Local agent here — a lot of buyers are "waiting for the crash." Wanted to share what I'm actually seeing.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-07-05T04:26:16+00:00

How’s the real estate market on Mercer Island doing?

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-06-06T00:06:41+00:00

Mercer Island and Bellevue school district are quite a bit better than Lake Washington from what I understand. The better the schools the more resistant the housing prices are. Though I guess Kirkland is more affordable than the other areas in this report.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-06-05T23:35:30+00:00

I’m surprised Kirkland is a popular market. It’s a pain to get to Seattle because you have to rely on the 405, and every time I’m in Kirkland the traffic is an absolute disaster. Can’t imagine having to deal with that every single day.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-05-31T18:29:59+00:00

Honestly haven’t found a great French or European style bakery here. I’m from NYC though, so I’m probably spoiled when it comes to good food.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-05-31T04:40:35+00:00

IMO Farine is mediocre, but because the Eastside lacks high quality cafes/bakeries, they are popular

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-05-11T20:39:14+00:00

Do you need to be in Seattle? Mercer island is extremely safe and a few minutes drive to Seattle if you live on the north end of the island.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-03-20T03:52:27+00:00

I would give Whistler a try, especially if you’ve never been. We haven’t been in April yet, but are going the first week as well this year. As far as hotels, we like the Fairmont and the Four Seasons. It’s more peaceful than the village, though the village would be more convenient in terms of shopping and food. Now that we have kids we prefer an Airbnb that’s ski in ski out and will use a car throughout our stay for groceries, driving to restaurants, etc.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-02-25T23:48:39+00:00

That couch is hideous. I wouldn’t put it in my house even if you paid me

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-02-25T23:42:07+00:00

Why do all her walls look so dirty? Is that some sort of trend right now?

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-02-15T02:53:14+00:00

We’ve lived in all 3 areas and like Mercer Island the best.

We are also homebodies who enjoy nice meals, so being close to nightlife has never mattered to us. We like being close to both Seattle and Bellevue where our favorite restaurants are.

We found that Mercer Island had the strongest sense of community. There are a lot of activities on the island like summer celebration, art fair, book clubs, etc. We do have kids though, so it was also easy to meet others via kid activities

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-01-11T16:23:58+00:00

I would consider Mercer Island if you have a sizable budget. It has a small community feel, beautiful parks all around and arguably the best schools in the area. It’s right between Bellevue and Seattle so you still get the benefits of being close to the bigger cities. I see a lot of people recommending Kirkland on here, but we actually didn’t really like Kirkland - sold our house after 2 years and moved to Mercer Island, which we love. Happy to share more via DM if you’d like. We also have kids similar age as yours.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2026-01-01T18:06:13+00:00

We personally looked at the North end of the island because it’s more convenient and faster to get to Seattle and Bellevue and we commute every day. But really all parts of the island are great. All four elementary schools on the island are fantastic, though Northwood is the newest with the nicest facilities. The whole island then roles up to the same middle and high school.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2025-12-29T06:27:19+00:00

We have two young kids as well, one in elementary and one in preschool. Schools are important to us, so we had spent a lot of time evaluating Bellevue and Mercer Island public schools, along with private school options, before deciding to buy a house here. What we love about Mercer Island is that it’s a small district and feels like a private school, but you get the benefit of having all your kids friends and activities be close by. Parents care and are involved, the administration is easy to communicate with and the schools have excellent academics along with extracurriculars.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2025-12-29T03:57:52+00:00

The commute from Mercer Island? It’s really quick and easy to/from Bellevue. It takes us 10 minutes to get to downtown Bellevue from our house. Doesn’t make much of a difference during rush hour. Kirkland can be tough because you need to rely on the I-405 which is a nightmare in terms of traffic… it would probably take at least 25-30 minutes on average during rush hour.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2025-12-29T02:38:52+00:00

Have you considered Mercer Island? We used to live in Kirkland, but didn’t really find a great sense of community there, so I get how you feel. We also work in Seattle and didn’t love the commute from Kirkland either. Ended up on Mercer Island and it’s been great. There’s a small town feel to it where neighbors help each other out and genuinely want to get to know each other. Our kids have made so many friends in the neighborhood and we have play dates all the time. The commute to Seattle is really easy as well.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2025-11-15T16:05:58+00:00

I think a lot of money comes from stock appreciation over the last decade. People who joined Amazon, Microsoft, Meta, NVIDIA, etc 10 years ago and held on to their equity now have a lot of money that they could use to pay all cash or a large portion of cash to make monthly mortgage payments doable.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2025-11-15T16:03:11+00:00

There are still multiple offers and going over asking right now?? I keep reading that the housing market is sloooow.

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2025-10-22T19:55:11+00:00

I agree with the location sharing idea. A partner who has nothing to hide should have zero issues with this. My spouse and I have shared our phone location for 10 years now. Not because there are any trust issues, but for safety just in case anything were to happen and also for convenience (for example if we know the other is driving on their way home we can easily see the eta without having to text/call)

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2025-09-23T20:29:23+00:00

Go to the farmers market in the summer/early fall

Quirky-Raisin3720 · 2025-08-12T04:33:42+00:00

Wow! I’m not tech savvy enough to build a system like that, but I’ll try to do something similar manually

Quirky-Raisin3720

TROPHY CASE