Reviews & Comments
Woodinville, WA
Wooded neighborhood with big lots, family friendly -
11/30/2022Woodinville is a wooded suburb of Seattle that is a short (15-20 min) drive to various IT companies on the Eastside of Seattle. This would include Google in Kirkland and Oculus/Meta/Facebook on the Willow Road which runs from Redmond to the Northern edge of Kirkland. Microsoft is about 20-30 minutes drive away in the Overlake area which is where Redmond and Bellevue meet. I have lived in the Seattle are for 25+ years and Woodinville has changed a lot.
It originally felt pretty far out for people in the local area and was mostly populated by people who wanted acreage for various reasons (horses, workshops, small homestead, privacy) Some big suburban neighborhoods were built from the 1980s onward. All the property was wooded, often close to creeks and small lakes. Property was cheap in this area comparative to the rest of the region. The general population was white and Republican leaning.
Since the IT sector in particular has exploded since the 1990s and more companies have relocated to the Eastside, property has rapidly increased in price and is now expensive. Our house that we bought in 2017 for 1 million is now, in Dec 2022, worth conservatively 1,850,000, and we haven’t done any upgrades. So, just like the rest of the Eastside Woodinville has become expensive.
The large, treed lots are still the norm however, and many people in our own neighborhood have chickens, bees, horses and even goats on their horse acre properties. The neighborhood has become more diverse, but not economically. Generally it’s well educated, well-paid upper middle class, two parent families moving in from all over the nation and the world. It’s a spread out area and doesn’t have much public transport or any light rail. So very car dependent. The schools, public and private, are very good and reflect the educational level and ambition of this wealthy suburban area. The area has swung more Democrat, and the local congresswoman is Democrat. During elections I always see plenty of signs for both parties, so I think the older Demographic is generally more likely GOP leaning, while newcomers swing Dem. I think there are plenty of independents like myself who are more jaded and cynical about politics and looking for pragmatists who actually give common sense solutions to local problems. Most people are down to earth.
The big tourist draw to Woodinville is the wineries (not the actual vineyards which are generally in Eastern Washington) but wineries offering tours and tasting