Anyone from Ohio? (Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue: crime, house, transfer)

[BigVill]

Allforcats, I agree with you about New York. I used to go spend the summer there with family when I was younger. It seemed like you were not even supposed to be friendly with people of other races. It was really sad. Detroit seemed the same to me when I was there. They are by far the worst two cities that I have spent time in for race relations.

As far as the prices go, I don't know the realtor had an agenda or not, but when I told him that I would eventually be looking for a 4 bedroom for my family, and I told him the two cities where I may work, he said that Kirkland was twice as much. Hopefully when I get there I can find out.

[allforcats]

I lived in CAPITOL HILL for 5 years, in a wonderful Victorian apartment building that was built in 1908. Capitol Hill is a very small area, very busy, artsy, lots of restaurants which can disgorge noisy patrons very late at night, perhaps Seattle's main enclave of poets, interior decorators, hospitality industry folks, and people who profoundly support the fashion industry. It's packed with apartment buildings, old and new. It's profoundly interesting, but might be considered superficial and not the most multi-layered or multi-dimensional education for your children.

[BigVill]

Originally Posted by allforcats

I lived in CAPITOL HILL for 5 years, in a wonderful Victorian apartment building that was built in 1908. Capitol Hill is a very small area, very busy, artsy, lots of restaurants which can disgorge noisy patrons very late at night, perhaps Seattle's main enclave of poets, interior decorators, hospitality industry folks, and people who profoundly support the fashion industry. It's packed with apartment buildings, old and new. It's profoundly interesting, but might be considered superficial and not the most multi-layered or multi-dimensional education for your children.

Allforcats, your insight is very helpful. Thank you. Info like this is so helpful because I am just trying to soak up every bit of information that I can before I make the move. Your probably right, Capitol Hill may not be the place for my kids. I was looking at some apartments to live in short term in that area, so that is why I was asking.

[allforcats]

Originally Posted by BigVill

... in New York... It seemed like you were not even supposed to be friendly with people of other races.

You describe absolutely my experience growing up in New York City. And that was true of all races, all of them making certain they had little or nothing to do with all others. NOT TRUE HERE!!! This is such a relaxed, pleasant place to be in that regard. People are people, period. Utopia? Darned close, I think

[scirocco22]

Glitzier places in Puyallup???! ...hmmm, didn't know there were such places.

I think it's a fairly accurate statement that the same house could be close to twice as much in parts of Kirkland than in Puyallup. Kirkland real estate is especially inflated in such neighborhoods as Houghton, downtown Kirkland, the and Highlands area and I wouldn't be at all surprised if the same house in those neighborhoods would be close to twice as much as in most of Puyallup.

On the Sounder issue, yes there is a commuter train from Seattle to Tacoma and back but it is routed through Puyallup and the Green River Valley which is not a direct path. There is excellent Sound Transit express and direct bus service from Seattle and Tacoma and back.

The driving time from Seattle to Tacoma will vary depending on the time of day and the direction of travel. Going to Tacoma during the afternoon rush will take over an hour. The distance from downtown to downtown is about 35 miles so at midnight, you should be able to drive that distance in close to a half hour.

[allforcats]

Have you used the following resources:


RENTAL HOUSING:
Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah:
The best apartment/rental house resource is the combined Classifieds for the two largest local newspapers. The site is called NWSource.com. http://rentals.nwsource.com/rentals/


REAL ESTATE: For-sale info seems to be almost completely covered in this very wide area by MLSonline, where you can choose as many or few cities in the area as you want to research at one time. You don't have to sign up and so you won't receive spammy emails. The link is: Seattle Real Estate, Top Seattle Real Estate Search, TheMLSonline.com

There are also: realtor.com, condocompare.com, and homes.com (for King County where Seattle, Bellevue, Kirkland, Issaquah all are). But none of those provides complete listings, which MLSonline seems to do.


BUYER'S AGENT (instead of relying on a seller's agent to be your buyer's agent):
This is the National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents:
National Association of Exclusive Buyer Agents | NAEBA
I know that most Realtors can be wonderfully objective, and some of them write on this forum. This NAEBA resource is 100% objective for a buyer.

[BigVill]

allforcats, thanks for the links. I will be checking them out tonight.

Scirrocco, thanks for the sounder info. The reason that I wanted to know, is in case I look at any Tacoma homes. I want to be able to get to the sporting events downtown without having to drive. I am a major sports fan, and attending games is a must for me wherever I live. Here in Columbus, I go to all the Buckeyes home games for Football and basketball, and to several Blue Jackets(NHL), and Crew(MLS) games. I am really excited to move to an NFL city because I have to drive 2 hours to Cleveland, 1.5 hours to Cincy, or 3.5 hours to Pittsburgh to see an NFL game.

[allforcats]

"All the talk about SAD, rude people, bad traffic, bad schools, etc..."

Everyone's gotta have a hobby, right? And for some, it's complaining....

Seasonal Affective Disorder is real and horrible for those whose bodies and minds really do need a lot of sunshine. And some people here really do suffer from S.A.D. -- many of them Google to find those lamps to buy. I've worked in different companies here where a few people of all "corporate levels" have a S.A.D. lamp on their desk all winter, and it changes their perception from living in a hostile universe to living in a friendly universe.

Rude people? I don't know what part of the Pacific northwest the folks are living in who think the population is rude. Maybe there's a parallel PNW universe?? The only "rudeness" I can think of on any regular basis is drivers cutting ahead in rush hour traffic. Understandably, they know how crowded the traffic can be and they really really want to get where they're going, and like rude drivers everywhere they think 10 seconds will make the difference.

Bad traffic. Yes and yes. In my 23 adult years here, I've seen a perpetual hesitation on the part of the folks who vote for or against spending measures about voting to spend money, even when it takes them an hour to drive home from work. Solutions? Live near where you work so you can take the back roads to and from, or take the fabulous and extensive public transit.

Bad schools. I can't speak personally about schools, except for what I've already said about C-D posters praising the Bellevue and Issaquah schools. Well, those cities are where most of the money lives... no surprise. Voters who do not fund their schools get what they paid for...

[allforcats]

SPORTS EVENTS

Oh you keep coming up with more ideas! Hahaha!

You can live around the perimeter of Seattle -- for example, Kirkland, Bellevue, Issaquah, Renton -- and get to all the games you want, without driving. Of course, driving will give you that exquisite community experience of spending a half-hour just getting out of the stadium's parking lot! :-)

The local King County public transit system based in Seattle and Bellevue is called METRO, and has a zillion busses going in a zillion directions, and many of them are available 7 days a week. Weekends have a reduced schedule, but you CAN get there from here :-)

METRO is at Metro Online Home Page. You probably won't understand it until you get more used to the area, but there you are.

South of Seattle is Pierce Transit, and north of Seattle is Community Transit, and Sound Transit covers some south and some Seattle and some east side (Bellevue). Busses cover the world here, and they're clean, comfortable, are being converted to biodiesel, and are generally on time except in violent weather and huge traffic delays.

[scirocco22]

On the issue of getting to the football games, the Seahawks subsidize and contract through Metro (the local Seattle/King County public transit system), an extensively used shuttle system from key park and rides and Transit Centers around the area to the Seahawks' home games: Northgate Transit Center; South Kirkland Park-and-Ride; Eastgate Park-and-Ride Garage; Kent Park-and-Ride; and the Federal Way Transit Center.

This service has proved very popular.

However, if you were to live in Tacoma or Puyallup (or anywhere along the route), they do schedule the Sounder train to accommodate those attending the home games.