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I've looked at those so-called inexpensive apartments in North Seattle and most of them are located on Aurora or North Greenwood avenue. .
No, there are quite a few in the Northgate area and Jackson Park. The ones in the general area of Jackson Park and around the golf course are very nice. You get more bang for your buck out there.
Thanks very much HomesInSeattle.. And, it feels so great to be back
My friend is real estate agent and got me a real great deal on a rental house in Olympia area.. It's real nice here.. Where I was living in Seattle was not so fun.. I was living in Ballard.. I paid $1500/mo for a run-down 550 sq ft apartment. My neighbors above me were drug addicts who literally never slept. They would be blasting music at 2AM and up early in the morning. You could hear their loud footsteps at all hours of the day and night. As well, I just couldn't take the crowds, small streets, traffic, passive aggressiveness, snotty yuppies with their ugly , sterile million dollar condos taking over neighborhoods and act like they own the place, etc.
It will be fun visiting Seattle to enjoy the city, but I am loving living in the countryside and in a smaller town. Olympia area is very nice and Tacoma is on the upswing.
I will either give up my career in software if it means that I must live in Seattle or Bellevue for work and having the luxury of being stuck in an overpriced sardine can with granite countertops (if I am lucky, ohh whoopie doo). I'm going to attempt to start my own software business or get a remote job. I will take a huge paycut if necessary. Anything is better than being stuck in an overcrowded and overpriced city like seattle. On the contrast, Seattle is a great place for wealthier people or people like you HomesInSeattle, who have a lot of equity, that is a home in the millions and you are able to enjoy the space and quietness of Seattle's more pristine, yet very expensive residential neighborhoods, like Wedgewood, Phinney, Madrona, Queen Anne, etc..
Yes, for old timers like you and for millionaires (or now billionaires) Seattle still can be a comfortable place to live. For the rest of us, poor, struggling meager earning working class Joes, Seattle is proving to be more like a prison cell than a comfortable, tranquil and peaceful living experience. When two or three 40+ year old people who make over $60,000 a year have to cram together in a 2 bedroom apartment to just make their bills and living expenses you know you are not living in a First World environment. People I know in Africa have better living conditions than Seattle, even if they don't have running water. Toilets are overrated anyway. I know as I lived in the woods and didn't mind squatting into a hole. I'd take an outhouse and some land over a 500 sq ft run down hole tenement style hole in the wall with a shiny toilet.
It is just so much easier to breathe living out of the city and the smaller cities of Washington offer much better lifestyle. I will go as far to say as that Tacoma is a more enjoyable place to live day to day than Seattle. If you need the city you can drive into during the weekend for events or whatever, but not stuck in your sardine can and the crazy rat-race. Everyone is paying top dollar to have a view of a parking lot or alleyway in Seattle. Not for me, no thanks.. Good riddance, but still love the Puget Sound.
Actually, they're all around. Only a handful are on or near Aurora, which I agree should be avoided.
Nothing really wrong with North Greenwood, Broadview, Bitter Lake, etc. - real apartments (not micros or apodments), with good transit links on the #5 and #5x to Phinney Ridge, Fremont, Wallingford, SLU, Downtown. #40 (at 105th & Greenwood) takes you to Ballard. #45 (at 85th & Greenwood) takes you to Green Lake and the U District. Free parking. Close to Carkeek Park/Beach. Not far from Northgate Mall. For instance:
In my opinion, most of North Seattle is pretty dumpy and sketchy.. Especially Northgate, Lake City, Aurora, North Greenwood and even Shoreline. North Greenwood is becoming as bad as Aurora and it was on North Greenwood my friend was beaten and almost robbed. He ended up kicking one of the attackers in the balls and they ran away after he got a beat down and told to give them all his money. North Greenwood is not the same as Greenwood Ave in the Phinney area. Anything north of 100th and Greenwood is pretty sketchy. If you are single girl riding your bike or walking alone on North Greenwood Ave at night you better watch your back. It's not even safe for a single guy. Looks are very deceiving and there is quite a few undesirable characters roaming that area.
You get what you pay for in Seattle.. If any apartments are going for $1000/mo in Northgate you can bet the complex is infested with felons, tweakers, drug dealers, gangbangers and other sketchy types of people. EVen if these apartments are in nice enough neighborhoods, you get a certain element of people in Seattle at a low price range. You can live in the nicest part of Bellevue but if you are living in low income housing type units where rents are going for $800/mo and the units are 800 sq ft, you can bet you are going to be living around some pretty lowly types of people.
I would not rent any apartment in Seattle, North to South that was going for $1100/mo and was over 500 sq ft.
Some apartments are also cheap because they are located in crappy areas, like next to a factory, train tracks, a very busy street with 24-7 traffic or other undesirable spots.
Location: In a perfect world winter does not exist
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Love reading your HONEST posts about Seattle Rotse. Telling it like it is-best policy and it looks like you don't care if the Seattle cheerleaders pound on you. It is a sardine can up in the North Seattle area. 1500 bucks for 500 sq feet, what a joke. That 1500 gets you paper thin walls and overall a feeling of dumpiness, I know I have done all kind of deliveries jobs to Seattle condos, and apartments. 1500 should be nice but in Seattle its acceptable to be dumpy for that much.
Thanks very much HomesInSeattle.. And, it feels so great to be back
My friend is real estate agent and got me a real great deal on a rental house in Olympia area.. It's real nice here.. Where I was living in Seattle was not so fun.. I was living in Ballard.. I paid $1500/mo for a run-down 550 sq ft apartment. My neighbors above me were drug addicts who literally never slept. They would be blasting music at 2AM and up early in the morning. You could hear their loud footsteps at all hours of the day and night. As well, I just couldn't take the crowds, small streets, traffic, passive aggressiveness, snotty yuppies with their ugly , sterile million dollar condos taking over neighborhoods and act like they own the place, etc.
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See, that is what was concerning me when a job applicant asked us for suggestions of where to look for apartments. Initially, her budget was roughly in this range. The apartments in nabes closer to the UW, where she was interviewing, in that price range didn't look like anything a senior faculty member or administrator would want to inhabit. Others chirped affirmatively that she could afford to live "anywhere" in Seattle, but who would want to live "anywhere", if all you get is a dingey, depressing place? Northend neighborhoods & Lake Forest Park have much better spaces to offer, and for less money. But her budget increased during the interview, so she'll have more options now.
Yep... once you leave Seattle metro you also leave Seattle prices.
Friends rent a 5 bedroom waterfront single family home with small dock in Olympia on 17 acres for $2500 per month including Comcast... but I sure would not want to have a daily commute to Seattle!
Lower rent/house prices, but also lower pay. Cities have more to do, allow living without a car (saving $500+/mo.).
I doubt anyone would commute from Olympia to Seattle, unless driving at 4am. Right now rents are rising faster in Tacoma and Everett than in Seattle, because you can commute to Seattle from there.
Love reading your HONEST posts about Seattle Rotse. Telling it like it is-best policy and it looks like you don't care if the Seattle cheerleaders pound on you. It is a sardine can up in the North Seattle area. 1500 bucks for 500 sq feet, what a joke. That 1500 gets you paper thin walls and overall a feeling of dumpiness, I know I have done all kind of deliveries jobs to Seattle condos, and apartments. 1500 should be nice but in Seattle its acceptable to be dumpy for that much.
I'm a bit of a Seattle cheerleader, I guess, but I'd never pound on Rotse. There's a difference between mindless bashing with a soupçon of sour grapes and someone honestly describing their experiences.
Rotse, Oly's a nice city and I'm glad you've found a nice place. All the best to you.
In my opinion, most of North Seattle is pretty dumpy and sketchy.. Especially Northgate, Lake City, Aurora, North Greenwood and even Shoreline. North Greenwood is becoming as bad as Aurora and it was on North Greenwood my friend was beaten and almost robbed. He ended up kicking one of the attackers in the balls and they ran away after he got a beat down and told to give them all his money. North Greenwood is not the same as Greenwood Ave in the Phinney area. Anything north of 100th and Greenwood is pretty sketchy. If you are single girl riding your bike or walking alone on North Greenwood Ave at night you better watch your back. It's not even safe for a single guy. Looks are very deceiving and there is quite a few undesirable characters roaming that area.
You get what you pay for in Seattle.. If any apartments are going for $1000/mo in Northgate you can bet the complex is infested with felons, tweakers, drug dealers, gangbangers and other sketchy types of people. EVen if these apartments are in nice enough neighborhoods, you get a certain element of people in Seattle at a low price range. You can live in the nicest part of Bellevue but if you are living in low income housing type units where rents are going for $800/mo and the units are 800 sq ft, you can bet you are going to be living around some pretty lowly types of people.
I would not rent any apartment in Seattle, North to South that was going for $1100/mo and was over 500 sq ft.
Some apartments are also cheap because they are located in crappy areas, like next to a factory, train tracks, a very busy street with 24-7 traffic or other undesirable spots.
A city is a city. Bad things can happen anywhere. Just because one friend got beat up somewhere on Greenwood doesn't make it a ghetto. Yeah, around major cross-streets, 85th, 105th, and 145th, there's going to be more action. A couple blocks either side of Aurora is another matter.
If you had checked the link I provided, you'd see that any apartments available along Greenwood for $1,300 or less are studios - people are willing to pay more there because it offers a fast commute to SLU and Downtown. For true one-bedrooms for $1,300 or less, look in Northeast Seattle.
If you want to live in FamilyLand, move to Bothell or Woodinville, but your commute will be much worse. "Complexes" are more usual in the Southend - in the Northend, most apartments, say north of 75th, are in lowrise single buildings. It is hardly "gangland".
The median income in Seattle is now $80,000, which works out to afford $2,000 in rent. Now, if you want to live where you don't have to rub shoulders with slobs making less than $58,000, move to where one-bedrooms start at over $1,300.
Lower rent/house prices, but also lower pay. Cities have more to do, allow living without a car (saving $500+/mo.).
I doubt anyone would commute from Olympia to Seattle, unless driving at 4am. Right now rents are rising faster in Tacoma and Everett than in Seattle, because you can commute to Seattle from there.
Olympia does have some well paying jobs as it is the Capital with lots of government jobs...
One of my friends was making the commute as a government employee from Edmonds to Olympia and finally had enough of not seeing his family and made the move to the Olympia community of Boston Harbor... minutes from the Capital and a million miles away in peace and beauty...
Don't know how or if the traffic situation will be solved... always bad north of Dupont... at least when I' going to Seatac...
That said... more than a few have traded miles from Seattle for lower cost of housing
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