Seattle, WA Reviews

A Bright Star just a bit tinged with age - 3/17/2023
I have lived here since 1975, I moved here from California but was born and raised in Michigan. I would have to say that I never regretted leaving Michigan and their brutal winters and overly conservative culture. I loved California when I moved to it in 1971, I was young and California had an energy to it unlike Michigan and I lived near Santa Cruz where the weather was great, the beaches incredible and the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains breathtaking. It was for me like living in paradise.
My work brought me to Seattle in late 1975 which at the time was still recovering from the Boeing bust. Housing was very affordable although culturally it was lacking and there weren't very many good cafes and restaurants. Rush hour traffic was non existent and skiing was only a 30 minute drive and with vistas framed by water and mountains in every direction. People were provincial, a bit weary of newcomers at first but if you made the effort to get to know them and they Read More

Bittersweet - 6/12/2022
I’ve lived in Seattle for just under 7 years and while it can be a stunningly beautiful place, I am very excited to leave. I’ll start with some of the positive aspects. I’d say the biggest positive is that it is full of plants, big trees, etc. They don’t call it the Evergreen State for no reason. Many people in Seattle’s neighborhoods have beautiful gardens. Despite having many plants, Seattle is one of the best places to live if you have seasonal allergies. You’ll see very few huge grass lawns like so much of America has. So many places have clear cut for new subdivisions, but not Seattle. There are also a lot of high-paying jobs here, but consider whether the COL and other disadvantages will be worth the extra income. Next big positive is the summer climate. Summer here is usually very pleasant and rarely ever uncomfortably hot and almost never humid. Temps usually in the mid 70s and sunny during summer. Another major positive is the availability of great food. There are tons of Read More

great place to live, but very expensive - 5/28/2022
if you can afford it, Seattle is a very nice place to live and raise a family! however, it is extremely expensive and in the winter, it's rather gloomy. i love gloomy weather, but most of you might not. Seattle is easily one of the best cities in America in my opinion. i'm from Denver, Colorado and i've lived in Seattle for 10 years before, i would love to go back! this city is wonderful with plenty of great food, good culture, amazing schools, outstanding water quality, good air quality, very low crime compared to 90% of cities in America, and is overall an amazing place. i will admit, it's expensive and rather overpopulated, but what city doesn't have those Read More

Good to visit but not to live - 4/8/2022
I've lived here for 15 years. Seattle downtown, including Cap Hill is not nice place to live, dangerous crazy people running wild, noisy, and expensive. Seattle is built on a steep hill so riding a bicycle is very difficult. And with the weather is usually cold and wet. South Seattle is located along a river, which is great living space, but instead is a polluted industrial wasteland. The North Seattle area has nice areas but are very expensive, over $1 million. Same with the Eastside Bellevue and Issaquah. This is where most of the the middle and upper class family neighborhoods are located. The whole area has beautiful weather for about 3 or 4 months in the Summer. The rest of the year is gloomy, cold, and wet. There are only two highways running North and South and they are always congested with traffic. Property taxes, sales, and gas taxes are high, but there is no personal income tax. The minimum wage is the highest in the country so expect higher prices. Good Read More

Wonderful city, if you like being depressed - 3/21/2022
Lived here 24 years, was in Southern Oregon before that. I've missed small town Oregon starting the exact day we moved to Seattle. There is a difficult to measure miasma in this place, hard to name it but you can feel it weighing on you. Call it depressing, oppressive, abysmal, dark, hopeless, suffocating, I don't know but it's palpable. Maybe it's all the forest clear cuts in every direction, especially when you drive through the peninsula to the coast, maybe its that all the beautiful, sort-of-wild places within a 50 mile radius are choked with crowds and gleaming, expensive SUV's jockeying aggressively for parking at the trailhead, maybe its that all the land in every direction is either privately owned and off limits, or some kind of park or state forest that's absolutely jammed with people on the weekends, maybe it's the traffic, maybe it's the "Seattle Freeze." Then also could be the depressing weather, maybe it's the frenetic pace of things, the sighing of slumped, desperate Read More

Don’t do it, this state is a complete MISTAKE - 1/4/2022
I have lived here my whole life, born and raised. To be honest with you.. I HATE IT! This is a transition state, we don’t have many natives here. Everyone is from every where but HERE and is looking to save money and leave, And with good reason. The people that ARE from here are VERY passive aggressive and “nice nasty”. Smile and say one thing but stab you in the back and do something completely different. Don’t get me wrong the state it’s self is absolutely breathtaking, but unless your a corporate employee or own a very successful business owner you’ll get very few chances to enjoy the beautiful things we offer because you’ll be to busy trying to survive and live. It’s WAY to expensive here!!! If you enjoy rude people, passive behavior in the office, snakes called “friends “ 80% rain and clouds, a poor pool of dateable humans, EVERYONE knowing EACH OTHER and I mean EVERYONE. gossip, Facebook pages full of exposing your “bf” or “gf” pointless and deviating shootings .. racial Read More

Great and beautiful place to live, but expensive. - 9/5/2021
I was born there. I spent 57 years there before moving to the other side of the country. There is no income tax. It is surrounded by nature, including mountains and water, beautiful place to live. It's a safe place to live. It has great food choices, great job opportunities. Microsoft, Amazon, and Nintendo of America are headquartered there. There is only a few downsides to this place. It includes poor traffic, homeless and poverty rates are going up, and it's getting more Read More

DONT MOVE HERE SAVE YOURSELF - 9/3/2021
I’ve lived in it for 5 years and throughout it all the people are antisocial and hostile to people different than Read More

Expensive is an understatement - 8/20/2021
Hahaha! I can't believe Best Places lists the cost of living as it does. I consulted this site before moving there 18 months ago from Vancouver, WA. 7% more expensive on food? I think not! Try 20-30%. Gas is easily $0.80 cents more a gallon, and misc is 50-100% more expensive. The cost of even a standard haircut at Great Clips will run you $30+. Don't even get me started on how grumpy and ill-mannered people are here... probably because you have to make $60k a year to even scrape by. The weather and the proximity to the mountains and salt water were the only perks, in my opinion. It's been a miserable run and I cannot wait to leave. The break ins, crime, drugs, and violent homeless are enough to make anyone want to leave. Read More

Seattle - Crime is killing the city - 7/29/2021
I’ve lived in Seattle for 6 years. When I moved to the city it was lively, fun, and relatively safe for a big city. Seattle is surrounded by mountains and water. The city itself is gorgeous, but now it is too dangerous to walk down the street after 5pm. Gun violence is way up and so is rent. Homicides are already past yearly average in 6 months. It breaks my heart to see a beautiful city turn into a dark place. There are no consequences for breaking the law. Criminals are out in 24 hours after murdering pets, rape, violence etc. For 5 months people have been throwing concrete on cars that are coming into the city from the interstate. Homelessness and mental illness is a huge issue that continues to grow. Somehow the city continues to get more expensive though. I know many professionals who are starting to search elsewhere for work especially if this upcoming election winners continue to value lawlessness. I hope Seattle can turn around. It slipped quickly the past few years. Read More