While it's hard to go wrong with investing in Puget Sound property, Mercer Island real estate does figure among the decidedly more desirable. It didn't always. The Duwamish Indians, for example, contented themselves with hunting and fishing there. Evil spirits inhabited it, they believed, and it sank into the lake (later named Washington) every night.

First called home by a few persevering Easterners from Illinois, Mercer Island real estate began with a cabin built by German immigrant Vitus Schmid about 1876. Named for one of three Mercer brothers, also from Illinois, the island did not see serious development until 1891, when one C.C. Calkins bought 22,000 acres and built a resort there. The ferry and docks built to accommodate the resort attracted more settlement.

Now affectionately dubbed Mercedes by its affluent residents, Mercer Island real estate is home to a population of about 22,000. Incorporated in 1960 as a city, some 20 years after the first floating bridge to the mainland (Seattle) was built, Mercer Island soon became popular among professionals and high-tech employees for its easy access to both Seattle and Bellevue. Primarily a single-family community with a rural atmosphere, the island's many parks, wooded hills, and splendid views help the setting be a marvelous and coveted place to call home.

Mercer Island Real Estate Facts

Most of the island's 8,500 residential properties are both traditional single-family homes and owner occupied. The median house value at the last federal census was about $575,000. A more up-to-date market range for single family homes begins at about $250,000 and tops out at about $5 million--making the mathematical average $1.6 million. Condominiums will probably range from about $150,000 to $700,000.