I want to start this one with something personal, because it's the most honest way into this neighborhood. I used to manage a Starbucks location in Totem Lake. That location has since moved and is now a drive-thru. Back when I ran it, the store was a sleepy hole in the wall, and here's the part that tells you everything about what this area used to be: most of my customers didn't live in Totem Lake. They worked nearby. They passed through on their way to somewhere else. Totem Lake wasn't a destination. It was a stop.

That's not the neighborhood anymore, and I've watched the change happen in real time.

Figures per the City of Kirkland, WSDOT, and Homes.com as of research completed in 2026. Totem Lake is a small-sample neighborhood for home sales, and reported medians can shift significantly month to month. Always verify current figures against NWMLS data with a local lender or agent before making a decision.

I Worked Here Before Any of This Existed

From Dying Mall to The Village at Totem Lake

The transformation has a real history, and it's worth knowing if you're considering buying here. Totem Lake Mall opened back in 1973 and spent the 1990s and 2000s in a slow, well-documented decline, losing major tenants and becoming, in the words of one local business journal at the time, one of the most tired-looking properties in Kirkland.

That changed starting in 2015, when the property was purchased by a joint venture between CenterCal Properties and PCCP, LLC. A roughly $200 million redevelopment was announced in 2016, and what emerged over the following years is the mixed-use center known today as The Village at Totem Lake.

Totem Lake Park: The Piece That Ties It Together

Totem Lake Park is the piece of this transformation that turns a shopping destination into an actual neighborhood. The 17-acre park opened in July 2021 and sits on land originally part of the Totem Lake Mall property, donated decades earlier to the King Conservation District. Today it includes an accessible-to-all-abilities playground, restrooms, a water bottle filling station, and drinking fountains for both people and dogs.

The park connects into a broader loop trail around the lake itself, with pedestrian pathways, seating areas, and a spiral overpass connecting to the west side of Totem Lake that separates foot and bike traffic from a busy intersection nearby. It also ties into the Cross Kirkland Corridor, the regional multi-use trail that runs the length of the city, giving Totem Lake residents a direct, largely car-free route south toward downtown Kirkland.

This is the part of the neighborhood that didn't exist at all when I worked here. There was no park. There was a lake most people driving by never noticed. Now it's a genuine gathering point, and it's a meaningful reason Totem Lake reads as a residential neighborhood today rather than just a retail corridor with apartments stacked on top.

The New 132nd Street Ramps and Why They Matter

Access has been the other half of this transformation, and it's easy to underestimate how much it matters. For years, Totem Lake's only direct I-405 access ran through the interchange at NE 124th Street, with a smaller set of ramps at NE 116th Street. Anyone trying to reach the 132nd corridor from the highway had to backtrack, essentially making a U-turn to get there, according to WSDOT's own description of the problem before the fix.

The new NE 132nd Street interchange, funded through the state's Connecting Washington package, opened to traffic in April 2024. It added a new northbound on-ramp to I-405 and a new southbound off-ramp from I-405, using Washington's first roundabout design at an I-405 interchange. The project also provides more direct access to the EvergreenHealth hospital campus and to Juanita High School, easing pressure on the more congested interchanges to the north and south.

For anyone weighing a move to Totem Lake, this is a genuinely practical upgrade, not just an infrastructure footnote. It shortens the real, daily commute math for a meaningful share of residents heading north or south, and it's part of why Totem Lake now functions less like an awkward highway-adjacent pocket and more like a connected part of the city.

What Living in Kirkland Totem Lake Actually Costs

Here's where I want to slow down and be direct with you, because Totem Lake is one of the more genuinely volatile pockets of data I've looked at recently. Condos in Totem Lake currently range from roughly $330,000 to $1.52 million, per Homes.com, with a recent median around $1.19 million and an average sale price closer to $1.07 million. Separately, Redfin's neighborhood-level data has shown a median in the $900,000s in one recent reporting period, reflecting a small monthly sample where a handful of unusual sales can swing the number significantly.

For context, Kirkland citywide carries a median home price generally estimated between $1.2 million and $1.4 million, according to Every Door Real Estate. Living in Kirkland Totem Lake's condo-heavy mix generally positions it as one of the more accessible entry points into Kirkland, rather than the priciest, which tracks with what I've seen firsthand working this market.

Who Totem Lake Is Actually Right For

Here's the honest version, not the glossy one. Totem Lake is right for buyers who want new construction or recently built condo and apartment-style living, walkable access to genuinely good grocery and dining options, and easy highway access without paying the premium of downtown Kirkland or the waterfront. It's a strong fit for buyers prioritizing convenience and connectivity over an established, tree-lined single-family feel.

It's probably not the right fit if a quiet, low-density residential streetscape is the top priority. This remains a busy, highway-adjacent commercial corridor at its core, even with the park and the residential build-out. That's not a criticism. It's just an honest description of what you're buying into, and it's exactly the kind of tradeoff worth discussing directly with your lender and your agent before you commit.