Washington State Licensed and Certified Appraisers serving the greater Puget Sound area.
Burien incorporated in 1993 and has spent the decades since finding its identity. It found it. The city's walkable downtown, Puget Sound waterfront parks, and eclectically good restaurant scene have turned it into a genuine destination for buyers who want Seattle proximity without Seattle prices. Three Tree Point and Seahurst are genuine luxury addresses. Downtown Burien is what a lot of new urbanist planners try to create artificially and rarely achieve.
The residential market here has more range than most cities its size. You can buy a three-bedroom ranch in Gregory Heights for prices that would get you a teardown lot in West Seattle, or you can pay seven figures for a Puget Sound waterfront home on Three Tree Point. Those two ends of the market don't really inform each other's comparable sales, and appraisers who don't understand Burien's internal geography will make significant errors.
The Sea-Tac Airport noise corridor clips parts of Burien's northeast edge, which affects both buyer demand and appraisal methodology for affected parcels. The rest of the city — and most of the desirable residential areas — falls well outside the noise cone. As Burien's reputation has grown, it's attracted buyers from West Seattle and Shoreline who do the drive comparison and find that Burien's combination of waterfront access, walkability, and price makes a compelling case.
The commercial and civic core along SW 152nd Street has evolved from a strip-mall suburb into a walkable town center with restaurants, parks, and community events. Residential properties near downtown sell to buyers who want walkability and neighborhood character at South King County prices — a combination that's increasingly rare and increasingly valued.
A beachfront neighborhood on the western edge of Burien where Seahurst Park meets Puget Sound. Properties here carry a genuine waterfront or water-view premium, and the park itself — one of the better beach parks in South King County — anchors the neighborhood's desirability. View and access quality vary significantly by parcel, requiring careful paired-sales analysis.
A narrow peninsula jutting into Puget Sound south of Seahurst with a genuinely dramatic residential setting — few places in King County match it. Homes here are expensive, private, and often custom-built. The comp pool is thin by necessity — there aren't many Three Tree Point sales in any given year — and appraisers need to reach into Normandy Park, Des Moines, and even Vashon Island to bracket value.
A residential neighborhood built around Lake Burien with lakefront and lake-view homes that command premiums above the Burien average. Access rights to the lake vary by parcel, and those distinctions matter significantly in valuation — lakefront, lake-view with access rights, and lake-view without access rights each represent distinct market tiers.
An inland neighborhood in the northeast portion of Burien with a mix of mid-century housing and proximity to Highline Community College. Gregory Heights is Burien's most accessible price tier and attracts first-time buyers and investors. The housing stock is consistent enough to support straightforward comparable analysis in most assignments.
A neighborhood on the Burien-Tukwila-SeaTac border that straddles multiple jurisdictions. Housing here is older and modestly priced, and buyers come for the access to employment at SeaTac Airport and the lower entry cost relative to coastal Burien. Comp searches here often span three city boundaries.
Seahurst Park and Three Tree Point are Burien's two most powerful locational value anchors. Direct beach access is rare in King County, and Burien has more of it than any city its size. The new Burien Town Square development has reinforced the downtown core's commercial activity, and the Link Light Rail extension with the Burien Station stop has added transit access that previously didn't exist. Highline Community College provides a stable employment and enrollment base that supports rental demand across the city.
Tin Room Bar & Grill holds a 4.4-star rating and generates consistent reviews from Burien residents who treat it as their neighborhood living room. It's become part of how people describe Burien to friends — 'we have Tin Room' — which is exactly how a restaurant crosses from being a place to eat into being part of a city's identity. That identity matters for residential values because it signals the kind of place-making investment that attracts buyers who have other options.
AppraisalMS appraises residential properties throughout Burien — from inland Gregory Heights ranches to lakefront homes on Lake Burien, coastal properties in Seahurst, and the rare custom estates on Three Tree Point. We handle lender work, pre-listing, estate, and tax appeal appraisals, and we're experienced with the waterfront premium analysis and airport noise overlay considerations specific to this market.
AppraisalMS delivers accurate, defensible residential appraisals across the greater Puget Sound. Serving Burien and surrounding communities.
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