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Both are really upcoming cities and both have some cool companies. Atlanta is more diversified where as Seattle is heavily linked to the Tech Sector except for Boeing and Starbucks. A recession in the tech sector can really rattle Seattle, Atlanta would be impacted too but the magnitude wouldn't be as high.
Also the high real estate prices in Seattle combined with a geography that has less room for expanding can stifle some of it's growth.
From the numbers above I think that while the median household income in the Atlanta area is slightly higher than Seattle the average home price in Seattle is more than twice the home price of Atlanta. So an average household in Atlanta area can wither a shock or a recession better than Seattle as the households in Seattle are already spending a significant chunk of their income for mortgages leading to lower savings rate.
I'm confused.
Do you actually believe that Boeing is not a technical company? The creation of giant commerical jet liners is one of the most complex and technical endeavors man kind engages in.
It requires so many engineers and technicians doing so many difficult technical task that ,as one previous poster mentioned, having Boeing in Seattle early on may just be what enundated the city with so many technical minded people and paved the way for other technical companies like Micro Soft.
Both are really upcoming cities and both have some cool companies. Atlanta is more diversified where as Seattle is heavily linked to the Tech Sector except for Boeing and Starbucks. A recession in the tech sector can really rattle Seattle, Atlanta would be impacted too but the magnitude wouldn't be as high.
Also the high real estate prices in Seattle combined with a geography that has less room for expanding can stifle some of it's growth.
From the numbers above I think that while the median household income in the Atlanta area is slightly higher than Seattle the average home price in Seattle is more than twice the home price of Atlanta. So an average household in Atlanta area can wither a shock or a recession better than Seattle as the households in Seattle are already spending a significant chunk of their income for mortgages leading to lower savings rate.
I question their numbers a bit. They have Atlanta with a median household income of $52K and Seattle $51K but then they have per capita income of Seattle $39K and Atlanta $25K (so Seattle 56% more).
I looked at BLS.gov and they have the average job in Atlanta metro paying $49K and in Seattle metro it's $61K for the mean average wage....I would think this is a pretty good number.
I think Seattle is a better city at present, but Atlanta has more room for improvement, so I think it has a brighter future simply because it can improve more. Seattle is about as good as it is going to get, but Atlanta can develop more still.
But Seattle is improving at a furious rate. It's building far more in its greater downtown area, despite Atlanta's decent Midtown boom. Light rail lines are under construction in three directions. While Sea-Tac is smaller than ATL, it's growing at a higher rate. Amazon alone is adding Downtown HQ jobs by not just the thousands (like Google or Expedia), but the tens of thousands.
Is Boeing tech? The engineering folks, yes. I vagely recall that that might be 15,000 people locally. Their manufacturing is tech by some definitions but that could be argued either way.
Likewise, is Amazon tech? The engineering folks, yes. But it's a retail company too. And Expedia is a travel company. In 1998 the question was whether internet-based sales would really take hold in a profitable way. Today these companies' fortunes are more about how they compete as a retail company and a travel-booking company vs. other retail and travel firms, even while they rely heavily on tech. This is a far more stable platform for an economy.
PS, our largest company by sales is actually Costco.
Do you actually believe that Boeing is not a technical company? The creation of giant commerical jet liners is one of the most complex and technical endeavors man kind engages in.
It requires so many engineers and technicians doing so many difficult technical task that ,as one previous poster mentioned, having Boeing in Seattle early on may just be what enundated the city with so many technical minded people and paved the way for other technical companies like Micro Soft.
Ok I meant non-IT. Boeing and Starbucks specialize in something else where as the most of the other companies are dot com kind of companies if you know what I mean..
But Seattle is improving at a furious rate. It's building far more in its greater downtown area, despite Atlanta's decent Midtown boom. Light rail lines are under construction in three directions. While Sea-Tac is smaller than ATL, it's growing at a higher rate. Amazon alone is adding Downtown HQ jobs by not just the thousands (like Google or Expedia), but the tens of thousands.
Is Boeing tech? The engineering folks, yes. I vagely recall that that might be 15,000 people locally. Their manufacturing is tech by some definitions but that could be argued either way.
Likewise, is Amazon tech? The engineering folks, yes. But it's a retail company too. And Expedia is a travel company. In 1998 the question was whether internet-based sales would really take hold in a profitable way. Today these companies' fortunes are more about how they compete as a retail company and a travel-booking company vs. other retail and travel firms, even while they rely heavily on tech. This is a far more stable platform for an economy.
PS, our largest company by sales is actually Costco.
You can argue either way but a majority share of Amazon's profit comes from Amazom Web Services rather than retail sales. There are numerous retail websites but it's about how Amazon maintains it tech and stays on top of the game for it to survive. Same with Expedia there are numerous travel websites and countless travel agents. It's about how Expedia maintains it's algorithms to offer the lowest rates quickly. Google flights is already a big head ache for expedia when it comes to flight sales. The core business of these companies is IT and and this is coming from a guy in IT and I did work for one of these companies for some time. In the Tech world it's very hard to stay on top of the game for too long. A small homegrown website like Craigslist gave eBay a run for its money and ate in to it's revenues. Remember the next phenomenon MySpace and how facebook made it irrelevant. Tech industry is very fluid and these companies need the next big idea to survive or slowly they fade out.. Coke and UPS on the other hand are 100+ year old companies. It's not too good to be invested in only one area. Remember how Detroit was the "it"city and they were invested heavily in auto.. so from a long-term perspective Atlanta has better chances of survival.. Can Microsoft maintain its dominance after 20 years? Very unlikely.. There are always new ideas
Last edited by NorthAtlanta; 07-10-2016 at 01:01 PM..
Seattle home prices are just that, within the city of Seattle. A limited land area will create higher prices. Atlanta is a larger city land-wise, and thus includes many lower income suburbs and inner city, thus Seattle will obviously be higher in home prices. Seattle has many lower-priced suburbs that are still close-in.
From north to south, Lynnwood, Mountlake Terrace, Shoreline, Burien, Renton, Kent, Des Moines, Auburn, Federal Way and many others.
Quality of life is already affected by the crowding and overuse of resources and there's much work to be done to improve the situation. But I don't see bright future only a function of growth....it should include some controlled growth but not rampant out of control growth. The ocean and mountains in my opinion enhance our future, not detract....sure we have to work with that difficulty but both are still assets.
I don't think we'll see Atlanta reach the levels of income, wealth, housing cost of Seattle in the next 50 years.
I certainly hope not.Even Chicago or Philadelphia have not reached that level so why is that necessary to be a functioning well balanced city with a good economy?
Do you not remember the Dotcom bust?You have a very narrow economy.
Atlanta is diversified with a very big expanding economy including a substantial high tech market.
Incomes will rise in Atlanta as they are but it will still be a better value and more affordable.
Seattle is not SF or LA.It will not always get people to stay and pay absurd prices.
Seattle is expensive but the salaries are still good.
However in 10 years,I see people looking elsewhere so their checks will not go all to housing.
Maybe just another city in Washington or maybe Portland
Seattle is similar to Asian cities that are confined.They are extremely dense and extremely expensive.Many cities have tried to stop cost from rising but I dont know of one in the world where it has been largely successful.
Last edited by Othello Is Here; 07-11-2016 at 12:21 AM..
But Seattle is improving at a furious rate. It's building far more in its greater downtown area, despite Atlanta's decent Midtown boom. Light rail lines are under construction in three directions. While Sea-Tac is smaller than ATL, it's growing at a higher rate. Amazon alone is adding Downtown HQ jobs by not just the thousands (like Google or Expedia), but the tens of thousands.
Is Boeing tech? The engineering folks, yes. I vagely recall that that might be 15,000 people locally. Their manufacturing is tech by some definitions but that could be argued either way.
Likewise, is Amazon tech? The engineering folks, yes. But it's a retail company too. And Expedia is a travel company. In 1998 the question was whether internet-based sales would really take hold in a profitable way. Today these companies' fortunes are more about how they compete as a retail company and a travel-booking company vs. other retail and travel firms, even while they rely heavily on tech. This is a far more stable platform for an economy.
PS, our largest company by sales is actually Costco.
Atlanta is booming in more than Midtown.Its booming in Buckhead and growing in Downtown.
We have suburban cities like Alpharetta,Sandy Springs and Dunwoody also are all booming inner suburban areas of Atlanta.Especially Alpharetta.
A higher rate is only relevant if its double and Seattle is not growing that much faster than Atlanta.
Same with its airports.Atlanta is still growing quite well.
Atlanta may not have single employers with large scale jobs like Seattle but we do have many more companies that are dowtown(intown)as well as new ones that move in almost weekly it seems now from the suburbs as well as other cities.
But Seattle is improving at a furious rate. It's building far more in its greater downtown area, despite Atlanta's decent Midtown boom. Light rail lines are under construction in three directions. While Sea-Tac is smaller than ATL, it's growing at a higher rate. Amazon alone is adding Downtown HQ jobs by not just the thousands (like Google or Expedia), but the tens of thousands.
Is Boeing tech? The engineering folks, yes. I vagely recall that that might be 15,000 people locally. Their manufacturing is tech by some definitions but that could be argued either way.
Likewise, is Amazon tech? The engineering folks, yes. But it's a retail company too. And Expedia is a travel company. In 1998 the question was whether internet-based sales would really take hold in a profitable way. Today these companies' fortunes are more about how they compete as a retail company and a travel-booking company vs. other retail and travel firms, even while they rely heavily on tech. This is a far more stable platform for an economy.
PS, our largest company by sales is actually Costco.
I read that Amazon is now the leading retailer in the world surpassing Walmart.
Boeing is an engineering and manufacturing giant and has about 80K employees in Seattle area. MS has 42K employees in the area.
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