What can you tell me about Seattle?

[Bjorn]

So my daughter is thinking about moving out to Seattle in the fall, probably in 2-3 months depending on money, job, housing, etc.  I know at least some of the folks on here live around there, or have in the past.  Anything you would advise a young person about moving out there?  Parts of town to look for decent housing, job market, meeting new folks, etc?

[Dewar]

The housing/apartment market around here is pretty crazy these days. I live an hour bus ride out of town and still pay $1750 for a small two bedroom townhouse. Finding a place to live in-town will be hard, and I don't have a lot of advice but, if she's willing to commute, I love the east side up the I-405 corridor. I'm in northern Kirkland right now and have easy access to state route 520 to get into Seattle. The Renton area near the south end of 405 is cheaper, but bus access from there is kind lousy and it has a bit of a bad reputation, somewhat earned. Everett up north on I-5 is also nice, but the commute from there can be pretty lousy with traffic.

 

Job Market around here is pretty brisk right now actually. Lots of tech companies, but even the non-tech companies are pretty technically inclined. It's important to have a good Linkedin profile. A lot of job hunting goes on using the web.

 

As for meeting new people, Capitol hill is the diversity center, lots of LGBTQ stuff around there and tons of quirky little places to go and see. Tourist center is more toward Pike Place Market, which is also the area I work in. There's a bunch of good stuff in that area if you know where to look. The Pioneer square and stadium area are on the upswing, but are still pretty scuzzy in my opinion. Belltown is a bit north of Pike Place and has a bad reputation that I've never seen any evidence of in person, but there's a variety of different places there. Up north of the locks there's Freemont which is where a lot of the indie music scene is centered if she's into that. And of course there's the U-District which has the pluses and minuses of any college town.

 

Let me know if you have any specific questions. I've lived in Washington my whole life and the Seattle area for 10 years.

[Argobot]

So I live in Ballard, which is a Seattle neighborhood north of downtown. People say the rent is getting bad here, but I'm from DC and am moving to SF soon, so the rent doesn't seem that bad. You can find affordable (for a city) stuff anywhere, you just have to look and be willing to compromise (if living in a city matters to your daughter).

I don't have a car but a lot of people do. Some neighborhoods are hard to use mass transit it in, so I would recommend she look up bus routes to and from where she's working to where she wants to live if she wants to bus at all.

I like Ballard a lot. It's a little far out of downtown (30 min bus ride, Seattle is huge) but it has it's own culture so you don't rally ever need to go downtown unless you work there. Fremont is also great. Capitol Hill, Belltown. The Udistict has cheaper housing but that's because there are a lot of students there. Does she know where she'll be working?

I moved here two years ago from the East Coast and have absolutely fallen in love with it. It can get kind of grey in the winter, but the absolutely gorgeous summers more than make up for it. If she is outdoorsy than she will love it here; lots of good hiking/nature/mountains.

Even though I'm really excited to FINALLY be living in the same city as my fiancé, I am going to really miss it here in Seattle. It's a good West Coast city.

[TheLastBaron]

My sister lived in Ballard for 4-5 years and I have a friend who has lived there for the past couple years I spent/spend a fair amount of time there and really like the area.

[Dewar]

Oh yeah, Ballard is really nice. I don't get up there often so I don't think of it much. Probably the best area to live that's still in the city, that and maybe West Seattle.

[Bjorn]

Thanks all!  I'll pass all this along. 

 

Argobot, she does not know where she'll be working yet.  She's starting to work on that process now.  She's also planning on going up late next month for about a week to check it out. 

 

Also, some more general information, she doesn't necessarily want to live like in Seattle proper, just somewhere in the area.  That area has been at the top of the shortlist of places she'd like to try living since she was like 12, just one of those places she became enamored with and has never been able to get out of her head.. 

 

There's a few things going on with this move.  Her boyfriend joined the Navy last year, and is getting stationed out in that area.  They don't necessarily want to move in together, they're serious but not necessarily to the point of wanting any financial ties between them.  He'll be around the area until late in the year, then he'll get shipped out for 6 months, plans on living on base to save money until after his first deployment is done, then they'll decide if they want to move in together or not.  She wants to move out there in the fall, rather than waiting until his first deployment is done, because she wants a chance to live in the city for awhile on her own to see what it's like.  She's also ready for a break in school.  She started in engineering, and that didn't pan out well, has been doing business and accounting since, but is starting to think she doesn't like them.  She's still feeling pretty lost about what it is she wants to do professionally, which both her mother and I completely sympathize with.  We both took breaks from college and ultimately felt it was for the best.  She got offered a manager position at her current job, and that's about the only thing making her vacillate on moving.  It's decent money for her age, but if she's not going back to school, she doesn't necessarily see any reason to stick around here, and there's no better time than her age to take a risk and move somewhere new. 

 

I'm worried, but also excited for her.  It will suck to have her so far away, but I also want to see her happy, and to go out and have some adventures. 

[natellite]

Oh hey, I'm moving to Seattle in a few months! I have some friends up there that I visit once or twice a year. It's my favorite city, and the fact that I'm in thrall to the green apron should hopefully make finding a job to survive on while I look for a real job easier.

[Dewar]

Would that be the Bremerton naval base? Close to downtown Seattle is nice if you want to hit the ferry over there, otherwise looking down toward Tacoma will make the drive shorter.

[Argobot]

Edit: I'll post tantalizing Seattle pictures when I'm off my phone.

[Moosferatu]

I've lived in the Ballard/Greenwood area for the past few years and enjoy it a lot. If it wasn't for friends and activities that I've become involved with in the area I'd probably move to West Seattle though. I love West Seattle. It's gorgeous, laid back, and currently more affordable than Seattle. It's also not that hard to get downtown from there thanks to the Rapid Ride. Personally, I'd avoid the east side if you're interested in spending time in the city and don't have transportation. Travelling east-west can be challenging with public, and driving is a nightmare at rush hour.

[Bjorn]

Would that be the Bremerton naval base? Close to downtown Seattle is nice if you want to hit the ferry over there, otherwise looking down toward Tacoma will make the drive shorter.

 

I'm 99 percent sure it's Bremerton, but I'll double check with him when I see him later this week, he's supposed to be back on leave here in the next few days. 

[syntheticgerbil]

I want to move to this city one day, but it looks like the cost of living is a major jump. Christ, I feel like I'm stuck in Texas forever.

 

Well, unless I get rich.

[thefncrow]

I want to move to this city one day, but it looks like the cost of living is a major jump. Christ, I feel like I'm stuck in Texas forever.

Well, unless I get rich.

I'm actually in the Seattle area for business right now (stuck out in Bellevue), coming in from Dallas. Ditched the organized dinner last night to go catch a Mariners game and get to see some of the city proper, and now I'm right there with you.

[thefncrow]

Edit: Grr, quote button is not edit.

[Dewar]

I want to move to this city one day, but it looks like the cost of living is a major jump. Christ, I feel like I'm stuck in Texas forever.

 

Well, unless I get rich.

 

Thankfully wages in the area tend to somewhat match the expensive cost of living, but yeah it's pretty up there.

[Argobot]

Maybe my opinion is really skewed because I'm prepping myself for San Francisco prices, but Seattle doesn't seem that bad at all.

[Dewar]

Random internet search, but http://www.payscale.com/cost-of-living-calculator/Washington-Seattle shows that Seattle runs fairly close to average on a lot of things, but 57% above average on housing. That seems to be pretty close to my experience. If you manage to find a good deal on a house or apartment, the rest of it isn't so bad.

 

Edit: http://blogs.seattletimes.com/fyi-guy/2012/11/12/is-seattle-one-of-the-most-expensive-cities-in-the-u-s/

 

So Seattle is an expensive city, but still, is it one of the most expensive?  A lot of Seattleites seem to have the perception that Seattle is just behind the top-tier cities like New York and San Francisco, but the data do not support it.  In fact, we only rank 34th overall on the Cost of Living Index for the third quarter of 2012.  Manhattan, the No. 1 city, has 113 percent higher costs than Seattle; San Francisco and Honolulu are over 50 percent more expensive.  We’re even behind some places that don’t sound quite so posh, like Juneau, Alaska and Newark-Elizabeth, New Jersey.

Let’s take apartment rents, as an example.  They have been on the rise here, and a lot of folks are grousing about how expensive it’s gotten.  They’re right, rents are high — about 61 percent above the national average, in fact.  The rent for a good-sized, two-bedroom apartment in Seattle averages a bit more than $1,400 now.  Yes, that’s a lot, but still outside the Top 20 cities in the country.  A comparable apartment in Honolulu or San Francisco would be nearly double that.  And — if you can believe this — a similar pad in Manhattan would rent for about $4,000.

[syntheticgerbil]

I guess that $1750 thrown out earlier is kind of nuts to me. It's nearly double my rent on a two bedroom with backyard duplex. I suppose what is daunting about moving to another city with a higher cost of living is in order to rent you security deposit is going to be expensive, most likely pet fees, plus first month in advance. A lot of times leasing offices want to see you make four times the rent from four weeks of paystubs. I guess I should one day get to saving.

[mikemariano]

Bjorn: if the Argobot is moving away it is now your daughter's job to drive to Snoqualmie every day to take photos of Twin Peaks 2016 filming and post them on the forum.

[thefncrow]

Maybe my opinion is really skewed because I'm prepping myself for San Francisco prices, but Seattle doesn't seem that bad at all.

Speaking at least for myself, it's more because Dallas is an extraordinarily cheap place to live, so even if Seattle is just average, that's a real increase.

[Dewar]

I guess that $1750 thrown out earlier is kind of nuts to me. It's nearly double my rent on a two bedroom with backyard duplex. I suppose what is daunting about moving to another city with a higher cost of living is in order to rent you security deposit is going to be expensive, most likely pet fees, plus first month in advance. A lot of times leasing offices want to see you make four times the rent from four weeks of paystubs. I guess I should one day get to saving.

 

Generally they want you to make three times your rent around here, but yeah it's pretty crazy. With the rule that I didn't want to share a floor/ceiling with anyone, we searched all over the place a year ago for anything with somewhat easy bus access to downtown where I work. The cheapest (that wasn't a total dump) we found was a 2 bed rental in a pretty nice triplex in Renton for $1200. We decided to pay the extra to live in a nicer location on a better bus route, which ranged between $1400 and $1700. We went for $1650 as that place had been recently renovated and had brand new insulation in the walls that really reduces sound, as well as a nice glass top stove in the kitchen. Then the rent went up in May and we're sitting at $1750.

[Bjorn]

So the kiddo had a phone interview today at a place, and has an in person interview setup next week when she'll be in town visiting.  She's worked at a UPS Store for the last two years, and a UPS franchise out there has an opening right now.  The owner of her store called and put in a good word for her, the phone interview went great, and at the end of it the gal who interviewed her said if the in person interview went as well, they'd definitely be open to the possibility of holding the position for her for a few weeks to give her time to get moved and everything. 

 

That makes this whole moving halfway across the country thing way more real, and makes it likely that it will happen way faster.  I'm...man, I'm more bummed and scared about having her that far away than I expected. 

[Dewar]

Mind if I ask what area the UPS store is in? Might make it easier to give housing tips.

[Bjorn]

I know it's a franchise that owns multiple stores in the area, and I'm not sure that she knows which store it would be at.  She's leaving here on Saturday to drive out there, then will be in Seattle for 10 days, will have her in-person interview sometime during then and learn more about the stores, locations, etc.  The owner here was ready to offer her a manager position if she stayed, so hopefully the position out there is one that she can move into management relatively quickly. 

[sclpls]

So I'll be in Seattle for the International. Staying at the Westin Seattle. I know it is kind of in a touristy part of the city, so any recommendations for food in the area would be appreciated as I won't have a car.