We moved to seattle downtown from texas last year for jobs. I am exploring the housing market and it feels like it is at the peak at of some bubble. Prices doesn’t make any sense for non FANG or non IT people. bellevue kirkland is around Million. Ballard has tiny townhouses in 500 sq lot for 800k. bothell is too far for us to commute everyday to downtown. I am concerned about how non IT peeps are managing to live here. Does anyone feels the same?
A lot of people in greater Seattle making very good money. You assumption about non FANG or non IT people is wrong. Plenty of other professionals pay good money as well.
Like who? Doctors? Who is else?
IT was just an example because that’s the market started housing war IMO. I lived in lots of states and cities, but housing market made sense, compared to people making money around there (even though IT is always higher paid than regular jobs) Standard of living and cost ratio was fair. Here, I didn’t feel that personally!
Big bubble will crash once Dems win
Amazon has over 50k full time employees in Seattle. Microsoft also has tons in Seattle/ Bellevue/ Redmond area. Both companies are constantly bringing in more employees every year. That's what has driven up the prices. As long as there are enough people to afford these prices, they'll continue to increase.
Many of them bought 10+ years ago. But there is actually a lot of affordable housing if you don't insist on living in the most desirable neighborhoods. Also, software engineers are not IT people.
Most software engineers are neither engineers too.
It's down from last year, this is probably the low point you're talking about
Yes OP, the market has actually slowed down in terms of growth. The last 3 years prior were insane!
Seattle is still significantly less expensive than the Bay Area. You can get a one bedroom apartment in prime downtown Seattle for the price people pay to rent someone’s garage in the Bay Area. On top of that, the TC difference isn’t very different between Seattle and the Bay Area. The big tech companies give offers that differ by about 10%. Don’t be surprised to see Seattle jump to Bay Area prices. The number of tech jobs in Seattle continue to grow at an insane pace. I don’t see the tech boom slowing down anytime soon.
Agreed. I’ve been in tech in Seattle for quite awhile - my TC keeps going up 15-20% every year (which feels insane). Companies can’t hire fast enough. I know a lot of professionals outside of tech and they are seeing the same things - my friends who are in law and construction are seeing 10-15% bumps in TC each year and are making tech money. We are in a boom town right now - to be honest my only confusion is why we aren’t getting to Bay Area home prices faster.
I’m sure people thought the same thing about the Bay Area 10 years ago. I think Seattle will continue to go up in price as I know so many people both in tech and not in tech flocking to Seattle to escape Bay Area CoL
Bay area has lot to offer weather, location and nature wise. Seattle is good, but roads are bad, traffic is bad, weather is gloomy, airport sucks, expensive flights and connections, no beaches. I think we are not comparing right two things here.
Really? Ive gone to seattle a few times for work and Ive always thought it was amazing. It felt borderline utopian. Sure the weather isn’t great but for people who like to balance sitting at a desk staring at a screen all day with being outside, Seattle felt like the Mecca. Even with the weather it seemed less depressing than SF. Also beaches in Bay Area are not all they’re cracked up to be. I surf a lot and wear a 5mil wetsuit year round and still freeze my ass off most of the time. Beautiful sure, but you hardly see anyone in the water.