Montreux

While the term bedroom community is used quite a bit, it’s rare for it to mean a place with only bedrooms. Usually, you’ll find a few stores or a grocer, but in the Montreux neighborhood, the community was designed to have almost no commercial businesses. This keeps the traffic calm and the noise light, allowing residents to enjoy the idyllic landscapes of the Pacific Northwest surrounding them. Montreux is located on the northern slopes of Cougar Mountain in the Cascade Range and overlooks Lake Sammamish. It’s close to Interstate 90 and the Sound Greenway, allowing for easy commutes to the surrounding cities of Seattle, Bellevue and Issaquah. But most people choose Montreux so they can stay close to home while enjoying all the natural beauty the area has to offer. The neighborhood is close to numerous hiking trails of varying difficulty that take you through lush woodlands into the mountains or down to the lake.

“Montreux is close to I-90 and offers multiple routes to town but leaves you in your own pocket of nature,” says Ali Mills, a broker with Windermere Real Estate. A one-time resident of the neighborhood, Mrs. Mills remarked on the abundance of wildlife in the area. “You can see deer almost every day in the summer. It’s stunning, and it’s a more established area than newer subdivisions like Issaquah Highlands. From Montreux, you can be skiing in an hour or hiking in 5 minutes. For those who love the outdoors, it has lots of opportunities to explore nature.”

The hardest part about living in the friendly neighborhood is securing a home there as few houses make it to the market at the same time. Luckily, the area also has several condo complexes like the Village at Montreux. The planned community was built on 260 acres, half of which were left undeveloped and have been put aside for residents' use. Most single-family houses offer over 4,000 square feet of living space, and some have views of the lake. It’s also easily walkable with sidewalks leading around cul-de-sacs filled with towering trees. Prices range from $1.7 million for a Northwest Contemporary-style house to $4 million for a five-bedroom estate house while condos start around $365,000 for a one-bedroom and continue to $720,000 for a spacious two-bedroom.

Students in Montreux are a part of the award-winning Issaquah School District, one of the top five school systems in the state of Washington. One of the pathways children might follow from kindergarten to graduation is through Sunset Elementary, Pacific Cascade Middle and Issaquah High, all of which have earned grades of A or higher on Niche. Sunset Elementary also offers before- and after-care called the Sockeye Club where children play and learn in a comfortable environment. Pacific Cascade Middle features Lynx Life, a comprehensive advisory program where students attend leadership training and work with an assigned advisor for all three years of middle school. Issaquah High boasts a 97% graduation rate and has a college and career center where students can plan for their post-high school lives.

Montreux also has a truly unique combination of a zoo coupled with an academy for people with autism spectrum disorders. Cougar Mountain Zoo operates as an independent wildlife enclosure focused on endangered species conservation through education efforts. Founded in 1972, the zoo is open five days a week and offers close encounter tours by appointment where visitors can feed tigers, meet lemurs or prepare enrichment activities for cougars. It provides homes for several varieties of macaws & cranes, lemurs, reindeer, Bengal tigers and more in addition to hosting community events like Earth Day, the Reindeer Festival or Howl-O-Ween.

Gersh Academy at Cougar Mountain works with the zoo to provide a one-of-a-kind educational campus for youth on the Autism spectrum aged five to twenty-one. The first of the Gersh academies on the West Coast, the student-focused school empowers children to thrive in part by using encounters with zoo animals to help Autistic children with physical, mental and social difficulties. Numerous studies show Autistic children are less stressed and anxious after even a short play period with a live animal, so being attached to a zoo creates endless opportunities for calming fun and learning experiences. The academy has an updated blog for parents and caretakers along with regular open houses to meet the staff and learn about the program.

In the midst of modern life, the Montreux neighborhood provides a quiet haven for people seeking charming housing with numerous outdoor options like skiing, snowmobiling, hiking and lake sports.

Written By

K.T. Phillips

Photography Contributed By

Landon Gauthier

Video By

Jeffrey Knight