Gay couple moving to Seattle (Tacoma, Bellevue: real estate, apartments, rentals)

[FrostyThe2nd]

Hello, my partner and I will be moving to Seattle in 1 year, but what we don't is where in Seattle we should settle. I am a 24 year old male and I usually go out clubbing once or twice a week. Because we go out to gay clubs, we prefer a neighborhood close to these club for the sake of safe transportation at night. At the same time, the neighborhood should be relatively safe with an urban feel, similar to West Hollywood in California, but not as costly. I know that I am asking a lot and the place I am looking into tends to be really expensive so hopefully we won't go over our budget. For our age, we think make a decent income of 200-210K/year (133K after taxes) so perhaps we will have some option as to where we can live. An advice is greatly appreciated.

[Jennibc]

Are you planning on renting or buying a place? The most gay friendly neighborhood with the largest concentration of gay clubs/bars in Seattle is Capital Hill. You should have no problem finding something to rent with your income. Capital Hill, as most urban gay areas in larger cities, is one of the more expensive places to live in town but obviously, because this is Seattle and not LA it is not as expensive as West Hollywood.

[allforcats]

In addition, this should help you:
Seattle gay bars and clubs: Tacky Tourist Clubs | Interactive bar map (http://www.ttca.org/seattle-gay-bars/ - broken link)

Public transportation at night here is much, much safer than in, say, NYC. I'm a woman and I wouldn't hesitate to take a Metro bus at night. And I may have missed something in the past 25 years, but I don't remember ever hearing of a gay-bashing incident around here.

You should have no problems at all with your projected budget.

Renting? Click on place names in the little map to drill down to smaller areas. In "Seattle", clicking on "Downtown & Central" will get you to Capitol Hill.
NWapartments: Seattle apartment rentals, house rental listings, rental classifieds and other property rentals in Seattle, Tacoma, Bellevue and other Washington areas, cities and neighborhoods
Capitol Hill is a fun, exciting place to live. I lived there for 5 years and loved it. Friendly, beautiful, extremely diverse in people and resources.

Buying? We strongly advise renting for 6 months to get a feel for the area and to find out where you really want to live. This is my favorite, all-inclusive user-friendly real estate site:
TheMLSonline.com - Seattle Real Estate, Top Seattle Real Estate Search - Call 425-467-6577

[FrostyThe2nd]

Thank you for the great advices. I agree that it would be best to rent at first. I've checked the Seattle rentals and I was amazed at how beautiful most of the apartments were. We're both excited about our move. Seattle is a city I've pictured living since childhood. I can't wait to live in a clean romantic city next to the water with 4 seasons and occasional snow.

[allforcats]

Well, you know what they say: beauty -- and romance and absolutely everything else -- is in the eye of the beholder, so we create our own experience
I've lived in a great many places, and I absolutely love this area. I love the natural beauty, the assertive character of the weather, the photogenic nature of everything, and most of all the gentleness of spirit of the air, the trees, the weather, and the people.
I love watching you watch yourselves make your dream come true... exquisitely beautiful. I wish you joy

[kcbelles]

My partner & I moved up here over 12 years ago, from West Hollywood, and we both love it. We'd love to live in Seattle proper (either Capitol Hill or Fremont), but for us, it's better to live closer to where we work, so we live on the Eastside in Factoria (part of Bellevue). I'm excited for you both - I think you're gonna love it up here.