Just PCSed to Lewis today. As of now crashing on my friend's couch and inprocessing at the same time. Will get permissive TDY to look for housing next week. Can anyone advise of the good areas to live in off post? I'd like it to be to close to Lewis of course (already experienced traffic on I-5), but better neighborhood will have priority. I'm single.
Thanks a lot in advance, and i'm searching the forum at the same time for info.

How close you want to be?
Lakewood is your best option. Stay away from North Lakewood (which is close to South Tacoma).
Stay away from smaller apartment complexes if you can----rule of thumb with the apartments around here: if they look like crap on the outside, they're crap on the inside and/or have gang/drug activity on the inside. Just something I've noticed.
Tillicum is pretty run down looking....lot of flunkies/junkies/under aged girls lookin' to hook up with a GI live there. That being said, there are a couple decent places--but they're usually booked up.
Dupont: pretty upscale and decent place to be. I have not seen any apartments there though. If we have any apartment building...I've not seen them, they're tucked away.
Steilacoom---awesome little town! Right down by the bay. Tucked in between southwestern Lakewood and Dupont. Fantasic living area...but could be out of your living allowance.

All these areas, including Lakewood---you don't even have to jump on the interstate to get to post. Side roads are your best friend. Traffic right now is--and will be for another 6-9 months--at it's all time low, enjoy it while you can.

Next time you're on post---grab one of them free Apartment Finder mags off the shelf by the front door of almost every store we have here. You'll find TONS of places to choose from....just a matter of finding the right one for you to fit your budget and style.

Happy hunting!

Thanks for the tips. Already got an apartment finder book, browsing now. I'm not sure yet if i want to get a mortgage or just rent. I'm gonna deploy (catching up with the brigade in iraq) probably within the next 4-8 weeks, so I'm trying figure out if I can rent out the place if I decide to get a mortgage. Timing is the issue basically right now.
As for renting it looks like Dupont, University Place and Steilacoom are the nice areas, last two are somewhat of a drive. My goal is to be on post within 30-35 min driving distance.

University Place is further out than Lakewood. Takes more time to get to the interstate than any of the others combined. I know it looks close on the maps, but it's really not. Gotta deal with a bunch of city driving to get to the interstate. University Place has TONS of apartments though.

If you're leaving in a month or two---might want to consider Rainier Inn here on post. Might be an option to consider, then you won't have to worry about your stuff or your property at all. Then all you need to do is put your stuff in storage---which you can rent here on post REALLY cheap. I pay $35/mo for a 5x5x10.

Who'd you get assigned to? Got a few brigades out in that area that haven't been there too long.

You'll want to avoid driving on I-5 as much as possible, unless you love stress. I'm on post now but when we first arrived here last year, we lived up in Tacoma and the drive was so horrible for my husband. He'd leave post at the end of the day in a perfectly good mood and by the time he got home (an hour later) he's ready to explode.

BAW, I didn't know you were here. Dunno if you remember me, I was a frequent flyer on this site while my husband was in basic and AIT a few years ago hehe. Good to see you again

3rd SBCT, don't know exactly where in the brigade yet though. I came here light, only 4 duffle bags. My college roommate is stationed here as well, so i'll be keeping my stuff at his house while i'm gone. Reason I'm looking for a place now, is that I'm guessing once the brigades are back next summer-fall, it'll be harder to find housing with everyone looking for a good spot.

Hey Djen! I didn't know you were still around! Good to see you again too!
Yep, been here a bit over a year now---and on post too!

Nosc...so you're with 3/2 then I take it? It's the only 3-anything that I'm aware of...lol...
Yeah, stash your stuff at your friend's place. Most single soldiers stay here in the barracks---which are really nice now, most are brand new, especially on North Fort.
We got people rotating in and out so much though...I'm not so sure it would be hard to find a place. Besides....you're gonna pay rent on an empty place for 6-9 months---why not pocket that for now along with the rest of your extras...if you're planning on being here for a few years or whatever--you could get set up with a decent house to rent or buy when you get home. ---Just a thought.

quote:

I came here light, only 4 duffle bags.

That's twice as much as I had after three years of service. That doesn't sound all that light for a butter bar.

Deluxe air matress from walmart took almost half the bag

So wait---You're an officer then??
Well then....disregard the encouragement on barracks quarters.

Might want to check out this.
Could be something in there you're looking for.

Here is a link for ArmyOneStop, in case you don't have this already. Has some good info. Housing gals are good people, nice and informative too. They can email you a list of every single place we've got a good relationship with in the area. It's basically a list of 'approved' housing areas--meaning our people have rented/bought from these folks in the past and haven't had any issues with us.

BAW - My husband is 3/2, we've been here about a year too. Sounds like we got here at the same time hehe. I'm in Evergreen. Maybe we can meet up for coffee or something, some time.

Noscet...there's 3 brigades deployed right now, so about half of Ft. Lewis is gone. You're right, getting a place now is going to save you a ton of headaches when you get back. I've only seen the barracks from the outside, but 3/2's barracks aren't on North Fort (last I knew anyway). I-5 is never a pleasant drive, cept maybe 3am, but when all the brigades come back, it's going to be a nightmare. If you're looking off post for a place, go south. That's the advice I got and I agree. Dupont is really nice and one of the few places that don't require the ordeal of merging onto I-5 during commute hours when it's literally bumper to bumper traffic from 4pm till around 6:30pm.

Dupont has the Clocktower Square Apartments. They are along the same street as Bruceski's, Cute Nails and that chinese buffet and run back towards the post office. To me, they are pricey for the square footage but I don't know if rent includes any perks. I saw a flyer a while back and they were asking $1500 a month for a 2 bedroom apartment. We pay that for a 4 bedroom 2000 square foot house in Dupont. A friend ended up renting a 3 bedroom condo in Dupont for $1100. Her landlord also pays water and trash. There are tons of condos for rent right now.

We're natives of South Pierce County, and unless you live right next to Ft. Lewis in Lakewood/DuPont, the commute is going to be heck. But even south- like Spanaway (NOOOOO), Parkland (wooooorse)- has a bad commute, because so many civilians, not to mention military, live in the rural areas here near Mt. Rainier and commute north into Tacoma.

How long are you willing to commute for a "good" neighbourhood? What are your "good" neighbourhood requirements?

If I'm remembering right, the Clocktower Square place is pet friendly and that's why they are expensive. We have a large dog and finding a place off post that allowed a big dog was stressful to say the least. We wanted to get in there but there was quite a long wait for an apartment to open up, so we ended up in Tacoma at Madrona Pointe.

Thankfully on post housing opened up for us 4 months later, because that commute is a killer. What would normally take 15-20 minutes without traffic took over an hour.

I drove around in the past couple of days, checking out the areas, and I'm pretty set on DuPont. Right now i'm basically contemplating whether to buy a place or not right now or wait till after the deployment, I'm leaving in 4-5 weeks tops

It would be difficult to close on a place, not to mention get it rented, before you deploy.

Djen--that's awesome. My next door neighbor (unfortunately), her husband is with 3/2 also.
I would totally get together with you for coffee! That would be great!
Bobby's with 17th Fires, he left about a month before your guys/gals did.

Nosc: I agree with the other ladies too. Out of 30k soldiers, only 30% live on post. The rest are spread out all over the place. Traffic when everyone gets back is gonna be a witch again. Right now it's really quite nice to drive around--only takes me 5 minutes to get out the main gate.
Dupont is an ideal choice. It's a short hop-skip-and-jump from the gate right there--we've looked at houses there too but we really don't want one of them cookie-cutter houses they have going on over there. We do like the old town area though. We'd like a house with some character and such.

Spanaway and Parkland...you can kinda get away with taking the back roads a bit more than the other 3 gates off I5...You can hit the East and Roy Gates with relative ease. But still, traffic will be thick.

BAW: I have no idea what's changed that I can't send you a private message. I don't want to keep hijacking this thread lol. If you can send me one with your email or something so we can chat and set up a coffee date, that would be awesome

quote:

Originally posted by Djensenak:
BAW: I have no idea what's changed that I can't send you a private message. I don't want to keep hijacking this thread lol. If you can send me one with your email or something so we can chat and set up a coffee date, that would be awesome

lol...I gotta add you as my friend first before I can send you an email.
I'll do that.