brian miller
On the frontier: Luke Burbank, his daughter, Addy, and Nicola Vruwink pioneer South Beacon Hill.
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THE ECONOMY'S DOWN, unemployment's up. Yet housing isn't getting any cheaper. Despite the tech crash and Boeing woes, the median King County sale price for a single-family home (or condo) has risen almost 9 percent from last October to $260,000, according to the Northwest Multiple Listing Service (MLS). Disheartened with the stock market, people are liquidating their battered portfolios into down payments, encouraged by rock-bottom interest rates. As a result, the market has become more competitive than ever for first-time home buyers.
Real estate holds value, but where can newbies get ahold of a bargain? Ballard is over. West Seattle view lots are a thing of the past. Green Lake? Hah! Still, affordable neighborhoods do exist within reasonable commuting distance of downtown. We're not talking about low-income affordable, but affordable if you—and a spouse or domestic partner, ideally—are in that wavering "If we buy a house, does that make us Yuppies?" state of growing up.
With that in mind, here are five of Seattle's most appealingly affordable hoods (based on MLS and King Country assessor's data run through the highly unscientific Seattle Weekly Math-a-Tronic). They may not be cheap, but they're the closest we've still got within city limits.
SOUTH PARK
The Rap: Strange toxic odors, fetid Duwamish, airplanes screaming overhead.
The Reality: Excellent Mexican food, surprising charm. History and industry are neighbors.
The Commute: 20 minutes to downtown via Metro route 132 (longer via bike on the Duwamish River Trail).
The Median Price: $185,000
The Beta: Say it loud, you're South Park and proud! No longer the overlooked stepsister to artist-infested Georgetown, the south-of-the-Duwamish enclave boasts the lowest median sale price of our quintet. "It's a great neighborhood," enthuses architect Mark Johnson, who with his video producer wife, Mitzy Oubre, bought a 1900 fixer five years ago for about $100K. Friends steered them to South Park from West Seattle. "We were going to be eternal renters," he recalls. What about South Park's rep for decrepit fixers, and industrial squalor? "You'll find a house that needs everything! It scares some people off. I see that as an advantage." In other words—it keeps housing costs down.
Sure, they've done work, such that their assessed value has already doubled. Yet the fixers and For Sale signs aren't so abundant in South Park as they once were. "There were a lot for a while," Johnson says, explaining how properties often sell by referral in such a small hood. There are also new "skinny" in-fill houses on the market for under $200K (particularly south of 99, which slashes through South Park like the Berlin Wall) and nifty little pre-WWI Victorians to restore.
Among the latter, one river-facing 1910 house is currently listed for $235K, perhaps the cheapest waterfront parcel in Seattle! It dates to the pre-Boeing, pre- industrial period in South Park's history, when the small farming community had its acreage expanded by the straightening and rechanneling of the Duwamish. Of such vintage homes, Johnson cautions, "Deferred maintenance is the biggest problem." You can also consider living aboard your boat at the South Park Yacht Club and fish for your dinner off your fo'c'sle, although health advisories may apply.
Speaking in their yard on a remarkably quiet Sunday afternoon, facing a triangular tree-lined central square while their weimaraner, Orion, romps with his chew toy, Johnson and Oubre tick off the pros and cons of South Park. Strong community organizations and activism; "scrubby," unpretentious vibe; diversity; a planned new library; Long Painting is leaving; plus the famous burritos at Muy Macho on 14th (the main commercial strip)—sounds great, right? On the other hand, going out for coffee, groceries, or The New York Times means a trip to West Seattle. Airplane noise varies with the wind direction. And the rusty old 16th Avenue drawbridge needs renovation or replacing, meaning future traffic disruption.
Johnson concludes, "It's sort of its own little small town . . . " " . . . without the services," Oubre interjects.
DELRIDGE
The Rap: Steel mills, electrical towers, gateway to White Center.
The Reality: Hushed and hemmed by greenbelts, overlooked by time—almost like How Green Was My Valley.
The Commute: 20 minutes to downtown via Metro route 20. And your own off-ramp!
The Median Price: $205,000
The Beta: West Seattle's eastern slope represents its last bastion of affordable near-city commuting. "Going to downtown is so easy from where I'm living," says public-health nurse Antoinette McKinnon (who, ironically, drives the other way to White Center to work). With assistance from the Delridge Neighborhood Development Association, a nonprofit housing entity, she was able to buy a $153,000 two-bedroom town house in the DNDA's Brandon Court project, located next to the new library.
"Everyone was shocked," she recalls of her initial move to Delridge, where she first rented for three years. The hood had a bad rep for drug dealing and petty crime—much of which has abated, she thinks, since the relocation of West Seattle High School this year. "There have been a lot of car break-ins, but less so lately. And less litter, big-time." (Moreover, Brandon Court has security parking.) "I walk my dog around the neighborhood," McKinnon adds, referring to the many greenbelt parks and trails.
