The Hadley Mercer Island: Verified Pricing, Commute, and Fee Data for Renters

What it costs, reconciled across listings

Three live aggregators disagree on The Hadley’s starting studio rent within the same several months, and the gap is worth understanding before treating any single number as current. Apartments.com’s CoStar-verified listing, updated June 24, 2026, shows a starting price between $2,443 and $2,650 depending on which section of the page loads. Apartment Finder, dated April 11, 2026, shows $2,030. ApartmentGuide’s $2,095 figure is dated January 2023 and is stale. This spread is not a data error on any one site: ILS pricing feeds refresh on different cycles, and a several-hundred-dollar gap between two listings updated in the same season is a normal texture of apartment shopping, not a fluke specific to this property.

No source in this pool publishes a clean per-floor-plan price that lines up with its square footage. Square footage and price appear on different pages of the same listings, and getting an exact number for a specific plan means checking the live portal or calling the leasing office directly.

Is The Hadley pet friendly, and what does it cost? Yes, cats and dogs are both accepted, up to two pets per apartment, with a breed restriction list. Full costs are in the fee table below.

Full move-in cost, beyond rent

Every competitor listing covers the pet fees. None covers the rest of the move-in cost in one place. The published schedule, sourced to the property’s own fee disclosure as reproduced across ApartmentHomeLiving and Redfin:

Two pets add roughly $1,450 to the one-time cost of moving in, on top of first month’s rent and any security deposit. The $75 monthly charge per pet compounds over a lease: two dogs adds $150 a month indefinitely. Storage is optional and billed separately. (Source: ApartmentHomeLiving fee disclosure.)

The commute claim, checked against Sound Transit’s numbers

The Hadley’s marketing states a 12-to-15-minute ride to Downtown Bellevue or the Spring District. Sound Transit’s own Mercer Island Station page lists the travel time to Bellevue Downtown as 10 minutes, a better number than the marketing pitch, which is worth stating plainly rather than assuming a landlord’s commute claim runs optimistic.

Peak vs. off-peak

Sound Transit’s East Link Extension page confirms 8-minute headways on the 2 Line during peak hours. Outside peak, FOX13’s coverage of the 2 Line’s launch, sourced to Sound Transit, puts headways at 10 to 15 minutes. The worst realistic wait for an off-peak rider is around 15 minutes for the train itself, plus whatever time it takes to reach the platform.

How far is it really from Bellevue during rush hour? Ten minutes station to station at any time of day, per Sound Transit’s published schedule, plus the walk or wait on each end.

Amenities worth weighing

Schools, with the ranking sourced

Mercer Island School District ranked #2 in Washington State in Niche’s 2026 rankings, published January 27, 2026. The district’s own announcement names the ranking source, the year, and the school-level breakdown behind it, which no competitor listing in this comparison did.

Is the Mercer Island school district ranked #2 in the state? Yes, per Niche’s 2026 rankings released January 27, 2026, confirmed directly by the school district’s own announcement.

What residents have said

Two verified, dated reviews exist on record, both from 2020, averaging 1.5 out of 5. Both describe the same event: a spring-2020 management change to CONAM, after which residents reported dirty common areas, an unresponsive leasing office, no dedicated pet-waste stations despite the pet-friendly marketing, and a shared gas and heat utility surcharge one reviewer called disproportionate. One reviewer who had lived there since the building opened called the apartments themselves “solidly gorgeous” while describing the service decline. Management responded to both reviews within about six weeks, inviting direct follow-up.

These are the only two attributable, dated reviews retrievable for this property. A Yelp listing showing 19 reviews and 214 photos exists but blocked automated access during research, and no current star average could be confirmed. Treat this section as five-year-old signal from a documented transition period, not a current read on management.

What do current residents complain about most? The only documented complaints on record, both from 2020, center on a management transition rather than the units or the location.

How The Hadley compares to Lunara, The Mercer, Island Square, and Shorewood

The Mercer Apartment Homes

Priced within $25 of itself across its whole studio-to-2BR mix, and the only property in this comparison with a pool.

Lunara

Runs to a materially higher ceiling ($4,667) in exchange for the only 3-bedroom option among the five.

Island Square

The lowest published studio floor in the set, at $1,974.

Shorewood

The widest size span in the comparison, studio through 4-bedroom, built around outdoor family space rather than a rooftop amenity deck.

Who this fits, and who should look elsewhere

• Good fit: commuters riding the 2 Line into Bellevue or Seattle at any hour of the day, renters who value walkable retail near Mercer Island’s Town Center, and pet owners who’ve budgeted for the ongoing monthly pet-privilege fee, not just the one-time deposit.
• Look elsewhere if you need a pool: The Mercer Apartment Homes has one on site; The Hadley does not.
• Look elsewhere if you need 3 or more bedrooms: Lunara and Shorewood both cover that; The Hadley tops out at 2BR.
• Weigh carefully if you’re car-dependent east of I-90: the property’s Drivability score is a respectable 80 out of 100, but its real transit advantage is the light-rail connection specifically, which won’t help a commute pointed away from the Bellevue corridor.

The Hadley is a 6-story, 209-unit building completed in 2016 and managed by CONAM.

The “sanctuary” pitch against the traffic and noise data

The property markets itself as a sanctuary away from bridge traffic. Its own Apartments.com listing carries a HowLoud Soundscore of 68 out of 100, with traffic noise specifically rated “Busy.” A score of 68 sits in HowLoud’s mid-range: not silent, and not loud enough on its own to be disqualifying, but it complicates the sanctuary framing for anyone sensitive to road noise, given the building’s proximity to I-90.

Walkability sits at a moderate 60 out of 100, and general transit access outside the light rail specifically comes in at a comparatively low 30 out of 100. The light rail connection itself is genuinely strong. Day-to-day errands without a car are more limited than the walkability number alone suggests.