Four places I know well.
Not a list of every city I'll work in. These are the four I can tell you real things about — where traffic actually backs up, what the houses were built with, which streets drain badly.
Federal Way
Where I live. Mostly seventies and eighties split-levels on big lots, light rail now open, and a plateau that holds water in ways a flood map won't show you.
Auburn
Two different cities sharing a name. The valley floor and the hills were built fifty years apart, and they fail in completely different ways.
Puyallup
A genuinely walkable downtown, a big-box corridor on the hill, three weeks of Fair traffic every September, and a lahar map you need to look at.
Tacoma
The oldest housing stock by a wide margin, and the only place on this list with neighborhoods you can actually walk. Comp by district — citywide numbers mean nothing here.
I also work in Kent, Milton, Edgewood, and Spanaway. These four are just the ones I've written up.
How I write these.
Commute, schools, parks, housing stock, terrain, noise, and price. What a house was built with and what that means for your inspection. Where the water goes when it rains.
What you won't find here is any description of who lives somewhere. That's both the law and the right way to do it — a neighborhood is a place, and you're entitled to facts about the place so you can decide for yourself.
For anything about safety, go to the city police department or the county sheriff directly and read the primary source.
Thinking about one of these?
Tell me which one and what you're weighing. I'll give you the honest version.