Best downtown seattle apartments (neighborhoods, to buy, utilities)

[RedRaider121]

I will be relocating to Seattle and would like to get a downtown apartment to get the real Seattle experience. My budget is around 1800 per month not including utilities etc. Is this possible? I would prefer a 1 bedroom but am not opposed to a studio. Some I have checked out online are the post...2900 on first...anyone have any experiences with these? Appreciate the insight.

[Xeon1210]

1800 is great $/expectation you should have no trouble finding a good apartment downtown. Consider belltown as well, many newer buildings going up and that price can get you a view. The Post, Viktoria. I like the look of the Post, apparently a lot of young monied amazon employees live there and have wild parties lol.

Hopefully the price is exclusive of parking. Things can get a bit more dicey with that budget.

[MafHoney]

Definitely a lot of options for that budget. I wouldn't say living right in the downtown area would give you the whole experience. Places like Lower Queen Anne, Ballard, Fremont, Wallingford, and Belltown would give you a better 'Seattle' experience. I feel like the downtown core is bustling in the day, but pretty dead and sketchy at night. With the other neighborhoods I mentioned, you'd be closer to a lot of bars, specialty shops, etc, but still close enough to the center of the city. I remember looking at 2900 on First back before we moved here two years ago, and I didn't like them. They recently converted to a non smoking building, so hopefully they aren't still pumping ridiculous amounts of air freshener through the vents. It's also in a pretty busy/noisy area.

[Kayela]

We used to live right at 8th & Olive - that was a fantastic area. So close to Cap Hill, still in DT, and near Belltown and SLU too. Super convenient to every transit option the city has to offer as well. Plus when you do drive, you don't have to deal with nearly as much traffic because you don't have to cross all of DT to get to it, and there are some terrific back ways to that area that avoid most of the major bottlenecks. I wouldn't want to live in every part of DT, but that area rocked! So much stuff to do within a few blocks. It was close to nightlife, but not right in the middle of it.

Some buildings in that area are: Tower at 801, The Olivian, Aspira, Metropolitan Tower.

Best wishes wherever you decide to live! Living DT is fun - I'm glad we tried it for awhile. We'd probably still be there if we hadn't found a place we wanted to buy in Cap Hill. I will say, it's the most outgoing area we've lived in here. People that live DT seem to be a little more gregarious than other neighborhoods we've lived.

[BATCAT]

Yes, that is an amount that will give you a lot of options.

It's worth noting that although there are certainly apartments downtown, there are a number of neighborhoods within walking distance of downtown that- in my opinion- offer a little more of a "neighborhood" experience than downtown, and therefore are a little more desirable: lower Queen Anne, Capitol, and First Hill, mainly.

As pointed out above, downtown can get a little dicey at night, especially Sunday through Thursday. Not awful, and I consider living downtown with the right apartment, price, and location, but my preference would be for one of the close-to-downtown neighborhoods.

I live on Capitol Hill now, in the rather quiet northwestern section, and its only a fifteen minute walk to downtown.