Anone from the Seattle area?

robot909

robot909

Well-known member
Hi, I'm currently living in the San Francisco bay area and are looking to move to the Seattle area. I know there are lots of towns in that area and I don't have a clue yet to where I might look for a house.
A couple of factors imporant for me are, close to the water, a fairly decent neighborhood with plenty of things to do (like places to go and get a pint or meet people), close to some sort of a technical area where I might get a job with computers, graphics, video, audio, or sell my video production skills. Oh yeah, and around 200K price tag for a home/condo/trailer whatever, I think location is more important to me.
If you live there and can share some tips that would be great!

thanks!

-oh yeah, feel free to PM me...
 
It's raining outside right now. I'd get the job before making the move and at least explore a few of the 'hoods. Sounds like Ballard might be a cool place for you. It's basically northwest Seattle and is on the water. Has some good pubs too. Victory Studios is really close if you're looking for a gig.

-Guy
 
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Where in Seattle are you Guy...it's beautiful right now. I actually see patches of light blue :)
 
Well, not sure if this helps, but I had an uncle that lived in the Anacortes area, which is North of Seattle, and it's probably one of my favorite places in the pacific NW.....
 
The east side would be good since that's where Microsoft and a lot of the software companies are, around Bellevue/Kirkland/Redmond, but you might have a hard time finding a condo for under $200k. I seriously doubt you'd be able to find a house in that price range. I've seen houses in that area run $700k and up, and I've yet to see a trailer anywhere close to Seattle.

West Seattle, around Ballard or Fremont, might be good: lots of bars and plenty of things to do. If you're looking for a house/condo in that price range, you'd probably have to go further away from Seattle, either north or south, which puts you away from the water and means a nice commute, unless you want to buy a really small unit.

Or, you could check out north Seattle, around the U-District. It's not really that close to the water, but it's defiinitely a pretty cool area.

I live way up north in Snohomish and rent a 2 bedroom apartment for less than what some studios rent for in bad neighborhoods close to downtown Seattle. It's a heck of a commute, but compared to where I used to live, Capital Hill, it's much nicer and is in walking distance to a lake.
 
Eastside is probably the best palce to live for work but stupid expensive housing. Ballard/Fremont is great if you aren't working on the East side but again equally silly prices on housing. 200k will MAYBE get you a 400 sq foot condo. Seven years ago the cheapest place in Fremont I found was 160k for a 380 sq ft closet.

Just about everything in King County is somewhat close to water, a short bike ride to either the Sound or Lake Washington.

With the housing market starting to slow down here it might be a better time then usual to buy. We are often rated one of the most overpriced places to live, even beating out Manhattan, NYC. Some say our bubble is suppose to be bursting anytime soon but OTOH housing prices in Seattle have constantly defied the market trends. Even when demand slows down, housing is in such short supply here our prices just continue to climb. Everywhere you look in this city people are buying 1/4 acre lots and putting up million dollar homes. It's insane. Actually I think it's quite similar to what I understand you have in SF.

IMHO, I would suggest renting for the first year while you figure out where you will be primarily working. Seattle's number one issue, hands down, is traffic. I have turned down jobs that require me to take the 520 bridge during rush hour(s).

But other then that and the rain, Seattle is simply the best fricking place on the planet to live. :thumbsup:

Cheers
 
wabbit said:
Where in Seattle are you Guy...it's beautiful right now. I actually see patches of light blue :)
Click to expand...

We're up north of Seattle in a little town on the water called "Mukilteo." About 40 minutes north next to Everett.

Housing is still pretty reasonable up north. For the business we have a very nice 1300 sq. ft commercial studio we rent for $1300/mo. It's 1 block from the water.
My house is about a mile away (dream commute!) It's about $400K for a nice 2000 sq ft. 4 bedroom around here.

Since our business is mostly internet based, it's the best of both worlds. They're also putting in a Sound Transit stop in Mukilteo in 2007. You can get to Seattle on it in less than 30 minutes. They already have a stop in Everett and Edmonds.

How much per year are you looking to make? I may be able to offer a few more suggestions.

Cheers,

-Guy
 
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