Eastside living - 30's, single, & new in town (Seattle: apartments, rental)

[grlintheworld]

So, it looks like I may be getting a job in Bellevue, and I'm trying to figure out where to live. I'll be relocating from NYC, I'm in my early 30's and single, so I'm looking for a place that has a little bit of a downtown - restaurants, bars, bookstores, movie theaters, etc. Stuff to do. I'm thinking I'd like to stay on the Eastside to avoid the commute every day, but I'd be open to hearing about sane places to commute from in Seattle as well. Any recommendations?

[Ira500]

Given that you're from NYC and want the urban thing, but also given that commuting sucks, why not live in or very near Downtown Bellevue? They've got plenty of restaurants, bars, and movie theatres. Bookstores? I'm not sure. Do people in Bellevue read? Another choice might be downtown Kirkland. It's kinda charming. Yeah, you could live in Seattle and commute across the lake, but it's going to add time and money. If you did want to make that choice, Capitol Hill would be the neighborhood that comes to mind. A lot more city-like than Bellevue, with a greater mix of incomes and lifestyles. Capitol Hill's cool and lively, feels like a city. Downtown Bellevue is a city too, but an increasing number of the people who live in DT Bellevue live in luxury apartments/condos that are recently built. The older part of DT Bellevue ( referred to as "Old Bellevue", dates back to the 1950's and has it's charm, and there's lots to like about Bellevue, but compared to NYC, downtown Bellevue might seem a little sterile and glitzy.
And yes, there is this Seattle vs The Eastside rivalry. Seattleites see Bellevueites as shallow and materialistic, and Bellevueites see Seattle as crime ridden and dirty. It's all true to some degree, but Bellevue has plenty of normal working folks in addition to the folks who speed around in their Mercedes 4 x 4's with their cell phones to their ears. And parts of Seattle are clean, safe, and gorgeous.

[grlintheworld]

Thanks for your input. I agree - I think the thing that's putting me off about downtown Bellevue a bit is that it just seems so high end and sterile. I guess I'm looking for a place with a bit more character - I think I'd be missing a little bit of the "grit" that Seattle has... Tell me more about Kirkland - what sort of reputation does it have? What sort of people are drawn to live there? What would the drive to Bellevue be like? Similarly, what would the drive to Bellevue be like from Capitol Hill?

[Ira500]

Kirkland at least has some history and old buildings. It's pretty. Walkable. From DT Kirkland to DT, it's a 15-20 minute drive. From some parts of Capitol Hill, you could do it in 20 minutes if you were commuting at off peak hours.But during the rush hour, it could take way too long.

[Inkpoe]

As a young person, you'd definitely want to situate yourself closer to DT Kirkland. Best time to go to that area is the summer, where everyone takes advantage of the beach. The DT area is a waterfront one and has a lovely small park. And it's a charming little DT area. Just a very popular place to be... it also has the best nightlife of the Eastside. However, it might be too yuppy for your taste, definitely has no "grit" to it at all. Outside the DT Kirkland area, basically all suburbs with lots of trees.

If you want to live in Seattle... then dealing with traffic's going to be the way of life until they get that Light rail done (which won't be til 2021 I believe, someone can correct me on this). They're going to increase the 520 tolls soon, so that might continue to make people scramble over to i90.

[sidewaysvulture]

I'm a Los Angeles native in my early 30's who went to school in San Diego and moved to Seattle last year for a job in Bellevue close to where the 90 intersects the 405. My husband and I started off living in Capitol Hill close to the 5 freeway and leaving for work at 9:30 and coming back at 6:30 it would take me about 20 minutes going over the I-90 bridge. We liked Capitol Hill a lot, very walkable, lots of stuff to do (restaurants, bars, coffee shops, stores, Elliot Bay Bookstore rocks!) but we found it a little too loud on a day to day basis for our tastes. Going higher up the hill it get's quieter but also more expensive. We ended up moving to Fremont and though my commute is now 30 min the area is a better fit for us and we like it a lot.

We did consider downtown Bellevue when we first moved here, I have friends there and it's close to my work and it is a very pretty city. However, we feel it does have that sterile feeling that you mentioned and for us that is a turn-off. If you live close to the center it is technically very walkable but it's not what I want to walk to; high-end chain stores and restaurants mostly. There is an emerging restaurant scene over there, as well as in Kirkland and Redmond but it's still very small and takes a lot more work to get to than over in Seattle. Speaking of Kirkland, it's pretty and there is a cute downtown area but I got bored of it in one visit.

It really comes down to how you feel about a commute. I prefer to commute to work and live where I can play. Others prefer to live where they work and commute to where they play. Having the local co-op, a used bookstore, a vegan bakery, an awesome brewery, and numerous yummy restaurants all within a 4 block radius from my apartment outweighs the cost of the commute for me.

[grlintheworld]

thanks for all of your input so far! do any of these places that you've mentioned so far (downtown bellevue, kirkland, capitol hill) have better rental prospects than the others? and are we talking high rise condo buildings? houses? regular old apartment buildings?

[pw72]

Seattle is the only city that you have mentioned with old apartment buildings. Many have been remodeled and are quite nice. Seattle also offers newer high-rise apartments. Apartments seem to be the trend today, where condos were all the rage before the bust.

Bellevue is high-rise apartments and condos, and many low-rise around the edges.

Kirkland offers some mid-rise units, but if I'm not mistaken is quite expensive due to its lakefront location, and charm.

[Kayela]

I live in Cap Hill and commute to Bellevue. I live towards the Hardvard/Belmont area which is towards the north end of the hill and is quieter than the south part (near Pike/Pine) but still pretty vibrant w/out being obnoxious. I commute early (7-4) and it takes me an average of 15-20 minutes to get to 520 & 148th Ave NE. I do use 520 because to me it's sooo worth the time it saves vs 90 (for my particular commute).

I used to live in Bellevue - In fact I lived there for 6+ years. It's definitely got its pros and cons. It's newer, cleaner, arguably safer (although we were burglarized there), you get more for your money in terms of square footage and amenties, and it was close to work. However eventually I decided the short commute wasn't all that, and quite frankly I found it boring. Same with Kirkland - yeah, it's got a cute, vibrant downtown, but there's not that much of it.

Cap Hill is pretty extensive and there are more shops/galleries/restaurants/bars/coffee places/etc in a 3-block radius of my apartment than there are in all of DT Kirkland, and I haven't even gotten halfway to Pike/Pine yet (where a lot of the nightlife is). And if the Hill isn't enough, I'm a 15-minute walk from DT Seattle. Transit is actually convenient and frequent enough here that I barely use my car outside of going to/from work. It's much denser and more walkable than the eastside. For us, it's definitely a lifestyle preference - my husband and I don't have kids and like to go out to live music, book shops, galleries, restaurants, coffee shops, dancing, independant movies, theatre, etc and there's just a lot more of that in and around Cap Hill that there is on the eastside. There's also the phenominon that most of the friends that we've made also live on the Seattle side. When we lived in Bellevue we found ourselves over on this side of the lake so often that we were thinking of getting a studio for overnights and weekends, so we just bit the bullet and moved, and the commute isn't really that much longer - not enough to be worth considing moving back.

I just roll my eyes at the eastside vs Seattle thing. There's something for everyone. And that's the nice thing about renting - if you try something and it isn't for you, then it's not a life sentence and you can move and try something else that fits you better.

[grlintheworld]

I'm definitely starting to lean a bit more toward Seattle (Captiol Hill sounds like exactly what I'm looking for) but the drive (as a NYC non-driver) to Bellevue every day makes me nervous. Is there a bus that goes from one side to the other? And can anybody comment on it? Frequency? Pain in the ass-ness?