Meadowbrook — A Seattle Neighborhood & Real Estate Guide (2026)

Meadowbrook — A Seattle Neighborhood Guide

By Matthew Konsmo | Coldwell Banker Danforth / Updated May 2026

Living in Meadowbrook, Seattle

Meadowbrook is a residential neighborhood in northeast Seattle, part of the larger Lake City district that was annexed into the city in 1954. It sits roughly ten miles northeast of downtown, bounded on the south by NE 95th Street (the Wedgwood line), on the north by NE 115th Street (the Cedar Park line, per the Meadowbrook Community Council — Wikipedia lists this border at NE 120th, so there is some variance depending on the source), on the west by Lake City Way NE / State Route 522 (the Victory Heights line), and on the east by 35th Avenue NE and the Matthews Beach neighborhood.

The neighborhood is almost entirely residential. There is no real commercial strip inside Meadowbrook itself — the corner businesses, pubs, and grocery options sit just outside the borders along Lake City Way to the west, along 35th Ave NE south into Wedgwood, and up into the Lake City core to the north. What anchors Meadowbrook instead is open green space: the Meadowbrook Community Center, the adjacent Meadowbrook Playfield and pool, Nathan Hale High School, Jane Addams Middle School, and the restored confluence of the north and south forks of Thornton Creek.

Historically, the land was inhabited for thousands of years by Coast Salish people before being clear-cut in the late 1800s. A small community of immigrant farmers — including the Blindheim family’s LaVilla Dairy at the 10300 block of Fischer Place NE — defined the area in the early 20th century, with the dairy operating from 1913 to 1929. The original dairy building still stands and now houses the NE Seattle Tool Library. Nathan Hale High School sits on what was formerly the Meadowbrook Golf Course.

Meadowbrook Real Estate Overview

The housing stock skews mid-century, with a heavy concentration of 1940s through 1960s single-family homes built as the area transitioned from farmland to bedroom community. You’ll find:

• Post-war ramblers and ranches (1940s–1960s) — the dominant type, often on flat 5,000–8,000 sq ft lots, three bedrooms, one story over a daylight or full basement
• Mid-century split-levels and modest two-stories (1950s–1970s) — frequently with the original kitchens and baths still intact or partially updated
• Scattered pre-war craftsman and bungalows (1920s–1930s) — fewer in number than in Wedgwood or Ravenna to the south, but present along the older platted blocks
• Newer infill (2000s–present) — modern single-family rebuilds and a small number of townhomes, mostly on teardown lots
• DADU and ADU conversions — increasingly common as Seattle’s accessory dwelling rules have opened up backyard cottage development

Lots tend to be larger than what you’ll find in Ravenna or Bryant, which is part of why the area has attracted developers and remodel-focused buyers.

Meadowbrook Home Prices

Recent market activity in Meadowbrook has shown single-family medians in the $900K–$960K range, with smaller mid-century homes starting in the high $600Ks and larger remodeled or newer-construction properties pushing past $1.5M. The neighborhood has run competitively in recent cycles, with median days on market frequently in single digits during the spring season and multiple-offer activity on well-prepared listings.

For current and historical Meadowbrook market data, the Western Washington Market Pulse tracks NWMLS activity across north Seattle neighborhoods.

Schools in Meadowbrook

Meadowbrook is served by Seattle Public Schools. The neighborhood schools, in attendance area order, are:

• John Rogers Elementary (K–5) — 4030 NE 109th St. A brand-new campus opened in fall 2025 as Seattle Public Schools’ first net-zero-energy elementary school, replacing the 1956 original
• Jane Addams Middle School (6–8) — 11051 34th Ave NE. Known as JAMS, reopened as a comprehensive middle school in 2014 after a long history including original use as a Shoreline School District junior high in 1949
• Nathan Hale High School (9–12) — 10750 30th Ave NE. Completely remodeled 2005–2011; the redesign won an American Institute of Architects National Award in 2014, and the school is home to KNHC / C89.5, a student-staffed radio station that has operated since 1969

Verify your specific address with Seattle Public Schools’ attendance area lookup — boundaries shift, and the proximity of Meadowbrook to multiple high school service areas means assignments are address-specific.

Nearby private options include Seattle Waldorf School (Meadowbrook campus at 2728 NE 100th St), which serves children from 18 months through 8th grade.

The Anchors: Meadowbrook Community Center, Playfield & Pool

The defining feature of Meadowbrook is the cluster of public amenities along 35th Ave NE between NE 105th and NE 110th:

• Meadowbrook Community Center at 10517 35th Ave NE — opened in 1996, includes a full-sized gym, multipurpose room, preschool and teen programming, and a fitness room
• Meadowbrook Pool — adjacent to the community center, a year-round indoor pool operated by Seattle Parks
• Meadowbrook Playfield at 10533 35th Ave NE — 18.5 acres of lighted tennis courts, baseball and softball fields, soccer fields, a large children’s play area, and the meadow that gives the neighborhood its name
• Meadowbrook Community Gardens and Orchard — onsite at the community center, part of Seattle Parks’ Good Food Program

Across 35th Ave NE — technically in Matthews Beach, but functionally a Meadowbrook amenity — sits Meadowbrook Pond Natural Area, the restored wetland and detention pond where the north and south forks of Thornton Creek converge before flowing east to Lake Washington. The pond is known for resident beavers, great blue herons, and migratory bird activity.

Outdoor Recreation in Meadowbrook

• Meadowbrook Playfield — 18.5 acres of fields, courts, and a meadow
• Thornton Creek confluence at NE 107th and 35th Ave NE — restored 2-acre floodplain with a meandering creek channel, completed in phases through 2015
• Meadowbrook Pond Natural Area — east side of 35th Ave NE, birdwatching and walking paths
• LaVilla Meadows Natural Area at 10228 Fischer Place NE — small natural area behind the historic LaVilla Dairy building, where Willow Creek joins Thornton Creek’s south branch
• Burke-Gilman Trail access — approximately one mile east along NE 110th, connecting through Matthews Beach Park down to Lake Washington
• Matthews Beach Park — the city’s largest freshwater swimming beach on Lake Washington, accessed via NE 93rd Street

Surrounding Neighborhoods

Meadowbrook connects directly to several other northeast Seattle neighborhoods:

• Wedgwood to the south, across NE 95th Street
• Matthews Beach to the east, across 35th Ave NE
• Cedar Park to the north
• Victory Heights to the west, across Lake City Way NE
• Lake City to the northwest

My Meadowbrook Pro Tips: Local Insights for Living, Buying & Selling

1. The flood plain is real — check the parcel before you fall in love. Thornton Creek and its tributaries have caused real flooding events in Meadowbrook, including water that has reached homes near the confluence and closed 35th Ave NE during major storms. Seattle Public Utilities completed major restoration work through 2015 that added floodplain capacity, but properties near the creek corridor (along Fischer Place NE, near NE 105th–107th, and along the daylighted channels) carry real flood risk. Redfin estimates roughly 9% of Meadowbrook properties face severe flood risk over the next 30 years. Pro move: Pull the FEMA flood map and Seattle’s drainage maps for any address you’re considering near the creek. Ask about historical insurance claims and any sewer or sump pump upgrades. I’m happy to walk through this with you before you write an offer.

2. Verify your school assignment before you assume anything. Meadowbrook sits in a part of northeast Seattle where the high school assignment area has shifted in recent years between Nathan Hale and Roosevelt. The neighborhood is the natural feeder pattern for Nathan Hale, but individual addresses can route differently depending on choice plans and option-school pathways. The new John Rogers Elementary that opened in fall 2025 is a major upgrade, but service area boundaries are still address-specific. Pro move: Run your exact address through the Seattle Public Schools attendance area lookup before you assume the school assignment. Don’t take a listing agent’s word for it.

3. The mid-century housing stock comes with mid-century systems. With most homes built between 1945 and 1970, you’ll routinely encounter the standard set of mid-century inspection items: galvanized water supply lines that need repipe ($8K–$15K depending on access), cast iron drain lines with joint failures, original single-pane windows, cedar shake roofs at or past end of life, and electrical panels that may be Federal Pacific (FPE) or Zinsco — both of which most insurance carriers flag as a problem ($2K–$4K to replace). Older oil tanks (in-ground or above-ground) come up regularly and need decommissioning before closing on most lenders. Pro move: Budget realistically. Many “move-in ready” Meadowbrook homes still have at least one of these items deferred. My residential construction background is genuinely useful here — I can walk through inspection findings with you and help separate cosmetic deferrals from the items that actually affect financing or insurability.

4. The “no commercial strip” reality is a feature and a variable. Meadowbrook has almost no walk-to retail inside its borders. Day-to-day errands mean driving (or biking) to the Wedgwood commercial node around 35th & NE 75th, up to Lake City Way for groceries and services, or over to Northgate for the larger retail footprint. This keeps the residential streets very residential — but it also means buyers who want a walkable coffee shop within five minutes should look at Wedgwood or Ravenna instead. Pro move: Drive the actual route from the home you’re considering to wherever you do your weekly grocery run. A six-minute drive in March can be a fifteen-minute crawl during evening commute, and the routes east-west across northeast Seattle have real bottlenecks.

5. The Thornton Creek restoration is a long-term asset. The work Seattle Public Utilities and the Thornton Creek Alliance have done over the last thirty years — daylighting the channel, creating Meadowbrook Pond, restoring the confluence floodplain, and the 2024 Willow Creek realignment — has genuinely improved both water quality and habitat value. Salmon have returned to sections of the creek. From a property standpoint, this matters: homes near healthy restored creek corridors have shown durable demand over time. Pro move: Walk the creek corridor (start at Meadowbrook Pond, head south along Fischer Place NE) before you decide whether you want a property near the water or set back from it. Both have tradeoffs — proximity is amenity and risk.

6. The lot sizes leave room for ADUs and DADUs. A meaningful share of Meadowbrook lots are 7,000–10,000 sq ft, which gives real flexibility for accessory dwelling unit (ADU) or detached accessory dwelling unit (DADU) projects under current Seattle zoning. This has driven some of the rebuild and addition activity in the neighborhood, and it’s a path that works for owners who want long-term income or multi-generational living without subdividing. Pro move: Verify the specific zoning designation (NR1, NR2, NR3, LR) and any tree-protection or critical-area overlays before you build a financial model around an ADU. The slope and creek-adjacent parcels have additional constraints.

7. The Nathan Hale and JAMS campuses are a quality-of-life asset most listings undersell. The combined 18.5-acre Meadowbrook Playfield, the pool, the community center, the community gardens and orchard, and the adjacent middle and high school sports facilities form one of the largest contiguous open-space and recreation footprints in northeast Seattle. Even residents without school-age kids use the playfield, courts, and trails year-round. This is a structural reason values have held up here. Pro move: If you’re selling in Meadowbrook, lead with proximity to the community center cluster, not just the home itself. Specific walking distances (“0.4 mi to Meadowbrook Playfield, 0.6 mi to Nathan Hale track”) consistently outperform vague “near parks” language.

8. The drive to UW, downtown, and the Eastside is the daily reality. Meadowbrook’s location puts UW Medical Center, U-Village, and the U-District at roughly 10–15 minutes via 25th or 35th Ave NE depending on traffic. Downtown Seattle is 15–25 minutes via I-5 from the NE 130th or NE 145th on-ramps, or via Lake City Way NE to NE 65th. The Eastside (Kirkland, Bellevue, Redmond) is 15–30 minutes via SR-522 to I-405. Sound Transit’s Lake City Way bus rapid transit (Stride S3) is in planning stages but not yet operational — verify current status at soundtransit.org. Pro move: Drive your actual commute at your actual commute time before committing. The I-5 northbound afternoon backup at NE 85th and the SR-522 / Lake City Way evening crawl are real variables.

Is Meadowbrook Right for You?

Strong fit if you:

• Want a single-family home on a larger lot than what’s available in Wedgwood, Ravenna, or Bryant
• Value direct walking access to a community center, pool, playfield, and restored creek corridor
• Are comfortable with a quieter residential setting that requires driving for retail and dining
• Have school-age kids and want proximity to a brand-new elementary and a strong middle/high school cluster
• Are open to a mid-century home and the systems work that comes with it

Probably not the right fit if you:

• Want a walkable urban village with restaurants and cafes inside the neighborhood
• Need transit-first access to downtown (you can do it, but it’s not as quick as Roosevelt or Northgate)
• Are looking for newer construction at scale — there’s some, but not a lot
• Don’t want to think about creek floodplains, older system upgrades, or potential ADU planning

Thinking About Buying or Selling in Meadowbrook?

I work with buyers and sellers across northeast Seattle and have direct experience with the older housing stock, the creek-corridor considerations, and the school-boundary nuances that shape decisions here. If you’re considering a move into or out of Meadowbrook, I’d be glad to walk through your specific situation.

• Direct: (425) 463-8243
• Email: MatthewKonsmo@gmail.com
• Contact: /contact/

---