I was talking to someone who had moved to Seattle from Buffalo, NY. He was concerned about the rain in Seattle so he looked at the weather stats and found the amount of rainfall was about the same in both places. No problem he thought.

After he moved here, he found that in Buffalo, it rains, really rains, then it's over and done with. In Seattle it mists and spits, the skies are gray, no sun, you get the idea.

I've seen transplants go both ways. Some deal with it, others can't wait to get back to someplace normal.

I put up with all that because Summer here can't be beat.

 

Smokee has a point - IIRC the total rainfall here is about midpack nationally but the # of overcast days and number of days w/ precip are very high here.

 

I'm moving there from Texas. Already bought my house and my wife will be moving next month. I'll be there off and on until I sell the Texas house. You'll love the weather there. Spring, Summer and early Fall the weather is perfect in my opinion. Late Fall and Winter the days are short and overcast and a fair amount of drizzely rain (similar to London). Don't believe BS that it rain all the time. They just say that to keep more Californians from moving there.

 

Yeah, sometimes we just call it showers.

The forecast

 

Looking at a couple of jobs at the moment, both are in Seattle or nearby towns. What neighborhoods are good around there (looking to buy a single family home or townhome)? My family consists of my son (about 2 yrs), wife, dog (beagle - 7 yrs) and I. We have our second child cming in early June. Looking for a family friendly neigborhood with good daycares, schools and easy access to hospitals, shopping etc. Thanks!

 

It kind of depends on which "nearby towns" you are talking about. And it depends a lot on your price range.

 

I recommend Greenlake / Phinney / Greenwood. I love it here and I still have a intact soft top and wheels

 

I second Nancy's recommendation, but will say that given your location, you will run into sticker shock at the real estate here.

And since you have an S2000, you're not going to find many houses in Ratgirl's area with nice garage. These houses are kinda... old looking, but the prices they fetch... quite high.

BTW, it's rained like 20+ days straight... pretty miserable.

 

Ouch, just checked, those areas are expensive! How about within 30-45 minute driving distance radius of Seattle downtown? Upstate is quite
cheap, obviously, so I feel the sticker shock already. Prefer single family
home over townhome or condo. Thanks!

 

It's not going to get much better, but you will get a bit more house on what we call the Eastside. Like nice garage space for your Honda. For a 2,200-500 sq ft house, you're looking at $500K minimum (these are very rough numbers on loose conditions). As you move up north toward like Bothell and Kenmore, you can get a new joint for low to mid $400s. But the location sucks, IMHO.

Check out zip codes 98033, 98034, 98005, 98004, 98052... and then cities like Sammamish. Anything within 30-40 minutes of downtown Seattle... is gonna cost.

I prefer the Eastside for home life. Seattle for condo life. But then there are location pockets where it's a toss-up.

If you want a good real estate agent to help you with your search, lemme know.

BTW, it's not me.