7 Things I Wish I Knew Before Moving To Seattle (from California!)

I think I have an interesting perspective on Seattle because I actually grew up in a suburb 45 minutes away from Seattle but once I turned 18 and graduated high school I was so sick of the rain I had dreams of moving to California so I spent four years in Southern California around Los Angeles and it was super fun until it wasn't anymore and I was sick of the congestion sick of the state income tax sick of The Superficial feeling around me and I really miss Seattle but I was definitely nervous to leave a sunny State come back to Washington I was afraid is the rain gonna get to me would it be hard to make friends is it going to be boring I had all these reservations but once I moved I did not look back I've been back for seven years now so with that I wanted to talk about seven things I wish I knew before moving back to Seattle [Music] number one thing I wish I knew before moving back to Seattle is that the Seattle freeze thaws here's the thing it is seasonal when it's rainy every day and our days are much shorter our days in the winter are actually about an hour shorter than in California it gets dark at like 4 P.M whereas when I lived in California it would still be light out to like 5 or 6 p.m so our days are much shorter with that people just don't want to go places they hibernate they stay indoors they have this good intent like they want to hang out with you and then I swear in the winter in the rain in the cold those plans you had you just you canceled them last minute but let me tell you in the spring and summer people are out and about people are so excited to go places and I did find when I first moved I very quickly made friends I've made new friends every year that I've lived in Seattle I think a lot of this has to do with there are a lot of transplants here now and there's a lot of people in the same shoes as you where they don't have a huge network of people they grew up with here and honestly like I grew up here and all of my network of friends that I grew up with they have all moved away so I'm constantly looking to make new friends too but it's something that I tend to do and really have time to cultivate those relationships and the energy for it in the spring and summer number two this surprised me the most out of all the things that I will list today and that is Seattle is not cheaper Seattle is so expensive you feel it in the rent like a nice two bedroom's gonna be five thousand dollars a nice one bedroom is going to be 3 000 something dollars buying a nice single family house is going to be over a million dollars but you also feel it just in food and drinks anywhere you go for lunch like getting a sandwich somewhere I swear it's like 15 even Subway and Taco Bell is more expensive here where I notice it the most is drinks drinks are like New York prices and it blows my mind a latte it'll be seven dollars and then I'll tip a dollar because I feel like I have to and then suddenly lame like I spent eight dollars on a 12 ounce latte number three while Seattle is beautiful and there's water and trees everywhere and that's great it doesn't really have its own style in terms of architecture and it doesn't have its signature thing as a city I guess besides the Space Needle when you look at New York you think of Brownstones when you look at San Francisco you think of Victorian homes when you look at Los Angeles you've got Hollywood Regency it's like a little silly thing but I just wish we had our own signature like architectural style but we don't really we just have a blend of all the other cities number four if you weren't aware Seattle actually has kind of a sister city called Bellevue and Bellevue is its own built up city with its own politics its whole own Police Department it's completely separate from Seattle but they're only 20 minutes away growing up Seattle was always cooler than Bellevue but once I came back it's like things totally flip-flopped and suddenly Bellevue is the cool place to be Bellevue decided that they weren't going to do what Seattle was doing like these cities just operate completely differently and it's important to know that they have their differences and Bellevue became more expensive and it's kind of become more of the sought after place to be the schools are nicer the streets are cleaner people just feel safer there it's where the more wealthy people have flocked because Seattle has obviously had its issues with crime and drugs and all that stuff that cities go through when they grow so quickly Bellevue just decided hey you can come over here I think both are totally fine places I don't know what is up with it though like the cities do not get along and people in Seattle look at people that live in Bellevue and are like oh you live in Bellevue and then people in Bellevue look at people that live in Seattle and they're like you live in Seattle they're both great cities totally different fields number five driving here is gonna be a lot easier than driving somewhere like LA or San Francisco driving there people are very aggressive there's more traffic I believe but driving in Seattle has its own set of problems drivers are bad drivers not because they're aggressive because they're dumb it is a universal thing if you're in the farthest left lane you drive a little faster than the other lanes and there will be so many drivers in Seattle that'll get into the left lane and just drive so slow I think everyone thinks they're a better driver than they are but apparently there's a study done and people in Seattle more than other cities think they're better drivers than they are number six it is so much harder to eat healthier in Seattle one when it's dreary the weather like it makes you crave hotter foods and hotter Foods tend to be unhealthier like you want a grilled cheese or pizza or just like comforting comfort food right and also I feel there is a lack of good fast casual food in Seattle so we do have some chains like homegrown and Evergreens and those are going to be fast casual like salad sandwich options but I don't like them you know you come from somewhere like la or San Francisco they're a little bigger of cities where you've got more of those National chains like sweet green Seattle does not have a sweet green and I just wish it did because I think sweet green is better than Evergreens and the last thing you should know is Seattle is an extremely casual City you can go to one of the nicest Steakhouse in Seattle and you will see people dressed up so nice for a big event like their anniversary or their retirement party and just right next to you you'll see someone in sweats and a sweatshirt also enjoying a meal and it's allowed it's allowed here I'll walk around the city in sweats and I don't care and no one else cares either people are just so so casual here actually like if you dress up and look cute and wear like trendy clothes you're the outlier and you might feel overdressed and awkward so if you're someone that loves fashion you're going to not like Seattle because we don't even have luxury stores like we used to have a Gucci store stuff like that and it actually closed down because people weren't buying from it enough now if you go over to Bellevue you've got this big Bellevue Square mall you've got the bravern with luxury shopping people care a lot more about their looks and appearance and their clothing across the pond in Bellevue in Seattle people do not care so those are seven kind of random things that I wish I just knew before I moved back to Seattle I hope this helped you if you are looking to move to Seattle and buy property or sell property and you need help with that I help a lot of people relocating all across the country I'll have my email below that's the best way to get in contact with me if you're looking to binge more Seattle content I'll have a playlist below you can click anywhere right now to watch more of my videos alright I'll see you guys next time bye

Channel: Monica Church Seattle Real Estate

Views: 152,311

Keywords: living in seattle, should i move to seattle, moving to seattle, seattle real estate

Id: eP_matCcDrg

Length: 7min 27sec (447 seconds)

Published: Mon Jul 17 2023