Bruce and Debbie Sullivan are glad they moved out of their old fixer-upper house on Queen Anne Hill, one of Seattle's hottest neighborhoods, and moved to the Eastside. They now live in a brand-new house in the Snoqualmie Ridge development near North Bend.

"You can run the microwave and toaster at the same time," said Debbie Sullivan, adding that it's also nice to be able to turn on the hair dryer and not blow a fuse. "I loved Queen Anne. But the traffic. And you couldn't get a lot for your money."

Bruce, who grew up in Ballard, said it was more difficult for him to leave the city for a new suburban development than it was for his wife. But since they both now work on the Eastside, it made sense, he said. "I've adjusted to it."

'Drifting out' from Seattle

Another couple went through a similar decision-making process before buying a brand-new house.

"We could buy a 10-year-old home for exactly the same price as we could buy a new home," said Melinda Gray. "So it was like, do we buy a 10-year-old home that we have to maybe do repairs on, or do we buy a brand-new home?"

Melinda and her husband, Mike, went for new: a four-bedroom house in Maple Valley that cost $275,000. They preferred something closer to Seattle, about 20 miles away, where Mike works, but said they couldn't afford it.

"It was just one of those things where we found ourselves drifting out and out," he said.

More people may be "drifting out" from Seattle and the older suburbs as the prices in close-in neighborhoods continue to escalate.

"I conceded to the fact that if I'm going to get this house out here, and it would cost me $80,000 to $100,000 more elsewhere, that cost in itself is worth the drive," said Mike Gray.

The attraction of suburban school districts and a feeling that crime rates are lower also help sell new houses, real-estate agents say. But the real-estate price boom in many established neighborhoods in Seattle and on the Eastside has created another selling point for new developments: On a price-per-square-foot basis, houses built in the past five years are cheaper than older houses, according to a Seattle Times analysis of single-family home-sales data. And, they are much larger.

On Queen Anne Hill, for example, the price per square foot has leaped to $240. New homes in the North Bend area, which includes Snoqualmie Ridge, sold for only $141 per square foot last year. So an existing midrange house on Queen Anne, at 1,600 square feet, would sell for over $50,000 more than a new midrange house in North Bend, even though the North Bend house would be 50 percent larger.

Of course one tradeoff can be a tough commute on congested freeways and arterials to get to downtown Seattle or Eastside employment centers. But knowing traffic is working against them, some builders have worked to keep their costs down so they stay competitive.

Older got better in past 15 years

Fifteen years ago, new homes cost more than old. New construction (homes less than 5 years old at the time they were sold) cost $55 per square foot compared with $51 for existing homes. By last year, newer homes cost significantly less - $129 a square foot compared with $140 for older homes, according to The Seattle Times analysis.

And what kind of return are these buyers likely to have on their investment in a new house?

Location often is what drives appreciation. New houses closest to employment corridors and freeway access have generally appreciated faster than those farther out.

Blake Groth, a real-estate agent for Coldwell Banker Bain in Bellevue, said houses similar to the one he bought a year ago for $220,000 in Snoqualmie Ridge - right off Interstate 90, a few miles east of Issaquah - are selling today for $280,000. Such rapid appreciation is not typical.

The Times analysis of single-family sales data for houses up to 5 years old shows that the median sales price of a new house has increased from $87,985 in 1983 to $294,395 in 1999. (Median means half sold for more, half for less.)

Best, worst appreciation

The new house with the highest appreciation over the past 15 years, based on 1999 single-family home-sales data, was a house built in 1984 in Seattle's Leschi neighborhood. The nondescript 1,530-square-foot house increased in value from $93,000 to $336,450 - 17.5 percent annually over 15 years.

At the other end of the spectrum is a 2,930-square-foot house in Federal Way, on the Pierce County line. It was built by Fred Norris in 1984 for $124,230 and sold by him last year for $224,500 - about 5 percent annual appreciation.

Overall, South King County has the lowest appreciation in the county. But Norris blames his lack of return on what happened to nearby development.

Norris said his five-bedroom house was the first house in the area, but a developer had plans for building even larger houses in the neighborhood. Norris said those plans fell through and another developer came in and built smaller, more-modest houses.

Norris figures his house could have fetched up to $290,000 if the original upscale development had gone as planned.

The appeal of old houses and neighborhoods has not been lost on developers, many of whom are building new houses that imitate older styles. At Snoqualmie Ridge, there are streets lined with Craftsman-style houses, featuring porches and sidewalks in front and garages in the back.

"It's kind of a blend. The best of both worlds," said Debbie Sullivan, the former Queen Anne Hill homeowner.

Bill Kossen can be reached at bkossen@seattletimes.com.