After 8 years here, my wife and I have decided to leave Seattle. I've had a blast here and have gotten to work on some great projects with great people, but we're moving back east to a much more affordable location to be near friends and family for this next phase of our lives.
Seattle is a great place and I'll miss it for sure. I've come to realize that Seattle is awesome if you're young and single, but once you're married and need to buy a house and plan for a family, it quickly loses its appeal. Your choices become a 400 sf studio condo for over $300K or a 1500 sf house for half a million that would be considered a tear down in other cities. No thank you.
I'll be leaving at the end of June, on our way east - Pittsburgh here we come!!!
Holz - Plax has been playing for the Giants the last couple seasons...
Property values may be dropping in Seattle, but not nearly enough to keep us here. We just bought a 4BR 1920s house in spectacular shape and in a great neighborhood in P'Burgh for about a third of what it would cost in Seattle. For comparison's sake, it'd be like us living in Wallingford or Greenlake - very close to parks, stores, restaurants, etc... and only a 10 min. bus ride to downtown...
We had a long laundry list of reasons to leave Seattle, and my wife recently finishing her MBA and starting a new career path pushed us to make it happen...
I am considering moving to seattle too... are there any good firms out there? I only heard of nbbj but would be interested to know also the medium size ones.... and more.... and work culture is good?? thanks in advance
OldFogey, Seattle's inventory is growing but per the Seattle Times prices are still going up (albeit real estate math isn't always straight forward). June data will probably show a price drop.
We spent the last 5 years believing prices would drop before finally buying. My Economist subscription has cost us about $200K.
Funny to hear people complaining about cost of property in Seattle. We've long been thinking of moving there from LA to escape unaffordable housing here! What will get you a crappy condo in Hollywood gets you a reasonable house in Green Lake...
Yeah, and the cost of a reasonable house in Green Lake will get you a McMansion in Nebraska. Your point is?
What I don't get is that architects are paid relatively the same all across the country. I've got calls from LA headhunters that can only promise me another $5-10k over what I'm currently getting in the midwest, same goes for east coast, but cost of living is a heck of a lot more than 10-15% more. So, if things are tight for me here on an architects salary, how do you manage in places like California, NYC, Boston, etc??
prices are going up pretty much everywhere. right? isn't that the sign of a growing region? that said, we left san francisco in 2000 for the same reasons. we just couldn't afford it. seattle gave us what we wanted at a cheaper price. good luck dml.
Jul 26, 07 10:40 am ·
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leaving Seattle!
After 8 years here, my wife and I have decided to leave Seattle. I've had a blast here and have gotten to work on some great projects with great people, but we're moving back east to a much more affordable location to be near friends and family for this next phase of our lives.
Seattle is a great place and I'll miss it for sure. I've come to realize that Seattle is awesome if you're young and single, but once you're married and need to buy a house and plan for a family, it quickly loses its appeal. Your choices become a 400 sf studio condo for over $300K or a 1500 sf house for half a million that would be considered a tear down in other cities. No thank you.
I'll be leaving at the end of June, on our way east - Pittsburgh here we come!!!
hey! don't let the door hit you on the...!
we're going through the debate of buying now as well.
some close friends bought a condo on cap hill about 5 years ago that's nearly doubled in value.
but i don't foresee us being anywhere near so lucky, and yeah, we're pretty much priced out of everywhere since she's still finishing her master's.
good luck in pittsburgh, say hey to plaxico for me.
Dml – I hear yea! I left for similar reasons – cost of housing as the #1 culprit. Good luck on the move and the best of luck to you.
Holz - Plax has been playing for the Giants the last couple seasons...
Property values may be dropping in Seattle, but not nearly enough to keep us here. We just bought a 4BR 1920s house in spectacular shape and in a great neighborhood in P'Burgh for about a third of what it would cost in Seattle. For comparison's sake, it'd be like us living in Wallingford or Greenlake - very close to parks, stores, restaurants, etc... and only a 10 min. bus ride to downtown...
We had a long laundry list of reasons to leave Seattle, and my wife recently finishing her MBA and starting a new career path pushed us to make it happen...
damn, where have i been?
a close friend used to live a few houses over.
anyway, all the best.
There's a great big archinect shuffle happening this summmer.... NY loses namby, gets AP; LA loses me, gets WonderK; Seattle gets me, loses dml...
I hear they are giving away houses in Detroit.
I am considering moving to seattle too... are there any good firms out there? I only heard of nbbj but would be interested to know also the medium size ones.... and more.... and work culture is good?? thanks in advance
Ahhh...the 'burgh. Gotta love the 'burgh. Would you be near squirrel hill?
we had to leave seattle because of housing costs as well....
I still miss it a lot.
We'll be near Squirrel Hill - we bought a house in Point Breeze, across the street from Frick Park...
we now live near frick-n-a park
Good luck dml
OldFogey, Seattle's inventory is growing but per the Seattle Times prices are still going up (albeit real estate math isn't always straight forward). June data will probably show a price drop.
We spent the last 5 years believing prices would drop before finally buying. My Economist subscription has cost us about $200K.
Funny to hear people complaining about cost of property in Seattle. We've long been thinking of moving there from LA to escape unaffordable housing here! What will get you a crappy condo in Hollywood gets you a reasonable house in Green Lake...
Yeah, and the cost of a reasonable house in Green Lake will get you a McMansion in Nebraska. Your point is?
What I don't get is that architects are paid relatively the same all across the country. I've got calls from LA headhunters that can only promise me another $5-10k over what I'm currently getting in the midwest, same goes for east coast, but cost of living is a heck of a lot more than 10-15% more. So, if things are tight for me here on an architects salary, how do you manage in places like California, NYC, Boston, etc??
prices are going up pretty much everywhere. right? isn't that the sign of a growing region? that said, we left san francisco in 2000 for the same reasons. we just couldn't afford it. seattle gave us what we wanted at a cheaper price. good luck dml.
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