Move to Seattle?
My family may have an opportunity to move to the Seattle area, but we're really on the fence. We'd love to leave the bay area primarily because of housing costs (we'll never realistically be able to afford to buy a home in a safe area and our rent increases about 10% every year) and traffic (my commute is about an hour each way), and it would be nice to live in a more Christian-friendly area. Looking at where friends and family live around the country, we see there are so many places where you can buy a nice house in a good neighborhood with excellent schools for under $200k. We both work in specialized fields where jobs aren't available everywhere, and while there are jobs in Seattle, it doesn't seem to be any better than here with traffic and housing, and it lacks some of the great things about the bay area. So my questions :
1. What are your top pros and cons about living in Seattle?
2. What cities should we look at moving to, considering affordability, safety, school quality, and commute? Our jobs would likely be in Seattle, Kent, and/or Bellevue, and we have a soon-to-be 4th grader.
Thank you!
Parent Replies
We left Oakland for Seattle this past October. We love it, it's like a better version of the Bay Area. Very family friendly and lots to do. The traffic is bad, but at least there are investments in transport and the buses are good. Housing is expensive but nowhere near as insane as what we saw in Oakland. We were able to buy in a great Seattle neighborhood and would never have been able to do so in a comparable East Bay Area. Most areas are very safe and public schools on the north side of town are generally good.