Ok, here's my situation. My company has jobs available almost everywhere in the US. I get to pick 5 cities to live and get sent to one of them. One city on my list will undoubtedly be Seattle (been there once and loved it). Can I get some general info on the city? Real estate prices, crime rate, traffic, fun stuff to do??? I'm also a big snowboarder, any of that close by? I don't think the rain thing will be a problem for my wife and I, but how do people with experience of moving to Seattle deal with it? I should have prefaced all of the ?'s with: I will more than likely be at or near the Sea-Tac airport for work. I'm willing to commute for a better neighborhood but nothing crazy. Also, we are not millionaires, lets say we pull in about 100k/year, hence please don't tell me to move to Seattles version of Beverly Hills. Thank you all in advance for answering such a broad question, just any pertinent info would be great, thanks again!
2007-01-20 17:19:47 · 7 answers · asked by 1908Champs 2 in Travel ➔ United States ➔ Seattle
With that kind of salary, you can easily afford anything near the airport and save yourself the hassle of a long commute. The average house price is about 250 - 300K in that general area.
The areas, like in many cities, directly surrounding the airport aren't the best. But, go about 15 minutes in either direction (Federal Way to the South, Renton to the East and Seattle proper to the north) and you'll be in decent to good areas.
There's LOTS of fun activities in the area. As people have already mentioned, there's skiing up at Snoqualmie Pass (4 different ski areas), at Crystal Mountain on Mt. Rainier and on Mt. Baker. There's also lots of other outdoor recreation activities.
As far as the weather goes, it really doesn't rain as much as the general population outside of Seattle thinks it does. It rains about 35 inches a year. However, it is cloudy a lot. But, that doesn't stop us from enjoying the beauty around us. We just plan on getting drizzled on wherever we go and take extra advantage of sunny days.
Good luck wherever you wind up moving to!
2007-01-20 19:10:21 · answer #1 · answered by midlandsharon 5 · 3⤊ 0⤋
If you like snowboarding, you will love the area on the weekends. It's a short distance to the mountains. Don't move close to Sea-Tac airport!!! Look for other Seattle surrounding areas like Kent or even the Puyallup area for more house for the money. Puyallup is not Beverly hills, that's for sure. :) You can probably find something for 350k. The traffic is the worst, so be prepared. I wish I could tell you more. I live in the Seattle area, so I know. I have also lived in other places and it's not the best place to live, as far as crime. If you get a native that's never lived anywhere else, they will tell you it is perfect here. No place is perfect, but good luck!
2007-01-21 01:37:06 · answer #2 · answered by Maddie 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well lets see, I work for a company out of Auburn, (I dont live in the area, but am there apx once a week). The cheapest areas to live will undoubtedly be the outskirts. I here the East Tacoma, Auburn, Kent areas are not to pricey (but there in the blast pattern for Mt. Rainier if it ever blows). I know for skiing and snowboarding everyone goes up to the Snoq (Snoqualmie Ski Areas). I do know that the Seattle area does have a high suicide rate which some researchers have attributed to it being grey and gloomy most of the time. A friend of mine just moved up to Birch Bay from Southern California and I tried to warn him about the weather, his repsonse was I can handle it (5 months later his wife is moving back to SoCal and he hates the weather). I dont know toomuch about East and North areas of Seattle (bellevue, renton, issaquah)
2007-01-21 01:31:53 · answer #3 · answered by LV NASCAR FAN 6 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I love Seattle too. But the rent and cost of housing is expensive, you might want to go to the outer towns. Depending on how far you are willing to commute, Port Orchard is a neat town. I have family there. Also, Auburn is a good place to live, not so far away as Port Orchard. However, one good thing about the Seattle are is the Ferry transportation. So, from say Port Orchard by way of Ferry to Seattle is about 30 min. Can you tell I'm rooting for Port Orchard. Gig Harbor is another close and cool place. Best bet is to research the Seattle area via of course the internet.
2007-01-21 17:54:29 · answer #4 · answered by Shrew 6 · 2⤊ 0⤋
I lived there for 11 years and moved to TN, big mistake!!
Seattle has everything every other city has. What you do is live in town close to work take the train or walk to work. Seattle gets more rain than the out-skirts. Good places to think about living are Lynwood, Snohomish or one of the islands across from town.
If you hook up with a real estate group they can send you everything you need to know about moving to Seattle. The aquarium is loads of fun, stadiums near by and there is always something going on in Seattle.
Most people do go to Snoqualime to ski and snowboard, but then there is always Steven's pass too. explore further and you get Mt. Baker ski area (Very cool!!) or go into Canada to Whistler. Its all up to you, but skiing /snowboarding is there!
The farther North you go, the more lush the terriorty becomes, in La Conner Washington is the home of the Tulip festival and loads of good food and shopping.
Lynden hosts a Strawberry festival and the water park in ferndale is loads of fun too.
Lake Chelan on the East side of the mountains boasts water skiing and condo rentals amongst fruit trees.
Washington has loads to offer you just have to be willing to explore. On and you have to go to Levavenworth for OKtober Fest!
Cheers and happy real estate landing!
2007-01-21 14:33:13 · answer #5 · answered by ebay_convert 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Check out the City of Normandy Park.
2007-01-23 23:50:34 · answer #6 · answered by fatsausage 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
just watch out seattle has many storms off the coast come by and destroy houses!
2007-01-21 12:03:38 · answer #7 · answered by ♥♥♥QT'Z @ PLAY♥♥♥ 3 · 0⤊ 3⤋