Living In Shoreline, WA

Would You Like To Live in Shoreline, WA?

If you are looking at homes for sale in Shoreline, WA, you must have heard good things about this small city north of Seattle, WA, what it’s like living in Shoreline. From its excellent Shoreline school district, to it’s many parks, easy freeway access and hugging Aurora Avenue/Highway 99, a major north-south arterial, living in Shoreline, WA is highly-sought after because of its family-friendly community attracting businesses, renters and home owners. Living in Shoreline means experiencing the perfect blend of suburban tranquility and urban accessibility, with its proximity to Seattle offering a convenient lifestyle. Residents enjoy the greenery of parks, community events, and the diverse range of amenities, making living in Shoreline a harmonious balance between nature and city living.

Here is our Shoreline, WA Resident’s Guide. This is for people who are living here or who want to move here and rent or buy a property. This will give you a good deal of the local resources that can get you plugged in to what’s going on, as well as give you an idea of what it’s like to LIVE in Shoreline, WA.

If you like you can also subscribe to our “Let’s Go Seattle” events and activities so you always have something FUN to do on the weekend!

Moving To and Buying A Home In Shoreline, WA

Many Shoreline residents first decided to move to Shoreline, WA when they found out they had gotten a job in downtown Seattle.  Shoreline is a great place to commute from and has easy access South to Seattle and North to Everett.  Many people bike or drive to one of the numerous Park and Ride bus stops along I-5.  One of the most popular is at the church 175th Street and Meridian, one block from the freeway entrance, and adjacent to the somewhat “alternative” Shoreline School District Cascade K-8 Elementary School.  There is also a light rail station being built at 185th Street near I-5 and the Shoreline Stadium. The easy commute to downtown Seattle is an excellent reason to consider buying one of the homes for sale in Shoreline, WA.

Parks and Recreation in Shoreline, WA

In addition to good schools and freeway access, Shoreline has a number of nice parks and outdoor activities, too.  In this section you’ll see my video tours of some of our popular parks, and at the bottom of the page, you’ll see my video review of the Shoreline, WA school districts.

In the summer, the City of Shoreline hosts Fun-Runs along the Interurban Trail which follows the north-south route of Aurora, past the YMCA, Sky Nursery and Dunn Lumber.  Paramount Park is a sunny open acre with a little-and-big-kids playground with swings and slides, two dirt baseball fields popular with Little Leaguers, picnic shelters, a highly-frequented skateboard park, and soccer fields.  On select summer evenings, star-gazing nights are hosted here.  

City-Sponsored Entertainment in Shoreline, WA

The City of Shoreline also hosts many outdoor events – summer evenings they offer concerts in the park every week, there are also lunch-time musical performances catering to mommy-and-me ensembles.  They have a great public library system (KCLS.org) with Toddler Reading Times during the school year which are a boon for stay-at-home parents who are looking for fun, free activities to do with their little ones.  Those with a green thumb, but a shady yard can rent a Pea-Patch garden space, a dozen-or-so plots are made available in several local parks, Pea Patches are suitable for growing tomatoes, blueberries and friendships, as you can get to know your Shoreline Neighbors while tending your crops.

On local neighborhood websites, there have been several heated discussions about the high property taxes levied against homes for sale in Shoreline, WA. The many public events and recreational facilities are a part of this budget, in addition to the excellent Shoreline schools. If you do not anticipate taking advantage of these services, you may not want to buy homes for sale in Shoreline, WA.

Types of Houses For Sale In Shoreline, WA

Shoreline is home a wider variety of people and housing options than nearby Lake Forest Park.  Buses run regularly along Aurora Avenue and there are many businesses and apartment buildings along this business corridor.  Aside from this main arterial and the Interstate, Shoreline is primarily residential.  It features mainly 50-year old family homes, which are slowly being upgraded and remodeled by their owners or torn down and replaced by developers building new condos and townhomes as the city plan seeks to increase housing density.

Buying Investment Property In Shoreline, WA

Shoreline, WA is an area that appeals to a number of real estate investors who would like to buy homes there. There are a good variety of homes – from older “starter” homes that need to be updated and remodeled, to condos and rentals, and even some rougher areas enar Aurora Ave. However, Shoreline is in such a prime location, being just north of Seattle and close to the freeway, that it is quickly becoming so popular (and expensive) that Investors are getting priced out. If you’ve been thinking about buying an investment property (condo, house, dupliex, fourplex, etc.) in Shoreline, WA, then you’re going to want to watch this video first to see whether that makes sense for you.

If you want more information on getting started investing in real estate, we have that for you here.

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Shoreline, WA Schools – Public and Private

Shoreline, Washington is known for having a good public school system. The two local high schools are Shorewood on the West side of I-5, and Shorecrest on the East Side of I-5. They each have a “feeder” middle school, Einstein and Kellogg respectively, both of which have been recently remodeled (2021).

If you want a numerical grade to see how the Shoreline Schools stack up against schools in other districts where you could buy a home, I would suggest the Great Schools website, where you can get a map and rankings of the different schools around the areas you’re searching for a home. The district also offers additional support for homeschoolers through their homeschool exchange program.

In terms of Private Schools, Shoreline has some of the best private schools in the area. Many people who buy a home in the gated community called the highlands send their children to Lakeside, a secular private school with a long history of academic excellence. This is probably the most rigorous, expensive and prestigious private school in the area. This is the alma mater of Bill Gates and famous renounced top real estate broker Emily Cressey (hehe) and is known for having great girls athletics programs (especially when I was there, ahem ahem!) and we went to State in basketball and cross country which was tons of fun. Lakeside has a 5th-8th grade middle school and an adjoining 9-12 high school in their suburban campus at 145th and I-5, on the border between Shoreline and Seattle.

Another excellent private school in Shoreline, WA is Kings Christian School, which is the foremost religious private school in Shoreline. It has classses from Pre-School-High School and an excellent high school robotics club as well as strong athletics and AP classes. They also have a Spanish Immersion program available at the elementary school level. Fun! I really thought about putting my daughter into this class.

On the West side of Shoreline, near Shorecrest HIgh School, and the Shoreline Community College is a great K-8 Catholic School called St. Luke’s, which has preschool programs as well.

There are a number of other private schools in the Shoreline area, so you should be able to find something excellent that’s a good match for your student.

Buying a Home In Shoreline, WA

Now that you’ve done a littl more research on buying a home in Shoreline, WA, you can imagine how nice it will be to live here. Kids will enjoy attending the excellent schools, commuters will appreciate quick access to Seattle, Bellevue and Everett, with increasing options as the light rail comes to a stop near you, and in evening and weekends, you can join Shoreline’s plentiful parks, dog parks, and access to both the ocean on Puget Sound, and freshwater on Lake Washington . You can bike along the Burke Gilman Trail or the InterUrban Trail and enjoy easy access to wonderful restaurants (Thai, Korean, Mexican, and fast food) as well as shopping (a top-performing Costco, Home Depot, Sky Nursery, and Third Place Books at the Lake Forest Park Town Center).

If you think you’d like to move here, or have additional questions you’d like to spit-ball with us, just let us know. Not only am I a real estate broker in this area, I’m also a client… having lived here growing up, I came back after college. This is home for me and I love it.

Put your name and info in this form and I will reply with a friendly and informative answer. Let me know what you need. We are very detail oriented here and love digging down into the data!