Ken Nash

If you wait, you risk interest rates rising. Home affordability, your monthly payment, may be affected more by interest rates, than by home price. A small increase in interest rate may wipe out any potential drop in price between now and the time you buy. Rising interest rates may mean that you'll be paying more for a less expensive house. Look in Kirkland's Rose Hill and Forbes Creek Neighborhoods. There is a plethora of new construction in these neighborhoods around $850k. - Sat Jul 12 2008, 13:28

Vahid,

There are many afordable neighborhoods near MSFT with strong public schools. As interest rates are low and the supply of homes is high, now is a good time to buy. Since you don't like traffic, consider neighborhoods close to MSFT in South Kirkland, East Bellevue and SE Redmond. For instance, Rose Hill straddles Kirkland & Redmond, is minutes to MSFT, Bellevue, Lake Sammamish & Lake Washington and is part of the award winning Lake Washington School District. I've included a link to the Lake Washington School District website below to help you research school boundaries, test scores, programs, etc.

Alternatively, if it's the actual driving in traffic, but not the driving time, that you'd prefer to avoid, there are MSFT shuttles to & from the community of Redmond Ridge in the zipcode 98053. The shuttle allows one continue working while in transit. Although this community is further from MSFT, it offers affordability as well as strong schools & a community center with abundant recreational and social activities. - Sun Jun 1 2008, 16:08