? for Bay Area transplants (Seattle, Bellevue: rent, condo, buying a house)

[orzo]

Originally Posted by 99Problems

Thanks Orzo. We are trying to stay within 30 mins of downtown Seattle/SeaTac since the 1st 6 months to 1 year i'll be commuting back to SF for work several days a week. I get the impression Kirkland is starting to get out of that range from what I can tell on the map. But those shots of the downtown fall in line with what we were thinking about. Have to do some more research on Kirkland. At first blush I thought schools were not quite as good as the Issaquah/Bellevue area in general.

And yes Andy, ANYTHING is cheaper than Palo Alto pretty much. We are in Burlingame now, which is only slightly less expensive. $850 - $1000 per sq ft in my zip to buy. Its nuts

Kirkland is about 22 minutes from Downtown Seattle and 30 minutes from SeaTac, according to Google Maps - so it may be just on the edge of your range. I honestly think it's your best bet. You'd be pretty close to Bellevue and not too far from 520, which leads you into some cool North Seattle neighborhoods like U District, Wallingford, Fremont and Ballard. Given your criteria, it could be a great fit.

Speaking of which, I'd highly recommend looking at Ballard too.

Here is Downtown Ballard:
https://maps.google.com/maps?q=balla...304.88,,0,12.7

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=balla...,279.8,,0,2.56

And here are some single family homes less than a mile away:

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=balla...90.64,,0,12.34


Greenwood should be on your radar too. It's a nice, family-friendly area with a great commercial strip about 20 blocks long and some nice homes with excellent views.

https://maps.google.com/maps?q=balla...206.08,,0,7.49

Check out Bothell and Burien, as well, if you have a chance. They're probably not as good as Kirkland or Ballard (or Greenwood), but I always think the more places you see, the better chance you'll have at making the right decision.

[RVD90277]

I think the closest to Palo Alto and those neighborhoods is Kirkland. You have a downtown Kirkland area with restaurants and things like that as well as tree lined streets.

Bellevue is a little busier with high rises, office buildings, a big mall, etc. In some ways it's also a bit like Palo Alto near Stanfurd (where the mall is located).

And not that you asked but Green Lake always reminds me of the Lake Merritt area in Oakland.

[MaikeerinWA]

Pleasanton is also similar in some ways (again without quite the downtown high-rise aspect). Bellevue has a significant corporate headquarters presence as does Pleasanton, to an extent. About the only people who won't find Bellevue crazy expensive are those from the Bay Area.

Originally Posted by 99Problems

Thanks Hemlock, Walnut Creek is a helpful comparison. I'd read that Bellevue, Issaquah and Sammamish were all pretty close in school ratings, but had read mixed things about kirkland public schools.

[99Problems]

Originally Posted by MichaelinWA

Pleasanton is also similar in some ways (again without quite the downtown high-rise aspect). Bellevue has a significant corporate headquarters presence as does Pleasanton, to an extent. About the only people who won't find Bellevue crazy expensive are those from the Bay Area.

thanks, starting to form a picture of Bellevue with these comparisons. Real estate cost in the bay area does distort your perception of expensive, no doubt.

With all the plugs for Kirkland, I'm taking a look at some of the homes up there, and they are a bit less than Issaquah/Bellevue for similar square footage, but not a HUGE drop (at least whats currently listed).

School scores seem to be higher for those servicing the southern end of Kirkland too.

[Andy Patrizio]

Originally Posted by 99Problems

And yes Andy, ANYTHING is cheaper than Palo Alto pretty much. We are in Burlingame now, which is only slightly less expensive. $850 - $1000 per sq ft in my zip to buy. Its nuts

The Silicon Valley is screwing up the whole area. Flooding the region with a lot of $100k engineers just wrecked rents. I lived in Belmont and paid $1250 for a nice place. I checked back, it's now $1850. That's the price for being 1 mile from Oracle, I guess.

[ctr88]

There isn't anything that quite replicates Palo Alto in Seattle. But the other posters have given some good choices on the Eastside like Kirkland and Redmond.

I would say the Eastside (Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah, Kirkland etc..) is more analogous the Peninsula and Contra Costa County (Walnut Creek, Danville, Pleasonton). And the Seattle neighborhoods of Cap Hill, Queen Anne, Fremont, Ballard, etc... are more like living in San Francisco or Berkeley/Oakland.

Yes anything in Seattle will be VASTLY cheaper then Palo Alto. I think Palo Alto may have the highest concentration of residents with $100 million+ net worths in the U.S. And a few with $1 billion+ net worth.

[99Problems]

Thanks for all the suggestions, really appreciate it. I'd lived in SF for 7 years before moving to the peninsula, but really like the pace better than SF, so thinking the east side may be the better target than Seattle proper at this point. The thought of trying to rent first crossed my mind to better appreciate the area we want to settle in, but in looking for rentals, the market in these areas don't seem to offer much for home rentals. Not too much to choose from if you have a dog, and what is available tends to be kind of run down.

The 100K+ engineers aren't the ones that tipped the scales here I don't think. Its more likely a combo of stock millionaires (who gobbled up Palo Alto/Los Altos/Hillsborough/Burlingame) along with cash investors from seemingly EVERY part of the world (Many foreign investors have bought several homes each in very pricey areas, all cash, in the 2008 - 2010 span). Those two things then forced all the 100K engineers into rental situations in other surrounding cities. Belmont, San Mateo, San Carlos all falling victim to crazy rent. My wife and I combined make very good money, even by bay area standards, and yet we still can't afford to buy in the areas that provide good public schools. So we stay and rent for the next 18 years... Or we head to Seattle area :-)

[Relegate]

Originally Posted by ctr88

There isn't anything that quite replicates Palo Alto in Seattle. But the other posters have given some good choices on the Eastside like Kirkland and Redmond.

I would say the Eastside (Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah, Kirkland etc..) is more analogous the Peninsula and Contra Costa County (Walnut Creek, Danville, Pleasonton). And the Seattle neighborhoods of Cap Hill, Queen Anne, Fremont, Ballard, etc... are more like living in San Francisco or Berkeley/Oakland.

Yes anything in Seattle will be VASTLY cheaper then Palo Alto. I think Palo Alto may have the highest concentration of residents with $100 million+ net worths in the U.S. And a few with $1 billion+ net worth.

The Eastside reminds me more of Contra Costa County, but there is nothing like the Peninsula in the Puget Sound region.

Capitol Hill and Lower Queen Anne might feel a little like San Francisco-light, but Fremont and Ballard are more residential and don't really feel that urban overall (although both are walkable with great restaurants and bars) - I suppose they are on par with some of the more neighborhoody parts of Berkeley and North Oakland.

[Andy Patrizio]

Originally Posted by ctr88

I would say the Eastside (Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah, Kirkland etc..) is more analogous the Peninsula and Contra Costa County (Walnut Creek, Danville, Pleasonton). And the Seattle neighborhoods of Cap Hill, Queen Anne, Fremont, Ballard, etc... are more like living in San Francisco or Berkeley/Oakland.

Which explains why those areas have Jim McDermott as their representative.

[Gentoo]

Originally Posted by ctr88

There isn't anything that quite replicates Palo Alto in Seattle. But the other posters have given some good choices on the Eastside like Kirkland and Redmond.

I would say the Eastside (Bellevue, Redmond, Issaquah, Kirkland etc..) is more analogous the Peninsula and Contra Costa County (Walnut Creek, Danville, Pleasonton). And the Seattle neighborhoods of Cap Hill, Queen Anne, Fremont, Ballard, etc... are more like living in San Francisco or Berkeley/Oakland.

Yes anything in Seattle will be VASTLY cheaper then Palo Alto. I think Palo Alto may have the highest concentration of residents with $100 million+ net worths in the U.S. And a few with $1 billion+ net worth.

Pleasanton is in Alameda County. Nothing in the Puget Sound area really reminds me much of Contra Costa County. Wait I take that back, just not the parts you mentioned. I guess it would remind me of the "Lamorinda" area the most.