Top Things to Know If You're Thinking of Moving to Brier

Brier is the rare city that stays a neighborhood on purpose: two square miles of heavily wooded hillside at the southwest corner of the county, incorporated in 1965 and zoned almost entirely for single-family homes on large minimum lots, with no downtown. Residents live in Brier and shop in the cities around it, and they pay a premium for the quiet.

Market and value

In 2026, typical home values in ZIP 98036 ran near $950,000, with median sale prices around $930,000 to $1,000,000. Most single-family homes list from about $900,000 to past $1.4 million, above the county median of $720,000. Inventory is thin, so well-priced homes can draw multiple offers and go under contract within days, especially on the biggest lots in Allview Heights.

Commute

The car is the primary mode. I-5 is a few miles west via 228th Street SW, with downtown Seattle about 15 miles, 23 to 25 minutes off-peak, more at rush hour, and Everett about 12 miles north. Mountlake Terrace Station is about a ten-minute drive, with Community Transit Route 111 linking Brier to the train.

Neighborhoods

The heart along Brier Road holds Brier Library, Brier Park, and the schools, surrounded by the classic mid-century ranches and split-levels on winding, wooded streets. Allview Heights, annexed in 2007 along 228th Street SW, has late-1950s and 1960s homes on large tree-covered lots near the King County line. West Brier faces Mountlake Terrace, closest to the light rail station and I-5, with slightly smaller lots. East Brier rolls toward Martha Lake open space, where lots are bigger and addresses feel more private.

Schools

The Edmonds School District serves Brier, with the feeder running from Brier Elementary and Brier Terrace Middle, both in town, to Mountlake Terrace High. Assignments are address-based, so match a specific address to its school; the in-town run from Brier Elementary through Brier Terrace Middle to Mountlake Terrace High is part of how resale values behave here.

Parks and outdoor access

Brier Park, roughly 13.7 acres beside City Hall, is the town green: open fields, a playground, a skate park, tennis courts, covered picnic shelters, and paved paths. Martha Lake, a few miles north of town near the Lynnwood and Mill Creek side, is the county's lakeside playground: fishing on a 61.6-acre stocked lake, a wetland boardwalk, and no gasoline motors. Martha Lake Airport Park adds soccer fields, the county system's first skate park, an off-leash dog park, and one of the region's largest glacial erratics. Pocket parks from Bobcat Park to the Scriber Creek Greenbelt fill in the rest.

Downtown and dining

There is no downtown, and that is the point. There is not a coffee shop or pharmacy in the city limits, so every errand and meal out means the car. Lynnwood is the closest all-purpose center, with Alderwood Mall about ten minutes north and west. Mountlake Terrace has neighborhood retail along 44th Avenue W. Edmonds is the longer drive west for the waterfront, and Mill Creek Town Center is the walkable draw north.

Community feel

Brier incorporated on February 11, 1965, after residents voted to form their own city rather than risk annexation's smaller lots; the name comes from the thorny brambles on the logged-over land, and its first mayor was a Boeing engineer. Six decades later the founding bargain still holds. The calendar is small and neighborly: SeaScare and the Porch Light Parade in August, Music in the Park in July, Dog-O-Ween in October, and the December tree lighting. The honest trade-offs are the premium prices, the absolute car dependence, and a commute that is only reasonable off-peak.

If you want big, wooded lots, in-town schools, and genuine quiet with light rail ten minutes away, Brier is one of the best-kept addresses in the south county. Bring patience for inventory and a car, and you get a neighborhood that has kept its character for sixty years.