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I am currently living in Washington DC area (Northern Virginia) with my fiancee. Although, we have never really been to Seattle but from what I 've heard, we are seriously thinking about moving there.
Here are some facts about us:
- great job opportunity in software development (I have MS in comp sci)
- my fiancee has a master degree in Accounting
- We love outdoor : camping on the beach, biking, hiking and etc.
- We are serious amateur photographers.
- We are avid snowboarders
- We are asian and love seafood and asian food (Japanese,Korean, Thai, Chinese and etc... no offend to American food!)
- I am highly allegic to pollens in spring time.
- Housing in DC is expensive, Seattle is slightly cheaper I think.
- Traffic in DC area is a nightmare (although, I hear that Seattle is not much better)
- our combined income will be around $150 K initially.
- we are in late 20's
- we are looking for a place to settle down and start a family.
- we are looking to buy a townhome (perhaps 3 BR/2 Bath) perhaps around $500K?
- we have no debt
From the above facts about us, we really think that it would be a great move for us from DC to Seattle, the only cons I can think about are the so-called "seattle freeze" and the rainly cloudy weather (although it shouldn't matter much as we are would be spending much time on the slope from November to April)
We are also considering the bay area, but it will be extremely pricey and we won't be able to afford a nice place. From the facts I stated above, do you think Seattle would be a good fit for us? Any help would be really appreciated.
Based upon the facts you've provided, I honestly can't imagine a better place for you and your fiancee than Seattle (maybe Vancouver, BC, would be a similarly great fit).
My wife, son and I are relocating from Boston, and much as we love Boston in many ways we genuinely cannot wait to get to the beautiful Pacific Northwest!
Seems to me like Seattle would be good fit. Seattle has great seafood, Asian food, and nearby snowboarding, and you can buy a nice townhome for under 500k, although, as other posters have mentioned, renting might make more sense at first? People do here get affected by pollens, though I'm sure there are places that are worse.
- great job opportunity in software development (I have MS in comp sci)
- my fiancee has a master degree in Accounting
- We love outdoor : camping on the beach, biking, hiking and etc.
- We are serious amateur photographers.
- We are avid snowboarders
- We are asian and love seafood and asian food (Japanese,Korean, Thai, Chinese and etc... no offend to American food!)
- I am highly allegic to pollens in spring time.
- Housing in DC is expensive, Seattle is slightly cheaper I think.
- Traffic in DC area is a nightmare (although, I hear that Seattle is not much better)
- our combined income will be around $150 K initially.
- we are in late 20's
- we are looking for a place to settle down and start a family.
- we are looking to buy a townhome (perhaps 3 BR/2 Bath) perhaps around $500K?
- we have no debt
Based on all these facts Seattle would be a perfect fit!
I am currently living in Washington DC area (Northern Virginia)
Sounds auspicious for you.
Two points:
Traffic: In my opinion, traffic here can be worse. Depends on where you live and commute now as a comparison. If you're going to work in, for example, Redmond or Bellevue, then Kirkland is probably about as far north as you'd want to venture (maybe Bothell). Commute from Woodinville/Bothell, for example, is comparable to say Sterling to Tyson's Corner or Reston to Arlington (non-HOV). I think they're experimenting with letting people pay to use the HOV lanes non-carpool (single occupant), which would theoretically help.
School districts: all of your information points you toward the East Side suburbs rather than the city itself. Seattle city has poor public schools, while the East Side suburbs are considered pretty good (not Fairfax or Loudoun county calibre, but good for WA).
Housing: less than DC area, but the home construction is quite different (more wood composite). East Side has newer homes, older neighborhoods seem to list older homes for around the same price range. Same type of planned communities you'd find in Ashburn, for example, have cropped up here, but they're not as widespread.
Asian culture is prominent here as it is in DC. Probably a little moreso.
Definitely more suitable for your hobbies like snowboarding than DC is.
Overall, though, it sounds like Seattle would be a good place for you given what you've shared and what you seem to be looking for.
Sounds like Seattle is for you. As far as traffic take it from me, D.C. area is far worse. I commuted to Tyson's Corner Va, Gaithersburg Md and downtown D.C. Tyson's and Gaithersburg were probably my worst commutes ever.
My husband and I are in our early 30's and moved from DC to Seattle last July. We were in Boston for 8 years before we moved to DC in 2005. We loved Boston, although in my opinion it has a similar 'freeze' factor as Seattle. DC we did not love, and even though all of our family was in the area and we miss them, we do not miss DC much at all. Seattle is so beautiful and, as my husband likes to point out, 'has tall buildings, its a real city' compared to DC. DC has laws against building higher than the capitol, so it lacks the 'city feel' that Boston and Seattle share.
No offense to the previous posters, but the traffic in Seattle cannot be compared to the traffic in Northern VA/DC. The DC traffic is Hell ! The Seattle traffic is heavy, but nothing like DC (I still shudder when I think about driving on 66 West, where I regularly experienced a 5 mile long crawling back-up because drivers were rubbernecking at a cop giving a traffic ticket! Not to mention 495, or 95, or even 295!). We have friends here who relocated to Seattle from DC at the same time that we did and they agree with this assessment.
Yes, the so-called "Seattle Freeze" could be a factor, but I didn't find people in DC to be very friendly either. At least here people are exceedingly pleasant and polite to interact with on a daily basis, even if they do not become your best friend overnight. My impression so far is that it depends a lot upon your individual neighborhood/neighbors.
The decline of housing prices in the DC area is ahead of the decline here (although there is a decline here, don't believe anyone who says different). When we first visited Seattle to look at housing a year ago, we heard a lot of "Seattle is different, we are immune to the housing bubble" (from realtors, no suprise, but also from our co-workers). Having experienced the decline in DC and watching the decline in Boston after we left there, we were very skeptical that Seattle would be so 'different'. Well, low and behold, the Seattle housing market is slowly starting to unravel. This is a national problem and there will be almost no areas that are untouched, including Seattle, beautiful and amazing, full of good jobs as it is. Even though Seattle had fewer sub-prime loans that other parts of the country, we still had lots of people who treated their homes like an ATM and cashed out as much equity as possible, who are now 'upside down' on their debt obligations, as well as 'prime' borrowers who took out short term adjustable, or crazy interest only loans who now find themselves unable to make their payments.
Your budget should be more than ample to buy a nice townhome, or even a single family if you are willing to look outside of Seattle proper. We're still renting, waiting for the market to cool down and trying to get to know the area a bit more, and the prices are definitely coming down.
The asian food here is terrific, and the area is incredibly beautiful! I cracked up reading another post on the board where the posted said the same thing I said to my husband a few months ago, sometimes I think that it is so beautiful here that "This isn't a place where people live, its a place where people vacation." As for the weather, yes the rain and gray skies can be a bummer (especially February) but overall its nowhere near as bad as the exaggerated impression that people on the East Coast have of Seattle weather. Not to mention that the summer is perfect, no humidity, barely a drop of rain, and hardly any bugs - really! You actually can be comfortable here in the summer without air conditioning - imagine trying that in NOVA/DC!!
The only downside is that if you'll want to be returning to the DC area, inexpensive direct flights from Seattle to DC/BWI/Dulles do not exist! You can fly for under $300 with a connecting flight though.
Home price wise, Seattle hit it's peak about a year after most of the rest of the country..The median all time high here was July '07, but since then it's fallen something like 6% and shows no signs of bottoming.
I am currently living in Washington DC area (Northern Virginia) with my fiancee. Although, we have never really been to Seattle but from what I 've heard, we are seriously thinking about moving there.
Here are some facts about us:
- great job opportunity in software development (I have MS in comp sci)
- my fiancee has a master degree in Accounting
- We love outdoor : camping on the beach, biking, hiking and etc.
- We are serious amateur photographers.
- We are avid snowboarders
- We are asian and love seafood and asian food (Japanese,Korean, Thai, Chinese and etc... no offend to American food!)
- I am highly allegic to pollens in spring time.
- Housing in DC is expensive, Seattle is slightly cheaper I think.
- Traffic in DC area is a nightmare (although, I hear that Seattle is not much better)
- our combined income will be around $150 K initially.
- we are in late 20's
- we are looking for a place to settle down and start a family.
- we are looking to buy a townhome (perhaps 3 BR/2 Bath) perhaps around $500K?
- we have no debt
From the above facts about us, we really think that it would be a great move for us from DC to Seattle, the only cons I can think about are the so-called "seattle freeze" and the rainly cloudy weather (although it shouldn't matter much as we are would be spending much time on the slope from November to April)
We are also considering the bay area, but it will be extremely pricey and we won't be able to afford a nice place. From the facts I stated above, do you think Seattle would be a good fit for us? Any help would be really appreciated.
Based on these points, Seattle will be a good fit, particularly if you are left-leaning politically or apolitical altogether and if you can tolerate 9 months of gray skies and drizzle.
I agree with Historyaficionado's assessment of traffic in the sense that, contrary to the DC metro area, your commuting options in Seattle metro area are more limited. Commuter buses get stuck in the same traffic and you don't have the option of a subway system. Also, although this point is not applicable in your immediate future, the public schools are not comparable to what you find in Arlington and Fairfax Counties. By the same token, other services (libraries, rec centers, etc.) are not as good.
I agree with Historyaficionado's assessment of traffic in the sense that, contrary to the DC metro area, your commuting options in Seattle metro area are more limited. Commuter buses get stuck in the same traffic and you don't have the option of a subway system. Also, although this point is not applicable in your immediate future, the public schools are not comparable to what you find in Arlington and Fairfax Counties. By the same token, other services (libraries, rec centers, etc.) are not as good.
Exactly, Northern VA/DC/MD is a mixed bag. I used to have to commute from Reston to Arlington and it was sheer hell (almost 2 hours each way due to HOV restrictions on I-66 and requisite detours) until I discovered that I could catch a quick bus ride (that got to use the restricted lane on the toll road) to the West Falls Church metro and take that in -- now that wasn't bad at all (and I could relax and read during my commute).
The beltway itself is awful compared to Seattle, but suburb to suburb commuting is better and availability of the metrorail at least gives you some options.
Here, I find I-405 to be anathema. I-5 is slightly better.
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Hell ! The Seattle traffic is heavy, but nothing like DC (I still shudder when I think about driving on 66 West, where I regularly experienced a 5 mile long crawling back-up because drivers were rubbernecking at a cop giving a traffic ticket! Not to mention 495, or 95, or even 295!). We have friends here who relocated to Seattle from DC at the same time that we did and they agree with this assessment. 
