On the ridge, families find their bargain $300,000 house

Originally published Saturday, September 26, 1998

By NEIL MODIE
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER

Developments with names such as Taylor's Ridge, Taylor's Heights, Legacy Ridge, The Ridge, Highland Grove, Cameron Park, Chardonnay Park grow rapidly atop the plateau east of Duvall. Homes with three-car garages start in the mid-$200,000 range and run well past $400,000.

In the mornings they spew a steady stream of cars westbound across the Snoqualmie Valley farmland toward Microsoft and the Eastside's other high-tech workplaces. Jeff Tisdale, a mortgage banker, commutes to Bellevue.

Traffic that clogs the narrow, flood-prone, cross-valley roads reflects the near-quadrupling of Duvall's population in the 1980s, from 729 to 2,770, mostly in the late '80s. Since then, it has ballooned to 4,120.

Since 1986, real estate agent Mark Murray has watched Duvall's home prices, like its population, steadily climb.

First-time-buyer homes once were priced in the $60,000 to $70,000 range. Now, "most of the (housing) inventory in the below-$200,000 range is gone because of the land costs and the building permit costs," says Murray. And the homes are bigger.

On Sept. 1, 64 homes were for sale in Duvall; their average price was $310,072. Still, real estate agents say a home selling for $300,000 in Duvall might cost $400,000 in Issaquah.

"You're getting a lot of Microsoft people out there," says real estate agent Darla Barrett. "A lot of those people want to get away from the hustle, the hassle of the city, and so they're moving out there for a nice, private community that isn't right next to their office."