Belltown at 4th or 5th is pretty good. The Lyric is a GREAT location - young vibe, groceries, restaurants, shops. Maybe get a beater bike to ride up and down the hill. Since I’m trying to recruit him into the mountaineering community, Seattle Bouldering Project is not too far and an incredible hangout for 20-somethings.
Kind of off topic, but what is @kiddie hearing from her D who moved here in July?
Time is going very fast, I was able to move my daughter in and have also visited another time (I feel like I have gottn to know the city pretty well). She is enjoying her time there,playing tourist (had some friends visit and played tour guide for them). Her location has worked out well - she walks to/from work most days - we watched the big light parade from just a block away (I happened to be there that weekend), she has gone to the various events at the Seattle Center (bite of Seattle, movies at the mural, etc.). She got herself a membership at the glass museum (allows her to bring guests for free in the evening) and got a Seattle library card. She loves the food trucks for lunch and in general has enjoyed all the food.
Jeez, reading about all these rents makes me think that we need to hike ours. Our condos are all 2-3 bedroom, nice condos, renting between $1250-$1500 within commuting distance of Seattle. No wonder our tenants aren’t moving.
busdriver, I know for my son, he really is looking for a first year place now. Without a car, and knowing very few people, it makes sense to stay in the city center, but I’m guessing he will be willing to move after that and not pay so darn much. I have to say that I’m getting used to hearing these numbers - my daughter is living in downtown DC and my son lives in Brooklyn. Stupid high rents are the norm.
Busdriver, go look on apartments.com or zillow to see what rents are now in your area for similar properties. Of course, what was “within commuting distance” several years ago might be a lousy commute given traffic now… I thought the traffic during commuting hours was absolutely horrible when I was there recently looking at apartments. I commute in traffic now daily in a relatively large city, but I thought Seattle’s was much, much worse. As I am a consultant and can end up traveling anywhere for work, commuting location has jumped to the top of my criteria list.
intparent, I hope you got a little taste of that traffic when it rained and UW was in session. Otherwise, this summer was really too dry and too nice for the traffic to reveal its actual ugliness.
Capitol Hill.
Tuesday-Thursday the area around the Westin Hotel will be closed to traffic; the Chinese Premier will be in town. 4th to 7th and Lenora to Olive.
At some point he will be heading up to Everett, so traffic on I5 will be at a standstill.
Yup. Just what I need next week! 
No… first week of August, and it was sunny all week. 
Uh-oh…
“Busdriver, go look on apartments.com or zillow to see what rents are now in your area for similar properties. Of course, what was “within commuting distance” several years ago might be a lousy commute given traffic now… I thought the traffic during commuting hours was absolutely horrible when I was there recently looking at apartments. I commute in traffic now daily in a relatively large city, but I thought Seattle’s was much, much worse. As I am a consultant and can end up traveling anywhere for work, commuting location has jumped to the top of my criteria list.”
I should really do that. However, we have never raised the rent on a tenant, we just raise it when they move out, for the next person. Our tenants all seem to have a lot of debt and not much income, I know they can’t easily afford a rent hike, so we feel bad raising it. Plus they are all pleasant easy to work with people, and we are total suckers.
We rarely drive in rush hour traffic, but got a taste of it lately. How awful to have to drive that every day! We just avoid rush hour.
Not to derail the thread, but I am looking on what I guess might be the far edge of the Capitol Hill neighborhood (near where it meets Madison Valley). There are a couple of buildings there in my price range with good online reviews, reasonable walk scores, and the crime index seems okay. I drove around them (did not go in), and they seem like good possibilities if they have 2 brs available when I am ready to move. It seems like it isn’t wildly difficult to get on 520 from there if I need to go to the east side for work, and public transit (bus) looks like a pretty quick/straight shot to downtown as well. I found another building I really liked over in Ballard, but that wouldn’t be as centrally located for commuting. I will probably live in whatever place I rent for 1-2 years, then possibly buy if I am sure I am staying (yes, I know the prices are skyrocketing!).
I’d give a twenty-something five years plus before they decide to move away from the central city and commute. At that stage they don’t even know how long they will stay at a given job. Plus- we thought our son might want to buy instead of continuing to rent but from what I saw of the mad building going on I would not be shocked to find values perhaps going down if they overbuilt. Or a newer, taller build close by makes any views worse et al. I counted no fewer than 7 large cranes from our hotel room last November and saw condos (apts) with narrow alley views from the Hyatt Place ( a great hotel to stay in, btw). Seattle definitely has growing pains. But- I think it’s a great place for young college grads.
The museum on the shore of South Lake Union is excellent- be sure to visit it. Will the last person to leave please turn out the lights- a reference to the 1970’s bust- sign caught my attention in view of the recent boom.
Summer is definitely the time to visit Seattle (not November like we did our last trip to see some people along with son)- nicer weather and long days.
We’re really hoping our twenty something only stays on the West Coast for a maximum of five years!
So I did what you suggested, @intparent, and found that the condos that we rent for $1,250-$1500, Zillow says they should rent for an average of $1,500-$1,800, and up to $400 more than that. Wow, what a difference. Our insurance, HOA dues and property taxes keep going up, but we never raise the rent. Still probably not going to raise the rent, but I guess I won’t feel bad if someone moves out. I really hate going through the rigamarole when a tenant moves out, fixing it up and getting a new tenant, but at least I know we can rent it for a lot more! Thanks for the advice.
Son arrived in Seattle Saturday night and walked around Belltown and Capitol Hill Sunday. He’s staying in Capitol Hill and his initial feeling is that he likes that area more. He ended up seeing four apartment buildings in Belltown - Three he had appointments for and the fourth was a walk-in. All of them had one bedrooms apartments in his price range and two of them had loft style apartments. I can see the appeal of a loft, but not sure if having to go up and down the stairs to use the bathroom, once you go to bed, would get old fast.
He said all were nice, but he’d probably knock out one just because it was a little further away and didn’t have w/d in the apartment. However, that one had a large kitchen party room available to reserve, which appealed. He’s not a big time cook, but it’s something he likes to do with friends.
Best of all, to this Mom’s ears, was the excitement in his voice as he talked about the possibilities!
Just an update… After staying in an airbnb for about 3 weeks, son moved into an apartment in Capitol Hill. He found a roommate from some roommate matching site and she needed someone for her second bedroom. She works at a well known tech company and is his age. The apartment, even shared, is quite expensive, but it has everything he wanted. I think he said the lease was for nine months so if it doesn’t work out, he can move after that. Coincidentally, the week before that my daughter moved to an apartment in Brooklyn, also very expensive, but she has ten times more stuff (She rented a u-haul truck, son carried two suitcases) so is finding the small space more of a challenge. Son, OTOH bought a bed and that is all the furniture he has!
Thanks for the update and glad he found something. Hope he likes even though the long gray is setting in and the sun disappears for a few months.
Kudos for less stuff. It’s a smart way to live while single and renting.
Yes, thanks for the updates. I hope he’ll like it here.
Speaking of the Seattle grey - I think he said that Saturday was the first time it rained since he moved. I’m not too worried about him dealing with the long winter - he’s been living in Vermont for four years where winter is about to start and temps didn’t get up above freezing from probably November until at least the end of March, but more likely April.