On the Eastside, the city you choose matters as much as the house you buy. Here's how the 2026 medians actually compare — and where value is hiding.
The 2026 lay of the land
Medians range widely: Sammamish near $1.6M and Mercer Island around $2.5M at the top; Bellevue around $1.5M; Kirkland and Redmond near $1.3M; and Bothell — straddling King and Snohomish counties — the most affordable of the group, around $999K. Seattle proper, often assumed to be the priciest, actually sits below most Eastside suburbs near $879K.
Where the value is
Bothell stands out for relative value: a revived downtown, the UW Bothell / Cascadia campus, and riverfront parks, with a meaningful year-over-year price pullback. Redmond has been the most resilient — essentially flat year over year — supported by Microsoft and the new light rail, so you pay for stability rather than a discount.
Kirkland's roughly 9% year-over-year softening gives buyers a window in a lakefront-adjacent city that rarely discounts, especially ahead of the NE 85th Street station-area upzone. And in Bellevue, the headline double-digit drop is largely mix and rate-sensitivity at the top — which means real negotiating room on luxury and near-luxury homes.
Value isn't just price
The cheapest median doesn't always mean the best buy. Weigh school assignment, commute, walkability, and — increasingly — what middle-housing reform (HB 1110) and transit are doing to a neighborhood's long-run trajectory. A slightly higher price in a path-of-growth corridor can outperform a cheaper home in a built-out, low-change area.
Want a side-by-side for your specific budget and must-haves? That's exactly the kind of comparison we build before you tour.
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