We are going to Lewis in 08. We have children so I am greatly concerned about housing and schools. I looked online but I'd love for real info. Can anyone tell me all about lewis please? :)

Bump?? Anyone?

My friend lived there a year ago they just got out last week. What do you want to know? The housing sucked when she lived there it's a nice base I used to get lost all the time when I would go see her.

we're going there this august, so if you hear anything i'd be interested too :) don't know if we're going to live on base or not yet, i suppose we'll figure that out once he actually proposes ;)

My boyfriend lived on Lewis for 9 months. No kids so can't tell you about the schools. I grew up in Washington and the area around Lewis is not that desirable. If you want a house look in Dupont or Lacey which is south of base. He lived on the N. Fort which is mostly officer housing. I felt safe when I was there home alone, but after we sent the dog away (because he was going to deploy and I couldn't take the fuzzy guy...) someone stole things out of his carport, which I guess can happen anywhere, but it still wasn't a good feeling. The housing is not awful, some houses were recently remodeled. Basically, they are you typical manufactured homes. He said that this is not the nicest base that he has seen but it definetely is not one of the worst. Hope this helped!

i was kind of hoping that if we didn't live on post, we could live north somewhere, since i'll be commuting to the u of washington, but i don't know much about anything yet. it all just depends on how our plans work out. i'd heard that the area around it wasn't too great crime-wise, so it should be interesting for me coming from a tiny town in the middle of kansas where you could leave your front door wide open for twenty years and never have a robbery or anything.

Thanks for the answers everyone. I really hope the housing is better there then it is here. Oie.

I work downtown Seattle and would ride the bus in the AM to work from near the Fort. The ride wasn't too long (shorter than the drive, traffic is awful) and parking at UW is kinda over priced... During rush hour it can take 2 hours in the AM and PM commutes. If you want to live North, how far away?? Half way between Seattle and Fort Lewis is the Federal way area. Let me know if you have any questions by PM, I would be happy to help you out, it is tough moving across the country. My boyfriend was shocked at how much I knew about the area, he is from San Diego and came from Ft. Riley to Ft. Lewis, he called me his personal map. PM with ?'s.

We are moving to Lewis in the fall, I'm so excited to get back on the West coast as I'm from California. I have no idea where we are gonna live yet, I did see the housing online, looks kinda old.

I've heard Washington has the best school district in the U.S.

I've been to Ft. Lewis a few times, mainly when we had to go to Madigan, and we would hop over to Ft. Lewis. The exchange is much better than the ones here at Bremerton and Bangor. The housing isn't very nice, but again, it's pretty old. I don't know if they are doing any renovations at this time. I wish I could tell you more about the schools :shrug. Now, McChord AFB is right down the road from Ft. Lewis, and it's really nice there.

Have you looked at Ft. Lewis's official website?

My cousin is there now. I do not know very much about it but I do know that they are in the process of building new housing. He is on the waiting list for it. They chose to live in Puyallup until they get housing. I know someone else who lives in Tacoma near the base and I do not think it is a very nice area. I think that is why my cousin chose to live in Puyallup and fight the commute time. Good luck.

Here are some pictures I found of the housing at Ft. Lewis.....

https://onestop.army.mil/armyonestop.asp?v=2

Hmmm. I've been down to Ft. Lewis a couple times. The base is pretty nice - the commissary and PX aren't bad at all.

The area around it though, is pretty sparse. And Tacoma isn't always a good idea 'cause it kinda smells off (yes, the entire city).

Olympia isn't a bad area at all, and not so far from Ft. Lewis. If you're commuting to UW, remember that parking on campus is AWFUL! Frickin' hell'a expensive. And traffic can get pretty bad, so you'd wanna be closer to Seattle, if possible. I don't know the area well enough to comment on other locations, but I'd suggest listening to the other ladies.


And WA schools? Eh. They're all right. I hope they're not the best the US has to offer though!

i was kind of hoping that if we didn't live on post, we could live north somewhere, since i'll be commuting to the u of washington, but i don't know much about anything yet. it all just depends on how our plans work out. i'd heard that the area around it wasn't too great crime-wise, so it should be interesting for me coming from a tiny town in the middle of kansas where you could leave your front door wide open for twenty years and never have a robbery or anything.

Are you going to be going to the main campus or the Tacoma one..I just graduated from the Tacoma campus and commuted from Olympia which was 20mins which isnt bad.

There is some nice housing on Ft. Lewis...one of Robbys SGTs lived in a nice little community by a school, he has 2 children and I guess the schools aren't that bad...probably the same as the rest of the schools in this state. But I really liked their house. It's very spacious, and in a good area. The base is really nice, it's huge and easy to get lost. But it's really beautiful. If you didn't want to live on post, I would suggest Lacey or DuPont as well...DuPont is really nice. Just know that traffic really sucks in that whole area. That is one thing I absolutely hate about living here. But anyway, hope you find nice housing for you and your family!

Im an army girlfriend now and my boyfriend is stationed at Ft. Lewis but when i was younger my dad was an officer in the army and we lived on N. Fort and the elementary school i went to was good..its in the beachwood neighborhood.There is a youth center across from it now. The houses were a little old but they built alot of new ones but some people like the old style homes.They have homes from different eras on base. The older ones have been getting remodeled.I live in Lacey now which is 10mins or more depending on where you live in the city..lots of military choose to live there since its nice and growing pretty fast.they just put up a statue honoring all the military families in the community.Its pretty much comprised of present or ex-military families.Schools are good here in lacey and olympia.tacoma and lakewood schools are crappy, my friend teaches in tacoma! I think the base in general is pretty there is a lake and alot of woods..i like that kind of stuff.

sorry it took so long to answer, my internet's been down for over a month...anyways, i'll probably be going to the main campus. right now we're looking at apartments in lakewood, some of them looked pretty nice. i wanted to live in lacey but there weren't any apartments listed online for lacey. or not very much choice at any rate. we're going to get there about august 1st i think, and we want to live on post so far, but neither of us has ever been there so who knows

Well here is a new apt complex that is almost finished or is already finished right in lacey.

http://www.forrent.com/apartment-community-profile/1000010014.php

I hope you find what you are looking for in what ever city you choose to live in~!