Hi Jocelyn,

Yours is a great question! I think a lot of people are worried about the same thing. I am a 35 yr West Seattle resident and am also a Realtor in West Seattle and have been for 14 years. As mentioned by others here, since the replacement of the viaduct will be a planned event, hopefully it will be well thought out in advance as to how to deal with the work arounds. One of the positives that they are doing right now is they are starting the widening of the Spokane Street Viaduct which is the part of the West Seattle Bridge that goes between the bridge and I-5. That will help with the bottleneck that happens now with I-5. That will be completed in 2010. As far as property values go, I feel that any close-in city neighborhood is always going to be in high demand because of the close proximity to downtown & with West Seattle you are also close to the airport. We also have a large number of view properties and a beach! Lots of wonderful neighborhoods and price ranges to choose from. Come check us out!

It will impact traffic in so many ways that the close in city Neighborhoods will be very desireable. I don't know how all that traffic is going to get through the city. We were at Whistler in BC this weekend and going through the middle of downtown Vancouver on a Sunday afternoon was a mess I can only imagine what rush hour is like.

It might help the real estate market. Those living in west Seattle and working North of town might want to buy in Ballard and the Northenders working South of town may want to move to west Seattle so we could have more demand and more sales. The cup is half full and the market is never as bad as the news media says. Tom Berg, Windermere, Woodinville Wa

If the viaduct goes down without a plan for replacement in place, I think it would hurt property values. Yes, the commute would be a nightmare. But if there is a viable replacement plan, I don't think it would affect property values - at least in the long term.

Hi Jocelyn,

I don't think that property values will go down necessarily. However, I just don't know how that excess volume will be dealt with if and when the viaduct comes down. I live in Burien, and I used to work downtown. During the aftermath of the Nisqually earthquake, when the viaduct was closed for a few weeks for evaluation, the commute was nightmarish - my 15 minute commute turned into an average of 2 hours each way.

Now, that was an unplanned event. If the state goes through with its promise to take the viaduct down, then I would imagine that they would have a plan as to how to deal with the huge volume of traffic traveling on Seattle surface streets. That may be worth looking into.

Having said that, West Seattle is a wonderful place to live. Good luck with your home search!