cul de sac. with a park at the end of the street for all the kids. there are about 40-50 kids on the street mostly girls ranging from teenagers to babies and quite a few young ones so your girls would fit right in. I love it. there are alot of sahms on the street and everyone looks out for each other. I feel totally safe letting my kids play on the street. During the summer all the kids make big cities and roads out of sidewalk chalk down the middle of the street. which is so
nice cause no one drives down the street unless they live here. On the fourth of July we have a big block party/potluck. Its alot of fun for the kids and adults alike. Does it sound like I an trying to sell you on our neighborhood? it does because I am. The houses for sale, one is 2200 sq. ft. 4 bed 2 1/2 bath for $319,000. the other is about 2400-2500 sq ft. 4 bed 2 1/2 bath with a den. Don't know how much that one is yet. It barely just went up for sale. the first house though is a friend of mine. It is already empty because her husband started a new job and they had to leave. It has hard wood floors and granite counter tops. a great house. The neigborhood is 5 years old. We chose this place to live for the very reasons you are looking for. We feel safe, great and affordable neighborhood, nice neighbors, good schools. Very low crime. the agent is Elona Livingston and Penny Woodward from Windermere if you are interested. Hoe this helps If you have anymore questions I can help you with you can contact me at ____@____.com luck, J. Vogel
I'm a SAHM of 5 ,11-boy 8-boy, 6-boy, 3 boy/girl twins

The Fife School District is an awesome school district and it's just a short jump to Tacoma. Good community, small town feel with reasonable housing. Check it out!

Hi S.! I grew up in North Tacoma then moved to Puyallup for 5 years with my husband and now we live in Gig Harbor. Here is my advise for what it's worth ;) Tacoma has some definate good and bad parts. I'd stay away from the south end. Even some parts of north Tacoma is iffy these days. Not sure what your price range it but North Tacoma by the water is nice but expensive (especailly if you have a view of the Narrows Bridge or any water). Fircrest and University Place are nice. They are pretty much little towns within Tacoma. They are close to everything but better neighborhoods. After living in Puyallup for 5 years we left because of Meridian Street traffic. Unless you live close to the South Hill Mall and don't have to travel up and down Meridian I would avoid it. Puyallup has great schools and is nice but it is getting far too crowded in my opinion. Bonney Lake is nice too but I think it is a matter of time before it turns out just like Puyallup. Only one main drag like Meridian Street that gets backed up. So far we LOVE Gig Harbor. It is more quiet and is starting to develop more but is very woodsy and doesn't have that main drag to get backed up. We just got a Costco and YMCA and have a Target, Home Depot, Petco, Pier One, new movie theatre, borders, etc... Great schools too! We have a 2 year old and think we made a GREAT decision to move out here. The only draw back is if your husband has to go to Tacoma every day he will have to cross the Narrows brigde and it is a toll bridge now. Right now if you have a pass it is $1.75 to cross but in July that goes up to $2.75. Still worth it for us. The Harbor is beautiful and there are some cool places to take your kids to play. Let me know if you have any more questions about the area. Been here all my life :) Welcome!!!

Puyallup and Sumner have very good school districts and are not from Tacoma...also nice neighborhoods. You might also look into Steilacoom. I have heard good things about that school district. You can check them out on google maps and their relationship to Tacoma. I would personally not live in Tacoma, but I think there may be some good places there too. I live in Federal Way, but plan to move towards Puyallup or Sumner when my son gets to be school age (he's 3 1/2 now, so right in between your kids).

I don't know much about the neighborhoods since we moved in Sept. Here's a few tidbits. avoid the area immediately around the Tacoma mall or developments that back up to WA512. Tacoma itself has more older homes, the ones I've seen can be in good shape. Newer construction is closer to Puyallup. Puyallup and clover park (Lakewood) school districts seem to be good.
just because it is a Tacoma address doesn't mean it is close to downtown Tacoma, there are many unincorporate towns/developments with Tacoma addresses. So look at things on a map. We did our search with a map in front of us.

I grew up in the Federal Way area just north of Tacoma. My husband and I are now trying to buy our first home in the area. We have looked mostly in Tacoma. So we've been driving through neighborhoods to see for ourselves if they are good or bad. If you have questions on certain areas I may be able to help. Just like anywhere there are good and bad areas. We have a great realtor in Tacoma who has been very straight forward and helpful to us. He's very familiar with Tacoma so I'm sure he could answer a ton of questions. His name is Zach Entwistle his email is ____@____.com and his number is ###-###-#### if you would like to contact him. I don't know how close to work you would like to be or your range so its hard to suggest a specific area. I can tell you that Pierce county (where Tacoma is a south of there) is cheaper than King county (where Federal Way is and north of there.) I hope that this helps.
Megan

Hi S., we live in Federal Way which is a great place to live. Federal Way borders the northern part of Tacoma and if you live near the border, it will only take you 5 minutes to get to downtown Tacoma (if thats where your husband will be working). The school system is good and lots of new real estate and tons of nice homes and apartments and condo's being built at a decent price. My husband and I grew up here and moved to Seattle after college then returned to Federal Way to raise our children. It has a good mix of people, entertainment, shopping and things to do.

Good luck in your search!-T.

Hi, glad to hear you are coming up to our area. The Tacoma/Puyallup area is beautiful and there is a lot to do here. I live in Puyallup and the school district is great. There are parts of Tacoma you would not want to live in, as in any big city. The surrounding areas are worth looking into. A little South of Tacoma is a suburb called University District, there are beautiful homes and good schools. To the East is Puyallup, where there are many good neighborhoods. A bit further South is Dupont. It is a master planned community. To th North are older homes in established communities. I hope these might help. Good luck in choosing a new home and welcome to the Northwest.

Karen in Puyallup.

Hi there. I am a mother of 2 children ages 4 and 2. I read your posting and wanted to let you know that my husband works in Tacoma and we live in downtown Puyallup which is about 6 miles from Tacoma. We have lived in WA for most of our lives and truely love downtown Puyallup. Puyallup school district is great!! Downtown is an established neighborhood with mostly older homes and average size lots. The north end of Tacoma is really nice too but pricy. Other areas you might consider would be Sumner, South Hill, or University Place. Best of luck.
S.

Well, some may argue with me but there are definite parts of tacoma you want to avoid. LIke near the city(downtown) for one. But there are also beautiful parts as well. Down by Stadium High school where they filmed the Movie Ten Things I hate About You. It is NICE. But north east tacoma/browns point/South federal way is also beautiful. There is alot of new developement in those areas and good schools as well. I would get int ouch with a relator in the area and tell them what youre looking for, they can start the foot work for you. Good Luck with the move!! Bring warm clothes too..we havent seemed to find spring yet..last weekend it was 84 this weekend it is snow hail rain and cold!!!

Tacoma is a great place and there are plenty of nice areas to live within commuting distance. Gig Harbor is beautiful and has great schools, University Place is also nice with good schools. Puyallup is another good choice and Dupont (but it's a little further depending on which end of Tacoma your hubby would be commuting to). There are plenty of nice places in Tacoma to live too and all the ones I mentioned above would be no more than a 20 minute commute depending on traffic. If you're looking for a church, the Lakeview Church of Christ is a wonderful place and it's a great time to be there right now, we're growing like crazy and have a ton of kids. There is also a great preschool, Puget Sound Christian in south Tacoma. Hope you enjoy it and good luck with the move!

Don't believe the naysayers. There are some people who love to diss Tacoma, but the reality is it has the same good and bad as any other metropolitan area. I moved to Tacoma five years ago and LOVE it. We live in a three story, 100 year old Craftsman home with a view of the water in the North end of Tacoma. The same house would have cost us twice as much in Seattle. We walk to the market, walk to several neighborhood parks, walk to breakfast on Sundays. Lots of families in the area. We meet our friends for dinner and cocktails in the neighborhood. Its fantastic. People are super friendly too. I always tell people that Tacoma is a big "small town." People know each other.

Puyallup and Bonney Lake both have lots of new construction, but personally I hate dealing with the traffic. Gig Harbor is gorgeous, but you have to be willing to cross a bridge and pay a toll every day. Still, its gorgeous.

If you want new construction, University Place and Fircrest are fantastic. There's also Brown's Point, which is in between the cities of Federal Way and Tacoma. The only downside of those cities is you have to drive everywhere. If you like an old, established neighborhood where you can walk most places, then neighborhoods like the North End of Tacoma and the Proctor district are perfect for you. There are amazing houses with views of the water and many that flank the grounds of a gorgeous, private university with gothic, tudor style buildings - University of Puget Sound. So there are always cool cultural events going on. There are also great private schools right in the area like Charles Wright academy, Annie Wright, and Bellarmine Prep.

Depending on your price point, check out "Day Island" too. Its a little neighborhood within University Place/Tacoma with breathtaking views of the water and amazing homes. Its a hidden gem!

Prospect Point, Old Town, and Proctor district are fantastic neighborhoods within the North End of Tacoma. Even if you don't move to one of those neighborhoods you'll want to visit for the fun shops, great restaurants on 6th Avenue, a weekly farmers market, boutiques, etc. When you get here be sure to check out the following:

1) Ruston Way waterfront great for jogging, walking, biking. Awesome fourth of July festival each year.
2)Pt. Defiance Park is magnificant. Personally, I think its the most beautiful park in North America (yes, better than Central Park in N.Y.C.) and rivaled only by Stanley Park in British Columbia.
3) Proctor District and Broadway Farmers Markets
4) Have dinner and cocktails and check out a band on 6th Avenue
5) Definitely go to dinner at Pacific Grill followed by a performance at one of the theatres in downtown Tacoma. Exceptional food.
6) Museum of Glass and Tacoma Art Museum are both fantastic too.

There's way too much to list. A couple of local Web sites I love that will give you the scoop on things are exit133.cin abd tacomamama.com.

We live in Puyallup, the comute to Tacoma is about 20 min to Tacoma mall, and not much farther to downtown. Puyallup school district is wonderful, I have 4 kids, one goes to Pierce college, the other is at Rogers High School, another at Hunt Elementary and my Austic Boy attends the DMD pre-school at Edgerton. Out here we say our roads may always be under construction BUT our School Dostrict is worth it!
we also have new construction, established construction, a YMCA, Targets, Walmarts, and a mall right on the hill....
Good schools, good neighborhoods, good kids which is a God send.

Come visit us at The P.! For more information visit our website or call us! www.thepacificaapartments.com or ###-###-####

Updated

Come visit us at The P.! For more information visit our website or call us! www.thepacificaapartments.com or ###-###-####