If you're searching how to move to Bothell from out of state, you have a specific purpose. Maybe it is friends nearby. More likely, it is a job relocation. What is for sure: not many people are asking that question. Perhaps your AI of choice knows you so well now that it recommended Bothell. Whatever the reason, I am glad you're here.

A place where most people in Washington State still have trouble finding. Did you mean Burien? No, Bothell. And it's not only here to stay, it's growing in all the right ways.

If you're looking for a cute downtown, a huge city within 30 minutes, and 15 minutes to farmland or nature walks, you've made it to exactly where you should be. I came to Bothell and stopped looking anywhere else 10 years ago. Welcome. If you're from Southern California, like me, get ready for the guide I wrote specifically for Southern California transplants, and get ready for the best summers of your life!

Figures per U.S. Census Bureau, WSDOT, AccuWeather, and Redfin as of the dates noted. Market figures move month to month. Always verify current pricing with a lender or agent before making decisions.

Did You Mean Burien? No. Bothell.

Here's what I would say about that mix-up: it happens constantly, and it's not a knock on Bothell. It's a small city that has quietly become one of the more interesting places to live on the north Eastside, without the name recognition of Bellevue or Kirkland. That's changing. Bothell has grown from roughly 48,000 people at the 2020 census to an estimated 51,770 today, and the growth has not come with the identity crisis you see in some fast-growing suburbs.

You still get a walkable downtown along the Sammamish River. You still get farmland and horse properties fifteen minutes away in Woodinville and Maltby. You still get a genuinely short drive to two different major cities. Full stop. That combination is rare, and most people moving here from out of state have never heard of it until a job offer or a search engine puts it in front of them.

Where Bothell Actually Sits

Bothell straddles two counties, King and Snohomish, which surprises people who assume a city this size sits neatly inside one. That split matters more than you'd think, since it affects everything from your county assessor to your voter registration to which court handles a speeding ticket. When you're house hunting, ask your agent which side of the county line a specific listing sits on. It's a five-minute conversation that saves a headache later.

Geographically, you're at the north end of the Eastside corridor. Kirkland and Kenmore sit to your south along Lake Washington. Woodinville and Redmond sit to your east. Seattle and the I-5 corridor sit to your west. That position is exactly why the commute math works the way it does.

The Commute You'll Actually Have

Sound Transit and Community Transit both serve Bothell, and there is no light rail station inside city limits yet, though that is changing. The Stride S3 bus rapid transit line is coming to SR-522, which will connect Bothell riders more directly into the Link light rail network at Shoreline. If your job is in Seattle proper and you want to explore the real commute times to Seattle, Bellevue, and Redmond, I broke that down in more detail in a separate post, since the answer depends heavily on which part of Bothell you land in.

What the Weather Is Really Like

If you're coming from Southern California, here's the honest version. Winters here are grey, wet, and mild, not brutally cold, just persistent rain and low cloud from November through February. That surprises some people more than the rain itself. What nobody tells you is what happens from late June through September.

Bothell's average July high sits around 76°F with an average low of 56°F, per AccuWeather, and the humidity stays low. You get long daylight, dry air, and genuinely comfortable evenings, the kind where you're sitting outside at 8pm without needing a jacket or fighting mosquitoes. And that's amazing. If you've spent summers dealing with triple-digit heat, this will feel like a completely different relationship with the season.

Pack for the transition, not for one climate. A good rain shell, layers for the shoulder seasons, and you're set. This should be a great ride, especially your first July.

Before You Arrive: The Logistics Nobody Mentions

Moving to Bothell from out of state involves a few Washington-specific items that catch transplants off guard. Here's the sequence I'd walk you through if we were sitting down together.

What You'll Find When You Start Looking at Homes

Here's what I would say about that to every out-of-state buyer landing in Bothell right now: the market has shifted from where it sat a year or two ago, and that shift favors you more than it would have in 2021 or 2022. Once you find the right place, we can walk through the step-by-step process for buying once you land.

The median sale price across all home types in Bothell was $999,392 as of May 2026, down 13.1% year over year, per Redfin. That's a meaningful cooling from the frantic bidding-war environment of a few years back. Inventory has grown, days on market have stretched out, and well-priced homes are still moving while overpriced ones sit. If you're used to a market where you had to make a decision in 48 hours with no contingencies, that pressure has eased here, though it varies block by block, so don't assume the whole city is uniformly a buyer's market without checking the specific pocket you're targeting.

None of these figures are something to lock into your budget without a current conversation. Markets move month to month, and what's true in this post today may shift by the time you're actually house hunting. Always verify current numbers with your lender and agent before making an offer.

Where People Actually Land

Bothell isn't one neighborhood. It's a collection of them, and where you land changes your daily life more than most out-of-state buyers expect. Downtown Bothell along the Beardslee corridor gives you walkability and the Sammamish River Trail right outside your door. Canyon Park and North Bothell put you closer to the office parks and biotech employers that anchor a lot of local jobs. The area toward Maltby and outer Snohomish County gets you closer to farmland, more land per lot, and a quieter, more rural feel within the same twenty-minute radius of everything else.

I'd rather walk you through how the different pockets of Bothell actually compare in detail than try to compress it into a paragraph here, since the right answer depends entirely on your commute, your budget, and what kind of daily life you're actually trying to build. If you want the fuller, unfiltered version of daily life here, I also wrote a separate piece on what it's really like to live here day to day, and if coffee and trails matter to your quality of life the way they matter to mine, I put together the coffee shops and trails I actually use.