Seattle Area?

[Russ Filtz]

Any insights to the greater Seattle area for living? Have a family member thinking of taking a job there. Job would be downtown - best areas for commuting (1hr or less)? May rent, may buy. General weather, etc.?

[Joe Pelonio]

Like the rest of the country prices for homes have dropped, though not as much as most places. This has caused rents to go up, however. My daughter rents a 2 BR condo in a nice part of Seattle that just went up $200/mo to $1,400.

We've been here 15 years now. Count on 2 months of dry sunny weather, July 5th through August. The 40" of rain we get is spread out over many days, mostly a light drizzle or mist. Snow is limited to 3-4 times a year, of which 1-2 will stick enough to cause driving problems.

Traffic is awful. We have no transit to speak of, and the freeways have not been expanded since the influx of people that started about 1990. Before moving the shop to my home I commuted 11 miles, which I could make in 20 minutes back in 1993, now at evening commute it's over an hour. The number of cars going east and west is nearly the same. People commute from the eastside to Seattle but also from Seattle to the eastside, where Microsoft has 30,000 employees. If you start before 7am and leave work before 3pm the commute is not as bad, but the bridges across Lake WA to Seattle are overcrowded and there is talk of tolls coming soon to pay for replacement of one of them (no more lanes though).

Working in downtown Seattle, my daughter drives 2 miles to a "park'n'ride" then takes the bus, rather than pay $250/month for parking.

For more traffic information check this link at 8-9am Pacific time
http://www.wsdot.wa.gov/traffic/seattle/

[Dexter Hahn]

There are several really nice neighborhoods in and around Seattle... Fremont, Ballard, Beacon Hill to name a few. But they can be pricey to buy and hard to find rentals. It's less expensive to live on the east side of the lake (Kirkland, Renton, Bellevue, Tukwila, even Mercer Island if you can find a place), but the rush hour traffic is killer... public transport goes everywhere and is probably the best choice if you're going to be commuting into the city. When the traffic is light, a trip into the city from the east side takes no time at all.
The weather is not as bad as people would have you think, in the summer it's perfect, never too hot or too cool, and in the winter it rarely snows, just the infamous rain and clouds.
It's a great place to live... close to the water, close to the mountains, lots of parks and paved trails, amazing food, festivals, I could go on and on.

Circumstances beyond my control forced me to move away from there, else I would have stayed. Maybe someday I'll move back.

[Craig D Peltier]

Depends on the lifestyle they like as well. If they have kids or not? If the like living in a city or not.
I lived downtown for 2 months. It took my wife at least one hour to get to micrososft and sometimes two on the way home and its like 15 miles tops. I found downtown near pike place very nice but expensive for rent. All the places mentioned above are nice. The city is very pretty as well as the mountains. Ive lived here for about 18 months only.

I moved here from LA which I had a commute there into the valley i thought traffic was bad there! At least there it crept along here forget it. Its worse here I think, non peak hours its fine though.

I loved living downtown,walked to everywhere. I sacrificed to find a decent sized yard and live in a sleepty little town 25 miles from downtown but a world away.

[Pat Germain]

My son lives in Seattle. His apartment is in Lower Queen Anne. It's at the base of Queen Anne Hill, right across the street from Seattle Center where the Space Needle is. In fact, you can see the Space Needle from his kitchen window. While my son's apartment building is a former hostle where the units are very small, there are lots of other buildings nearby.

Queen Anne can be expensive, but my son saves lots of dough by not needing a car. He can walk to a bus stop near his apartment and be downtown in ten minutes. I know this because I did it with him when I helped him move there a year ago. My son works in Bellevue, which is a longer bus ride, but he just reads and takes it easy during the ride.

Since your friend will be working downtown, Russ, I would highly recommend he look into the Queen Anne area. It's a very nice neighborhood and anything you could ever want is just outside your door. Well, I don't think there are any woodworking stores, but for anything else, they gotcha covered.

These days, no matter where you're going to live, I think living close work is a priority if at all possible. Commuting is just getting too hectic and too expensive.

[Joe Pelonio]

Since your friend will be working downtown, Russ, I would highly recommend he look into the Queen Anne area. It's a very nice neighborhood and anything you could ever want is just outside your door. Well, I don't think there are any woodworking stores, but for anything else, they gotcha covered.

There is bus service to Ballard where there's a Rockler and a couple of other woodworking places.

[Pat Germain]

There is bus service to Ballard where there's a Rockler and a couple of other woodworking places.

Well, there you go!

[Scott Donley]

And a coffee shop on every corner

[Joe Pelonio]

And a coffee shop on every corner

Definitely no shortage of coffee. Here in Sammamish in the one small strip mall we have about a mile from here, there are 2 Starbucks, Tully's, a stand at a gas station and now even McDonalds which has espresso drinks. The good stuff is in Seattle at the little independent coffee places!

Also here at the house where we make our own and have worn out 3 espresso machines in 15 years.

[Russ Filtz]

Thanks all, will pass along the info. They do have 2 small kids, averse to long commutes and high prices (mutually exclusive!). $250 for parking! That sounds like when I lived in Chicago! Didn't have or need a car for 3-yrs. the one I had kept getting tickets for snow plow days since I never saw it. The big surprise was when I moved and got another car. The insurance companies treated me like a 16-yr old with no experience (even though I had continuous motorcycle coverage during the no car period and was 35+ yrs old). What a scam.