Need advice about living in Seattle (looking for techie input)

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nascent

Junior Member
Aug 14, 2005
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For a long time now I've been aiming to get back to the California coast (I lived in various places up and down the state back around the forging of the Great Rings of Power). With both the global economic problems and Californians chronic inability to get their budgetary shit together I don't think now is a good time to return. This has been confirmed by fellow techs (I work in technology) on other boards, so I recently turned my sights on Seattle. After a week of scanning the real estate ads on craiglist I have come to this conclusion: HOLY GOD IS SEATTLE EXPENSIVE :eek: :eek: o_O.

I'm currently paying ~$650/month for a one-bedroom apartment in the Capitol Hill neighborhood in Denver. A similar situation in the symmetrically-named Capitol Hill area of Seattle would likely cost me 50-100% more. Since my price ceiling is about $850 I need to find out where I should be looking. With that in mind, what neighborhoods should I target and which should I avoid? What areas are closest to local tech centers? I really don't care about living in the 'cool' areas or about having a showcase apartment but I don't want to live next door to a meth den either. So long as I'm not living in a cockroach colony, a closet, a dungeon, or a neighborhood where I have to worry about stray bullets I'm perfectly content.

Can anybody steer me right?


edit- I work in technology and would like to know your opinion of the local job market as well.
 
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zerocool84

Lifer
Nov 11, 2004
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You lived in Cali but complain about how expensive it is in Seattle???

Oh and it's just going to get more expensive to live in Cali the more you wait.
 

Farang

Lifer
Jul 7, 2003
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You can find a nice place for $850. Look into Queen Anne. Similar to Capitol Hill geographically, but its more residential and my opinion (based off of my own perspective only) is that there is much less crime/drug addicts/etc.

Fremont, Wallingford, and Greenlake are the other places to look into.

I pay $700 for my one bedroom. For $850 I imagine I could get a view in a newer building, a really nice one bedroom for that. Just look around a lot, many landlords just own a few buildings and make prices up off the top of their head.

In general I'd avoid South Seattle, the U district, and downtown. Belltown is sort a hipster area with a lot of drug addicts and homeless, but its a lively place and the most "city" feeling of anywhere. Outside of Belltown, Capitol Hill, and downtown, its all basically suburbs.
 
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nascent

Junior Member
Aug 14, 2005
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Thanks for all the info. Rereading my o.p., I realized I forgot to ask something very important: How is the IST (Information Services and Technology) job market in Seattle right now? I looked on Monster and Careerbuilder and didn't see a whole lot of openings, but given that it is the end of the year that's to be expected.
 
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OCGuy

Lifer
Jul 12, 2000
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Bring clean needles.

PS: You cant get a studio where I live for less than $900.
 

AreaCode707

Lifer
Sep 21, 2001
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Welcome to the area! I live here and would love to get back to California if I could find work in rural NorCal.

Pretty lively job market up here still. With large employers like Microsoft, Amazon, T-Mobile and Starbucks headquartered up here there are always postings. High competition but if you're good and can both write a resume and interview well then it's not horribly difficult to find work. A lot of contract positions open as well if you have trouble finding something perm.

Where you want to live may depend on where you wind up working. If you wind up at MS, for instance, then you may not want the I-520 bridge commute in the morning and, as long as you're ok with suburb living, you might want to look for something on the eastside.

Green Lake and Wallingford are nice neighborhoods that are pretty affordable. I second Queen Anne too. And you can find decent places in Capitol Hill for $700-900.

Just fyi, looking on job boards can be misleading since that's a pretty expensive place to post open positions. Try the company websites directly for better listings.
 

KillerCharlie

Diamond Member
Aug 21, 2005
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We really don't need any more people from California... anywhere else is fine but not California.

I live in the suburbs so I can't really help. The suburbs are definitely cheaper though.
 

nascent

Junior Member
Aug 14, 2005
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(I edited my o.p. so as to solicit input from any latecomers :cool: )

To clarify my earlier posts, are there any jobs out there for IST generalists, or are all the opportunities for specialists and/or high-level techs? I've been doing IST for 10 years, on and off, but my porffolio is decidedly generic: general tech support, some network operations, some project management. I have a couple Microsoft certifications and I'm studying to renew my CCNA, which lapsed about 6 years ago, but in the absence of recent NOC experience I'm not convinced it will be worth much by itself. What are the wages for mid-level techs like myself? In Denver, I've been getting salaries in the mid-40k range and contracts paying up to $25/hr. Am I correct in presuming that these figures would be adjusted to account for Seattle's higher cost-of-living?
 
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