After living here for three and a half years, we have a more nuanced understanding of the city than we did when we first moved here. Here are the main things we like, and don't like about living in Seattle.

1. 
   Walking and busing - Seattle is the 6th most walkable city in the country and it's possible to get around a lot of places by walking. Public transportation can be a pretty convenient way to get around, as well, so you don't have to drive your own car to get around the city.


• In contrast: Roads and drivers - We don't drive a whole lot here and haven't found traffic as bad as its reputation. However, when we do drive, the local roads are often in poor condition. There are many inner city roads with potholes or other ruts or bumps that make driving a little bouncy and uncomfortable. And, the drivers that drive below the speed limit in all lanes of the freeway do get in the way of an efficient driver like myself.


2. 
   Natural beauty - This is one of the most beautiful parts of the country and an idealized landscape with snow-capped mountain ranges, majestic pine trees, and shimmering bodies of water basically everywhere. Other places may be nice, too, but the Pacific Northwest has more than its fair share of natural beauty.


3. Outdoor activities - I learned to love to walk and spend time in parks from my dad, and there are lots of great parks in the city, as well as great hiking trails outside the city, and other outdoor activities all over the area.


4. Moderate weather - The weather on the West Coast is more moderate than most parts of the country, which spares us from the hot summer weather that affects most of the country, as well as the snowy winter weather that affects much of the country. It's usually not too uncomfortable to go outside in any season.


• In contrast: Clouds - This is the biggest complaint for a lot of people who say that winter here lasts for 9 months. That's certainly not true, but Seattle does have more cloudy days than most parts of the country, which make the summertime that much more special.


5. 
   Character - Seattle preserves its history better than many cities and has many old buildings with character occupied by unique restaurants and cafes, along with some interesting characters.


• In contrast: Cost of Living - While it's great to have hundreds of unique, organic, fresh, natural, boutique local restaurants, sometimes it's nice to be able to get a relatively cheap sandwich to go (not Subway). We do pay more here, but sometimes you do get what you pay for.


6. Neighborhoods - There are many unique neighborhoods here, each a little different, with their own things to see and do. Each neighborhood is like a town within the city, filling Seattle with lots of areas to experience and explore.


7. Culture - People here tend to be conscientious and non-judgmental. It's also a pretty casual place and people seem to be authentic, if a little distant.
   
   
   
   • In contrast: Cultural Elitism - A feeling of cultural superiority and a lack of political diversity are two things that could be off-putting in parts of Texas, and those same two characteristics are not uncommon here, though the culture and the beliefs are very different between the two places. The culture on this part of the "Left Coast" can be a little too homogeneous.


8. 
   Sounders FC - We've become pretty big soccer fans since moving here because we've been drawn into the sport by the Sounders and their fans. Going to a soccer game with 35,000 fans is an experience that is unique in America and one that has made us appreciate and enjoy the game so much more than we did before moving here. The Sounders were an expansion team in Major League Soccer shortly after we moved here and we have enjoyed going to games and watching them on TV since their inaugural MLS season.


• In contrast: Sports culture and losers - While the Sounders sell out their games and the Seahawks are known for having a loud crowd, I'm not sure where those people come from, because the vast majority of people I know here care little for sports. Worse, the Seahawks and Mariners have been pretty bad since we moved here. Unfortunately, because the Seahawks are in the Pacific Time Zone and in the same conference as my team the Dallas Cowboys, I often can't watch Cowboys games because the Seahawks game is on instead.

Another thing to add, and probably the worst part of living here is the distance from the rest of our family and many of our friends. This isn't the city's fault, except that the weather and cost of living discourages family from moving here.

There are plenty of other good and bad things about Seattle but the good outweighs the bad for us.

I've never been that interested in trick-or-treating, but apparently Seattle is the best city in the country to do it according to a study by an online housing blog. The study calculates the "Zillow Trick-or-Treat Housing Index" using four equally weighted data variables: Zillow Home Value Index, population density, Walk Score, and local crime data from Relocation Essentials. Based on those variables, the Index represents cities that will provide the most candy, with the least walking and safety risks. San Francisco, Portland, San Jose, and Denver rounded out the top 5 cities.

The study ranked the individual neighborhoods in each of the top 20 cities as well. The top 5 Seattle neighborhoods to trick-or-treat in are Wallingford, Ballard, Queen Anne, Roosevelt, and Ravenna. I'm not at all surprised that Wallingford is at the top of the list since it's very family friendly and there are lots of nice homes in the area. Ballard is a very safe and walkable area as well, with lots of families. We were in the Queen Anne area this past weekend and saw lots of Halloween decorations on many of the houses there. Halloween and trick-or-treating seem to be a big deal here in Seattle.

I was shocked when I heard this fact the other day, but I've lived here long enough that I shouldn't have been surprised at all. I definitely see dogs more often than children. In fact, I hardly ever see children, unless they're tourists. Of course there are more children in the lower density neighborhoods than there are where we live near downtown, but the fact that there are so many more dogs is still interesting.

Seattle is a very dog-friendly city, as this article elaborates on. The article also includes these facts:

There are about 125,000 dogs in Seattle, going by both the Seattle Animal Shelter's estimate and an independent analysis by The Seattle Times. In the 2000 census, there were fewer than 90,000 children in Seattle.

People here are definitely more into dogs than in other areas. It seems like almost everyone at Lesley's office has at least one dog. This article makes the point that people in progressive/liberal areas have children at lower rates than in more conservative areas, so that is a factor as well.

Anyway, I just thought that was interesting enough to be passed along.

I think it's significantly more challenging to drive here than in Texas. Urban Seattle, a walkable, urban city is a much different driving environment than the open roads of sprawling Texas.

When driving in Texas, I hardly ever had to watch out for anything other than cars, but on any given street here there are lots of things to watch out for, like bicyclists and pedestrians. Many roads are used by bicyclists, so I have to give them room, especially when passing. And many arterial streets have a lot of crosswalks, so I have to watch out for people crossing the streets. And, aside from crosswalks, pedestrians technically have the right of way at any intersection. There are also relatively few protected turns, so when turning left, not only do I have to watch out for oncoming traffic, but once there are no more cars coming, I also have to make sure there are no bikes coming, and make sure there are no pedestrians in the crosswalk or about to enter the intersection. And turning right isn't that much easier.

Plus, on top of all that, there are many hours of darkness and frequent light rain in the winter, with the occasional snow dusting. And, there are also hills, some of which are really steep, which makes the whole thing more difficult. While Seattle follows a pretty standard grid pattern, a lot of streets are ended or diverted by hills or water, making it important to know which street takes you which way you want to go. And because many arterial streets aren't much wider than normal neighborhood streets, it's not always easy to figure out which way to go.

And the streets are pothole-riddled and loud. Plus some parts of the city have bad traffic (not that traffic in Texas is much better).

All these factors combine to make it challenging to drive around urban Seattle. Furthermore, with only a couple short driving trips per week, my driving skills may have declined somewhat. The good thing is that alternative means of transportation like walking, biking, and taking the bus are a lot less challenging here.

Seattle was named most literate city in the country. Here's some about the study:

This study focuses on six key indicators of literacy: newspaper circulation, number of bookstores, library resources, periodical publishing resources, educational attainment, and Internet resources.

Based on my perception of the city, I'm not surprised about that at all. Bookstores are pretty common, though they've been struggling lately and the city's landmark Elliott Bay Book Company is moving from Pioneer Square to Capitol Hill. And many people here have graduate degrees - Seattle is a very educated city (almost to the detriment of diversity). The city also is big on libraries and overwhelmingly passed a measure in 1998 to improve all neighborhood libraries and build a new central library.

When we moved here, I was kind of amazed by all the new building construction. We could see 12 cranes from our window at one time a year and a half ago. A lot of that construction has finished, which is nice, because now the sidewalks we use most are no longer blocked.

Still, despite the downturn in the economy, there are 8 cranes we can see from our window, and construction continues. There is a lot of underused land north of downtown in the Denny Triangle area as well as in our neighborhood. As Seattle continues to grow, these areas are prime targets for development.

Downtown Seattle is a fun, exciting place any time of year, but it's especially festive right now.

We went downtown on the day after Thanksgiving for the traditional tree lighting like we did last year. Like last year, it was a huge attraction. Unlike last year, the sound system didn't fail and they were able to launch fireworks. The tree is lit each evening along with a large star on the Macy's building.

There is also a carousel across the street. And further down Pine, Nordstrom has a Santa, who is always awaited by a long line of people to see him.

A lot of the buildings have changed their lights to red and green and and the trees downtown are covered with lights. And Pike Place Market has a cool holiday light display near the main entrance.

All this makes going downtown especially fun this time of year. Now, if only Seattle homeowners were as festive in their holiday decorations...

I read this morning that a 104-year-old church building in the Dallas neighborhood of Oak Cliff will likely be demolished so that a school can be built on the site. I suppose I've been living in Seattle for too long because I found this pretty shocking.

But now that I look back through the news at the recent history of preservation in Dallas, I remember how poorly the city and community treat historic buildings. A couple years ago, an 85-year-old East Dallas YWCA building was demolished. And last year, preservationists were shocked as a 1950s office building was demolished without warning.

Yeah, now I remember, this is how Dallas does things - it's in the name of progress.

One of the problems in Dallas is that the inner-city has been so neglected that anything seems better than abandoned buildings. But when you demolish a historic building, you destroy history, which is something that you can't get back, and one of the attractions that can help to revive and enliven the inner-city. That's not progress.

By contrast, Seattle recognizes that history and progress aren't polar opposites. New buildings stand side-by-side with re-purposed old buildings and the contrast adds further to creating an interesting and livable city, moving towards the future but respectful towards the past.

Heck, in Seattle, preservationists got landmark status for a former Denny's restaurant. The building was eventually demolished, but it came very close to preservation and was a top news story, showing the importance of preservation here.

Unfortunately, Dallas doesn't yet seem to know how to make progress while preserving history and in the process fails at both.

Australians are well exposed to American accents since they get a lot of our TV shows and movies. In the US, though, we don't often see or hear Australian accents. But, since we've gotten back, I've noticed more commercials with Australian accents than before. Outback steakhouse started an advertising campaign while we were gone. One of their commercials included scenes from Sydney, which we recognized before the narrator started talking (and before they showed the opera house). I've also seen a few Fosters beer commercials since we returned (though Fosters didn't seem nearly as popular in Australia as the commercials would imply). It's kind of neat to come back to the US and still hear the same accent from Australia.

We noticed a couple of things had changed since we left Seattle for two weeks. The most noticeable was that a lot of the leaves on trees have already changed colors and some trees have shed their leaves almost completely. The sun rises like 20 minutes later and sets like 20 minutes earlier than before we left. It's also a lot colder, with highs this week mostly in the 50s, compared to highs above 70 (including a high of 84) the week when we left.

One of the new buildings downtown has gotten closer to completion (after like a year and a half of construction) and the sidewalk finally opened up again, which will be nice. The scaffolding over one of the sidewalks on my way to work has been removed after being there as long as I can remember. I guess a lot of stuff can happen in two weeks.

I've mentioned before an interest in getting a bicycle but I've been somewhat deterred because bikes here seem expensive. And apparently Portland is the same way, as someone wrote of their experiences trying to find a cheap bike in Portland.

Still, what’s up with this bike micro-inflation? Why does there seem to be no market in Portland for used bikes that are actually cheap? Portland is otherwise a pretty cheap city. Beer is cheap. Used clothing is cheap. By major urban standards, housing is cheap too, unless you compare it to the strip-mall-type cities. And certainly there are plenty of people in town who can’t afford to spend $475 — never mind $1,000 — on a bike.

I asked a few people in town about this and got some general sense of agreement and common frustration: cheap bikes are impossible to find around here. The word on the street was that so many people are selling their cars (or taking their cars off the road) and using bikes to commute to work that there just aren’t enough bikes to go around.

Interestingly, he then looks at the median price for bikes and for cars on Craigslist and finds something very interesting:



Of a few sample cities, Seattle is the most expensive place to buy a bike from Craigslist (and the cheapest place to buy a car). There are lots of possibilities why the bike prices are higher here, but the cost of bicycles here seems to reflect the fact that lots of people (including me) want to have a bike to ride.

Our friend in Texas challenged us to a license plate game. Whoever gets to see all 50 states first wins. The rules are that you cannot go out of your way and make trips simply to see new license plates. It must be seen on your normal day to day routine. Also, U-haul vehicles, semis, and anything like that don't count. So, for the past month, we've been keeping track of the date we saw each new plate, the make and model of car, the color, and where we saw it.

The first few days we were playing were insane. It only took us 3 days to see 22 different plates, including Hawaii (16th state we saw). It's now been a month and we've seen 48 states (we're on pace to win). The only ones we need are Delaware and Kentucky. We were shocked to see Rhode Island this past weekend.

I had no idea that so many people drove to visit here or move here. In downtown alone on any given day, we usually see at least 5 different states other than Washington. The most common are Oregon, California, Colorado, Arizona, Nevada, and Texas or Illinois. We see a lot of British Columbia plates too, probably as much as we see Oregon.

Here's a map showing when we saw a plate from each state:

I don't know if we've ever posted about how unusual the names of places are here. Cities and towns in this area are named with Native American words and it's often not clear how to pronounce them. This is common in a lot of places, but the pronunciation of these names just seems more difficult to interpret. For a sampling, here's a list of nearby place names:

• Yakima


• Poulsbo


• Puyallup


• Tukwila


• Mukilteo


• Snohomish


• Enumclaw


• Snoqualmie


• Cle Elum


• Sequim


• Wenatchee


• Alki


• Skykomish


• Fife


• Stillaguamish (River)

As the housing industry continues its economic slump, house builders are finding that smaller homes are selling well in some markets. In fact, after significant increases in the average size of a new home, the average home size fell last year for the first time since 1994. These smaller homes are especially popular in Seattle as well as in Portland.

I've noticed that houses in general here seem to be smaller on average than those in Texas. Also, upscale neighborhoods here have lots of nice homes, but fewer and smaller McMansions. I'm not exactly sure why this is, but I'd speculate that since Seattle is a more dense urban area than many others nationwide, people here are used to things being more compact and build homes more appropriate for a city than for a ranch. It seems to be a cultural thing, and I get the sense that many people think of larger homes and McMansions as being tacky, whereas I rarely got that sense when I lived in Texas. And, while I'm speculating, I'll speculate that a higher cost of here makes smaller homes more attractive, too.

Anyway, I always find it interesting when Seattle is mentioned for being different from other parts of the country, and thought I'd offer my comments on smaller houses being popular here.

One of the most common internet searches that brings people to our blog is "how expensive is it to live in Seattle?" We've talked about this before, but figured we could do some deeper analysis than what we've offered before.

The short answer to the question is: go to Sperling's BestPlaces Cost Of Living Comparison, enter your current salary, and compare your current city to Seattle to see how much your salary would need to increase to maintain the same lifestyle. Overall, the cost of living in Seattle is 32% more than the national average. We've found the difference to be less, but we've also made adjustments in our lifestyle to minimize the higher cost of living here. Keep reading for a more detailed analysis of how expensive it is to live here.

Job Market

The first thing many people interested in moving here would want to know is how the economy is doing. Seattle has a strong, diverse economy, compared to the national average, with major area employers including Boeing, Port of Seattle, Alaska Airlines, and Microsoft. The unemployment rate in Seattle was 6.3% in December 2008, compared to the national unemployment rate of 7.2%. Seattle is one of the most-educated cities in the US, with industries including aerospace, computer science, and biotechnology.

Housing

The median home price in Seattle is $591,000, which is 172% higher than the national average of $217,200. Trulia has a real estate overview of the city. As a compliment to the city, some people would say you get what you pay for. Seattle hasn't been hit as hard by the housing bubble as other cities, though home prices have still fallen some. Speaking from experience, the high cost for renting here impacted us more than any other increased expense. Also, based on my observations, while houses here are more expensive than in other places, they're also more modestly sized on smaller lots.

Also, from what I've observed, most condos start at around $300,000, though some start in the mid $200,000s. Also, apartments in the inner city without income restrictions start at around $1,000/month + parking costs. I'm sure rates start lower farther from the center of the city. To get a better idea of what you'd have to pay for housing, you'd have to do a more specific search.

Food

Food here costs 11% more than the national average. There is also more tasty, local produce here than in many other parts of the country. Still, since we've moved here, we've been paying a lot more for groceries than we did in Texas, partially because they're more expensive here and partially because we've been buying more groceries instead of eating out because eating out costs more here too. As we mention here, there just aren't as many places to eat for cheap, and it seems like the places here that are labeled as "$" cost as much as the places labeled as "$$" in Dallas/Fort Worth.

Utilities

The WhiteFence Index has details on utility costs in 21 major cities and the costs for utilities in Seattle are below the median of these cities. It estimates an average utilities bill of $274 and even breaks down costs by categories - phone, electricity, natural gas, etc.

From an anecdotal perspective, electricity costs here are lower than what we paid in Texas. We're paying a quarter of what we were paying in Texas per kilowatt and we're actually paying much less than that - like $10/month - because we don't have to run air conditioning (in fact, we don't have it). However, water costs are higher at about 35 hundredths of a cent per gallon. The two of us pay around $65 per month for water. Cable TV seems to cost more here, too, with basic cable costing $55/month through Comcast. We pay about $40/month for DSL internet, which also seems like a lot. Of course different companies offer different levels of service so utility costs will vary.

Transportation/gasoline

The price for gasoline in Seattle tends to be about 10% above the national average with gas prices in the area being among the higher gas prices in the nation. However, due to higher density than many cities and a well-used public transportation system, I would estimate that people in Seattle drive less than people in many other cities, so the monthly cost of gas here is possibly lower on average than in other parts of the country.

Taxes

Different places assess different taxes in different ways, but overall I'd say the tax burden here doesn't seem too bad, since Washington is one of the seven states that doesn't have personal income tax. Sales tax in Seattle is a bit high, ranging from 9% - 9.5%. Property Tax $10.17 per $1,000 of home value, which is 23% below the US average of $13.28 per $1,000 of home value. Overall, taxes here don't seem bad to me.

Summary

There is no single answer to the question "How expensive is it to live in Seattle?" because expenses are different for everyone. Many things do cost more in Seattle than in other parts of the country, but how much more depends on you and the choices you make. The higher cost for housing will be the most immediately noticeable for many people, but other things like food and gas cost more as well. To get a better idea of what it would cost for you to live here, you might want to start by looking for a home you might want and see how much it costs. For us, the cost increases were minimized because moving to Seattle allowed us to make lifestyle changes (selling a car and driving less) to save money. If anyone has any more questions, we'd be happy to answer in the comments or by email.

After living here for a full year, I know what I like and what I don't like about living in Seattle. Fortunately, I like what I like a lot more than I dislike what I dislike. Here are the three things I like most about living here, in order:

1. 
   Livable Urbanity - There are shops and restaurants in our neighborhood and we live close to other lively inner-city neighborhoods. There are plenty of shops, restaurants, and residences within walking distance, which means that there's plenty to see and do and other people out seeing and doing. A lot of other stuff is just a bus-ride away. There are many historic or otherwise interesting buildings nearby and a lot of public art, especially downtown. All of this contributes to making Seattle a walkable city. It has been great being able to walk to the park or to shop or see a movie and living here has convinced me that I would never choose to live in a car-dependent area again.


2. Outdoors - The natural beauty here is incredible. On clear days you can see mountains to the east and west, including the most prominent peak in North America. We have three national parks within a few hours' drive. The city is surrounded by plenty of hiking and other outdoor opportunities around mountains, streams, and old-growth forest and within the city are several big parks with plenty of walking/hiking trails.


3. Weather - Aside from winter, the weather here has been a great fit for me: I don't like hot weather and don't mind cool weather and rain. There are a lot of refreshingly cool days, which are great for going outside with a jacket. A few summer days were too hot, but the weather was mostly ideal with temperatures in the 70s and clear skies. There are very few days that are too inhospitable for me to want to spend time outside, with the exception of winter, which I discuss in greater detail below.

Here are the things I don't like, in order:

1. Not being able to watch Cowboys games - This was probably the single most annoying thing about living here over the past year. Some of the games were broadcast at 10:00, which is early and during church. Only about 1/3 of the games were broadcast locally, so for all the rest of the games we had to go to a sports bar. It got better as we got more used to it, but it still sucked not being able to watch the games in the comfort of home.


2. Winter - Working indoors all day without windows, with the sun rising around 8 and setting around 4:30, was tough. The sun came out, but I didn't get to see it much. On top of that, snowfall and ice shut down the city for several days (which is somewhat rare, I'm told) and almost canceled our flight to Texas for Christmas. I'd say the nice summer makes up for the uncomfortable winter, which is why I'm really looking forward to the end of winter.


3. Roads and how people drive on them - The thing that first greeted us when we arrived in Washington was the rough sound of the highways followed shortly by clumps of slow drivers, predominantly in the left lane. The roads in the city are worse, with potholes practically everywhere, fortunately the drivers aren't as obnoxious as on the freeway. Traffic is supposedly bad here, too, but I'm affected by traffic much less than I was when I lived in Dallas. Good thing we don't drive much.

Overall, I'm happy to be living here. The livable urbanity and outdoors are two strong assets of the Pacific Northwest that are hard to find together elsewhere in the country and make up for the relatively insignificant complaints I have about living in Seattle.

There seems to be a lot more graffiti here than there was in Dallas/Fort Worth despite how much less run-down the inner city is here. I think the Metroplex has strict graffiti enforcement laws, however the laws here don't seem that lenient either. The city has a graffiti report form online that people can use to notify the city so that property owners can be notified. Graffiti doesn't bother me much, but it can make an area seem unsafe or neglected and encourage even more vandalism, so it's good to get things cleaned up.

We were walking through the mall this weekend for the first time in a while. I saw a stand with bus route information in the middle of the mall, which I thought seemed a little strange for a suburban mall. I wouldn't expect to see that kind of thing in Texas.

One of the small differences I've noticed here is that all the milk jugs come with a cap that screws on instead of a cap that pops on. The pop-on style cap was the common kind of lid in Texas and the kind I prefer. It seems that there are more problems with this screw-on lid, including spills when pouring, and it also seems that more milk dries around the edge and sometimes falls off. I remember as a kid having some problems with the pop-top lid, but I think it's a better design overall and I miss it.

One thing I really noticed on our Christmas trip to Texas is how fast everyone drives. The speed limit on most freeways is 60, but most drivers were doing 70 or faster. People tailgate all the time and cut you off. I like to complain about how people here drive so slow, but I guess it's better than driving insanely like they do in Texas and feeling like your life is at risk. I wish these places weren't so extreme, somewhere in the middle would be nice.