Moving to Washington! (Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue: apartments, lease, house)

[valeriana]

Hi there

My husband and I are looking to move to Washington from San Antonio, hopefully somewhere around Tacoma/Seattle. We want to rent (a house would be preferable) but we also want somewhere safe.

This is our first big move and I guess what I'm asking is, where would you recommend a married couple with no kids who don't have a ton of money to spend and only one confirmed job move to?

I've been worried about the negative reports in Tacoma. A friend suggested looking in the Lacey, Puyallup, and Spanaway(sp?), but I don't want to be too far away from the Seattle area. (We're in dire need of things to do!)

Help?

[Ira500]

The North end of Tacoma is very nice, such as the Ruston, Old Town, and Proctor neighborhoods, and there's plenty of stuff to do there.
Most of Seattle is fairly safe, with a few exceptions.
In the Seattle zip codes, you get the most bang for your buck in the 98178 zip code. That's a 20 minute drive from downtown Seattle or downtown Bellevue, and less than 5 minutes to downtown Renton. Renton is another place you might want to consider. Not good school district, but you don't have kids, and an an increasingly fun downtown with less expensive housing.

[MichaelinWA]

Some of them are overgeneralizations. Tacoma has some nice areas, like Ira notes, and others are horrible. And plenty in between - Tacoma is a relatively big, diverse city.

Originally Posted by valeriana

I've been worried about the negative reports in Tacoma.

[orangeblossom]

Tacoma is not that bad. Even the smell isn't that bad anymore. Its not like Watts, areas of Compton or the parts of the Bronx. There are some really nice areas of Tacoma. They have a museum, a nice zoo and its not that far from Seattle. Puyallup is really nice,but not much to do except when fair time hits. Good luck in your search. Its got to be a daunting task to relocate to another state.

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[rleslie70]

Cool. Another Texas transplant! Me and My girlfriend just moved to Seattle from Houston about a month ago. So far we love it!

We chose Kirkland which is a city about 15 miles northeast of Seattle. It's next to Bellevue, Redmond and Juanita. It's not a bad area, although when our lease is up we may find something closer to Seattle, something that has a more neighborhood feel.

We haven't been here long enough for me to give you any great insights or suggestions. I would suggest Ballard, Fremont or Wallingford as i've heard good things about them. Also search on Craigslist. Also, the stadium district in Tacoma i've heard has some old duplexes etc you can rent.

We ended up choosing one of the larger apartments just because it was easier to find when searching from Houston. Rent in my area at least is not too outrageous. We live in a 2 bedroom apt and it's 1300 a month. If the same apt was in Houston, it would probably be around $1000 a month or so, (although my apt in Houston was only $625)....

Anyway, hope this helps. And welcome to Seattle/Tacoma when you get here.