Kirk­land: quite pos­si­bly the most desir­able place to live on Seattle’s Eastside

Named after Peter Kirk, this “Sausal­ito of the North” has grown from 400 in 1905 to more than 80,000 res­i­dents. Today, the over 100 year old city includes the annexed neigh­bor­hoods of Houghton (1968) and North Rose Hill (1988) to the east and Totem Lake (1974) and South Juanita (1988) fur­ther north. With the annex­a­tion of Finn Hill, Kings­gate and North Juanita, effec­tive June 1, 2011, the city has dou­bled in size.

In the shadow of the much larger city of Belle­vue to the south, Kirk­land has remained a “town” despite an explo­sive growth spurt dur­ing the last two decades of the 20th cen­tury and the recent annex­a­tion wich increased Kirkland’s pop­u­la­tion by about 33,000.

A leisurely walk around down­town and along Wash­ing­ton Boule­vard from Moss Bay to Car­il­lon Point shows Kirk­land at its best: restau­rants, gal­leries, spe­cialty shops, parks and play­gounds. No other Seat­tle east­side city offers more lake front and more var­ied views across Lake Wash­ing­ton toward Seat­tle and the Olympic Moun­tains beyond. These views also con­tribute to the value of real estate. Kirkland’s lake­front con­dos and some view homes located west and east of Mar­ket Street and on the hills of Houghton remain hot prop­er­ties even in cooler real estate markets.

The steel mills, wool mills and ship build­ing indus­try have given way to the ser­vice busi­ness and high-tech, capped with Google estab­lish­ing a Kirk­land pres­ence a few miles south of its more estab­lished com­peti­tor in Red­mond. Car­il­lon Point, which now hosts one of Kirkland’s post pop­u­lar events, the Kirk­land Con­cours d’Elegance, was the loca­tion of a ship­yard where in the 1940s ships were built for the U.S. Navy.

Even the Wood­mark, a lux­ury lake­side hotel, yacht club and spa now has com­peti­ton. The Heath­man which calls itself a “lux­ury bou­tique hotel” pam­pers guests in the very cen­ter of down­town Kirk­land right across from the Kirk­land library and the 12 acres named in honor of the town’s founder: Peter Kirk Park.

Ger­hard N Ade, Bro­ker & Realtor®

 
Jan­u­ary 2012: Inven­tory of homes (red icons) and con­dos (green) in Kirk­land is low, espe­cially down­town and west of Mar­ket Street Click on icons to see basic data, click again for detailed infor­ma­tion. Pend­ing prop­er­ties are iden­ti­fied as such. Here are many more Kirk­land Neigh­bor­hood searches.