'Burb comparisons..

[scallawag]

Thanks for all the ideas. We have one job interview....wish I could get at least one more before driving up this weekend. I know I would have fun looking around, but it would be great to get the trip to pay for itself!

[washinton native]

Originally Posted by wamommy1

Vancouver has a lot of nice areas. It's much more affordable than the Seattle Metro. Camas is anice bedroom community. There's also Woodland and Castle Rock. There are alot of good homes in the Vancouver area.

obviously you've never spent any significant time in castle rock.

[jwb123]

I guess it's kind of been answered anyway - but on the chance someone else is looking for this sort of information, I will throw my .02 in...

We just sold our house in the Bothell/Mill Creek area. 164th St. In between Bothell-Everett HWY and Martha Lake. We lived there for 3 years, and had moved there from Issaquah. We LOVED Issaquah... but the housing costs were getting too high, and we had another baby coming, which meant we needed a bigger house!!

We did NOT love Bothell/Mill Creek. There is a high amount of property crime in that area. It desperately needs to be revitalized - and they are doing that a bit with the Mill Creek Towne Center, but none the less, the rest of the area looks pretty dumpy. The commute was a mess - my husband commuted from Microsoft. We lived in a neighborhood with homes that were about 22 years old, and some were kept up nicely, some not at all... and we are a young family, and were dismayed to find most of our neighbors we seriously older, with children about to leave, or out of highschool...

We sold our 22 yr old, fixer upper (which we did fix up to sell) 1600 sqft 4bd/2bath home for $365k, in less than 24 hrs.

Rents around there are going anywhere from $1200-1600 with the sort of house I described above. Probably not really updated much.

[jwb123]

Oh, and we LEFT THE STATE!! Moved to Austin, for a cheaper cost of living, and better quality of life.

[Redline]

How do you like Austin? Is there as much culture down there as there is in the PNW? I'm sure you're loving the weather a lot more.

[jwb123]

We are loving it. YES - the weather is TONS better. It was in the 70's today!!

We are in a suburb of Austin, but have spent the last two weekends actually IN Austin, and I can definitely report there is culture here like we had in Seattle - maybe it has it's own brand of culture - but we have kind of dubbed it, "Seattle, with better weather". It's lacking the pretentious, I'm hipper than you, vibe... which I don't miss I do miss the familiarity of Seattle - and we will see how we are feeling about the weather when we haven't had rain in months, and we are faced with yet another 100 degree day.

It's much more spread out than the Seattle area, and surrounding suburbs and every road is under construction, it seems. The property taxes are very high.

[Redline]

Originally Posted by Jenbar

We are loving it. YES - the weather is TONS better. It was in the 70's today!!

We are in a suburb of Austin, but have spent the last two weekends actually IN Austin, and I can definitely report there is culture here like we had in Seattle - maybe it has it's own brand of culture - but we have kind of dubbed it, "Seattle, with better weather". It's lacking the pretentious, I'm hipper than you, vibe... which I don't miss I do miss the familiarity of Seattle - and we will see how we are feeling about the weather when we haven't had rain in months, and we are faced with yet another 100 degree day.

It's much more spread out than the Seattle area, and surrounding suburbs and every road is under construction, it seems. The property taxes are very high.

How long have you guys been down there? What do you mean by "it's own brand of culture"? I would think every city has it's "pretentious" areas, maybe you haven't stumbled upon it yet in Austin especially if you are out in the 'burbs. You'll definitely have to update this post after you've been there for 6 months then again after 12 months.

[jwb123]

We have been here since October.

Maybe I should have said Seattle has it's own brand of culture? Absolutely there is "pretentious" every where you go - but unlike Seattle, Austin (places we have gone IN Austin) seem to have a good mix of "everybody" - and people seem to be treated with the same respect and sincere friendly-ness, regardless if you are a "hip scenester" with the obligatory tattoo wardrobe, a family with kids, a cowboy, retired folks - or whatever in between. Austin is very eclectic - and it shows in the general population, and places to "be and be seen".... (shops, restaurants, walking down the street, museums, neighborhoods).

[Dangerouskurvz]

Originally Posted by Bossanovawitcha

Kirkland vs Redmond vs Mill Creek/S.Snohomish?


Have been trolling these boards, and I wanted to thank the active locals who post a lot. Any information about a foreign area, however insignificant it may seem, is huge for those of us trying to gather information..

Ditto here!