Living and working in Kirkland near major employer’s such as Redmond’s Microsoft campus, Expedia in Bellevue, Boeing, AT&T Wireless and others, I run across a lot of client’s relocating from other parts of the country, or relocating from other countries. Since these major employers are constantly recruiting top talent, it’s a wonder there are so many new faces relocating to places such as Kirkland, Redmond, Bellevue and Seattle.

Many of these new recruits face a few challenges when moving to the Northwest. Amongst those are learning how to pronounce Sequim, drink coffee nearly intravenously, and getting excited over the latest X-Box game (for the Microsofties). On a financial front, sticker shock is another challenge that hits them when they look at their first house listing. I’ve seen many a jaw drop and eyes pop as we look at houses in Kirkland under $300,000 (both of them). They’re about 800 sq. ft and they need $100,000 of work.

But, after they put their eyes back in their head, we can actually look at some great areas in what is known as the eastside of Seattle (Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond), East of Lake Washington to relocate to. With the housing market beginning to level off, there are good values to be found. Especially in the price range below $450,000. Granted, this will still seem high compared to housing prices in Arizona and Florida, but is a great value in Kirkland/Redmond. Knowing the area and where the deals are will allow you to reduce the sticker shock. Locations such as Juanita or Rose Hill in Kirkland, Education Hill or Novelty Hill in Redmond, and Lake Hills in Bellevue are all fabulous areas that provide houses with great values.

Granted, you need to have a realtor who knows the eastside very well always help. Look for someone familiar with not only Kirland, but the rest of the Eastside as well. Having someone with experience and knowledge of the area will help you get the best bang for your buck and avoid the stress of relocating to a new housing market.

Tags: Kirkland Housing Market, Kirkland Relocation， Kirkland Real Estate Market， Kirkland Homes

Posted on Saturday, July 4th, 2009 at 1:39 am and is filed under Relocation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.