Live in Seattle

 

Great things about living in Seattle

1.Extordinary coffee culture. Starbucks was first born in Seattle but there are many other local coffee shops claiming themselves as the best coffee in the country. One of the local’s favorite cup is espresso in “Vivace”.

2. Not only coffee tastes different in Seattle, so does Beer. Seattle is home to 20 local breweries. Those awesome local brew will surely blow your mind.

3. If you’re looking for a job in tech, Forbes rated Seattle “The Best City in America for Tech Jobs” in 2012.

4. Seattle is “America’s #1 Most Literate City” and the Seattle Public Library system has the highest percentage of library card-holders per capital in the country.

5. Seattle is ranked #4 of the safest city in the USA.

6. Seattle is the home to legendary musician such as Jimi Hendrix, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden, and Nirvana. They still pride all different kind of music scenes.

7. You can visit Canada, go climb up on a mountain and come back in same day.

8. You go for 30 minutes drive and you get get lost in natural wonderland.

9. If you are seafood lover, this is it. Seattle is famous for their fantastic seafood such as Pacific oysters, salmon, geoduck, clams, and mussels…oh no, you can’t get enough of it!

10. You can see a real whale swimming in the sea.

 

Things you should know when moving to Seattle

If you are looking to move to Seattle, there are things you better know beforehand in order to be mentally ready.
Here are the things that you should know before moving to Seattle.

1. There are words go “The Seattle freeze”. What it means is that Seattleites (Seattle natives) are sort of cool when meeting new comers, but it doesn’t mean that they don’t welcome you but they are just behaving a bit conservative. No worries, make a toast with some awesome local brews and have good laugh with them. They will treat you like a local a moment after!

2. It rains 140 days per year. Though Seattleits never really mind this and in a fact, they don’t even use umbrella.

3. There are many people commute by ferry. There is ferry system servicing the Puget Sound and the San Juan Islands. Each day, more than 75,000 Puget Sound residents commute by fefrry.

4. Seattle is a home to some of the most well know tech companies such as Microsoft, amazon and boeing.

5. Seattle law forbids residents from throwing “significant amounts of recyclables” in the garbage. If more than ten percent of the volume of your trash is made up of recyclables your garbage will not be picked up by sanitation workers. The first two times you do that you’ll receive a written warning and after that you’ll receive a $50 fine.

6. Seattle is the mecca for Geeks, so you won’t need to worry about being too geeky. You may even be able to find the most attractive geek girlfriend or geek boyfriend you have dreamed of.

7. If you are gay, congratulation! You found the right city! Seattle takes huge pride on human rights and it is one of the 12 states that legally allows gay marriage.

8. People love watching professional games such as American foot ball and baseball. Seattle is home to Seattle howks and seattle Mariners.

9. There are plenty of option what kind of house your live in. You can live in high rise condo in downtown, or you can settle down in a house with 6 bed rooms in quiet neighborhood, or you can even live in boathouse floating on lake!

10. Seattle does have earthquakes.

11. Seattle is America’s #1 Most Literate City and the Seattle Public Library system has the highest percentage of library card-holders per capital in the country.

12. You can feed chickens in your backyard. It is very common to have a chicken ranching in backyard. You will hear people talking about how their chicks are doing today.

 

Cost of living in Seattle

Groceries
Milk (1ltr) $0.96 USD
Egg (12) $2.46 USD
Rice (1kg) $4.44 USD
Pack of Cigarettes (Marlboro) $8.80 USD

Rent per month
Apartment (1 bedroom) in City Centre $1,661.86 USD
Apartment (3 bedrooms) in City Centre $3,335.00 USD

Median House Price
Condo $349.000 USD
Single-Family Home Detached $526.000 USD

Source: http://www.numbeo.com/cost-of-living/city_result.jsp?country=United+States&city=Seattle%2C+WA

 

Best place to live in Seattle

If you want to live in the hidden gems for wealthy, I mean by the wealthiest neighborhood where Bill Gates and other billionaires live, go east of Seattle. Those rich folks do not actually live in Seattle but they live just outside of the city on to East, such as Medina, Mercer Island and Hunts point. For example, Bill Gate’s mega mansion sits on lake side of Medina.

If you wish to live inside of Seattle with other rich people, go for Laurelhurst, where you can have your million dollar mini boat parking at your private dock on lake Washington.

If you are looking for a bit more affordable but still decent neighborhood in Seattle, look for somewhere around lake Union.

Queen Anne, Magnolia, University District, Bryant, Ravenna, Sunset Hill, Fremont, Phinney Ridge and Ballard are popular among families looking for safe yet convenient location with good schools (most of public elementary schools in the area have school rating of 9 or 10, according to greatschool.com).

According to “Best Neighborhoods in Seattle” by streetadvisor.com, people chose Sunset Hill as #1 neighborhood in Seattle, followed by Magnolia and Fremont as second and third.

 

Worst place to live in Seattle

Seattle is the #4 of Safest city in the USA.

I try to look for area where is not safe or shady however, honestly, I could not find that kind of area.

Although, crime rate is higher in downtown area the same thing happens to any big cities in the USA. Seattle is much safer city  compare to other big cities in the USA and there is not really a specific area that you should avoid living.

 

Top schools in Seattle

Top public elementary schools in Seattle:
All the schools listed below received grade 10 according to greatschools.com

  • Loyal Heights Elementary School
  • Daniel Bagley Elementary School
  • Coe Elementary School
  • Whittier Elementary School
  • West Woodland Elementary School
  • North Beach Elementary School
  • Lawton Elementary School
  • John Stanford International Elementary School
  • Laurelhurst Elementary School
  • Bryant Elementary School
  • Wedgwood Elementary School
  • View Ridge Elementary School
  • Hay Elementary School

Source: http://www.greatschools.org/washington/seattle/schools/?gradeLevels=e

 

Top high schools in Seattle (with state ranking):

1.Roosevelt High School (state ranking #8)
2. Garfield High School (#9)
3. Ballard High School (#21)
4. Nathan Hale High School (#48)

Source: http://www.usnews.com/education/best-high-schools/washington/districts/seattle-public-schools

 

Good Universities in Seattle

1. University of Washington (US raking #48)
2. Seattle University (Regional ranking #5)

Source: http://colleges.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/best-colleges/rankings