Living in Seattle is one of the most exciting and expensive endeavors a person undertakes. Residents can spend months saving for a down payment, only to find they don’t know what city suits their long-term goals.
City life and the great outdoors mingle for people living in Seattle. living mingle in Seattle. Known as the Emerald City, this gem of the Pacific Northwest is surrounded by the Puget Sound on the west coast and Lake Washington on the eastern shores.
Neighborhoods with tree-lined streets like Capitol Hill and Queen Anne blend into the bustling Belltown, where the iconic Space Needle stands tall. There is an endless selection of coffee cafes and diverse restaurants to browse, and plenty of parks to explore in Seattle.
But each person has a special incentive when buying a home. So the team at Prevu Real Estate listed some of the top reasons people move to Seattle.
Blending city life with the outdoors
Seattle is a sight to behold. In a single week, locals can explore the public arts of the Fremont district, take a cruise throughout Puget Sound, then find themselves traversing the heights of the nearby Cascade Mountain range to the west.
Sea and sky are always nearby in Seattle, as locals can even travel to nearby Kenmore Seaplane Airport to hop on a seaplane air tour. But most residents living in Seattle are happy to take a trip out on a kayak or try their hand at water skiing in Puget Sound.
Considering the temperate year-round weather in Seattle, it is common to see city-goers taking the Light Link Rail to Capitol Hill to grab a bite at one of the sidewalk cafes before heading out for a day at Volunteer Park. Locals stroll about the city with an ever-present cup of coffee as they tour the Olympic Sculpture Park near the shores of Puget Sound, north of Belltown.
One way people break the Seattle Freeze is by meeting folks at the Museum of Pop Culture. This beautiful building honors music and culture in the Emerald City, and is located in the heart of Downtown Seattle, right next to the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum.
But no matter the season, Seattle locals can find striking views of the Olympic Mountains across Puget Sound to the east and the towering Cascade Mountains to the west.
During the winter, Seattle residents can drive two hours to reach ski resorts like Steven's Pass and Alpental to the west. But it is also common in winter to see folks bundled up in the streets of Columbia City sampling a dizzying array of food.
While the city offers plenty of fun, many homebuyers move to Seattle to find opportunities to work in the high-tech space.
High-tech firm hub
When asked where tech firms build headquarters, most people think of Silicon Valley in the San Francisco Bay Area. But there is a burgeoning tech scene in Seattle and neighboring Bellevue across Lake Washington.
Silicon Valley hosts social media giants like Facebook and high tech titans like Google and Apple, but Seattle is also a seat of technology power. Since the 1990s, Seattle has incubated firms like Amazon and Microsoft, employing over 100,000 residents in the Emerald City.
Over time, firms like Getty Images, SAP Concur, Zulilly, and Expedia set up shop in the Greater Seattle Area and are major employers. Even Nintendo of America has its headquarters in the region. But there is an equally impressive start-up scene today in Seattle. Software tech firms like Pulumi and healthcare tech firms like Xealth have offices in Seattle.
Many Americans move to Seattle chasing opportunities to work at these large firms. As such, the city has seen exponential growth over the past 30 years.
Fast-growing city and suburbs
Just as the tech firms took off in Seattle, so too has construction.
In the '80s, folks moved to Seattle in droves chasing the city's seasonal weather and entrepreneurial character. The population spiked as people came to Seattle for work and fell in love with the spirit of the city.
For years, constant development and construction led residents to name Seattle the Construction Crane Capital of America. New construction condos are all over Seattle, ready for buyers moving to places like Pioneer Square near downtown. There are numerous Light Link Rail stations strewn about Downtown Seattle, making public transportation an easy method to reach the of the city.
Some developers are knocking down old homes in West Seattle, creating unique single-family homes with the latest heating and cooling infrastructure.
But new communities are popping up outside Seattle as well. Homebuyers looking to live closer to the Cascade Mountains can find new developments in Sammamish.
Plenty of waterfront fun
Boating is a way of life in the Emerald City.
From high-speed pleasure craft to well-worn fishing vessels, there is a boat for every type of Seattleite. With over 140 miles of freshwater beachfront and over 50 miles of saltwater shoreline, there are plenty of ways to enjoy the water.
Some homebuyers specifically look in Leschi, south of Madrona, to find houses with private boat slips, so a day out in Lake Washington is just outside their door. But boating in Seattle is within reach even if the water is not.
All along the shores of Lake Washington and the Lake Washington Ship Canal are plenty of slips for rent at marinas in the heart of Seattle. The Lake Washington Ship Canal connects to Puget Sound, and neighborhoods like North Queen Anne, northwest of downtown, sit on the channel's banks next to Lake Union.
Some people even opt to rent slips on Lake Union to dock up their houseboats.
Homeowners living along Puget Sound's shores have plenty of beachfront property, but the shallow waters do not support docks for large watercraft. Residents living near Discovery Park might be better suited to own a kayak, as they can launch the boat from the shores and explore the waters surrounding the West Point Lighthouse.
Coffee capital of America
Coffee and Seattle go hand in hand, like a cup of joe and a donut.
It is no secret that Seattle is the coffee capital of America. Coffeehouses as we know them became popular in the '60s when students needed places to gather and study. But it was not until Starbucks got its start in Pike's Place Market in the 1970s that coffee shops took off, becoming a fixture of American life.
Today residents can't walk down a commercial block without passing at least one cafe. Seattleites purportedly spend over 30 dollars a month on their brew, getting it from coffee houses and sidewalk sellers. Some even opt to have their fresh lattes delivered to their door.
Coffee has evolved as new residents moved into Seattle, and Ethiopian coffee reigns supreme amongst residents at the moment. You can still visit the original Starbucks, but real coffee lovers make their way to the mom-and-pop coffeehouses strewn throughout the city. Haunts like Cafe Soleil and Kaffa Coffee, and Wine Bar offer traditional Ethiopian coffee.
Of course, nothing beats an excellent espresso pull, and residents line up at spots like Victrola Coffee Roasters to nab a cup during work.
Bold flavors and fine dining
But coffee is not all Seattle is known for. The city has a strong restaurant culture that prides itself on farm-to-table dining and fresh seafood.
This dedication to fresh food excellence is in full display at Cafe Juanita, an Italian restaurant inspired by the cuisines of northern Italy. Couplings of fresh fish from Puget Sound with veggies grown in the surrounding countryside attract residents from the greater Seattle area to this Kirkland gem.
But Seattleites do not have to leave city limits to find great food. The University District of Seattle offers exceptional cultural cuisine, from hand-pulled lamb cumin noodles at Xi’an Noodles, to fried bread tacos from the Native American-owned Off The Rez at the Burke Museum.
But some of the best food in Seattle is in eclectic Fremont, where chefs blend the lines between art and cuisine.
Chefs Rachel Yang and Seif Chirchi run Joule, a Korean-inspired eatery. Locals vie for a table to try the grilled kimchi paired with Kalbi spare ribs. Foodies will love the green curry mackerel, an appealing staple that helped Chef Yang earn a James Beard Award nomination in 2020.
The Whale Wins Larder and Cafe is another favored Fremont Haunt. Chef Renee Erickson turned cheese, wine, and charcuterie into a fast-casual staple, where diners on the go can pick up prepared Alaskan Halibut meals to enjoy at home.
But one of the most storied restaurants in Seattle is Canlis. With over 70 years of history in Seattle, this greek restaurant operates out of a post-modern glass and steel compound that stands out from the Victorian homes lining the streets of Queen Anne. Diners can expect a full four-course meal featuring halibut, salmon, and savory souffle to top off this fine dining experience.
But what is dinner without a pairing of fine wine? Seattle restauranters stock their cellars with fine wines from Yakima Valley, Tri-Cities, and Walla Walla, all located in southwestern Washington state.
Sport-centric city
From paddling to cycling, there are plenty of outdoor activities in Seattle. Many people bike to work, then spend their weekends out on the water or up in the mountains.
But beyond personal excursions into the wilderness, there is a vast culture surrounding organized sports. Football runs deep in Seattle, and locals staunchly support the Seattle Seahawks when playing home games at Lumen Stadium.
But hockey is another equally loved sport. The Seattle Kraken of the Pacific Division of the NHL formed in 2018 to much fanfare. The team draws thousands of fans for hometown games at the Climate Pledge Arena, sitting in the shadows of the Space Needle in Belltown.
Baseball is another favorite pastime in Seattle, and fans gather at the T-Mobile Stadium, right next to Lumen Stadium in South Downtown. Soccer is a rising star in the Seattle sports space, and Sounders FC fans gather at Lumen Stadium to cheer the team on.
Rich music scene
Seattle is a musical mecca with a rich history dating back over 100 years.
Since the city’s inception in the late 1800s, musicians playing in San Francisco would travel north to play at “The Peerless City.”
By the 1920s, the famed Washington Hall was the heart of Seattle’s distinctive jazz movement. Prohibition and Jazz were intertwined, and Seattleites packed into speakeasies on Jackson Street to take in the tunes from esteemed performers like Oscar William Holden, the “patriarch of Seattle Jazz.”
Jazz hit a heavy stride in Seattle during the 1940s. Stars like Duke Ellington and Billie Holiday came to play at Washington Hall, as musicians like Ray Charles, Quincy Jones, Ernestine Anderson, and Leon Vaughn came of age playing at the numerous nightclubs on Jackson Street. Jazz and Folk evolved as Seattle grew, paving the way for rock and roll in the Emerald City.
Jimi Hendrix played his first shows in Seattle at the infamous Spanish Castle, which he immortalized through his “Spanish Castle Magic” album in 1967.
Hendrix was just one musician in a long line of rockers. Nancy and Ann Wilson of Heart, Kenny G, and Kenny Loggins all kicked off their careers in Seattle throughout the late 70s and early 80s. Washington Hall played host to a chaotic underground punk rock scene, where bands like the Dead Kennedys and Black Flag played throughout the 1980s.
But music in Seattle changed forever with the birth of the Grunge scene in the late 80s and early 90s. Bands like Alice in Chains, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana started in Seattle, playing at famed Crocodile Club in Belltown, turning the city into a cultural powerhouse in the 90s.
Doc Martens, flannel, and coffee were staples of grunge in the mid-90s to early 2000s. This inspiration paved the way for popular 2000s bands like Modest Mouse and Deathcab for Cutie to launch on a national stage.
Today, Seattle is a mash-up of musical genius, driven by an underground rap scene blending jazz roots back into the mainstream.
