Congrats and welcome to Seattle! What part of Seattle will you be commuting to and at what times? There’s a lot of newer rental communities both south (Tukwila) and east (Bellevue/Kirkland) that might work out depending on your answers to the above and what you consider a bearable commute.
It is hard to find a place that’s not very expensive, even in many not safe-ish areas at the moment, but there are lots of one-off opportunities to keep an eye out for like mother in law suites, split level house multi-family setups, and that sort of thing.
As an engineer in my thirties, my options a few years ago were overpay for a mediocre apartment with my partner, or split a house with a few more roommates. We ended up renting the cheapest spot we could find on the eastside (Woodinville) at the time for a few years since our jobs were also around the eastside, then moving further down highway 2 once we could buy a cheap house and commute down highway 2.
Hope some context here helps! I genuinely hope you love the Seattle area and good luck with your new job!!
Thanks. That helps. I will look into those locations. Thanks.
Best commute would be a bus or walk or skates? at or less than 45mins. Still best commute would be bicycle ride at 30-50mins (10ish mph). OK but could be better commute would be 1 to 1.25hrs commute doing the same. OK commute would be 1 or 1.25 hr drive commute. Anything over that 1.5 drive would be bad commute. Anything over 2hr would have to be very cheap on rent, groceries, utilities etc.
Housing and food are expensive in Seattle, as well as the surrounding area. Gas is expensive. Insurance is expensive. PARKING is extremely expensive. If you want to keep your costs low, you will want to rely on public transportation to get to/from work. Living somewhere within walking distance of a light rail station may be do-able, or somewhere that is close to one of the “commuter” bus routes.
Make a spreadsheet of different potential locations and the estimated time it takes to get to your new job. Decide whether the time/money offset is worth it for you. If I was going to move somewhere new, that is what I would do. It’s always time or money.
We're going to need more specifics. Where are you working or planning to work? What kind of neighborhood are you looking for? The Seattle area is very diverse, from one neighborhood to the next you'll find a wide variety of housing, density, accessibility, entertainment, services, and community. We can help you find the right fit but we need to know what you want.
What do you consider "expensive"? And like others asked, where are you going to be commuting to, and what do you consider "too far"?
I don't know if I'd agree with the people on Reddit who told you to avoid Tacoma. It's certainly cheaper than living in Seattle itself, if you can deal with the commute time. Also keep in mind that Seattle is one of the safest large metro areas in the country, so pretty much everywhere is "safe" compared to other large cities.
I took the lightrail to a game once and saw someone peeing at the back corner. I reported him and watched the game. On my way back, I saw the exact same person again on a different train and it was nice to see that my report didn’t make a difference 🥲
I mean, surely we all already knew that his saying the sweeps and clean up of the area were unrelated was a lie. He should have just been open about it.
I think there is an ache that comes from living here, and I feel it’s more of a consequence of high cost living in major urban centers as opposed to being unique to Seattle.
It’s expensive here, but it’s supposed to be worth it because ultimately Seattle and Washington and I are wanting to see the same type of communities and culture thrive.
Every action is a political one and by living here versus somewhere else we’re actualizing the political power of our time, money, and geography.
Yeah - I have to say I’m living well. We bought our place in the late 90 for an exorbidant sum that looks like chump change now. We live in a very walkable neighborhood, close to parks. Work is a 20 min bike ride. I’ve been working tech for many years, being a 1 car, frugal family has paid off. We get out side quite regularly.
There are plenty of things to complain about but good lord - it’s pretty damn good from where I sit.
Edit: Like I’m just saying, Republicans have no place to talk regarding homelessness and trying to push politics here is pathetic. I live in Oklahoma, one of the most red states in the country, and I hate going to downtown Tulsa because I get constantly accosted by homeless people of varying sketch levels. The highways around here always have people begging for change on the offramps. We’re supposed to lock the breezeway doors at my job on the PM shifts way out because during winter we had homeless people hanging out in there to get out of the wind.
Like tell me more about how it’s a democrat problem when I give an actual solution and it gets turned down for being “socialism.”
I agree it’s a pretty shitty article and not well written, bordering hypocritical because it’s a national problem and not just a west coast problem. It’s commentary and not necessarily what I’d deem “journalism”. When discussing what we are dealing with here in Seattle, I usually just say it’s a complex problem and it doesn’t have an easy solution.
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