Dallas to Seattle or viceversa (Portland, Memphis: real estate, 2010, houses)

[CuriousMind]

Hello Everyone:
I was wondering if any of you has moved from DFW to the greater Seattle area or vice versa and how has been the change.
Thank you.

[SeaToby]

My brother moved to the Seattle area, and I have visited. Seattle real estate is much higher in value. Dallas real estate is much lower in value. A 200k home in Dallas will be 400k in Seattle.

The main difference in everyday living is the weather. Its awfully hot in the Dallas area during the summers, its awfully wet in the Seattle area during the winters.

[aceplace]

There are strong political and ideological differences as well.

[JDTD]

Originally Posted by SeaToby

My brother moved to the Seattle area, and I have visited. Seattle real estate is much higher in value. Dallas real estate is much lower in value. A 200k home in Dallas will be 400k in Seattle.

The main difference in everyday living is the weather. Its awfully hot in the Dallas area during the summers, its awfully wet in the Seattle area during the winters.

I would have to say that you are a little off base in the housing range. Here's a 200k house in Seattle.

No kidding.


430K in seattle. 1150 square feet, and you can see the lot size.



200k in Dallas equals about 800k in Seattle. If you move out of seattle about 30-60 miles (minus some zip codes), you might start to compare at around 600k. Gas is also about .30 a gallon more in Seattle, food is more in Seattle, etc. It rains about 9 mo. a year in seattle too, and the political climate is much different. Just some things to think about.

[aceplace]

Originally Posted by JDTD

I would have to say that you are a little off base in the housing range. Here's a 200k house in Seattle.

No kidding.


430K in seattle. 1150 square feet, and you can see the lot size.



200k in Dallas equals about 800k in Seattle. If you move out of seattle about 30-60 miles (minus some zip codes), you might start to compare at around 600k. Gas is also about .30 a gallon more in Seattle, food is more in Seattle, etc. It rains about 9 mo. a year in seattle too, and the political climate is much different. Just some things to think about.

Different politics? That's a way to put it mildly. The attitudes of people on the Pacific coast towards people with moderate or conservative views of life is similar to the attitudes of people in Europe during the inquisition, or during the Protestant-Catholic wars in the 1600s. If your politics or your basic belief structure is not politically correct, you will be treated with incredulity, ridicule, ostracism, even hostility.

This social attitude may be a consequence of climate. Nearly constant overcast, continuous drizzle, cold weather, these things have a powerful effect on the mind because they are subtle and because they are constant. Human beings evolved in Africa, under very different climatic conditions, and are dependent on warm weather and sunshine for their emotional and physical health... pretty much what we have in Texas. People in Seattle and the upper Pacific coast attempt to compensate for this by eating antidepressant drugs such as Prozac and installing special lamps that try to duplicate natural sunlight... but the climate is too pervasive for that to matter.

Stay in Texas, where people are kinder toward others, even if their views of life differ.

[bostoner]

My ex moved there after we broke up. He's still living there, but is thinking of moving back to Dallas within the next year or so after living in Seattle for the past six years. He's very outgoing and says people in Seattle are too reserved for him. They look at him as though he were an alien if he gets too excited about anything. And the weather gets to him. He's enjoyed not needing a car there, but he's had a tough time getting ahead. He says there are more opportunities for him in Dallas and the people are friendlier. He's originally from Chicago, btw. We just happened to meet while living in Dallas.

[aceplace]

To get us back on track, there are some additional differences I could mention. Seattle has a more populous downtown than Dallas, and it is a highly concentrated nexus of shopping. Downtown Dallas is more inherently interesting, in my opinion, in terms of museums, historic sites like the Kennedy site, streetside art and sculpture, etc.

One other difference... Seattle has a lot of buses, but is very weak in terms of rail transit. It was very late out the gate for rail, and is now trying to play catch up. It may have maybe no more than 10% of the mileage of our DART, abter the Green line is completed in 2010.

Another difference... Seattle city is relatively bleak and treeless... very hard in appearance.

Finally, population. Metro DFW is twice the size of metro Seattle, and thus has a much larger customer base, and a more racially and culturally diverse one. Dallas has more things going on because it has more people to support it, and the more people, the more diverse the set of interests, avocations, hobbies.

Did I mention Dallas' superior weather? Yes, I guess so.

What are some advantages to Seattle? Well, it's hard to ignore Microsoft. It is not only a major world phenomenon in its own right, but it has spawned a large ancillary software industry. It is common for a big business to train people and then have them go forth and start a small business of their own, after finding an economic niche. If you're a player in the IT business, Seattle will be a place where you can find the brightest and the best to learn from, and bounce ideas off of.

Seattle has drizzly weather, but not in the summer. It's summers are gorgeous, and honestly are more agreeable than Dallas at 95.

Hope this post adds to the discussion.

[aceplace]

There is another facto that may or may not matter. Seattle has a larger percentage of college degreed people. You're more liable to encounter someone with an education at any level than you would in Dallas.

This has a good and bad side.

If you have a degree and like to converse with people at your level of education, you'll find a lot of them in Seattle. And the presence of college educated people, or at least their general preponderance in the population, will modify the commercial environment to appeal to a more educated crowd... i.e., more coffeehouses where you can discuss German philosophers.

On the downside, any economy can accommodate only so many people at a given level of renumeration. That is to say, a college graduate is more likely to be underemployed. There are only so many IT jobs, or engineering opportunities at Boeing, or market analysis positions at Starbucks, or marketing statistical analysts in Amazon.

Dallas has a more interesting labor dynamic. When it grows more professional level jobs and attracts more college level people, it also attracts many unskilled and semiskilled workers from the interior of Mexico. This is a good thing, not only for the college educated, but for the unskilled. Because of this, the average Dallas wage appears to be growing less, but it is an average with two peaks.

[JDTD]

Originally Posted by aceplace

Different politics? That's a way to put it mildly. The attitudes of people on the Pacific coast towards people with moderate or conservative views of life is similar to the attitudes of people in Europe during the inquisition, or during the Protestant-Catholic wars in the 1600s. If your politics or your basic belief structure is not politically correct, you will be treated with incredulity, ridicule, ostracism, even hostility.

This social attitude may be a consequence of climate. Nearly constant overcast, continuous drizzle, cold weather, these things have a powerful effect on the mind because they are subtle and because they are constant. Human beings evolved in Africa, under very different climatic conditions, and are dependent on warm weather and sunshine for their emotional and physical health... pretty much what we have in Texas. People in Seattle and the upper Pacific coast attempt to compensate for this by eating antidepressant drugs such as Prozac and installing special lamps that try to duplicate natural sunlight... but the climate is too pervasive for that to matter.

Stay in Texas, where people are kinder toward others, even if their views of life differ.

That's why I said "much" different.

[Mckellyb]

Man...

Comparing D/FW to the PacNW is like trying to compare NYC to say, Memphis. There are so many differences, it's almost impossible to start.

My wife and I are Dallas natives. We lived in Portland, OR, which isn't Seattle, but it's a similar vibe, for four years. I could not get out of there fast enough, in all honesty. My wife loved how anything grew there. I hated the weather, the people, the laws, and the overall blandness of the place.

To put it another way, when I left Dallas ten years ago, I SWORE I'd NEVER ever come back.

I'm back.

Trivia. Dallas and Portland have essentially identical rainfall totals, per year. Dallas gets that rain over 8 days...Portland, 8 months. It's dreary as all get-out when you don't see the sun for weeks at a time.