I have some valid points as to why, I will break this down easy for all to understand and not make a dreaded mistake:
COST OF LIVING:
First of all, Seattle is very expensive. Gas is higher in the Seattle area, currently it is at $3.59. Cant think of any place more expensive other than certain parts in California, like Beverly Hills, Hollywood etc.
TRAFFIC:
If you start in the center of Seattle and go any direction North or East you are going to see the worst traffic between 6-10am and 4-7pm, probably runner up to Boston & New York City. If you drive on I-5 north from the city expect to take 1 hour to go 20 minutes during rush hour.
Going south it's a gamble until you hit 405. Once you are in the I-5, 405 and 167 area you are in Traffic Hell. Unless of course you use the HOV lane, it helps a little.
People in the Seattle area LOVE to drive 60MPH and be like 5 cars apart. They drive like if they have no where to go - its a bit disappointing if you are an expert driver from cities like Boston or New York. The drivers here LOVE to flip people off, thats right, they use the middle finger for just about any reason. The love to talk on the cell phone while they drive, drink their Venti Latte listen to their Indie music.
You have lots of speed traps along I-5 and the cops are just doing their job.
Alot of people take the Sounder which is a commuter rail service that hits most places in the metro area.
PARKING
Parking is tough in Seattle and in most places. There are just WAY too many people here and hundreds migrating here yearly. Best bet is to take public transportation if you go to a baseball game to see the Mariners lose or out to eat, etc. (Just kidding about the Mariners).
SCHOOLS:
The best schools are in the Northshore district & Lake Washington district - in cities such as Bothell, Kenmore, Kirkland, Mercer Island, Bellevue etc. Pretty much NORTH & EAST of Seattle on the other side of Lake Washington. You will find for yourself that classrooms are smaller in size, grade averages are best, etc. Bad thing about these schools is that they are where the most expensive houses are. Other than that, any other school you find is TERRIBLE.
APARTMENTS:
3 bedroom Apartments are hard to find for LESS than $1500 NORTH & EAST of SEATTLE. SOUTH of Seattle you will find cheaper living. That goes for certain duplexes & town homes too. You can expect to pay as low as $900 in some places.
Just remember, like in most places, that apartment complexes are businesses, they just care about collecting rent. They will try to make you happy with anything that you could use against them to get out of the lease - but if they don't have to, they wont.
HOMES:
House prices in Seattle are INFLATED, like the goodyear blimp. Here is the scoop.
Lets base this on 3 beds 2 baths with about 1300 Square feet and about 1/8 to 1/4 acre.
- NORTH & EAST of Seattle, you will find prices between $400,000 and Millions. Definitely not dirt cheap like what you can get in the Midwest & Northeast of the USA in places like Iowa, Ohio or Pennsylvania.
- SOUTH of Seattle you will find prices around $300,000 & higher & maybe closer to 1700 Square feet
- FURTHER SOUTH like in Federal Way or Puyallup you will see them lower like in the $200's. But forget about a reasonable commute if you tend to get a job that is in downtown Seattle.
- WEST you will find Port Orchard which is tough to get to. You would have to pay $250 or so monthly in a Ferry pass. Also to drive around the Puget Sound to downtown Seattle would be insane - yes some people do it but they are NEVER home on work days. My advice would be to get satellite radio or some sort of entertainment to keep you busy during the 3 hour commute during rush hour. But dont let me forget, you can get a nice house there for like $250,000 in a safe area, not crowded at all. Close drive to the Olympic Mountains!
The Seattle area is not the best place to buy a house if you want to pay less than $2000 a month and expect value.
FOOD
-Restaurants: There are alot of Thai restaurants here as well as Chinese, Japanese, Indian, Mexican. Not too many Italian places. You can find Argentinean restaurants in Seattle, Cuban places. But NO Dominican or Puerto Rican places like in the East Coast. Also there is NO Dunkin Donuts
Grocery Stores: You have specialty places here like Trader Joes & Metro Market. They are OK for finding rare items like Gnocci or rare fruits etc. You have Safeway, Albertsons for general shopping for their prices can be HELL TO PAY. There are cheaper places to buy food like Walmart or Winco. There is also Costco which if you get the $100 membership you get better discounts. Overall food shopping is EXPENSIVE, especially if you have kids.
DAYCARE: Daycare centers seem to abuse people. Let me explain. They charge for 3 kids about $700 to $800. It is very hard to pay $2800 to $3200 a month in daycare, plus average rent of $1500 with 1 or 2 car payments and work an IT job with 2-3 years of experience.
JOBS
Basically if you come to live here you would want to make at least $75,000 a year to just make it. That should not be hard to get as you have Microsoft, Boeing, Real Networks, Amazon, Google, Starbucks headquarters and TONS of other exciting and high paying opportunities. But it all depends on how bad you want to be owned by them.
CARS
There are alot of hills & mountains, twists and turns so be sure to get a 4x4 or something with front wheel drive. Though in some cases not necessary, wait until you are driving up the hill from Pike's Place Market. Its almost a 45 degree angle! Hard to make it up with rear wheel drive in the rain, not to mention snow. You will see alot of these people here drive Subarus and hybrid cars. They are very "Green Friendly" conscious here - it gets OLD fast. Alot of people walk or ride bikes, not like in Texas where no one walks anywhere, especially in Dallas. Just try walking with groceries, or small kids it SUCKS!
PEOPLE
The people here are down to earth, happy-go-lucky, earth friendly and most tend to be nice & talkative. As a matter of fact complete strangers will talk to you on the street like if they know you. They will also "butt" into your conversations, rather odd at first, maybe even amusing, but not if you are having a BAD day. People here seem to be very culturally diverse & accepting of you. Nice thing (to some) is that it doesn't matter if you are White, Black, Hispanic, Latino, Asian, Gay or Lesbian - you will be accepted here. People here seem to have "hissy" fits sometimes more than what you would see elsewhere. They are very in tune with Politics, pretty much a democratic state for most.
INTERNET ACCESS
You will find the infamous Comcast in most of Seattle. They CAP you at 6 MBPS. But across the Puget Sound you have Wave Cable, they will give you 10 MBPS download speeds. There is also Qwest DSL but why the hell would anyone want that?
Almost every coffee shop, book store, public library etc has wireless access available. Its pretty much everywhere, even in the parks. Its a nice thing for those that like to take their laptop or handheld around.
WEATHER
It rains almost every day in the Seattle area. But you rarely see lightning or hear thunder. The rain is usually soft which explains why there is SO much greenery such as the Douglas Fir trees everywhere. This all plays a nice role to give off nice, clean air to breathe in most places. That is one thing you will notice if you have never been to Seattle, its the quality of the air, its unbeatable.
Whats bad about this is that if you like to star gaze you are out of luck.
BEACHES & SWIMMING
You will find some places that are nice, such as lakes or public swimming pools. As far as a nice beach, Redondo beach is OK to see. The thing about the pacific coast beaches is that if you are looking for sand, etc there may be a few spots. But for the most parts there are pebbles, kelp and other crap that makes it to the shore. You can see tree trunks, jelly fish washed up too. Not to mention that the water is always COLD to swim in, but if you can take its all good - water temperature is just like Revere Beach or Quincy beach in Boston (except without the sand in most places)
If you want to hunt for Sea Stones or Razor Clams then this is the place for you!
DANGEROUS AREAS TO STAY AWAY FROM:
Everett - most areas there are bad
White Center - although there is some gentrification going on.
Columbia
SODO Seattle at night along the terminals and under the bridges
CRIME & THEFT
Auto theft is pretty high in the Seattle area and in Yakima. As a matter of fact, in the top 10 cities list of most car thefts, Seattle is #6 and Yakima is #9 for car theft. Its mainly because Seattle is a port city. A lot of these cars get chopped up and sent over seas in shipping containers. These people know how to bypass Remote Keyless Entry and Alarms, you would never know your car was taken, they are pros. Some things that can help is to use the emergency brake, turn the wheels all the way to the right or left use lowjack or something too - this could stop the fake tow truck companies, or at least slow them down.
There is alot of auto & home burglaries just like in any city though. This can happen anywhere at anytime and it would be tough to say that Seattle is different that any other city its size. Best bet is to always take your valuables out of the car. Not trying to scare you with all this but just be aware.
SUICIDES
The Seattle area has a high rate of suicides. Not to mention attempts. It is not uncommon to see someone jump off a bridge. It is very heart-breaking to see. But there has to be a reason this happens here. My guess would be that the weather is always cloudy, raining and gloomy for the most part.
Though I am telling you about the Bad and the Good, the overall feeling is to not live here.
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I dont recommend Seattle as your home
why we should move to Seattle?
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