Top 5 Pros & Cons of Seattle (Bellevue: sales tax, cost, dangerous)

[new_to_seattle]

Originally Posted by Andy Patrizio

Could some of you say where you live, so we can get a better picture of the regions? When people say "Seattle" they are covering a large portion that extends well beyond the city limits. For example, I would think the traffic in downtown is far worse than anything east of Mercer Island. Ditto on housing and rents.

the traffic downtown is the worst IMO. Not only do you have to deal with the cars but the hundreds of pedestians who are visiting seattle and dont always obey the signals to walk.

[TimRace]

I continually see cost of living as a negative and see lots of people moved bc it was simply too expensive (not just here but on other blogs/threads I've read). I'm a first year Nursing student in Pennsylvania, but I'm planning on moving once I have my degree and was thinking of Seattle as my new home. Is it really that expensive? Is anyone comfortable enough to let me know a budget for the avg month?

[revelated]

Ah, yes.

PROS

1. Visually, it is appealing, at least everywhere ELSE other than Downtown Seattle (which looks like some kid's rendition).
2. Townhouses up in Western Washington are at least initially more reasonably priced than lesser townhouses in Southern California.
3. Unlike most, I prefer the fact that it's cooler, rains, etc. It guarantees fresh air when it all passes.
4. At least in my area, there aren't "bros" driving around in lifted trucks, or thugs driving around in lowered Camrys. (Common in So Cal)
5. Salary that you'd struggle to get down in California, is actually considered low up here, and it's quite competitive.

CONS

1. SeaTac appears to have been designed by the same yokel who designed the freeway system. Overly complicated for no good reason.
2. Traffic is silly because of so many staggered reasons - most notably, the fear of affecting lakes and trees. Also the offramps into Seattle are poorly designed; people cruise in the right lane when they intend to go to the 90, blocking people who are trying to go to Stewart/Denny or Mercer Street.
3. People simply don't know how to drive (which makes the traffic situation worse). They look-e-loo every single accident, drive at 45 when traffic isn't heavy (slowing people behind them), cruise at 40 in the passing lane, text distracted (got rear ended for the first time in 15 years by a texter), Don't signal when switching lanes, Don't use their mirrors, And probably drive slow on purpose so they can get to work and blame it on traffic when they caused it!
4. Everything requires you get on the freeway to get to it. Zoning is a big issue. Best Buy is out in the sticks, Frys is out in the sticks, Sonic is out in the sticks, Wal-Mart is out in the sticks, Target is out in the sticks. Yet, there's like three Shell stations within rock throwing distance. Err?
5. People are nice and polite, but you get the definite sense that they're not genuine or interested in getting to know you beyond passive politeness.

Originally Posted by TimRace

I continually see cost of living as a negative and see lots of people moved bc it was simply too expensive (not just here but on other blogs/threads I've read). I'm a first year Nursing student in Pennsylvania, but I'm planning on moving once I have my degree and was thinking of Seattle as my new home. Is it really that expensive? Is anyone comfortable enough to let me know a budget for the avg month?

I don't find Seattle to be overpriced, but then again I come from San Diego which is significantly more expensive, especially with the state tax. That said, if you come from areas like Penn or Tenn, you will find Seattle and outlying areas to be greatly expensive in comparison. Unless you're willing to suffer a commute exceeding 2 hours; places like Bellingham, Sudden Valley, Lacey, Fife, etc. that are way too far from Seattle center are quite reasonable. But then the commute is even worse.

I've seen mansion-style houses going for less than 600k out here. In California, the same house would easily exceed a cool million, even though the property tax would be way lower (Proposition 13).

To me, the dream job for someone out here is someone who lives in one of the above places and telecommutes to work, or only has to go in the office like once a week.

Also, if you drive a hybrid or an electric vehicle, you'll appreciate the savings quite a bit. Gas consumption due to the stupid freeway system is a big contributor.

As an example, it is perfectly easy to get by on $1500/month or less. I would say the bare minimum to get by would be $1200/month, but that's some extreme belt tightening. If your company comps public transportation that would help. if you have no car payment that helps a lot.

[TimRace]

1500 is similar to where I live and I hope to make much more than that as a Nurse. Around my area RN's make around 3000 a month. Thanks for your help!

[revelated]

Originally Posted by TimRace

1500 is similar to where I live and I hope to make much more than that as a Nurse. Around my area RN's make around 3000 a month. Thanks for your help!

I think you should be fine, but I strongly suggest looking around for the right area, and then doing some heavy commute planning from there. At that income level the big thing to watch out for is not how much it costs to rent, but how much you have to spend in other areas (i.e. gas, car maintenance, food, child care, etc.).

The one thing I do notice is that the more kids you have, the harder it seems for people. A former co-worker who had 3 and expecting another was complaining daily about how hard it was, and he made significantly more than I did, took the bus to work, carried over savings from his old state, the whole nine. I have no kids and while I do have to watch my budget closely, I'm never feeling like I can't make ends meet despite the fact I just bought a brand new car and used the bulk of my savings to clear out old debts.

[TimRace]

I do plan on kids. My fiancé and I hope to start of family after I graduate. We would prefer a more rural area where we could have privacy and some land. Is car insurance really expensive there? Currently I pay $88/month. Once again thanks for the reply it's much simpler asking a person than google.

[revelated]

Originally Posted by TimRace

I do plan on kids. My fiancé and I hope to start of family after I graduate. We would prefer a more rural area where we could have privacy and some land. Is car insurance really expensive there? Currently I pay $88/month. Once again thanks for the reply it's much simpler asking a person than google.

remember what I said about people out here. if you aren't good at searching for information you'd better start practicing. self-sufficiency is key here.

for insurance prepare yourself to pay at least twice what you're paying now, if not more.

[new_to_seattle]

Originally Posted by lillian1

Anyone that says they do not have a problem with Traffic in Seattle is living under a rock. Since I have moved back Seattle has changed so much. Too many building creating horrible traffic, like a parking lot on the I/5 , No Matter what time of the day there is so much traffic now it is awful. Seattle used to be such a nice place. Now I do not even recognize it, Wow there is Amazon that is nice but the one freeway used to enter the city has become a nightmare for people and I notice that other than a few people do not seem Happy here at all. With all the things to do and see but getting to and from is a pain in the butt, sorry, maybe that is why I am feeling the good old days of Seattle are gone. It is going in too many different directions. Everyone wants to move here which is great but I know for a fact there are better places. It is very expensive, if you are used to New York or Chicago, or LA it is now almost as expensive and out of all those places Seattle is the least friendly and has the Worst Mental Health Care System. HealthCare is very expensive, with all the drug use Doctors are too afraid to prescribe anything, for some treat Patients more like criminals. I was actually asked by a Doctor if I had purchased any illegal drugs......I couldn't believe my ears, in response she said "well there is a lot of drug use here so we have to ask"

thank you.

i do not understand for the life of me how the people in this city accept the fact that it takes 1.5 hours to drive from north seattle to south seattle from 4-6 every day. that's a 20 mile trip on the interstate that should take 30 to 40 minutes.

there is no surprise why this is. you have an interstate that necks down to 3 lanes in places. in most cities this size you have an interstate that has 8 lanes going both ways.

[strad]

Originally Posted by revelated

Ah, yes.
[*]Everything requires you get on the freeway to get to it. Zoning is a big issue. Best Buy is out in the sticks, Frys is out in the sticks, Sonic is out in the sticks, Wal-Mart is out in the sticks, Target is out in the sticks. Yet, there's like three Shell stations within rock throwing distance. Err?
.

There is a Target right in the middle of the city near Pike Place Market, one at Northgate, another over in West Seattle, one just over the i90 in Factoria, one right on the border with Renton (near Frys), south center, Bellevue, etc--I would say the density of Targets is above average for a metro area. And we don't have Walmart because we have Fred Meyer, Costco, and other similar stores all over the metro instead. Sonic? How many Ivars you got in so-cal?

Different cities have different restaurants and shops. I don't even have a car, so I don't get on a freeway to go anywhere, and I don't have much trouble shopping or eating.

And Frys is always out in the sticks . They need cheap land for their giant stores. I do agree with you on the best buy/frys type stores though, and wish we had some more options for electronics in the city.

[Andy Patrizio]

Originally Posted by revelated

*People are nice and polite, but you get the definite sense that they're not genuine or interested in getting to know you beyond passive politeness.

That is the frequent knock on LA. In my experience it was brought on because LA is so transient. People come and go like crazy. I lived in my Marina Del Rey apartment for 11 years and watched neighbors come and go so fast I barely got to know them. So I think it breeds a shallowness because why bother? They are just going to leave.

Seattle is clearly a city that draws a lot of out of town people for some big companies -- Microsoft, nintendo, Amazon, Boeing. I would think that if those people lose their jobs, they just go back to where they came from. It happened in SF. When the Dot Com implosion took place in 2001, the local U Haul stores ran out of trucks from so many people leaving and going one way.